Nation at 50 – What Can One Expect?

Concord Times (Freetown)

With John Momoh

11 May 2011

analysis

Freetown — Several observations continue to flow in both the print and electronic media over the development setbacks that had engulfed this ‘Land That We Love’, the Lion Mountains over the past 50 years of her independence from British colonial rule. What many of the old folks who witnessed that historical event or participated in it can still recall is that to whom much is given, much needs to be expected.

In other words many people are disheartened over the poor performance of our Sierra Leonean brothers and sisters who took over the governance of the country, when the British Union Jack was lowered and replaced with the raising of Sierra Leone’s Green-White-and-Blue, thus symbolizing Sierra Leone’s ascendance to a sovereign nation to join others like Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria that got their independence earlier. The point is that on the eve of the silver jubilee celebrations of Sierra Leone’s independence anniversary from April 27, 1961 to April 27, 2011 many people were wondering over what should have better accelerated this country’s development process, whether to have stayed under colonial rule and be subservient to colonial power or whether it was in the best interest of this country to accede to independence as it happened.

Opinion will ever remain divided on this sensitive issue. But the fact is that there are many Sierra Leoneans that are of the view that sustainable development can be more rapid when the recipient countries or communities participate in the implementation and the management process, other than staying aloof while donors or colonialists take decisions regarding what is good for the recipient country. Hence the need for independence so that the people can regain a nation’s territorial integrity and sovereignty from the scourge of colonialism; and so that the people can take decision on what affects their daily lives.

On the other side of the coin there are sceptics with the pessimistic view that anything that does not bear the input of the white-man, but entirely left to the managerial whims and caprices of the black-man, is bound to fail or can be counterproductive as such will be tainted with corruption. Thus this pro-western school of thought, sometimes labelled as the neo-colonialists, often constitute a large segment of the population in any post-independent country including Sierra Leone.

Indeed since independence was achieved on the 27th April 1961, various factors had combined to contribute to Sierra Leone being labelled by certain critics as a ‘Failed State.’ Certainly, the question of this country not measuring up to expectations is a very sensitive and controversial issue. The answers lie with what responses that one can obtain from political parties and the general public, given that since independence only two political parties: the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the All People’s Congress (APC) have been in governance – with the SLPP which ruled briefly under a British Governor-General and a skeleton cabinet led by a Chief Minister and leader of the SLPP Dr. Milton Margai.

After independence during which the stage was set for the emergence of a vibrant opposition party, the APC, that was founded by a break-away Minister of the SLPP regime Siaka P. Stevens. In the post-independence era the SLPP of Dr. (Sir) Milton Margai ruled from April 1961 to the eve of the 1967 General Election when the military intervened for a brief period. The SLPP whose symbol is the green palm tree was thus obliged to go into opposition for over two decades until the 1996 Proportional Representative Election which was won by Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah who, despite the turbulence of the 11 years rebel war, ruled the country for a two-term mandate until the party lost to the APC in the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Thus there is little wonder why some political parties that have been battling to uproot the SLPP and APC dominance on the political scene being tempted to attribute the backwardness of this country, the widespread poverty and corruption to the mal-governance of either the APC or the SLPP. There is no other party that can shoulder the blame, given that these two political factors have monopolized power to the exclusion of other parties since independence. As certain heavy weight politicians within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) have been pointing out, Sierra Leone’s political problems and challenges stemmed from the regional and ethnic political heritage of the founding fathers of those two parties.

The question over which many people are puzzled is: who is guilty of the divide and rule politics of ethnicity and regionalism, which has rendered this country vulnerable to suppressing the merit system, dwindling the quality of the educational system, incoherence in the agricultural policies and efforts to make state enterprises more profitable and accountable. Should it be the internal politics of the SLPP or the APC’s top-guns?

While there are those segment of the population that have been blaming the woes and upheavals of this country throughout the past 50 years to politicians, there are those who opine that constant military interventions, wrong development plans, party related electoral violence and cheating and the 11 years long rebel war led by the late Foday Sankoh and ex-Liberia President Charles Taylor are among factors that continue to pin down the development of this country. One can hardly dispute such claims.

If one revisits the destructions inflicted on this country by the rebel war, there are those who state that they are incomparable to the national setbacks set by the corruption perpetrated over the years under both APC and SLPP rule. It may be recalled for example that as time rolled by, the APC regime under the late President J.S. Momoh mirrored itself and observed certain shortcomings in the system of governance by urging for a referendum which voted out the one-party state and re-introduced the multiparty constitution as far back as in 1991, a year before the APC lost power in a military coup.

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