Remembering General Colin Powell

Some experts had mentioned Armageddon and advised it was mission impossible, but our commander insisted “it’s never too late to start saving lives” and asked “who would we be if we didn’t step into this and do the best that we can now? In early December 2014 he acknowledged “it isn’t looking good” but said “we will defeat this thing and you are the people who will make it happen”. The thing was the Mano River Union Ebola outbreak.

A week before Christmas Day 2014 I left Headquarters Combined Joint Intergency Task Force to go take Command of Bo District Ebola Response Centre. The Brigadier instructed that I “Go there, get a grip of the situation, and sort it”.

Driving to Bo was as much a mental exercise as a physical feat. Questionable driving standards and the inquisitiveness of a young Scottish soldier competed for space with my mission analysis and thoughts on whether I would prove myself worthy of a rank I had only held for 12 weeks. Through all this, I continued my hold on an inspiring definition that had a few years earlier given me an “aha moment” by capturing all the thinking I had heard on leadership in one succinct statement. That definition was now inspiring me to dig deep to help save lives and ease suffering. It happened that Bo District was declared Ebola free seven weeks later and, more importantly, the improved situation nationally had us handing over our roles and pulling out of Sierra Leone much earlier than we had dared predict.

The naysayers had been proved wrong and there are doorstopping “After Action Reviews” that try to explain it all. I have also done talks and presentations on what happened and how we, and that includes many unsung Sierra Leonean heroes, made it happen. You can read all the explanations and theorising or allude to a one sentence explanation by a man of exceptional brilliance:

“Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.”

General Colin Powell (5 April 1937 – 18 October 2021)

Sir, go rest in power

© Othame