- Sierra Leone! An administration leaves, their badness becomes the focus, and no effort goes into learning how their misdeeds were committed and enabled. The vindictive mode that seems to swing energies toward wanting to teach a lesson to the no longer powerful leaves little room for constructive effort to learn lessons with “never again” as an objective.
As schoolkids, demonstrating against Siaka Stevens’s All People’s Congress (APC) government in January 1977 was a defining act of my generation’s emerging political consciousness and conscience. At the time, open and tacit disapproval of our effrontery forced us to wind our necks in and it took nearly nine years for it to become clear that our suppressed frustrations were actually widely shared.
Joseph Momoh had move into State House and it suddenly became alright to mention the wrongs of Stevens’s government. The vilification of Stevens got underway without questions on how and who, but little research is needed to see his reign had enablers who followed him down the routes he chose to take with the constitution, the economy and much more. Without a pause to ask how to stop it happening again, the attitudes and behaviours that sustained Stevens and his cabal were instantly placed at the disposal of Momoh who then went on to to enjoy seven years of brown-nosing before junior army officers unconstitutionally called time on his administration.
Suddenly, it became clear views of Momoh’s administration did not match the sycophantic noises and the subalterns’ reward for ridding the country of the nonsense was instant adulation. The anger was so strong that human rights violations, abuse of institutions and embellishment of rank epaulettes by the army boys were considered a price worth paying to get Momoh out of the State House and next to Stevens on the list of the vilified. The young boys were treated and titled like people of greater wisdom and more years until the global tide favouring democracy proved more palatable and stronger than any fear wraparound shades and bumped up ranks could muster. With debateable willingness the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) walked away from power after four years and this gave opportunity for Sierra Leoneans to once again prove that habits are hard to break.
The oath of office had barely passed through Ahmad Tejan Kabba’s lips before the abuse, brutality and recklessness of the NPRC was getting narrated. Kabba was the new idol and even Johnny Paul Koroma’s rude disruption couldn’t dim his shine or that of the fresh from the wilderness Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). Nonetheless, dismay with the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) coup and the wrath of a Nigerian president paradoxically enthused for democracy in Sierra Leone while ruthlessly putting it down in his homeland did not prevent J P Koroma attracting support from some who have since morphed into democratic acceptability.
The Nigerian strongman showed his strength and Pa Kabba returned to continued mass loving. Winning the peace got him even more love but not enough to send his vice president to State House. Ernest Bai Koroma (APC) was the people’s preference at the 2007 polls and we soon enough found there wasn’t much depth to the affection for his predecessor. The list of people who had been bad or not so good for Sierra Leone continued to grow; Stevens, Momoh, Strasser, Bio, JP Koroma and Kabba. EBK’s pledge to run the country like a business helped get him to State House and much of the country seemed as enthused as people with shares in a business they expected to do very well.
Ten-and-a-bit years later, EBK left the scene for retirement which, with compliments of the people, he can enjoy with many of his friends for company. The background activity as a new man made his way to the State House was a rerun of the now terribly familiar routine. The observer who would have heard EBK described as the “world’s best” president who was also “fine boy” now needed to process the idea that he was not “all that” to most of the people. He and his government now stand accused of many wrongs and even some in the APC suggest betrayal by him. Another love affair was over; it had to be if Julius Maada Bio was to get enough loving. Yes, EBK was rushed on to the list of the baddies with all the haste needed to allow JMB an unhindered assent into acceptability and affections. JMB’s transformation started immediately it became near certain he was going to win the 31st March 2018 poll. Unbelievable as it is alarming is the haste of many to eat their own words in unashamed bids for a chance to feast at JMB’s table. It was happening again and, with the aid of social media, more sleekly and aggressively.
With executive orders now the order of the day, one could be forgiven for thinking there is an order demanding all come and bow at the court of the new president. We know there isn’t such an order and that there never were orders or equivalents commanding the sycophantic praise-singing and unashamed following and adulation all JMB’s predecessors enjoyed while in office. It sadly is in the national psyche to elevate and place the person of the hour on very high pedestals and thrusting their predecessors into deep and unpleasant pits seems a must of the process. Somehow, there is no energy or desire to acknowledge former leaders as one-time first citizens of the state. Ironically, in a country where unfaithfulness to one’s spouse isn’t massively frowned on, absolute loyalty to political masters is expected and even demanded.
When in April 2018, Julius Maada Bio was sworn in as President of Sierra Leone, one of my first reactions was to openly state that, as much as he wasn’t my preference for the job, we all had to accept the people’s decision. I made it known as widely as I could that we need the new president to succeed as a failing president invariably means a failing country; an outcome most Sierra Leoneans cannot afford. However, many seem to believe – not necessarily think – that supporting a presidency is about blindly going down any road the post holder chooses to take. The worshipping and praise-singing is already worrying and the abuse of people who dare ask questions is damn right troubling.
“On my mind” on Facebook on 26th February 2018 was my view on the presidency: “You are made first citizen of a country so you can be first servant of her people”. I look at how Sierra Leoneans consistently worship leaders only to loathe them when they leave office and I see the enabling attitudes that have been behind the badness they blame on those they see as having fallen from grace. When I put my February Facebook thought against how leaders have transformed on the back of open and tacit approval and praise, I arrive at a very simple summary of the problem.
Making your first citizens your first lords stops them being first servants and leaves you and your country as their first victims.
© Othame Kabia