Ethnicity Wagging Governance

Sports

Part of the challenges to good governance in Sierra Leone has its roots deeply embedded in ethnicity, history, geography, colonialism and nature. Like I keep saying, who ever thinks that life is fair might be making a very big mistake and may not be ready to face the complex rigors of life’s course. Over the past week the Concern Call phone- in program on SLBC has been bombarded so much with governance issues especially at the micro level and the caller’s tones are enough to worry ant peace-loving citizen. Prominent among these is the Biriwa Chiefdom Chieftaincy. Why the issue becomes that serious is the fact that so much references have been made to ethnicity and birth right. One thing we need to recognize from the onset is the fact that none of us decided to be born into anybody’s stomach, ethnic group , region or country. I think since we kind of just found ourselves where we are, we need to handle the whole issue of ethnicity with utmost care otherwise we can unwittingly undermine the peace that we so proclaim to cherish. We all know at the Berlin Conference Africa was literally partitioned up by colonialists like it was a piece of cake. Yes that was then. We cannot make any progress by harping on the much trumpeted evils of colonialism and the slave trade. The reality now is that we over here are Sierra Leoneans who got our independence almost 50 years ago. So we have no more excuse to continue blaming others for what we are now. The irony of Africa’s situation is that one of our most revered politicians’ who fought for independence believed strongly that what Africa needed most was political freedom, which he called Kingdom and then all other things were to follow. Political situations over the years have proven that an isolated solution to our problems might prove fruitless. Like a former Fourah Bay College History Professor once said, at independence, our leaders thought they could manage or mismanage our resources but the emphasis was on mismanagement. It is very interesting that the 16 or so ethnic groups of Sierra Leone are not evenly spread over the various Districts and Chiefdoms as that actually is not the way of nature. With the opening up of the country and the great improvement in communication there is so much more interaction among the ethnic groups than some 30 to 50 years ago. When people pretend that certain areas in the country are solely reserved by nature for particular ethnic groups, then our problem starts. Most of all the challenges of ethnicity are rooted in Paramour Chieftaincy which we all revere and wish to continue as one of our own cultural legacies. The whole delving into birthright and the likes creates room for ethnic bias. We definitely do not need ethnic supremacists. What I see as quite erroneous is the fact that people are basing eligibility for Chieftaincy to belonging to the majority ethnic group of the area. Why is it that we Sierra Leoneans are not learning lessons from other countries? In Sierra Leone, if you are poor and not having a high standing in society, nobody bothers about your birth right. But no sooner you climb the political and economic ladder that people try to know exactly the manner of your birth. We have had Sierra Leoneans becoming Mayors in other countries, but those same Sierra Leoneans can hardly become Chiefs in any Chiefdom of their country other than that of their origin. We have the case of Columba Blango, a one time popular sportsman in his schooldays in Bo Town who became Mayor of one of the cities in Great Britain! Can you beat that? In recent past there was the case of a Ghanaian who was voted Mayor of one of the cities in a former Soviet State. Why is it that when it comes to Africa we always shift the goal posts? This country no more has any reason to be tribalistic. Why? This is why. The Constitution of this country gives the right of movement and settling in any part of the country. There are people in this country who have landed property in other parts of the country other than their areas of origin although even heart land Tenure Laws differs. Let us take a District like Koinadugu. You might say it is far underdeveloped and so forth but there are quite a few things in their favor. We have people who went to that District to work some 30 to 40 years ago, settled there, stayed there, married there and have never returned to their original homes. There are cases of Southerners who have established schools privately in that District. There is the case of one who died about a year ago and was given a hero’s funeral. Look if you do a census in the big towns, you will find out that the so- called strangers have invested in their new homes even much more that the so-called indigenes. This is a simple fact. Now let us look at this: In the Chieftaincy Act of 2009, one of the qualifications for candidature for Paramount Chieftaincy is that the person was born in wedlock to a rightful claimant in a recognized ruling house in the Chiefdom or where tradition specifies, he or she has direct paternal or maternal lineage to a rightful claimant in a recognized ruling house, whether born outside wedlock or not. I am sure you find this very interesting. This is because if you witness the declaration of birth rights are largely based on birthright. Many people are disqualified on the grounds that they are bastards. Interestingly persons wanting to enter Parliament or wanting to become Heads of State are not subjected to the kind of birth right interrogation that Paramount Chiefs candidates undergo. Tell me are we actually serious about our laws? Why should the Chieftaincy Act in a way accept one thing, but then other laws seem silent or not overtly explicit on this issue. This is the basis of most of our rural governance challenges. Within Sierra Leone who really are the strangers? Is this not part of the reason why we are still to come out clearly with what we consider as citizens of Sierra Leone? To me it is as fool hardy to base Paramount Chieftaincy purely on ethnicity as it is with the so-called Land owning families. We might want to ask how the lands were acquired. If today we pride ourselves with practicing democracy, are we saying that our ideals only capture the 20th and 21st Centuries? Many people today in Sierra Leone have come to see democracy purely in terms of numbers, basically the majority. This is erroneous because in a democratic dispensation the minority should also have their say. If we have to improve governance at the micro level, then we need to have a second look at the traditions that are at variance with current democratic stands. We can hardly have only part of the country under democracy and the rest practicing something else. The beginning is democratizing the pillars for the governance structures. Structure is related to function. Also there is no way we can expect democracy born out of undemocratic structures. Why are we having problems at national politics…simple, the structures at party levels are not that democratic, so simply they cannot beget democracy at the national level. Let us watch where we trip not where we fall By S. Beny SAM

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