View Point – 50th Independence Day Report-Card

Concord Times (Freetown)

John Momoh

7 June 2011

column

Freetown — Nigeria is one of few African countries that Sierra Leoneans can consider as a friend indeed and not a friend when in need. This was aptly demonstrated when the Nigerian High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, His Excellency Godson O. Eschegile, accompanied by Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation J.B. Dauda and the Director General of Foreign Affairs Sullay Daramy last Friday walked into the office of President Ernest Bai Koroma at State House to donate a check of US$500,000 in support of Sierra Leone’s 50th independence anniversary celebrations, something that President Koroma referred to as a memorable gesture.

This is indeed a laudable friendly gesture that Sierra Leone will never forget. Sometime ago as the date for the auspicious independence day anniversary was drawing nearer and the independence anniversary celebration committee at the time having Dr. Julius Spencer as acting chairman was working around the clock to beat the preparation deadline, controversy erupted over the committee’s degree of transparency and financial accountability, prompting the President to dismiss the leaders of the committee and have them replaced by Prof. Emeritus C. Magbaily Fyle as head, assisted by ex-Minister Balogun Koroma as the anniversary’s National Coordinator.

This is why news of the Nigerian government of President Goodluck Jonathan donating half a million dollars is one thing, the transparent utilization of the amount to advance the objectives or mandate is quite another. Many Sierra Leoneans are pessimistic over the huge friendly gesture being judiciously utilized for the intended purpose. Records show that not only has the Attitudinal and Behavioural Change (ABC) Secretariat officials had fallen short of expectations but likewise the heads of the 50th independence anniversary committee. Thus fears loom as to whether the National Coordinator who has been told to act as head will not join the bandwagon of betraying public trust!

It was obviously expected that the committee will make a budget forecast of projects and programs to embark on through a careful planning, organization and effective implementation of activities mingled with a periodic report card of financial accountability. In the first place some opposition party members complain that the very one-sided composition of members of the committee without the representation of opposition party members from the SLPP, NDA or PMDC is a recipe for corruption and the lack of checks and balances. Some of the country’s outstanding interest groups such as Labour Unions and the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) were not represented.

One of the initial shortcomings of the Committee under Dr. Spencer as acting Chairman was the frivolous spending and doubtful procurement spree after the budget of the Committee was set at $25 million, as the prices of goods such as vehicles for the committee were either inflated or imaginary. Nowadays what is evident is that huge sums of money to be paid to billion leones have been detected to be full of loopholes. This has made critics to doubt over whether the dismissal of Dr. Spencer to the profit of Prof. Fyle for reasons of corrupt deals was not like moving from the frying pot to the fire.

As far as the efficient management of the 50th anniversary committee is concerned what can probably ring a bell in the ears of critics is whether adequate planning, organizing, motivation for implementing of the committee’s objectives were scrupulously followed or the committee was working on a contingency format. Thus it will be a hasty conclusion for anyone to state that the 50th independence anniversary committee fared better under Prof. Fyle than under its first leaders, Dr. Richard Konteh and Dr. Spencer thereby casting doubts over whether the committee was after all a success story.

What is interesting is that the challenges facing the committee seem to be a microcosm of the general malaise of the lack of transparency and financial accountability and the democracy shortcomings of this society. Many people can still not convinced of the regional and ethnic balance aspects in the composition of the committee. There is the usual grumbling that both the Eastern and Southern regions were not adequately represented. And that points raised over the weaknesses of Dr. Konteh’s and Dr. Spencer’s administration compared to that of Prof. Fyle either remained unresolved or those concerns fell on deaf ears.

Reliable sources indicate that due to the frivolous spending ordered by both the first and the outgoing chair of the committee, the 50th independence anniversary celebration committee is embroiled in huge foreign and domestic debts that can only be effaced by government intervention. It appears that due to the colossal debts accumulated, it would have been an embarrassment to government for Prof. Fyle, a renowned Sociology professor, to remain at the helm of the committee’s affairs.

The question that is being asked thus is whether Prof. Fyle succeeded in making the 50th independence celebration committee a focal point for instilling patriotism and national pride. Indeed it should be a matter of public concern as to whether the committee made an impact in propagating dignity and a sense of pride in being a Sierra Leonean, in giving a positive image to this country and in propagating the values of nationalism through the national motto: Unity, Freedom and Justice.

The fact is that there is a need to offer to this country a new and positive image, as the image of this country had been battered and made a subject of ridicule due to ethnic rancour and intolerance emanating from the struggle for political power. Many people view that the committee should have made a replica of the functions of the Attitudinal and Behavioural Change secretariat by instilling in every Sierra Leonean a sense of pride, freedom, unity and tolerance as well as justice and national reconciliation while motivating national development.

Finally, it is a matter of setting the record straight over why Prof. Fyle is bowing out at this point in time. Was he unceremoniously dismissed or he has voluntarily chosen to go. Is the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) having anything to hide after allegations of financial misappropriations within the committee in the media in recent times? Who is embarrassing who?

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