Peep Sierra Leone

The Chinas are being taken away for use at the next banquet. The buntings flap in the air attracting little attention. The drums are silent again. The dust of the dancing floor has settled. The carpets have been rolled and taken back to the store.

The bleary bloodshot eyes of the revellers appear like a patch of scotched earth. The lovely display and decorations that welcomed all to the wining and dining have given way to a sight for sore eyes. It is now time to clear the peculiar mess of left-over drinks, food and broken glasses (each representing a segment of our national life). There's now an element of "after the Lord Mayor's show". The good, the bad and the despicable that thronged the various celebration programmes are back in their armchairs watching the mess they helped create and in some cases, nurture.

Now that all is quiet, I believe it is time for sober reflection. Time for the hangover to clear and the truth of the reality to dawn. Time for us as a people to evaluate our past fifty years and ask ourselves questions. Has the celebration been worth it? Has the vision of independence been realised half a century down the line? Before the festive drums that drowned out the events and issues surrounding Sierra Leone's five decades of self-rule finally recede, the question that needs to be asked is: thus far, how far? Where are we at fifty; where are we supposed to be after six hundred glorious months of freedom; where are those who got their freedom about the same time but most importantly, are we heading in the right direction and what do we need to do, if not? It is not my intention in this piece to proffer answers but to stimulate the discuss first.

Some say and still maintain that there is nothing to celebrate. I share the disappointment and disillusion that has left them drenched in silent tears while gazing at the frenzied, possessed dance of our social and political leaders who are unaware of, or care less, about the near absolute collapse of the enterprise inaugurated on the 27th of April 1961.

Others thump their chests, shouting from the rooftop that there is a cause to roll out the carpets and even celebrate, late into the early hours and days of a new year, in appreciation of what the Lord has done for us; especially our deliverance from the senseless civil war that could have probably made the country as it is today, a footnote in the pages of history. They too, have my endorsement.

However, notwithstanding the strong reservations expressed on the limited achievements, the scant returns from abundant resources and indeed, the aroma of a promise unfulfilled, the great irony is that fifty years on, the dreams and aspirations signposted at independence have not really materialised.

No matter what side of the divide you are, we can choose to massage our egos and dress up the heart of the matter. We can continue to romance the misleading self-lifting speeches, clichés and spin that we are being fed from all sides, while there's a predominance of unresolved issues that retard the development of our dear nation. The truth is, like a man with problems who opts to drown out his sorrows in the bottle, we'll be back with a bigger headache when the effects of the drink wear out.

Winston Churchill said "If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future." If we cannot realise that our celebration ought to be weighed in the light of the vision of our founding fathers and those who fought for our freedom from the colonialists and imperialists, then our future is indeed a bleak one, and we shall continue the one step forward; two step backward dance..

Because as we trudge past the half-century post and see only the 'golden' that we have painted in front of our jubilee celebration rather than the mixture of tears, frustration, disbelief and even ecstasy, what we are doing is to shy away from lancing the boil of our past and present misdeeds.

We are choosing by some unconventional wisdom instead, to ignore the elephant in the room so that the present can be dressed in borrowed robes and pushed forward elegantly as the face of the future; with all its warts.

But this is like the morals of a stray dog. While the one-eyed peas want us to drool at the difference between yesterday and today, one of the least alluring thought in the process of self-examination, is the obvious hint of the depth we have sunk amidst the potentials.

Indeed, we are at one hell of a crossroad and since you don't often perceive or scent any hope for the future when you keep your eyes strenuously fixed on an imaginary tunnel you've burrowed, given the facts on the ground and in all parameters for measuring development, the excitement and expectations that greeted the lowering of the Union Jack on that fateful night in April 1961, appear now, to have been premature. But luckily, still with the pregnancy.

Not even the chest-thumping fictional claim about positive attitudinal modifications being promoted by the government can obliterate this fact.

Looking at some key areas of our life as a nation in the past fifty years may put into perspective, the mixed emotions that have surrounded the jubilee anniversary and perhaps serve as leverage for charting a new course for the next decade.

There is no doubt that we are where we are today because of the quality of those available for leadership and even manpower. The quality of personnel churned out from all tiers of our educational levels has so deteriorated that the intellectual component available to drive the nation, either as socio-economic or political leadership and followership is a serious cause for concern.

Fourah Bay College lies in ruins and a shadow of the glorious citadel of education that attracted students from far and wide. Secondary school students go through six years of learning, no better than when they started and of course the foundation from where they start off is now the training ground for illiteracy.

Fifty years of independence and a look at our economic shambles indicate a terrible and unimaginable waste; not envisaged by our founding fathers and those who have given blood and sweat.

Instead, 90% of the masses, whose path lies several kilometres away from the corridors of power, are shackled by crushing poverty which is holding the country in a stranglehold by the jugular. It is made more evident by a dreadful unemployment crisis, especially among the youths, in a country that is so blessed with natural resources that are the envy of others.

Those who used to learn from us are now even so far away from us that they do not want to associate with us and we are forced to go and grovel before nations that we used to turn up our noses. As for our political evolution, those who have ventured into the realm have continued to be a clog in the wheel of national progress; infecting the cherished values and ideals of democracy with their virus.  Military or civilian; past or present, their selfishness, poverty of vision and the perennial search for political power and wealth rather than the empowerment of the populace or the nurturing and development of democracy as well as the creation of a just and equitable society, have ensured an utterly dysfunctional democratic apparatus, governance and socio-economic development.

As leaders and followers, we appear not to have learnt anything from our fifty years of tribalism, under-development, bigotry, discord, destabilisation, corruption and lack of patriotism. It is why the drive for attitudinal change ended up as mere slogan that has so far failed to galvanise the embattled masses.

Patriotic fervour probably hit its highest pitch since 1961 during the recent celebrations, as long, neglected, dilapidated buildings and facilities got a facelift, while speeches, lectures, songs and debates proclaimed our achievements, especially since the end of the civil war and the last four years, in particular.

The celebration painted a picture of a society in the prime of health; but after 50 years, what next for the country? This is the question we need to keep in focus and ask ourselves without any reservations if we are indeed singing the song of a greater tomorrow.

Because after the jamboree, have the basic conditions of human existence, survival and growth, such as food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education etc, improved? Have our leaders suddenly found vision and a new sense of historic mission? I don't think so. In fact, it appears that the celebration was used as a clandestine cover to wallop the country with the whip of fuel price increase. A confirmation of the fundamental cause of Sierra Leone's arrested development - bad and insensitive leadership.

We have ended five decades of existence with more and more people hitting the poverty avenue and the desperation of Sierra Leoneans to emigrate to anywhere else and at whatever costs, is indicative of the total rejection of what official Sierra Leone represents and openly express.

The country is full of resources, everybody knows that, but because of the lackadaisical and selfish leadership to date, the resources are to everyone's benefit, except the real owners -the majority of the citizens. The purpose of history is to address the past and proffer solutions to the present as well as plan for the future. Consequently, despite the grim outlook now, we need to forget our pity party and what Afrobeat music legend, Fela, described as "suffering and smiling" and return to the basics, to ensure that the opportunity of a sombre post-golden jubilee reflection, is not squandered.

This is not the time for pseudo-nationalists, whose grand design for the development of Sierra Leone, is usually located somewhere in the heavens and at a high cost to our freedom and prosperity.

As we take off our party clothes, we need to hit the new highway of leadership and followership that collectively embraces transformation and eschews corrupt tendencies. The alienation of the ruler from the ruled should give way to a leadership that is thinking within the box and working diligently and selflessly to leave a befitting legacy.

The culture of impunity, perversion of justice, nepotism, abuse of power and dereliction of duty pervading the entire strata of our leadership, is a common feature of the last fifty years that needs to be expunged in the next decade that we have just begun.

Our romance with self-lifting spin and over-celebrated achievements and tokenism, must give way to deep-rooted meaningful changes and repentant leadership across board. The new march should be to create an enduring system. Even if this is not the beginning of Utopia, it would at least be a step forward.

Yes, the fallow years are probably behind us now. The failures and downward spiral of the last three decades have been arrested. Will there be a recourse to the same old habits that was masked by the celebration? Or would we strive to squarely redress the intellectual, mental and moral limitations of the  leadership and followership which have permeated the entire system and severely curtailed the capacity of the country.

How we answer that question is what the start of the next half a century of Sierra Leone's life will be all about and forms the next part of this musing.