Many things moved me in President Ernest Bai Koroma’s speech to mark the state opening of Parliament two Fridays ago. But one of the highlights in my view was in the area of education. “… We will not develop our economy and our country without education” he said, adding, “Knowledge…ensures our democracy”. How true!
To achieve this, the president said that a scheme that would give automatic scholarship to women studying Maths and Science at the university as well as grants for the disabled who enter tertiary institutions. I am surprised that women and disabled groups have not trumpeted these laudable initiatives which don’t only encourage women and disabled education but also enforce the study of science. What was however not mentioned was how the resources will be raised to oil the wheel that will keep this going.
Another surprising thing was the fact that the president did not mention anything about the long-drawn-out issue of the astronomical increase in university fees, the paying for everything including the two-page letter of offer of acceptance. Last year, Government ended the payment of allowances to the few lucky students who are on government grants-in-aid and continued paying tuition only. Any review of the accommodation for students of Fourah Bay College denied them following campus violence last year? But how can that happen when no work is going on to fix up the hostels which, even though they were awful at the best of times, are at present in an utter mess.
President Koroma spoke about the issue of our foreign relations. I have been left with a lot of asking dating back to the Tejan Kabbah era but especially lately, as to which way our foreign policy is headed. We are still not asserting ourselves and we keep behaving as eleemosynary. Agreed that we should put our money where our mouth is; but is the reverse what is being considered? Our relationship with countries does not seem to be determined by compatibility; rather by acceptability. This has the proclivity to drive away a lot of our worthwhile friends. Anything that angers the West we should be careful with. Our recent cosy affair with certain undemocratic Middle East countries will destroy our long-term strategic partnership with the West.
While I was away recently, I heard somehow somewhere that Israel was coming to do big things for Sierra Leone. They built our Parliament Building which is still begging for completion since this country, together with other African states severed ties with the Jewish state over Palestine. I definitely sympathise with the situation of the Palestinians. But the hopes and aspirations based on the rumour of Israel’s intervention will be dashed by our unexplained reason for our marriage with certain Middle Eastern countries. We keep establishing embassies in countries simply because they have agreed to fund the running cost of these embassies. But what we strategically stand to gain from them, apart from the make-believe help they render without good governance preconditions, has not been explained to us.
Also is it that I can’t find it in the speech or was it omitted – I mean Yenga. I know some efforts were made in the recent past but the issue of the disputed border town, despite it being such a defence and foreign affairs hot potato did not feature. I received some calls from people in the east finding out why not.
Despite being widely thought of as a friend of the media, and I share that thinking, President Koroma did not have anything to cheer up the journalists apart from the issue of the transforming our state broadcaster into a corporation. I was hungry to hear renewed commitments with possible timeline on the issue of the Freedom of Information Act. I also expected, or may be wanted, to hear a similar thing regarding de-criminalising libel. Talking about which, I could not help but shake my head at the president’s speech writers’ level of diplomacy for racing through the report card of the judiciary. The truth is that it has been far from satisfactory. Despite the huge injection of cash to deliver on justice, more and more people continue having justice for them either delayed or denied or both. After all we did learn in elementary school that “justice delayed is justice denied”.
I sensed similar cleverness, if that’s the word, when the president spoke about the police force. With no intent to paint all members of the force with the same brush, the reputation of the police emanating from its lopsided leadership, is at an all-time low. Yes they may be doing well on peacekeeping missions, after all Zimbabwe’s brutal police force did well here as part of the UN CIVPOL, but look at the performance of our SLP within.
I am especially proud of our military and would have liked to hear more laurels heaped on them. A few of them may be being investigated for alleged armed robbery cases, but the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces have acquitted themselves exceptionally. They, like the police, deserve a review of their wages. In these troubled times of armed robbery, they are exposed to enormous danger which if it befalls them, will leave only their families with the brunt.
On fisheries I did not see the great efforts aimed at getting rib of those fishing nets that have reduced our fish stocks. I think it is both an environmental achievement whose implementation, despite the possibility of a negative political consequence, but also an economic one which should be encouraged.
And by the way, I was in parliament when the president delivered his speech. But many things in the speech I knew from reading the speech. Like me, I am sure many of those who listened lost missed out on a number of issues. How about reading out a detailed executive summary of the speech that should last between 30 and 40 minutes, and the detailed speech distributed for further comprehensive. I think keeping it short keeps it sweet.
By Umaru Fofana