A quarter of a century ago today, junior officers of the Sierra Leone Army deserted their posts during the war against the Revolutionary United Front and marched into the capital city with some of their soldiers. Ostensibly, the purpose was to have a moan about hardships on the frontline. They arrived in Freetown to find the president had more than matched their neglect of duty by fleeing the country. In keeping with the African saying that “when the crocodile leaves the river the frogs hop in to swim”, the young lads assumed the reins of power, the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) was formed, and a tyranny was born.

Apparently tired with the buffoonery that had passed for leadership, most Sierra Leoneans welcomed the band of men who were mainly in their twenties. Unfortunately, the record of the NPRC shows failure to deliver on key promises and a blatant disregard for due process. Extrajudicial killings capped the bully boy tactics of the young men who ruled through the threat and application of force while those close to them enjoyed ill-gotten gains. While the NPRC can be credited with handing power back to civilians after four years, there are suggestions that this was not done as willingly as members of the junta want us to believe.

I heard it suggested in a radio programme that events of the 1990s have a more than proportionate influence on contemporary matters. For Sierra Leone, there was the civil war, political instability and then a return to the rule of law in that decade. Significantly, a cabal that was unfit to run a country decided to do just that; and they probably let a genie out of a bottle in the process. Observers of the contemporary shenanigans of Sierra Leone will almost immediately notice that almost anyone with a bob or two to spare thinks they too can rule the country. It is my belief that this thinking cannot be separated from what started in the early hours of 29th April 1992.