THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
….It’s all about leadership and the collective will of the people.
Part 1&11
By Abayomi Tejan
The roots of corruption in Sierra Leone run deep; since Independence, it remained the single factor that was responsible for the privation among the masses, keeping the nation on the edge of chaos, which culminated in the complete breakdown of law and order and, inevitably, a war.
The causes of the war have been well documented; corruption, bad governance, lack of transparency and impunity combined, formed the main drivers of the eleven years civil conflict, the magnitude of which the world had never seen.
Since the end of the war, the fight against those vices in the polity of the state assumed a more pointed approach by the government. However, no matter the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Public Procurement Authority, drastic reforms in Public Service and the finance sector, restoration of multi-party democracy and civil society inclusiveness, the forces of corruption could not be assuaged.
Over twenty years of misrule and institutionalized corruption by the political leadership then, left in its wake a thoroughly convoluted system, which brought woe to the nation whose erstwhile one party authoritarian leadership was characterized by impropriety, aggrandizement, avarice and impunity as means to holding on to power. The breaking point came in 1980, when Sierra Leone hosted the OAU (now AU) summit, which bankrupted the Treasury, and triggered economic crisis, the effects of which reverberate to this day.
By the late eighties, it had become clear that the political center would not hold much longer. Mounting privations, war knocking on the country’s eastern boarders, a restive army watching with trepidation, and a leadership contemplating its predicament, paved the way for rebel insurgency, which quickly morphed into a war and military rule. The protagonists of the rebel war and the military intervention in 1992 predicated their actions on bad governance and unbridled corruption in the ousted government.
Hence, the fight against corruption became the mantra of all post-war presidential aspirants, albeit halfheartedly, until President Julius Maada Bio assumed office in 2018, and gave the required presidential commitment and sincerity to the cause, thus lending traction to an hitherto amorphous anti-corruption infrastructure.
In just three years, president Bio’s administration has drastically reduced massive leakages through a robust public procurement mechanism and the establishment of a single treasury account. Whether by design or sheer vicissitudes of time, the appointment of Francis Ben Kelfala as Commissioner of the Ant-Corruption Commission could not have been more appropriate; he has proved to be a true patriot, totally loyal to the people of Sierra Leone. For once, impunity no longer reigns for corrupt public officials. There will be consequences if they are detected. That alone is a deterrent to would be corrupt officials, and their accomplices.
Over Le 4 billion Leones and still counting, has been generated for the state by way of fines at the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court, in addition to the billions recovered out of court by the ACC. It’s all about the right leadership.
The judiciary, too, has seen profound changes under the current Chief Justice, Desmond Babatunde Edwards, whose leadership now stands as a paradigm of circumspection for the entire judiciary. Major reforms in the judiciary through robust training of Judges, Magistrates and the support staff; and the creation of a conducive working environment to enhance efficiency in case management and proceedings, all go towards ensuring effective and expeditious justice delivery.
It would be conceit on the part of anyone who refuses to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of the Chief Justice. It’s all about leadership. So, President Bio, Francis Ben Kelfala and Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards are the Avant Garde in the fight against this all devouring and consuming social menace that has bedeviled Sierra Leone for over half a century. However, they alone cannot defeat corruption without the commitment of the public sector and the collective will of the people. To be continued
THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
….It’s all about leadership and the collective will of the people.
Part 11
As the fight against corruption continues, the upcoming general elections next year would serve as a test for the continued resolve of the presidency not to lose traction in the face of an opposition hell bent on unseating the SLPP from power.
However, this is up to the electorate to decide ‘through the ballot box,’ which is the only legitimate, democratic way of removing a government from power. But how does one appeal to an electorate that is largely illiterate, ill informed, and tribalistic?
In a democracy whose population is largely illiterate, politicians exploit the gullibility of the dull and ignorant, exacerbate regional and ethnic tensions by their utterances and, if the leadership is thoroughly corrupt, as was the case in Sierra Leone for over two decades prior to the 1991 to 2001 rebel war, would suck political elites and public servants into the irresistible vortex of insatiable avarice. Sierra Leone is not a poor country; it is the existence of corruption at the highest levels that cause so much deprivation among the general citizenry.
The general citizenry naturally followed suit, having imbibed the notion that honesty was no longer a virtue; so corruption became the bedrock that permeated the entire fabric of the polity of the state, to the point where the rich man told his son, ‘you can steal, but please don’t be caught.’ So when late president Ahmed Tejan Kabba broached the idea of tackling corruption by establishing the Anti-Corruption Commission, he brought down trouble upon his head, which it is now left with President Maada Bio to clear.
Never before has a president shown such political will and commitment to fighting corruption as president Bio; and by sheer fortune, the Anti- Corruption Commission under Mr. Francis Ben Kelfala, and the Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards, are complementing the president’s resolve in the work of the Commission and the Judiciary of Sierra Leone like never before under this political dispensation. These three individuals together form the Avant Garde leading the fight. And it would be reducing the argument to absurdity to expect perfection from them. No one is perfect, but there are certainly people of good repute and integrity in Sierra Leonean, albeit grossly outnumbered by mediocre and the palpably ungodly worshippers of mammon.
President Bio by now should have realized the enormity of the fight against graft, and the need to keep his adversaries at bay. However, five years is certainly not enough to repair the massive damage corruption has caused to the economy, the justice delivery system and the rule of law, land tenure and country planning in the Western Area in particular and, most importantly, the mindset of the general citizenry that eschew criticizing public officials who quickly morph overnight from a middle level earners into billionaires by day. President Bio clearly needs more time to deal with the aftermath of his audacious stance against this nascent thieving culture that public servants and, indeed, the greater portion of the citizenry, have imbibed over the years.
Until and unless every citizen of Sierra Leone understand and appreciate the fact that the fight against corruption is everyone’s business, Sierra Leone would ever remain on the edge of social chaos and political anarchy. To be continued.