A Tale Of Squandered Opportunities

“The Network” - A bimonthly newsletter by Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) in Sierra Leone

September 2003 Edition

Editorial - a tale of squandered opportunities

Sierra Leone has everything that could make a nation great, and its people prosperous. The country is endowed with a variety of rich mineral, agricultural and marine resources, coupled with the blessing of having one of the youngest populations in the world. But in spite of all these endowments, Sierra Leone still remains a tale of wretchedness and hopelessness.

According to the World Bank Discussion Paper No. 347, Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest and least healthy countries in the world. All the indicators in the health sector are extremely poor with a life expectancy of 39 years, 89 percent of the women population estimated to be illiterate and infant mortality standing at 164 per 1000 live births.

Sierra Leone Ascended the Independence podium in 1961 a proud and satisfied nation; in fact it was the envy of sister countries in Africa and elsewhere. But in less than a decade after the colonial masters had packed and gone, all the structures that they left behind began a rapid decline; everything crumbled like a pack of cards under the heavy weight of bad governance and increasingly corrupt administrations. The security forces, especially the Army and Police, were successfully corrupted and politicized.

Great minds who had the burning desire to improve the lot of their compatriots were forced to flee the country for dear life, while those who dared stay behind to fight the cause of the people were hurriedly hounded into their graves using trump-up treason charges and professional witnesses. This was how the likes of Ibrahim Taqi, Mohamed Sorie Fornah and Alimamy Khazali were wiped from the face of this earth.

The opportunity to reverse this trend presented itself in 1992 with the coming to power of young military officers after the overthrow of the APC government. Though the action of the young officers was undemocratic and unconstitutional; it never the less received wide acclaim among Sierra Leoneans at home and in the Diaspora. This was due to the fact that the people saw in the new junta administration the rare opportunity to clean the nation’s messy political stable and put the country on the road to economic prosperity once again.

All the initial bright ideas and aspirations of these officers were soon eclipsed by the manipulations of the politicians whom they brought in as advisers. Instead of helping the young guys (and indeed the entire nation) to actualize their dream, they embarked on pursuing personal political agendas. Today, they are the biggest beneficiaries of the sacrifices, which the military boys and other well meaning Sierra Leoneans made in 1992, while the country becomes the biggest loser.

We are again on the verge of squandering another golden opportunity, which the end of the ten-year brutal war has presented to us. Since 1999 when the RUF rebels bulldozed their way to the capital city, Freetown, and committed unprecedented atrocities against innocent and defenseless civilians, the focus of the international community and donor agencies has been on Sierra Leone. Donor meetings were convened in Western capitals to raise funds for our badly bruised country. Some people refer to this attention as the peace dividend. The situation was further enhanced with Sierra Leone qualifying for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative after it reached decision point in 2001.

But execpt for the successful disarmament of combatants, we have little to show for all the millions of leones that has been poured into the country, with regards to the impact it has created on the standard of living of the average Sierra Leone the roads are deplorable, the education system is bedeviled with problems, the health sector is bleeding, public infrastructure in shambles, the recovery programmes are spiced with allegations of corruption etc, while those in positions of authority continue to have a field day on the nation’s resources. And as the focus of the international community is now being shifted to Liberia, it is very likely that Sierra Leoneans will once again have to painfully write another sad story of squandered opportunity. When will the next opportunity come our way?