With Ralph Sesay
The recent 2019 Afro Barometer report has placed Sierra Leone in third position amongst-thirty five countries in Africa.
The perception of citizens around the seriousness of Government to fight corruption has also increased and most interestingly the citizen’s perception around the corrupt nature of the Sierra Leone Police has dwindled from the most corrupt institution rating over the years.
Public perception surveys like this are very much credible largely due to the performance and credibility over the years of the civil society organizations that are conducting the surveys.
In Sierra Leone the Institute for Governance Research and Campaign for Good Governance are on record for greatly contributing to the discourse around policy formulation and development.
The fight against corruption has been made very visible by the current ACC and undoubtedly the Commission and the people of Sierra Leone have witnessed the highest form of political will ever to fight graft in the country.
The several signings of MOUs between the ACC and several civil society organizations and other MDAs in government, is a pointer to the fact that people are tired to fight corruption and understand that the current level of poverty in the country is as a result of institutionalized corruption in the country.
The Leader of the National Grand Coalition, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella while commenting on the performance of the ACC, noted that the Commission has laid a very strong foundation, but it has numerous daunting challenges such as integrity, courage and sustainability.
He has also warned the ACC boss over negotiating with corrupt officials against the backdrop that he would inadvertently send a message that people engaged in corruption would always have a way out.
The Sierra Leone Police instead of celebrating this year’s Afro Barometer Report of 2019 should take a look and work more robustly to weed out corrupt members within its rank and file.
While we will agree with the report around the perception of citizens over the Sierra Leone Police, the reality on the ground is nothing to write home about.
The Traffic Division in the Sierra Leone Police has not changed we still have allegations around officers owning several of the motor bikes plying the Central Business District of Freetown.
The individuals riding the motor bikes are above the law and engaged in lawlessness.
Extortion at Police Checkpoints still goes on unabated and nothing has changed.
Perhaps the report may have focused around measures taken by the leadership of the Police to curb corruption.
The leadership of the Police has collaborated over the years with the ACC to conduct sting operations around traffic points in the country, but the traffic police has continued to use different means to receive monies from drivers and other motorists.
The traffic division has continued to destroy the hard earned professionalism and hard work of other departments like the Family Support Unit, Criminal Investigations Department, OSD and many others.
The Sierra Leone Police has continued also to excel abroad in Peace Keeping Missions much more to the esteem of the country, but all of this is being marred by the activities of the Traffic Division.
It is my hope one day that we will have an Inspector General of Police that would call for the removal of traffic duties from the Sierra Leone Police permanently to the Road Safety Authority.
Even before the 2019 barometer report, we have institutions that are very corrupt more than the Police, but it is that of the traffic that is visible because it is done in the streets and their only clients the drivers are always ready to expose the Police even when they too are part of the corruption.
They have preferred to pay bribes rather than do the correct things in terms of getting the conditions of their vehicles effective for plying the roads.
The leadership of the Police should not sit on its laurels but should move forward to inculcate professionalism around the Traffic Division.
I trust the current leadership at the Department under CSP Senessie who happens to be a product of the SLP Change Management process.
He has the ability to transform that Department into a more productive one to bring laurels for the Police rather than bring its name into disrepute.