It is often said “give a man flowers when he is alive”. Loosely, this adage means we should show appreciation and be thankful of someone while they are alive; it would be too late after they die. It would be encouraging to let the one being thanked and praised know how valuable they are to you while they are alive and can appreciate those words.
Since independence from Great Britain on 27 April 1961, Sierra Leone has had five presidents, with Ernest Bai Koroma being the fourth. Based on conversations we had with a cross section of citizens on the topic, Ernest Bai Koroma has been crowned “Country Best”, meaning, the best president Sierra Leone has had so far. They consider EBK’s tenure to be the most successful since we gained independence.
Before the advent of Ernest Bai Koroma, Sierra Leone’s developmental trajectory could be described as moving at a snail’s pace. Being endowed with seemingly limitless power, presidents of Sierra Leone wielded power not for the benefit of the people, but for their own personal interests. After 18-years in power, had he been development oriented, the late Siaka Stevens’ tenure presented the country with one of her greatest opportunities for becoming a great nation state. But Stevens instead used those years stifling any and all perceived threats to his presidency, with some jailed and forced to flee the country or worse, dead.
Imitating the Margais, Stevens entrenched the tribalism that is still plaguing our civil service today. After polarising the civil service, Stevens’ next move was declare the country a one party state to do away with any opposition or threat to his presidency. Those were the early days of the “President for Life” phenomenon that defined the presidency across a large section of Africa and other developing continents.
We are all too familiar with Siaka Stevens’ use of state coffers as his personal treasury, the system of patronage he instituted, the large scale corruption he engendered in public leadership, and the violence that met anyone who dared to question his style of leadership. Stevens’ tenure was the start of the brain drain that is still affecting Sierra Leone today.
Steven’s governance failures were many, including but not limited to poor service delivery, corruption that found its way into every sector of public and private life, limited to no infrastructural development, poor healthcare and education deliveries among others. It was Pa Sheki’s many unchecked policy decisions that culminated to the coups and civil wars that further devastated our already fragile state and economy.
To his credit, Sheki built the stadium we are still using today, Youyi Building and Siaka Stevens Street named after him. His handpicked successor Joseph Saidu Momoh can be described as the “father of democracy” for instituting multiparty democracy in Sierra Leone. Seriously deficient in the art of running a nation state and lacking the strength to stomach the kind of menace Pa Sheki visited on anyone standing in his way, the former military head was out of his depths as then president of Sierra Leone. He had played his expected role of a buffer between the people and the former dictator Stevens, who needed the protection of the Sierra Leone Army, from where he handpicked Momoh, who was before then head of the military. Yet still Momoh can be credited with Cockeril, the nursing and law schools among others.
For their combined years, one can hardly point to anything significant that was accomplished by both Stevens and Momoh during their tenures as president of Sierra Leone. It was either going to be civil war or a system of anarchy that was going to be the impetus for change. Sadly, the nation faced the barrel of the gun and the sharp edges of knives, swords or any crude weapon. Still, the expected change didn’t result from the war. It still hasn’t.
A student of those dark days in our governance march, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah attempted to wean Sierra Leone from the bad system of government, laws and ideas we had inherited from the bad old days under Sheki and the Margais. But Kabbah’s focus on maintaining our then fragile post-war peace and security defined his tenure, although he laid down certain foundations on which his successor, Ernest Bai Koroma would build on.
Ernest Bai Koroma was born in Makeni, northern Sierra Leone on 2 October 1953 and ruled Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018. The Koroma presidency was focused on rebuilding the country’s national infrastructure after the Civil War, fighting corruption and improving the country’s healthcare system. In April 2010, Koroma signed into law the country’s free healthcare programme for pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under the age of five. Koroma focused on free-market solutions, attracting more private investment.
On 4 September 2008, Koroma declared his assets to the Sierra Leone Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and signed into law the country’s new Anti-Corruption Bill of 2008 at the State House in Freetown. Under the new law, it is compulsory for the president and other government officials to declare their assets and update them annually.
Koroma gave the country’s ACC more powers to investigate and prosecute corrupt officials. Koroma is on record for dismissing several government ministers associated with corruption, including two of his ministers indicted on corruption charges by the Sierra Leone Anti-Corruption Commission.
The Koroma presidency focused on road constructions across the country, which significantly improved Sierra Leone’s infrastructure. The Koroma presidency focused on encouraging investments, which led to investment in the country’s mining industry, mostly by Chinese companies. With the financial help of the United Nations, Koroma implemented a free healthcare programme for children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. Koroma made significant improvements in the fight against corruption, extreme poverty, unemployment, poor housing conditions, poor healthcare, poor energy and water supplies. He is remembered for restoring electricity to Freetown within hundred days of his presidency. Freetown was then known as “the darkest city on Earth”.
In President Koroma’s inauguration speech, he promised zero tolerance of corruption, and during the early years of his presidency, several senior government officials allied to the president were arrested and prosecuted for corruption by the country’s ACC. When the Sierra Leone Auditor General report said millions of dollars of the money meant for Ebola patients were missing in the government’s emergency Ebola account, President Koroma named experts to investigate the allegation, and some senior government officials linked to the Ebola funds were fired and suspended.
Koroma is fondly remembered by Sierra Leoneans from across the divide for his improvements in the roads and energy sectors and his many programmes that kept many young people actively employed. President Koroma, who won re-election with 58 per cent of the votes, is still very popular particularly in the north and Western Area of Sierra Leone. His presidential staff and cabinet ministers were very diverse and made up of members of about all of Sierra Leone’s ethnic groups.
President Koroma was known for his many unannounced visits to several poor Sierra Leonean neighbourhoods. He was often seen waving to the people in his presidential motorcade, something that is lacking today.
Today, Pa Koroma continues to make Sierra Leone proud by his work as a senior African statesman of high repute in his role as elections observer and peace negotiator across Africa. He is often courted by visiting heads of states and other diplomats for his invaluable contribution to developments here at home and across the continent. He has made his hometown of Makeni a local tourism hotspot for the many developments he encouraged in that part of the country. Had Pa Koroma had the opportunity to rule Sierra Leone for the 18 years Pa Sheki did, Sierra Leone would have been the envy of all Africans today.