A political sledgehammer has hit the House of Parliament leaving hundreds senior civil servants redundant. It has come to the attention of this medium that during the festive season, while many people were complaining of their hardships and difficulties, while many were finding it hard to buy gifts and make merry with their friends and family members because of their lack and suffering, many government employees were sacked or given marching orders.
According to our sources, close to 200 civil servants were given the boot by the government of Sierra Leone this past December.
The men and women from the nation’s law making House that were sacked belongs to the opposition, All Peoples Congress (APC).
Now that Parliament has done the needful, our sources reminded us that other government ministries, departments and agencies are expected to be affected in the coming months.
Nightwatch was informed that the move to sack the APC-linked civil servants from Parliament came in the midst of the ruling party government doing a house clearing of sort in a move that is indicative of the consolidation of what the regime had started in 2018 after being declared winner of the presidential election that year.
Therefore, in December 2023, in the midst of the entire population failing to celebrate the festive the way we know how, many of our citizens lost their government jobs, which made the festive period much worse for such people that fell into the government sacking spree.
This move came in as a surprise to all of us. But, this is a continuation of what the party government did in 2018 after taking over from the APC.
But, while the other recent sacking sprees came as a result of the government being broke because our financial backers stopped funding our government over the discredited 24th June, 2023 presidential result announcement, the government has of late gotten some funding we know they will use to pay civil servants.
Therefore, the sacking of APC political appointees comes not because the government is broke, it is actually being done to those in government belonging to the APC that allegedly took part in the 2018 elections.
The upset group of Sierra Leonean citizens that only a few weeks ago were gainfully employed reiterated that them and their fellow senior civil servants that were made redundant had been accused of taking part in the election process and doing so on the side of the main opposition APC.
We know that the sacking of APC related civil servants has long been a plan of the regime; the idea goes back to 2018 but has finally been settled.
And now that this has happened in Parliament we should expect for this to continue to all government ministries, departments and agencies.
Therefore, if you are an APC appointed government employee in Sierra Leone, you should expect the unexpected and prepare for your sacking from government.
This sacking spree will only stop when there are no longer any civil servants belonging to the main opposition APC.
Our sources informed and warned all APC appointed civil servants not to rest on their laurels but instead should be preparing to leave by packing their offices in anticipation of such a rude awakening or reality.
In continuation of their plan to polarise the country along political and regional lines, we expect our positions to be filled up soon with people belonging to the ruling party.
This 2023 move by the government is reminiscent of what happened right after this regime was declared winner of the 2018 elections and went on to replace sound and well trained civil servants not because of any other reason than them not belonging to the winning team.
Sierra Leonean citizens however made redundant by the government have warned that what goes around comes around reminding the regime that unless we focus on building a civil servant class that does not consider one’s tribe, party or region, ‘we will be having this tit-for-tat or do-me-I-do-you sort of approach to firing and hiring citizens.
Meanwhile, it must be stated here that this recent move by the government does not reflect the regime’s hope of developing the nation’s human resources capital.
By siding one side of the population in terms of jobs and other opportunities from the government, we are encouraging a one-sided approach to development that will say nothing about national peace and cohesion.
As a matter of fact, this way of hiring and sacking civil servants will only encourage and keep the embers of disunity and national polarity alive and kicking in our political administration narrative.
Sacking from the civil service, they took part in politics and belonged to the opposition does not reflect regional and tribal makeup of the country.
In a country like Sierra Leone, a balance in hiring from all the regions and tribes and parties is desperately needed if we are not to have a lopsided development with development centred on one area, region and or party.
This balance is needed to lessen or totally get rid of the polarity that rises after elections.It is advisable that hiring should be based on competence.
However, the usual hiring practice, as evidenced by our sacking does not require much except that you are a partisan and have shown yourself to be faithful to the leader’s agenda.