First_Name: Patrick
Last_Name: Bockari
Email_Address: [email protected]
Address: 6824 Rio Tejo Way
City: Elk Grove
State: CA
Zip_Code: 95757
Comments: IF I AM PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE!
By Patrick S. Bockari, Mendekeima, Kailahun; California, USA.
PREAMBLE:
As president of Sierra Leone, my administration will accomplish a bold
$6.5 to $8 billion five year revenue generating and spending plan under
my economic agenda, SLAERP (Sierra Leone Accelerated Economic
Revitalization Plan). SLAERP will generate $6.5 to $8 billion in five years
using innovative reforms in the trading of our strategic natural
resources, create 1.2 million new well paying jobs, modernize all key public
infrastructures, raise the minimum wage to a meaningful living wage that
will support a high quality of life within the country, and make Sierra
Leone the most vibrant economy in Africa.
Like most of Africa, Sierra Leone has more than adequate natural
resources that, if properly traded, could generate government revenue and
distribute wealth in the billions of dollars annually without the need for
handouts or begging from the traditionally so-called donor nations.
Credible world economic facts support my position that Sierra Leone
should not be poor, and it could be one of the richest countries on earth
with one of the highest qualities of life. But where are we today with
respect to other countries? We are rated by the United Nations at the
bottom of the world in virtually every category of human and land
development. Human Development Index (HDI) used by the UN to rate Sierra Leone
at the bottom of the world is one of the strongest measures of wealth
and its distribution in any society. Yes, our country has been through
11 years of a destructive rebel war. But the war is not even close to
the primary reason why our country is so poor and underdeveloped.
Why is our country still led by virtually the same politicians and
their younger cronies that have ruined and ran the country into the ground
from about 1967 to date? Why is the rest of the country allowing these
few old politicians to continue to recycle themselves into leadership
positions at the detriment of our country and the prosperity for
generations to come? Sierra Leone has a political leadership generation that
has failed our country, our people, and generations to come. They are
inept, visionless, and totally incapable of turning our country around.
Their failures gave cause to the war, precipitated the war, and continue
to inhibit our country’s ability to benefit from the vast international
post-war presence in, and goodwill towards our country. The rest of us
have the duty, the right, and the numbers to say no and throw them out
of leadership positions through the ballot box. Doing nothing about it
in 2007 is no longer an option. They have to go!
The general elections of 2007 present unique and once in a life time
opportunity for a new breed of leaders to take back and turn our country
around for ours and generations to come. We need a new breed of young
leaders who understand and possess the bold vision and innovative
abilities needed to capture the matrix of the 21st Century global market
place in order to build and sustain a vibrant modern economy in Sierra
Leone. Unlike the Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba generation of leaders
whose visions were hampered by CIA and KGB Cold War politics, the
current failures by political leaders in Sierra Leone are mostly due to
innate or self-made problems. They are inept, with chronic colonial
mentality and contrived mediocre thinking. They lack vision and innovation in a
competitive global market economy.
The key revenue sources in our country (minerals, fishing, the harbor,
hydroelectric and ocean tidal energy potentials, agricultural
potentials, tourism and the country’s natural beauty) are either traded under
pre or neo-colonial trade agreements, or exploited using primitive,
cumbersome, and grossly inefficient methods of production, or simply left
undeveloped. If I become president of Sierra Leone, I will do the
following and more:
ECONOMIC REFORM & REVITALIZATION:
I have developed a spending plan of $6.5 to $8 billion for the first
five years in office. Yes, $6.5 to $8 billion with a “B.” It lays out how
my administration will generate the revenue. It shows the creation of
the Emergency Economic Control Commission (EECC) which will regulate and
oversee the implementation of the Sierra Leone Accelerated Economic
Revitalization Plan (SLAERP).
These are the spending areas:
? Build, maintain, and operate an integrated modern highway system to
provide the foundation and facilitate a rapid and vibrant economy
throughout Sierra Leone. The integrated modern highways will link all
District headquarter towns with 4-lane, divided, full access controlled,
grade separated concrete highways with built-in sewage, storm drain,
communication, and power lines, and an aesthetically pleasing landmark
concrete suspension Freetown-Lungi crossing bridge that will stand as a
legacy of our time for generations to come. ($2.75 billion)
? Return to the original 1973 design capacity of approximately 1,650
megawatts of hydroelectric power from the Bumbuna hydroelectricity and
issue an emergency contract to complete the project in 18 months using
modern public contract administration techniques. Rapidly construct a
350 megawatts of ocean tidal energy power plant between Freetown and
Conakry for the Western Areas and sale to neighboring countries. ($350
million)
? Build a national irrigation and flood control system to facilitate
year-round mechanized farming throughout the country. ($400 million)
? Modernize the Freetown harbor to become the regions choice for
transatlantic and interregional trans-shipping hub. ($300 million)
? Provide guaranteed loans and legislative mandate to reconstruct
Freetown as a modern city – A city block system with every house or town
lot facing a street, and streets or roads in mountainous or hilly areas
following contours or lines of almost equal grades not to exceed a
national longitudinal grade standard, and introduce rapid modern
construction materials and techniques to rebuild and renovate Freetown in five
years. ($1.2 billion)
? Modernize the airport and link it to our major cities and to our
borders with Guinea and Liberia with an electric train system using the
tidal ocean current electricity. ($300 million)
? Create a Land Ownership Reform and Identification Commission
(LORIC) to reform, distribute, confirm existing ownerships, and computerize
every inch of land in Sierra Leone to be uniquely identifiable with
digitized national terrain maps. Establish legislation to require private
land title ownership insurance as mandatory component of land sales and
proof of ownership. ($100 million)
? Develop a fraud proof and well protected computerized national
identification system to uniquely identify and perpetually store personal
information with photos, of every citizen, resident or visitor to
facilitate private loan financing and other financial transactions common and
essential for competitiveness in the modern global market place. ($150
million)
? Provide loans and grants to private companies that set up
manufacturing plants using local or imported materials. An industrial
manufacturing development department will set up guidelines for qualification.
($800 million)
? General human assistance to indigent adults and children in the
country. ($150 million)
? Provide modern national defense with emphasis on territorial water,
border, and mining area monitoring and security to include warning
systems, 24-hour aerial video monitoring, and secured toll gate systems.
($500 million in phases)
? Create and strengthen govern revenue generating, control, and
verification systems to prevent fraud, pay living wage salaries as incentive
to discourage corruption, and provide for retirement and other
benefits. (. ($1.0 billion)
TOTAL SPENDING = $6.5 TO $8 billion
Revenue will be generated from the following: reform the trading of
Rutile (titanium dioxide) $5.2 billion); Diamonds (1.2 billion); Fishing
($900 million); all others ($700 million).
In the coming couple of years, I will continue to look into how my
administration will recover stolen
money from public funds, and from international financial institutions
that might have violated established financial regulations in granting
Sierra Leone over $600 million in loans for the Bunbuna Hydroelectric
project that has taken almost 30 years longer than it should have, and
cost us three times more for an end product that is scaled down to 3% of
its original design capacity (from 1,650 original design to only 50
megawatts at completion). Somebody in either our government, the
construction company, or in the international financial institutions that kept
granting the loans did something very unusual to have kept this project
going at the detriment of our country. If I am president, I will go to
international courts, or seek international arbitration for a full
audit of the Bumbuna project. Any wrong doing will be punished to the full
extent of law. If it involves officers of the lending institutions or
international construction firms, my administration will seek damages in
addition to relief from payment of any improperly granted loans. There
is no way Sierra Leone could have used $600 million on that project.
Domestic and international corrupt individuals conspired to mismanage the
funds and the construction project causing serious harm to the people
of Sierra Leone. Under my government, those will pay the stiffest prices
for the harm they have caused our country.
If you have any questions regarding my plans for our country, please
call or write to me at:
Phone: (916) 289-7662
Email: [email protected] or, [email protected]
Thank you for reading and may God bless Sierra Leone.
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