Hope.. and Sweet Salone

Democracy and Development
I am excited about the recent turn of political events in Sierra Leone. I’ve had a particular affection for Sierra Leone since the late 1990s when I first started business travel there. I relished the warmth and friendliness of her people, her astonishing beaches, and the delicious, mouth watering range of seafood. For many years thereafter I actually wanted to relocate to Freetown.

As I laid on the Mauritian beach this week and soaked in the natural and stunning landscape, I wondered what was so different about this wonderful landscape to that of Sierra Leone, for on the face of it there was really not much difference. To many Mauritius is a magnificent, glorious island – and I know that few people would describe Sierra Leone as such.

But as I looked more closely around me, even along the beach front of the hotel I was staying, I had the answer to my question. To my left and to my right were a dozen odd hotel gardeners and cleaners, tending to the landscape and cleaning-up the beach front, free of the wastage of hotel guests. That’s maintenance for you. Then I thought of the one-hour long drive from Mauritius’ international airport to the hotel. The second difference would have to be the social and economic infrastructure. A fantastic road network, pot-hole free, and an undeniably buoyant and prosperous business sector. It is certainly a delightful and hassle free venture to be a visitor in this country – and without doubt that is the particular intention of the Mauritian government.

When Poverty is so very tangible
I always say that of all the countries I have visited on the African continent, Sierra Leone strikes me as the leading one in which poverty is tangible from the moment you touch down at the airport. In Accra, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and even Lagos, you may have to drive say one, two or three square miles before you come into contact with abject poverty. My personal experience of Sierra Leone is very different, and I ache for the suffering that I have seen to date amongst the ordinary folk of that country. From the maimed twenty something year old who looks like a forty year old begging for a dollar in the corrugated iron roofed waiting room at the helipad in the airport, to the young seemingly able bodied but unemployed young man you see, loitering and planted up on a tree at 3pm on a working day, on your way to the sea front to catch the hovercraft across from the airport to Freetown. It is a sorry tale.

And it is so because our political leaders have time and time again let us down. I am convinced that political gluttony and the want for despotic power has been the root of Sierra Leone’s economic, social and political woes of the past decades.

Reconstruction and Development
When I first visited Sierra Leone in 1998, though poverty was rife, there was a determination amongst the public servants I worked with to birth positive social and economic change in Sierra Leone. And that urgency was also evident within the donor community who so very readily disbursed hundreds of millions of grants across sectors in the country – I should know, I was tasked to undertake a number of pre and post -disbursement audits of such multi-million pound grants during that time.

But I don’t see that spirit of urgency, that hunger to see change, in the public sector anymore, less, of course, a handful of groups and sectors. There is lethargy around the place, and there is also, forgive me to say, a thick air of mendacity around which was not so heavily prevalent during those times.

It’s a pity because things were just not that bad a decade or so ago.

Guest houses and well, hotels
There were few hotels in Freetown then but I remember there were a number of basic but decent guest houses – one particular one that we stayed in on several occasions in Babadorie (yes, I know – not particularly a tourist district but we appreciated where we were and why we were in Sierra Leone in the first place as public sector reform consultants), was spotlessly clean – though very basic in amenities. The staff were incredibly friendly and warm – and eager to please. Water flowed most of the time and although there were frequent power failures, at least you could be certain of ten to twelve hours of power per day – and for the average Sierra Leonean that meant that they could plan their days better – cooking, working, etc, etc. Even if there was no power, we were happy to rely on candle light. On many occasions I very readily and contentedly lunched with my counterparts at the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank – at the local equivalents of what we in Ghana call ‘chop bars’. The chop bars were clean and you could confidently enjoy a meal in the surroundings

And since 2002?
The Sierra Leone I have come to know though after the official end of the war since 2002 is, regrettably as I see it, a poorer nation. Some of those same guest houses have closed down, those that still exist are of an even poorer standard than they were seven odd years ago, and even the new ones are really nothing to write home about. All, and I mean all, fall short of acceptable standards of cleanliness – I have on many occasions had mice as room mates in all four of the hotels that I return to on business travel – plus the musty rooms, soiled carpets, not-so clean bed sheets, cockroaches and mildewed walls.

And as for lunching at the local chop bar – not so fast. Most of them don’t have running water now, so to my mind the risk is just too great. One of my colleagues fell ill with typhoid during a recent visit - another develops severe skin rashes during each visit.

And the helicopter shuttle from the airport to Freetown? Well, maybe I was younger and more fearless a decade or so ago, but I am certain the seven minutes ride back then was not as fraught with danger as they have become – at least the helicopters (yes, the same ones were in use until the recent ban following the fatal crash of earlier on this year) had not depreciated as much then as they have now. And, yes, I mustn’t forget to add – there are no seat belts, no life jackets, not ventilation less the open windows which were in themselves a danger, and no, there is no head gear to protect your ears.

Whoever said that corporate life was all fun and games?

Corruption has been at an unacceptable level, poverty has been even more tangible, and the gap between the rich and the poor is thick and ample. Freetown is over populated with internally displaced people but without the ensuing public services and infrastructure to match the inflows. Public service delivery? You just don’t get a sense that the government is doing anything at all for the people.

Two or three years ago at church service one Sunday morning at a church in Brookfields the pastor led us in prayer. He said we should pray that God would remove the reproach from Sierra Leone. And pray we did.

I echo the same prayer today for Sierra Leone, and pray that the new Government will place national needs, the needs of the citizenry that voted them into office ahead of their own personal wants and needs.

I raise a toast of hope to the people and country of Sierra Leone.