Recently I was listening to an African American Pastor preaching on line in America. His sermon was based on Africa. He said Africa is a continent of beggars and we always complain a lot and depend on foreign aid to alleviate our sufferings even though the continent is so rich in national resources.
I straight away thought of my beloved Sierra Leone where the economy is in tatters because of the global recession that is pinching our God fathers making them unable to fulfil their financial promise to us.
Sierra Leone has been blessed by the Lord God Almighty with an abundance of natural resources; Sierra Leone has never experienced drought, we continuously have rainfall throughout the year, but in the ‘abundance of water the fool is thirsty’, this you can only find in Sierra Leone.
When will we stop begging, when will we start giving? This is the problem of dependency. Those who should give are in crisis, if they don’t give us, we will suffer and find it hard to move forward. Was this what we took independence for, to be beggars?
We beg everybody whether good or bad, even I’m sure if Charles Taylor was free and ready to give us financial aid, our government will take it and they will say ‘how for du nar for bear’. It is really true when people say beggars have no choice.
For how long are we going to continue like this? When are we going to understand that we have the resources and all we need is a government that has innovations to change the course of the country?
It is time for us to understand our problems and deal with them in our own way. If we can’t govern ourselves, we should say so and allow the West to take over the day-to-day administration of the country. The usual news – we messed up the country and institutions and we want Britain and the US to bail us out.
What is happening to Sierra Leone is man-made, not natural disaster; we broke it so we should fix it. If we knew we were unable to govern ourselves, why did we ask for political independence?
It is disgusting and shameful when we tell people we are Sierra Leoneans, the replies are Blood diamonds, poorest country in the world and we like AK47 more than food. What is it about us that makes it impossible to get things right? A close look at the Human Development Index points to the fact that we are at the bottom rung of human, socio-economic and political development.
We gained independence about five decades ago with East Asian countries but still we seem not to be making any measurable progress as the Asians are. We are either stagnant or retrogressing. Infant mortality is very high, life expectancy is very low, malaria is ravaging the people, and we have no sense of urban planning so much so it seems the vast majority is one sprawling ghetto.
We have no sense of public policy planning and implementation; and it doesn’t seem we value quality education. In a world that is fast becoming literate, we raise pools of uneducated children which make them disadvantaged in a highly competitive world.
The universities and other research institutions are poorly equipped and it is almost impossible to hear that our universities have invented, developed or discovered something of importance.
The universities are poorly staffed, vastly under-funded and are home to dilapidated buildings. Computer science departments without computers, laboratories equipped with ancient equipment. When we are told we are bottom of the human index report we tend to disagree.
Year after year government officials go overseas, cap in hand, begging for handouts and economic aid with their tails between their legs in perpetual prostrating posture for left overs or the crumbs that are falling from the tables of the rich. They do all they can shamelessly to rule for two terms and remain in the good books of the West in total disregard for their citizens.
The former government left the country almost in the position they met it. We are expecting this government to move us forward or let us standstill but the trend seems we are reversing.
This will make us take 100 years to reach where countries like Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea are now and 150 years to rich Germany, Britain or France.
What is our problem? What is it about us that makes it difficult or impossible to manage our affairs? Why have we allowed maleficent and misfits to rule us? Why do we condone illegality and unethical behaviours? Why do we have toothless institutions? What is it about our culture that has become stumbling blocks? Why are we so resigned to fate?
It wasn’t too long ago that teenagers were reminded to remember the son of who you are, not to bring shame and dishonor to the family and community. It wasn’t too long ago that reputation, family-ties, and hard-work was highly valued and sought after. It wasn’t too long ago that we, as Sierra Leoneans were our brothers’ keepers.
It wasn’t too long ago that the word of an elder was valued more than a sack of gold. Now a corrupt man or a thief is highly regarded in society because he has money.
The present government has many people that were rebel collaborators, rebels who had also been in court for corruption. Are these people not ashamed to be in such positions? Do they not have pride in themselves? Anybody can be in a position of trust in Sierra Leone whether he is a convict or not. May God help us the poor and needy.
The culture of pride, fear and respect has been thrown into the dustbin and we have embraced the culture of corruption, violence disrespect and theft because this is what our governments wants us to be. Ministers are alleged drug pushers and takers and nobody cares.
We caused or allowed the rebel war in the country to happen. It is our mess; and so it is ours to clean and straighten up. We act like panhandlers begging for crumbs and shelter. Our childish behavior must stop. And we wonder why the rest of the world looks at us and shake their heads in pity and disbelief.
Why can’t we solve our own problems? Why must we always look to the West for solution? We have the human and natural resources to take care of our own affairs. Yet we live in abject poverty, misery, squalor and under rotten environmental conditions, all of which contributes to our low life expectancy.
It is not surprising to see the number of street beggars now in the country because the government too is always begging. After 48 years of independence we can’t stand on our own feet, political, economic and social decisions have to be taken by the donors and the government will implement. So why do we have a President? The law says ‘put your mouth where your money is’ so the West is right to dictate how and what we should do.
Even President Ghadafi is tired with his compatriots that are always cap in hand running across Europe and America begging for survival. With his own resources he has done what a leader should do to help his people and now he is giving out aid to us. If our leaders were visionary we too would have been donating to others. But with all our riches we are beggars, ‘so near but yet so far’.
I am quite sure that our government officials were very happy when President Obama won the elections, not because he is the first African American, but because they think he is going to give us plenty of aid. Well if that is the idea they have, it is better for them to re-think, because President Obama has his own problems that are more pressing than thinking of Sierra Leone which has so much wealth and can’t manage themselves and their resources.
We can do it. We can solve our own problems. We can put our house in order. Therefore, we should stop looking to the West for solutions to our problems. The mess we are in was created by us and we should go back to the drawing board to solve it.
Don’t blame colonialism for our problems rather let us blame ourselves. We should stop crying over spilt milk, what is to be done should be done at once. It behooves us as Sierra Leoneans to map our own future and stop looking to the outside world for help when we can help ourselves.
If we are unable to, well then, let’s stop pretending we are an independent state capable of independently running our affairs. This dependency must stop now!
By Austin Thomas