A country of dinosaurs
Rather unfortunately, this is a term I want to use to describe Sierra Leone. Dinosaurs ruled the earth a long time ago. However, climatic changes, and other events, wiped out all of them. Present day Sierra Leone seems to be operated by dinosaurs, post independence. Our rulers (never leaders) have meticulously made all the wrong decisions affecting the nation’s existence. I have carefully avoided to include advancement because the rulers have always instilled a “nah foh manage” mentality in the populace, while they have lived high on the hog. For the sake of fooling, the populace has been made to believe that they have to be thankful that they are alive, even though they are barely surviving.
The idea of dinosaurs permeates all levels of society. It is even present in the political parties of the land. One has, only, to look at the results of the past opposition flag bearer elections to see how outdated the thought process of the party is. Interestingly hardly anyone seems to be addressing a fatal flaw in the structure of the elections. Here it is we have 602 delegates deciding who should be the party candidate. If we use a 50% of the population average of 6 million, then it means that we can expect at least 3mil, to be members of each party. That is a very absurd ratio of delegates to the population. However that is not the fatal flaw.
In a political contest of more than 2 candidates it seems to reason that a run-off is immediately a necessity, in the event that any candidate does not get a 50% plus 1 majority. In the recent past flag bearer election there was a total of 19 candidates. Should the contest have been more tightly fought out it means there could have been a winner with as little as 10% of the total votes cast. If there is a run-off system in the Presidential elections why can’t there be a run-off system in the choice of the candidate for the party? A fatal flaw. The present opposition flag bearer represents a very weak 39% of the delegates at the convention. How can one know what percentage of the party’s members they (convention delegates) really represent anyway, since the choice of candidates to the convention is heavily influenced by party big wigs, not by suffrage of the members? How does a candidate with such apparently low numbers start getting the support of the 60% that were not on his side. A tough road to travel, but not impossibility.
What good came out of the selection process is the arrival on the scene, of probably the youngest, at 47, candidate for President, in the history of a country that may still live, mentally, in the age of the dinosaurs. The Maada Bio candidacy may be the spark that ignites the younger generation in all parties to rise up and get that which is rightfully theirs, as tax payers and contributors to the society that they live in, and that is a place at the table. Sierra Leone may not get an “Arab spring” type revolution but this type of revolution may be just what the doctor ordered. It is my wish that his (Maada Bio) candidature will spur more young people (25 to 45), from ALL parties, to vie for office, from district councilors all the way up to parliamentarians, and get as much of these washed up, recycled, regurgitated, chameleon fence jumpers out of the way, so that the nation may start on the path of progress, long denied. I may not get to the “promised land” with the younger generation, but I feel they deserve better. Land that we love our Sierra Leone.
Maada Moseray
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Joseph Sanusi
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If i may ask, what is it exactly that this writer is saying? What logic does this dinosaur analogy make? Its really senseless ’cause there is virtually no connection between your so-called dinosaurs, climate change, Sierra Leone, Maada Bio, and the SLPP. I am particularly lost by your 4th sentence “Present day Sierra Leone seems to be operated by dinosaurs, post independence, and the issue of a 6 million population being represented by 3 million. If you can make yourself clear, it will interest readers to know who represents the dinosaur and climate change since Maada Bio and the SLPP are already known. We are also interested to know how this dinosaur-climate change relationship relates with Maada Bio, the SLPP, and the 600+ delegates that you are questioning. Prior to doing this, it would be only prudent that as an unbiased journalist, you provide information about how the total membership of the current MPs in Sierra Leone parliament relates with its total population. Only then will your questioning about the ‘representativeness’ of the SLPP membership at the delegates conference, bear meaning.
5th August 2011