My Thoughts (Sierra Leone Independence Day Celebration)

April 27, 2022 – As we prepare for the Independence Day holiday, I want to send my good wishes to Sierra Leoneans, recharge and reflect on what freedom and independence mean to each of us, as individuals, communities and as a nation. This year, in particular, I’m thinking about how to put into practice – personally, professionally, and as a member of my community—our founders’ drive to do better tomorrow than we did yesterday.

On 27th April 2022, Sierra Leone marks the 61st anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As a country, we are hearing overdue calls for true decolonization direction and national agenda for Sierra Leone beyond the British legacy. As we face these challenges together, it is a reminder to me that Sierra Leone’s founding principles, particularly those aimed at achieving autarky, self-determination and self-sufficiency are a utopian dream.

Sierra Leone’s economic dependence on consumer good prices abroad is worrying. Example: Our staple food, rice, is imported from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan. Farmers in these countries may lose their crops if it does not rain. Therefore, there is economic dependence on something happening, i.e., rainfall. Less production will lead to a change in demand. A change in demand will cause equilibrium price and output to change in the same direction. An increase in demand will cause an increase in the equilibrium price and quantity of a good. The increase in demand causes excess demand to develop at the initial price. Excess demand will cause the price to rise. Subsequently, an increase in price abroad will be felt in Sierra Leone. I haven’t even mentioned the cost of transportation (shipment, fuel crisis etc.) to Sierra Leone’s seaport and importation taxes.

Sierra Leone’s intellectual dependence on foreign expertise is also worrying. A country that continuously imports its theories, ideas and methods from abroad is an intellectually dependent country. Intellectual dependence forms the basis of political, economic and technological dependence. Unfortunately, the education system serves as the means to familiarize these dependences to the new generations. If individuals are intellectually dependent on the West, it is a whole country and nation becomes dependent on the West. They cannot stand on their own feet without outside support not only in the intellectual arenas but also in all fields of life.

The approach to overcome the idea of dependence is to empower our universities to pass into producing their own ideas instead of marketing the ideas they import from outside. This production can only be carried out by intellectually independent students and academics. Why do we still need the Millennium Challenge Corporation ‘MCC’ to tell us our scores with regards to Health, Education, Agriculture, Energy, Water, Sanitation and Irrigation? Where are the academic researchers in this country? Where are the innovators? Researchers and Innovators have a responsibility to develop the capacity for “independent, honest and critical thought” throughout their career. Researchers have a responsibility to communicate their research, to collaborate with others where appropriate and to transfer and exploit knowledge for the benefit of their employer, the economy and society as a whole.

Lastly, Sierra Leone’s dependence on tribal, political and regional networking is also worrying. This pattern has been with us since independence. When academic competence is replaced with regional, tribal or political affiliation, we end up with “square pegs in round holes” occupying positions they shouldn’t be in. The idiomatic expression describes the unusual individualist who could not fit into a niche of their society. Academic competence reflects the skills, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to students’ academic success. These skills and attitudes fall within two broad domains – academic skills and academic enablers. Academic skills include basic and complex skills such as reading, writing, mathematics, and critical thinking skills. Academic enablers are the skills, attitudes, and behaviors that facilitate a student’s learning. Folks with fake certificates would definitely lack (some of) these skills. Beyond success in the classroom, academic enablers predict life and career success. If you occupy a position for which you are not suited for, you would not succeed. You can’t give what you don’t have.

Furthermore, if you graduated with a degree in geography and now work as an accountant, you’re depriving the true accountant from occupying that position. If you graduated with a law degree, LLB or LLM and work as a design director or an innovator, you’re also depriving the true innovator from occupying that role. If you graduated with a degree in History and work at the Ministry of Health as the director of public health, you are also depriving the true health specialists from occupying that role. Thus, like planning and organization, staffing is also an important function of management. Selection process of employees should ensure that they choose and appoint the right candidates for various jobs in an organization. It includes receiving and screening of applications, employment tests, interview and medical examination of candidates etc.

Finally, we need to cultivate the two types of independence I have mentioned in this article, intellectual independence and financial independence in order for Sierra Leone’s economy to thrive.

I wish you all a happy and thoughtful Independence Day celebration.

John Bestman Jr.