By Idrissa Conteh —
There is no country on earth that has attained economic development and prosperity through prayer and fasting or through stupid theories that service only campaign propaganda.
Countries that attribute their economic woes and underdevelopment to God are hypocrites who do not want to take their responsibilities by confronting those responsible for their agony and chronic poverty.
There is no country on earth that has been constructed by an army of angels from heaven. Every prosperous nation that has become the envy of the world has been constructed through the sweat of its dedicated sons and daughters.
Though I’m not a doomsayer and always wish the best for my country, Sierra Leone, the fact remains that the country will not be able to get out of chronic poverty, disease and the culture of begging for the next century.
Firstly, Sierra Leone has no capacity to undertake any socioeconomic activity that leads to sustainable development.
The country has a leadership curse. The country swags from one stupid leader to another. The thinking faculties of our leaders from independence to date are limited to clannish thinking and the desire to become rich overnight while the rest of the people languish in total poverty and misery.
Most of our leaders focus on helping their clan members people of their villages of origin.
The people of Sierra Leone cannot plan and implement development programmes. Every single penny obtained from its abundant mineral and marine resources is stolen.
Leaders of Sierra Leone have not only manifested incapacity to manage the country’s resources, which in fact, since political independence from Britain, have become the root causes of instability, violence and monumental poverty that have reduced the people to subhumans.
Since political independence, neither the country’s mineral resources nor loans obtained from financial institutions like the World, IMF, ADB or from bilateral and multilateral donors have succeeded in taking the country out of chronic poverty and the culture of begging.
In effect, for the past 57 years, Sierra Leone’s economy has been on a reverse gear that sparked the outbreak of the brutal civil war that claimed tens of thousands of lives.
If the country cannot invest and manage development activities, how can it get out of chronic poverty and underdevelopment?
Sierra Leone has been unable to invest in sustainable development programmes. All companies left by the colonial administration collapsed just after landing into the hands of Sierra Leoneans.
The National Diamond Mining Company (NDMC), the Sierra Leone Produce Market to Board (SLPMB), DELCO, the Sierra Leone Airlines, the Sierra Leone Railway, among many others, all collapsed because massive corruption and mismanagement.
If you can’t buy and sell to make profit, and do not have the minimum capacity to mange even your own God given which only bring you more poverty and misery, you’re just s tragic person that qualifies as a professional beggar forever.
The pictures depicting the atrocities brought by the rebel war have been added to illustrate the fact that our minerals are more of a curse than a blessing.
Secondly, the average Sierra Leonean cannot think beyond immediate personal gain. A politician become only interested in an economic activity if he has something personal to gain from it.
A number of investments and development activities have been sabotaged by politicians through bribery and corruption.
Sierra Leone is the only country where everything is stolen including “kasankay” money like we saw in the mudslide and Ebola fraud scandals.
What development can anyone expect from a country where even “kasankay” money is not speared by thieves?
I have attached a photo depicting the acute water shortage in the capital. Sierra Leone leaders cannot provide basic social services for the people.
All the social services left by the British colonial administration have either been destroyed or remain in deplorable conditions.
We lack basic intelligence to plan for population growth. The Gum valley dam has not been increased to meet the needs of the growth in.population. In fact, the once green water catchment area has been destroy by land grabbers who have erected structures all over the place.
Sierra Leoneans remain poor and hungry but when a fake agenda for prosperity is sold to them as a propaganda, they buy it while starving and dying of hunger related problems.
Sierra Leone is a phantom state that survives only on the sweat of serious and hard working nations.
No Sierra Leonean company or parastatal has ever made profit. For instance, the country received free buses from Colonel Gaddafi but the SLRTC could not make profit to buy new buses. The APC government took 100 buses on loan from China with high interest rates since there were no free buses coming from Libya after Col. Gaddafi’s death.
The question here is, if the 100 free buses could not make profit, will the Chinese poda podas taken on loan with skyrocket interest rates make profit?
Will Sierra Leone ever pay back the Chinese? Has Sierra Leone ever repaid any loans?
I really don’t need to digress too much on this topic just to prove that Sierra Leone has no possibility of getting out of chronic poverty and its long history of begging.
Development and prosperity are not within the reach of people with clannish thinking.
We are bound to remain poor, hungry and dependent for the next century.
