The front page of The Exclusive of November 24, 2010 has this bold headline: \u201cWe Must Be United \u2013 President Koroma says\u201d. (There was the usual pop-star-like photograph of the full-bodied white-haired bespectacled majestic-looking President Ernest Bai Koroma on its front page as well).\u00a0 The newspaper reports that the President \u201chas called on all Sierra Leoneans to stop the infighting and show commitment for the progressive development of the nation\u201d.\u00a0 The Exclusive quotes the President thus: \u201cI am not only leading the APC, but all Sierra Leoneans, irrespective of party or tribe\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Ernest Bai Koroma\u2019s presidency has been castigated by nearly all the leading political opposition figures \u2013 from the SLPP\u2019s John Benjamin, J.J. Saffa to the PMDC\u2019s Charles Margai – as one that has caused the worst national polarization in post-independence history of Sierra Leone.\u00a0 The result? The traditional political chasm between the South\/East and North\/West has widened; the explosively ethnic sentiments solidified.<\/p>\n
The Global Times of November 24, 2010, quoted former APC Minister in the Siaka Stevens\/Joseph Momoh governments (who was also former Commonwealth Office senior executive; former ECOWAS chief executive; currently an Elder in the opposition SLPP; born and bred in the Northern Province), Dr. Abass Bundu (speaking to the U.K. and Northern Ireland branches of the SLPP on 19th November, 2010) thus, \u201cAnd since the elections (2007), one can say without exaggeration, that the country has never been polarized in peace time, especially between the North and the South-East.\u00a0 It is also no exaggeration that the country is now standing on the edge of a precipice.\u00a0 Whether the leaders can step back from the brink or step forward, is a matter about which no one can be certain\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Apparently, the biggest leader at the peak of the mountain has decided that our country must step back from the tip of the precipice – using the imagery of Dr. Bundu.\u00a0 The Bhagavad-Gita (which is like the Bible or Quran for hundreds of millions of people in the Indian sub continent) teaches that a leader must set the standard that the followership would follow.<\/p>\n
A leader of a country \u2013 like former Singaporean Prime Minister, Lee \u2013 can say: \u2018We are going to have the highest standard of education in the world; and transform our barren country into one of the most prosperous industrial countries through rewarding hard work, and enshrining Justice\u2019.\u00a0 The people of Singapore listened; and followed Lee \u2013 and Singapore morphed from being a country at the same developmental level as Sierra Leone sixty years ago into a country compared to the most prosperous countries in Europe today.\u00a0 Or, a leader can say \u2013 like late President Master-Sergeant Samuel Kanyan Doe of Liberia did in the 1980s\u2013 \u2018Only people who belong to my Krahn ethnic group should get top jobs; all other tribes are suspect in strategic national jobs, and must be shifted from there.\u00a0 Kill non-Krahns, if you cannot force them to flee into exile\u2019.\u00a0 The Krahn people followed their leader, Doe.\u00a0 And Liberia\u2019s tribal schism worsened; the economy was destroyed; secret killings of non-Krahns became the norm; and the country slid into the nauseous and brutal civil wars of the 1990s, which engulfed us in Sierra Leone.\u00a0\u00a0 Now we now what path President Koroma has chosen for us to follow \u2013 development; unity; not ethnicity; not crude partisan politics \u2013 we are heartened, and we snuff a bit of our trepidation as we trudge towards \u20182012\u2019.<\/p>\n
In this Column, I have made it one of my mantras to be warning about what I term as the \u201cCivil War Mentality\u201d.\u00a0 Now that President Koroma has made it quite clear that he is not a President for the APC alone (which could be read in the South-East as \u2018not President for the North alone\u2019) but President for all Sierra Leoneans, it would be certainly helpful for him to get frank views on the dynamics of the dangerous \u2018Civil War Mentality\u2019 that he could have, wittingly or unwittingly, helped to inflame.<\/p>\n
What contributes to this \u2018Civil War Mentality\u2019? There is the highly visible and symbolic senior government positions \u2013 i.e. cabinet ministers; heads of parastatals; ambassadors; head of the military and police, etc.\u00a0 How many citizens holding these top positions are from each of the two major regions (North\/West and South\/East) or \u2018umbrella ethnic groups\u2019 (Mende and Temne)?\u00a0 Honest advisers of the President should do a breakdown of the composition of these positions.\u00a0 Since there is now an avowed call for \u201cunity\u201d, one would expect that the President would give meaning to his call for \u201cunity\u201d in this area of our national life that he has complete prerogative over.\u00a0 Then, the President should set up a Committee, or, a \u201cSpecial Office for National Unity\u201d that would strive to promote \u201cunity\u201d in all spheres of our national life.\u00a0 In the public sector where nearly all white collared workers are employed, this \u2018unity office\u2019 should daily look at areas of disunity and neutralize them; and should open itself for complaints from aggrieved persons.<\/p>\n
In most public sector offices, once a minister or director gets empowered by the President, he\/she is likely to consolidate the process of that disunity which the President is warning about.\u00a0 Most new jobs in such government Ministry, Department or Agency (MDA) would be given to the minister\u2019s\/director\u2019s ethnic\/regional group.\u00a0 Consultancies, and contracts, in these MDAs, if not given to foreigners, would land on the laps of the ministers\u2019\/directors\u2019 ethnic members.\u00a0 Those bureaucrats who\u00a0 the minister\/director would meet in the MDA and who are not part of his ethnic\/regional grouping are likely to be treated as if they are \u2018enemies\u2019 \u2013 frustrated; or, marginalized; or, treated with cold hostility.<\/p>\n
There are many ways the \u2018ethnic animosity\u2019 is being fueled in the public sector.\u00a0 The \u2018enemy tribe\/political party bureaucrats\u2019, even if he were the head of department\/unit, would not be given funds to undertake anything \u2013 rather, his\/her subordinate, who belongs to the \u2018right ethnic group\/political party\u2019, would get the funds.\u00a0 When the \u2018enemy tribe\/political party bureaucrat\u2019 performs excellently, it is hardly recognized by his superior; and almost never rewarded.\u00a0 When the \u2018enemy\u2019 does something even slightly wrong, it is blown out of proportion.\u00a0 Promotions, study leaves and foreign trips are almost never granted to the \u2018enemy\u2019 \u2013 but, to the ethnic\/regional members of the minister\/director.\u00a0 So, Mr. President, the seeds of ethnic bitterness is being fertilized in the public sector even as you try to forge unity among\u00a0 the 6 million people you lead.<\/p>\n
The reality is that those among the \u2018enemy tribes\u2019 who are enduring such frustration and humiliation in the public sector are leaders among their own ethnic groups. In these days of the mobile phone, what they have to suffer in silence is being spread around the country every second. Hope is being lost in the system.\u00a0 Most of these \u2018ethnic victims\u2019 don\u2019t bother to complain \u2013 since they probably think there situation could be worsened if they complain; and there would never be any redress. That is why I call for an institutional channel to address this volatile issue of ethnic\/regional grievances.\u00a0 The President should not just stop on making\u00a0 spasmodic pronouncements on unity. Indeed, because negative ethnicity, like corruption, is one of our worst forms of cancers in our body politic, there must be a structured national body (like the Anti Corruption Commission) to focus on negative tribalism and how to neutralize its force.<\/p>\n
There is \u2018positive ethnicity\/regionalism\u2019, of course \u2013 and this should be encouraged.\u00a0 In fact, human beings cannot avoid ethnicity or \u2018tribalism\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 Tribalism is as natural to human beings as eating, sleeping, having sex, etc. Human beings are social animals.\u00a0 Being gregarious, we must live in groups that we have the greatest psychological comforts in.\u00a0 What better group than with persons we share the same language and culture with; or we can dance to the same music with?\u00a0 Tribalism has been part of the evolutionary process of man. In primitive days, it was easier for a tribe to move forward to conquer other tribes, or defend itself from attack from other tribe.\u00a0 But, God has programme man to control aspects of his \u2018nature\u2019.<\/p>\n
By nature, males among the human species can be as promiscuous as the dog.\u00a0 But this human promiscuity can be controlled; and has been controlled \u2013 hence the dictates of religions like Christianity and Islam. God has endowed man with the mental capacity to control his baser impulses.\u00a0 In Sierra Leone, tribal\/ethnic politics could have capacitated one tribal group to grab power at the center \u2013 but, it is \u00a0irrational to allow such ethnic sentiments to be used to get the \u2018enemy tribe\u2019 to feel so fearful that they are scared to even speak their language in Freetown, and coalesce as one group because they feel their very tribal survival is being threatened.\u00a0 While we fight our foolish ethnic fights (psychologically; politically; and administratively) we are making it easier for foreigners to continue the domination of our economy, further impoverishing our people \u2013 and endangering all the tribes of the two major regions who have to live together in this one tiny country.\u00a0 As we march steadily towards celebrating our 50th Independence Anniversary in 2011, let us excise the cancerous cells of \u2018disunity\u2019 within our body politic; and let us nurture the many things that should unite us as a people \u2013 being led by President Koroma.\u00a0 When the President says \u201cWe must be united\u201d (and not, we \u2018should\u2019), there is an urgency, an imperative, in his language that should be highlighted, and elaborated on.<\/p>\n
With limited number of Sierra Leonean engineers, doctors, agriculturists, computer experts, etc. in the country, we can hardly afford to live as a disunited people \u2013 or, we will be subjugated again by outsiders.\u00a0 The best option for President Koroma\u2019s developmental surge to have meaning is when all our citizenry, regardless of ethnic background, are energized to work as one people.<\/p>\n
Oswald Hanciles, Freetown<\/em><\/p>\n Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The front page of The Exclusive of November 24, 2010 has this bold headline: \u201cWe Must Be United \u2013 President Koroma says\u201d. (There was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[692,1],"tags":[689,935,6063,1055,937,759],"class_list":["post-16758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-apc","tag-democracy","tag-pesident-koroma","tag-president-ernest-bai-koroma","tag-sierra-leone-politics","tag-slpp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"