Government is entangled in a barrage of unfortunate events that are creating criticisms, dampening the great enthusiasm surrounding the regime’s ascendancy to power. This has even caused low morale among the rank and file of the public and civil servants.
Therefore, some quarters of the population, especially those on the other side, love it. Because if a stubborn domestic chicken does not take caution, when chased out with a wave of hands, it will face the wrath of the neighbourhood.
Freetown, in particular, is being carried away by the recent sporadic violent incidents, which are as a result of an innate anger brewing on a daily basis. This is indicative of failure on the part of government to register good stewardship to the people.
Interestingly, the regime is presenting a lukewarm attitude as if nothing serious is on-going. Just in these weeks there had been disturbances at Jui Junction, the Universities, the main national hospital, Connaught and alleged killings at Hastings. All have been attributed to minor indifferences that escalate to riots.
This is not a good sign for any leader who, in his own mind, is laying his life for his people. We know about shootings in countries like the USA, Brazil and South Africa, which could be attributed to communal violence, but not the ones that occur in Honduras, Philippines or Iraq. This is political.
Any serious minded government, that stands to effectively rule a country, must bring its people to their toes and show that they are in charge.
One way to do this is to sub-divide the cities into security zones, then set up effective local courts to regulate certain conducts. Also have a vibrant information system that gives early warnings to defaulters. Then implement the subject matter to the letter.
You cannot run an African state when you hide behind the scene. Africans need iron hands and that is why Presidents like Paul Gagamy of Rwanda and J.J. Rawlings of Ghana succeeded. When a government is living under inadequate managerial capacity, making weak decisions, having so many works in progress, ignoring process and procedures, and absolutely denying the facts on the ground, confusion spells.
Managerial capacity entails being able to put structures in place. Then assign appropriate individuals to man those structures. Also set up monitors to report on those individuals you have appointed as well as the structure itself. Then you could be in the position to make appropriate decisions.
But if a man decides to rule his people, using strangers, he can even take advice from a clown. If a child decides to be the praise singer in a village, he should know the names of each chief or the mask devils.
Knowledge is wealth, and it is tapped from the unknown. But learning starts from the known and progresses to the unknown. The mistakes of our past heads of state are still ongoing. Prominent among all is the pattern of appointing individuals to responsible positions. It has been mostly Diaspora lobbyists- those who gave money to the aspirant.
All Heads of State of this country become so entrenched and obsessed with making political appointments from the men and women coming from foreign countries instead of the more experienced folks who have lived and worked with their people. Those who know the ground. These Diaspora folks come and sit on top of those political activists who have been sleeping with all the odds from their political opponents. These newcomers snub, alienate and never take responsibility of the things that go wrong. They have very limited knowledge in the political and administrative management of the ministries. They are often at the mercy of the permanent secretaries. They also have divided loyalty: one to their second home, abroad, and the other here, at home.
Another is our educational outfits; politics is not studied in school but we often appoint people based on academic qualifications. Other than leadership qualities, besides no training is captured for new recruitment as a minister or CEO.
The third is the disorganised political headquarters. Most political parties have structures manned by committees. These committees are the main pillars of governance. Even when the party is not in a state of power, the various committees shall remain in a form of a shadow government. In time of winning an election, those committees’ head steps in as ministers.
In Sierra Leone, PhD holders, money men, close relatives and side chicks take the stage. Such an abuse to the integrity of those who risked their lives during electioneering!