If politics was like soccer where two teams drawing will decide winner through penalty kicks, then Parties will buy the best players in the world to play for them. However in a democratic dispensation, the minority will have their say but the majority will have their way. Democracy might be a good type of governance system but definitely not the sweetest especially for the minority. In fact it has a lot of loopholes and at very critical analysis, you start to think it cannot be achieved in its entirety. Yes, society is never homogeneous. Sometimes when some of our compatriots shun or despise others on grounds of tribe, social standing and the like, they forget that no one was ever consulted on who your parents should be and which tribe you should belong to. Nature has no time for that, so you can say that nature is not democratic. Democracy thrives better in societies that are advanced through education and other parameters. Where poverty and corruption complement and compromise each other, democracy is stunted. What complicates it all is that with poverty and corruption taking center stage, what will be in dire short supply is integrity.
It is so interesting that this time round the electorate is concerned about the integrityof people who are vying for the position of presidency and vice. Talking about integrity, there was thisageing king who had an only child, a female. When it was time for her to get married, he let it be announced all over the kingdom. All eligible bachelors were to report to the palace to go through screening. Six gentlemen finally presented themselves. The king gave them a seed each of the same type.They needed to plant the seed, nurture it so that the plants will sprout and grow. After three months the young men were to bring back their growing seed and the one whose seed was best grown will win the handof the princess.
Do you know what the king wastesting? What really the king wanted to see was which of the young men had integrity. In actual fact, the king had given the young men dead seeds, so he did not expect any of them to germinate. Five of the six guys changed their seeds when they realized they werenotgood. One did not. When the day came, the six guys came to the palace. One by onethey presented their seeds. The last to present was the one who did not replace the seed. The king asked him why his seed had not germinated. He explained that he did all he could but the seed did not germinate and that he suspected that the seed was not good. The King asked him to move forward. Right before the entire mammoth crowd at the palace, the king hailed this young man as the true suitor of his worthy princess. He hadintegrity!
As true compatriots, you already know that as a nation, our accountability deficit has surpassed mountain proportions so much so that attempts to sanitize the situation is like attempting to fill a rice bag with water. It is a pity that no matter how hard the anti-graft outfit tries, people think their best is not enough. Our government might be trying at whateverstandard, but the reality is that our expectations, being too many for good reasons, may not be met.We will continue to tell tales of fruitless endeavors year in year out.
Chapter II of our constitution Section 5 (2)(a) says that sovereignty belongs to the people of Sierra Leone from whom Government through the constitution derives all its powers, authority, and legitimacy.
This twenty-first century of information technology and accountability, state actors should be ready to account to the people on whose behalf they do whattheydo. One thing wewill have to keep repeatingis that nogovernmentofficial is doing anybody any favor by doing their work. If they feel badabout it, the respectable thing they should do is to resign their position. But of course in Sierra Leone very fewpeople have done it. They will prefer to stay on until disgracefully dragged out.Gone are the days when poor hopeless people were passive beneficiaries; people should play the role of active rights holders.
The attempts to scrutinize candidates, though sometimes too incisive, are a way to ensure the right persons lead us. The Sierra Leone Audit reportshave highlighted serious breaches of the public procurement procedures among other things for over six years!We have seen acrimony that visits the processes of appointing Flag Bearers. In this modern world the journeyshould be as good as the destination. If a leader is appointed trough a flawed system, it is likely that person might not deliverdemocracy. Over the years, no serious attempt has been made to correct anomalies pointed out by the Audit Department. One may want to know what purpose does the auditing serve when the recommendations are ignored with arrogant impunity. It is as important to do the right thing as doing it right. No body disputes that our Governments have not done this and that. But the issue Is, can we cross match what is done with the cost effectiveness and the compliance with due process? The leakages and pilferage in our systems make it difficult to manage our financial resources. Check our financial reports; we seem almost always to be overspending as a government.
If you look at the Audit reports, you notice that there is hardly any office where noncompliance withprocedure is not discovered. From the highest office to the lowest,they areallfoundwanting onewayor the other. If over the years no serious attemptshave been made to clear the discrepancies and anomalies pointed out by the auditors, then I wonder when? Tell me are we not wasting huge sums of money on the audit process, if the recommendations are never implemented. Indeed quite a lot of wrong doings go with impunity, and that is whywe are finding it very difficult tofree ourselves from the non-accountability quagmire.
At the start of his second and final term, the President told the nation thathis victory was for every Sierra Leonean. He went aheadto announce what he described ashis new contract with Sierra Leoneans as follows: creatingjobs for the youth, we willcontinue to attract investment, continue to fight corruption, continue toprotect and promote the rights of every woman, every man, youth, child,journalist and civil society activist. Good words here but definitely four years on words are in disjoint withaction. This reminds me of the over beaten slogan duringthe last election campaign: Action Pass Intension. The president in 2012 said: “We have far more to offer. Our ambition is to ensure that all people, I mean all Sierra Leoneans benefit from the endowments which God gave us. Our goal is to develop a healthier nation… and give power to the people”.
The negatively interesting thing about our countryisthat those in authorityare the firstto break thelaws they make. If gold rust, whatwill iron do? If they tell you that the pussy cat has burnt its face you are definitely not going toask for its whiskers. There are a lotof SierraLeoneans who believe thatallwe need in thisnation is good management and we will have no reason to go cap inhand begging the west.
It is easy to blame our woes on disasters, but I think there are further fundamental reasons. We were never sincerely doing our homework. Like I said earlier we never bothered to take the audit reports seriously. We thought the reports were mere routine.Development purpose is to improve people’s lives by expanding theirchoices, freedom and dignity. We have to constantly promote justice that seeks to change unjust structures affecting thepoor. What really is the use of making noise about development when our compatriots are still hungry; scavenge for water on a daily basis? We have to do far better than we are doing. The higher the monkey climbs, the more it exposes its backside.
By Ben Cambayma
Thursday October 26, 2017.
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