Random Musing: Candy floss economy (1)

“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will neither have good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water” – John Gardiner.

Similarly, a country whose political leaders inexcusably shilly-shally and ignore the greater aspects of internal human and socio-economic development as well as innovation; or rush to expend stupendous amounts on ultimately fragile, populist, half-baked projects, ill-conceived and ill-planned and orchestrated by ‘unknown soldiers’ to the sound of sycophantic slobbering, is simply playing tennis with wooden rackets.

Bluntly put, blistering the paint off the wall with promises is meaningless as a plan does not equal to reality. Economic growth, at whatever percentage, does not amount to economic development. Period. So for us as a nation, the morning is gradually giving way to the afternoon and the day is ebbing away. Reducing vital governance leadership to the profanity of sloganeering is like putting the cart before the horse.

It is not so much an indictment of those in power as much as it is a clarion call for deep reflection, caution and the need for real restructuring of the nation’s economic engine. The propaganda and brain washing about a private-foreign sector led economic recovery, is replacing rigour of thought and critical analysis; as well as basic appreciation of raw facts which may come back to haunt us.

The reported growth of the past two and a half years has turned out to be an illusion because it was buoyed by the massive financial assistance to the new administration and massive Diaspora remittances before the global economic meltdown and not as a result of real economic growth occasioned by deliberate government policies.

As we survey the wreckage of a once-glorious Sierra Leone, the inconvenient truth is that our bleeding economic cut continues to fester and we remain perpetually stranded at the bus stop of underdevelopment with our leaders continuing to gaze in forlorn hope at the skies and yonder shores; while the buses speed by.

Contrary to the make-believe world on display, the cloak of infrastructural development has failed to cover the worrying symptoms of declining, stagnated or non-existent commercial and industrial system that will incubate and propel growth.

Despite international experts foisting economic policies that only seem to pauperise us and which our leaders have swallowed hook, line and sinker, the truth is that we can’t fix our current economic problems by simply handing our nation out to be used as an empty womb.

As a result of this IVF, foreign and local cartels; as well as other corrupt activities and downright incompetence continue to weaken and erode the fundamentals of good governance and accountability; which in turn gives rise to loss of resources needed for the development of a country’s economy.

In addition, the government has recoursed to historical economic inferiority complex and we have continued to alleviate the balance of payment positions of many advanced countries and the pockets of individuals.

It is not how long a man stays in office that defines his greatness. It is how well he touches the people. It is how well he has articulated a road map to the future while not neglecting the present. It is how he has painstakingly asterisked tasks and performance targets that are realisable and realised within specified time frame. It is how well he can and has mobilised indigenous expertise to transform the productive sectors as leverage to development.

It is how well he has strategically engineered and managed private sector led growth through a strong regulatory and legal frame work to allow for credibility of reforms. It is how he has addressed the banking and other socio economic constraints of growth.

Three years of toeing the dictated line, global junketing, shaking the tin begging-bowl in front of the world, hawking our heritage; as well as flamboyant worldwide circus-shows and the seductive perils of foreign beneficiaries, even pseudo-capitalist foreign documents acclaim that our efforts have brought paltry gains and lots of International promises; while our leaders are still blindly groping for the appropriate artery through which to eventually pump oxygen into the rich veins of our comatose economy.

Like an exhausted marathon runner who realises mid-race that all he can really achieve is to finish the race, our leaders are flopping towards the Promised Land; walking rather than running, giggly and wandering in the jungle.

If the truth be told, refreshing the country’s economy was a tough enough task which, before the global realities, gave a new level of detail in understanding the difficulties faced by the Ernest Koroma administration.

Left with a rotten economy and a legacy of corruption from the last administration, President Koroma had pinned his hopes of administering a quick fix therapy, on the over-indulgence of foreign assistance as well as on playing politics; not with experience, but with charm and allure of novelty.

Beautiful expressions like ‘Attitudinal Change, Five Point Agenda, Not-business as usual and No sacred cow’ were meant to sound good to the ears and provide a certain tranquil balm to the fragile soul of a battered nation while assuaging the ego of peeping Toms and do-gooders from shores afar.

Sadly, so far, they have made truth the first casualty of our hopes and aspirations by failing to fill empty stomachs or provide jobs, shelter and the necessities of life for the battered majority.

Today, despite the much-orchestrated Libyan and Indian tractors as well as Brazilian hand of fellowship at the inception of this administration and the Sam Sumana plantation(s), our agricultural landscape is still not reflected in our markets or our ports as they used to.

Because, faced with the meltdown of their own much-touted economic prowess, those on whom the government relied have continued to display skepticism about our candy floss resources on offer; as they search for survival and back up remedy for their own plight.

Except of course, eagle-eyed and hard-nosed wheeler-dealers, who continue to cling to our shoulders like hungry monkeys; as well as well as ‘world class financial missionaries’ like the IMF etc whose failure to redeem their own superior economies that has plunged the world into disarray, exposes the very depth of their incompetence.

Though we’ve got the gravy, the lolly on offer, is simply an illusion to the world; even where they are completely left to devour whatever they want, like the Chinese, the Arabs and Tony Blair’s cronies. China, of course, has continued to patiently throw more ‘akara’ into our bowl because of its own hidden agenda globally; which makes vulnerable countries like ours a veritable footstool for its economic and political strategic interests.

These hawks know that the basic fundamentals, which incidentally are the expectations of the ordinary hard-working entrepreneurial people of Sierra Leone, are not just in place and as a result, they are not willing to spend too much on the condiments that will enrich the soup for all and sundry to eat.

The vultures with twitchy feet and sticky hands, who are braving their venture into our depraved economic world, by putting their money where their mouths are, are doing so in areas (mining, produce etc) where they’ll always have the pot of soup (our resources) as well as life jackets under their coats (quick returns for their investments) especially if they need to jump ship.

Meanwhile, we have failed to mobilise indigenous expertise and use it to transform our productive sector. Instead, impostors and other cabals have hijacked agricultural loans, farming implements and other juicy resources because the government has been unable to show the kind of leadership that will sound a note of warning to charlatans that despite our plight, we are not ready to sell our birthright for coco ebbeh.

Contrast our situation with Ghanaian President, Atta Mills’ posture recently. He made it crystal clear: “We will not bend our laws for anybody willing to invest in the country; neither would we interfere with anybody’s interests. You must however obey our laws”. Can this be said of us?

High spirits accompanied the emergence of the Ernest Koroma’s administration, following the groaning and clanking of the nation’s socio-economic marquee in the twilight of the last administration.

Sadly, the promise of running the country as a business and ensuring that normal services as obtained in the past is history, has turned out to be all waffle doused in plasas and cooked to perfection, three years down the line.

It is legitimate to argue that there is still time for miracles, which is true to an extent, but the continued spin in the face of a meltdown is an absolute nauseating hypocrisy that has had me fizzing and bubbling over with anger.

Check this out: “In 2009, the global economic and financial crises adversely affected the performance of the Sierra Leone economy and undermined the gains made in stabilizing it in recent years. The mining sector in particular was hard hit, resulting in a significant drop in mineral output and exports. Combined with the decline in remittance inflows, the availability of foreign exchange in the economy decreased. As a consequence, the exchange rate of the Leone to the international currency depreciated markedly towards the end of 2009, which in turn fuelled inflationary pressure. These developments caused a slowdown in gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 4.0 percent in 2009, compared to the original projection of 5.5 percent. The external current account deficit (including official transfers) increased to -8.4 percent of GDP in 2008, from -3.5 percent of GDP in 2006” (2010 Global Monitoring Report)

It is no rocket science that small positive and enduring steps will take us in the right direction but since this is not opportunistic enough for fanfare and image laundering, the government has ended up providing too few radical ideas and is showing its inability to demonstrate any familiarity with the real concerns of ordinary people.

Naturally, some fear or alarm is inherent in defining and acknowledging the size of any problem. But the government’s strategy for the restoration of Sierra Leone to its glorious past and guiding the economy into the industries of the future, in today’s high-speed, high tech and increasingly globalised world, appears to be in a state of drift, if not outright chaos. It is like a rudderless ship ill-suited to the journey.

One yardstick for measuring the strength of an economy is the degree of productivity and competitiveness. In the case of Sierra Leone, these two parameters are permanently on holidays and this is why we are reliant on everyone else for our basic survival. Consequently, we have ended up still languishing in the bottom rung of the global human index indices on development. Motion without locomotion.

For example, there is the issue of massive investment in agriculture. But the absence of a corresponding structure to monitor the proper utilisation of the funds being made available or avenue to procure, distribute and export output after meeting local demands; as well as silos for storage, is a recipe that will fuel corruption and ensure that the programme suffers a similar fate as previous efforts at diversification.

Similarly, the major sectors of the economy with the requisite potential for real growth are not receiving enough attention and policies that will revive them from their prostrate position; while the need to take the scalpel to the midrib of the banking sector has not been any greater.

There is no way we can achieve the desired goal or ginger any manufacturing, when access to stable and affordable lines of credit is at the ridiculous rate of 17-19% from banks. Business conditions remain depressed because of the lack of access to credit.

As a country, we face a crucial decision. We can continue to drift into the future or we can plan for a future whereby no one is holding us by the jugular. A country with a strong, diversified, sustainable and competitive economy that effectively harnesses the talents and energies of its people and responsibly exploits its natural resources to ensure a high standard of living for its citizens.

This dream is more important than anything else but it needs building systems that would enable us to spend our own resources to get better results in critical areas such as education, health care governance and human development.

The government needs to drink from the pint of hindsight and realise that Salone’s future depends on the small businesses, the wealth-creating entrepreneurs, an efficient tax and regulatory environment that will encourage enterprise and check ‘cowboy’ investors and nations eyeing our riches.

From being a backward economy in the 1960’s Singapore is now among the biggest economies of the world. It is endowed with one tenth of our natural endowments and its population is roughly the same as ours. Yet, its wealth is derived principally from ideas harvested from human capital, a critical resource that can only be nurtured by sound education.

For the government to guide the nation into the industries of the future, it needs a source of strength and vibrancy that is laced with ingenuity. It needs to tackle these real issues squarely as it is what will define the vision of the country. It isn’t entitled to success. It has to work for it. If not, it will continue to gaze at the future through blurred binoculars.

By: Raymond Dele Awoonor-Gordon

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