After all the denial, politicking, slurs about victims, ‘ostricism’, ‘crying wolf’ suggestions, criticism of other governments, conspiracy theories, suffering, misery, and deaths that could have been prevented, we finally have acceptance of sorts; there is a problem in Sierra Leone – a friggin huge one at that!

The nation has been here before. Situations develop, creep up on us, and see our complacency as ideal backdrop to gain traction. Since my days as a gangly child discovering what was a new country to me, through to my formative days and those initial forays into radicalism and protest, the overarching narrative has remained unchanged. If serious enough to make people in other places protest, joke. When it threatens other families or communities, retreat into selfish cocoons. If it is wrecking the nation, try not to see it or just blame someone else. Sadly, the evidence is that a country whose anthem boasts “knowledge and wisdom our forefathers spread…” and was once the place others came to learn is again demonstrating with devastating consequences that learning, especially from history, is not something done as a collective.

The last time Sierra was Leone mentioned on televisions as much as the last week, violence and nastiness was being visited on most parts of the country while those in power were retreated into a ‘situation normal, carry on as usual’ mode. Sierra Leone is today getting mentioned in all the television news bulletins as well as in varying column inches worth of newsprint; and rightly so. For if we are to accept, as I certainly do, that Ebola comes with a contagion and viciousness that should make people sit up and be very afraid in addition to asking authorities to show an unmistakable determination to prevail over it, then what is unfolding in Sierra Leone is the country’s most serious crisis since the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) exposed the weaknesses of the country and its institutions.

Obviously, the most basic tool of the science of risk assessment – the matrix pitching severity of outcomes against likelihood of occurrence – was not consulted or engaged when Ebola was first reported near and along Sierra Leone’s borders with Guinea and Liberia. Instead, there was a Ceausescu regime like manipulation of the news with a main effort being to say all is well and spin the idea that nothing can go wrong. I actually struggle for a better example of the wisdom that advises: “If the map doesn’t agree with the ground, the map is wrong”. In other words, if we use the wrong map or cannot identify your current location, chances of getting to the desired destination will be severely diminished.

A virus with the reputation of Ebola, so close to porous borders, should at the very least have triggered a chain of ‘so what?’ and ‘what if?’ reactions. Assuming the worst case scenario of breaches of the national borders should have strongly influenced the posture of the authorities. Unfortunately, that now predictable default to a path of least resistance was the reaction and this then offered the virus a path of no resistance across the border. To compound it all, absurd and shameless politicking emerged from the shadow of a cluelessness that could probably match a toddlers understanding of the big bang theory. That normal reaction to crises that unites people against a common enemy was never given a chance while complacency of the sort that over the decades has caused the country much grief tragically resurfaced. As the evidence increasingly advised observers that Ebola in Sierra Leone was not a phantom, there was more attention paid to those supposedly in charge and the idea that the Health Minister’s lack of medical training or background was the problem. At the time, I chose to argue that what she needed was capacity for strategic thinking and not a string of medical qualifications. After all, why do we have professionals and technocrats?

As I saw it, there was either a case of professionals failing to step up their game and make the minister and the rest of government aware of how bad this could get, or a case of the minister probably choosing not to listen to the professionals. Or, was it professionals letting down themselves and those dependent on their learning and experience side-by-side authorities more interested in other matter? In effect, was this a double whammy that could only produce catastrophic results? Whatever the case, one of the performances we we got in the form of an official response was a minister taking the national obsession for tittle-tattle to another level by opting to, in the House of Representatives, propagate gossip about a nurse who died at the frontline in the fight against this threat to the nation. The contribution to strategic thinking which could have given direction to those fighting the disease or even reassured the public that there was a plan was about as much as the square root of zero. She shrugged and then sloped her shoulders; parliamentarians giggled; political game players uploaded; the Ebola virus spread; and more people met very painful deaths. Meanwhile, expressing concern or even offering criticism of the handling of the growing crisis was increasingly likely to attract accusations of political bias or disloyalty to the country. Yep, accepting the suffering and death of your own people was by definition becoming a way to exhibit loyalty and patriotism. The barrel was certainly getting scraped for examples of incredulity while blatantly obvious ineptitude took many to new levels of exasperation.

Unbelievably and probably conveniently for most heads of sheds, the concept and advantages of collective responsibility at governmental level was never brought to bear and other departments were as good as saying “you’re on your own” to the beleaguered Health Ministry. Crises, no matter what their category require reactions at the strategic and operational level that are similar and pretty obvious – identify, contain as much as you can, get the subject matter experts on the case to develop responses, throw in the resources needed. I think most would agree you don’t need to have been a ‘Straight As’ student to know that if it spreads through contact you must act to limit contact. Furthermore, the acceptance that desperate situations require desperate actions was somewhat lacking when it needed applying. In other words, strong common sense content in the reaction would have helped; but we can be forgiven for thinking some were on missions to prove that common sense is far from common.

Within the corridors of power some self-promoted and even attacked people supposed to be their colleagues. In the midst of all this, I believe what could have been the one of the most effective instruments of the disaster response effort was literally left on the shelf and critical opportunities were consequently missed. Why was there no activation of the Military Aid to the Civil Powers (MACP) or the Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) mechanisms?

If the borders needed securing, which they did; if controlling the movement of people to and from the infected areas was needed, and it was; if a robust logistic effort should have been in place, and it should have been; if people trained to operate in challenging environments were needed, and they obviously were and still are; why the failure to realise that the armed forces of a country are not just there to keep governments or individuals within governments safe? There has been much investment in training the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) in MACP and MACA scenarios but, when desperately needed, no one seems to have thought they should be engaged. A force that has been rightly used to bolster peace support operations in other parts of the continent was left in barracks when the people they must primarily serve and be ultimately answerable to so desperately needed them. The RSLAF, an organ that has put much effort into public relations, was denied an opportunity to show up and step up.

The RSLAF has deployable mobile command and control nodes as well as medical, logistic and engineer elements that could and should have been thrown into the fight against this cruel virus. Cordoning affected or threatened areas, controlling population movements, buttressing the medical capabilities on the ground, getting a grip of and facilitating the movement of key personnel, enhancing communication on the ground, ensuring the timely delivery of essential equipment, and putting up the infrastructure required could all have been done through a single point of contact in the RSLAF. Imagine how much more joined up and effective the support to those at the sharp end of this battle could have been.

So where are we now? There is finally semblance of a determined reaction in that a state of emergency has been declared. The reallocation of powers and responsibilities that could go with this development is already causing some concern but that is a bridge to be crossed at the appropriate time. Those who have died cannot be brought back and those who could be dying can only hope for the best. Meantime, the country’s image has taken another battering and the inadequacy of the country’s health care systems has been starkly exposed. There would be consequences for business and the economy if the reaction of foreign and domestic investors and enterprises is anything to go by. I cannot help wondering what the situation would have been if getting a grip of the situation was the part of the immediate action drill. If it ever was true that “it’s better to decide quickly on an imperfect plan than to roll out a perfect plan when it’s too late”, this is probably a ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’ example in the Ebola experience of Sierra Leone.

The more pessimistic predictions are for the current Ebola outbreak to last till year end. I wonder if lessons are being or would get learnt. Professor Peter Piot who discovered the virus in 1976 said: “This is a disease of poverty but also of badly functioning health services”. There’s one lesson…

I will sign off on this one with one more reference to an anthem filled with hope: “We pray that no harm on the children may fall; that blessing and peace will descend on us all”.