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Attitudinal Change: A national new year appeal

Attitudinal Change: A national new year appeal

The New Year is still new and will be new until we celebrate our National Independence – a milestone in the history of Sierra Leone that we must always celebrate.  This said, I believe it is better now than never to wish you all a Happy Easter, and a very happy 51st Independence Anniversary!  From the outset, I would like to thank God for His abundant blessings and mercies!  I thank God for bringing Sierra Leone to the close and beginning of another year of Independence in one piece – no earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes or floods to contend with. The few accidents that occurred here and there around the country would pale in the face of the floods and droughts elsewhere in the global village.  We should be grateful.  (Photo: Felix F. Sesay , author)

We should be grateful because every day we watch World Television, we see bigger nations (in terms of sizes and economic power) engaged in frantic efforts to save the lives of their people, or in dire need of humanitarian services for one natural disaster or other.  Thank God for Sierra Leone!

In the midst of the world’s financial crises that have resulted in conflict situations in some parts of the African continent and other continents, we must thank God for keeping Sierra Leone’s head above water.  In comparison, they make our few political skirmishes at one time or another, into a child’s play.  We must be grateful!

My prayer for the country in this 2012 Independence is for all Sierra Leoneans to acknowledge that this is a very important political New Year for us Sierra Leoneans – both at home and in the Diaspora.  It is a time when His Excellency the President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma’s calls for Attitudinal and Behavioral Change (A&BC) to be adhered to at all cost.

Sierra Leone belongs to every Sierra Leonean.  If she is run well, it is for the good of all.  If it is bad, it affects everyone but particularly our grassroots people, who are the majority.  That is why it is incumbent upon us the elite and privileged classes to ensure that we change our attitudes. Attitude is everything.

A nation with the right attitude can work wonders even within meager resources.  Those appointed to positions of presidential trust must work to not only earn a living but make a mark to impress the President and improve on the lot of the country that we so love; our Sierra Leone.

Evidence abounds that certain elected officers, as well as appointed ones, have let the people and the president down by resorting to the late President Siaka Steven’s cliché that oosai den tie cow, na day e for eat (meaning, a cow grazes where it is tethered).  Some have eaten to the point of colic; that they are disgraced.

In a global economic crisis coupled with environmental warming, if the so-called cows graze too hard in one place, the environment will suffer from barrenness.  It is also true for the economy. Too much corruption handicaps national development.  Those who see it happening and keep sealed lips are equally answerable to the future leaders – our children and grandchildren.  Those who are charged with keeping law and order, who look the other way to impress or undermine the powers that be, are also culpable.  Almighty God, please make Sierra Leoneans into a conscious people to see the truth and speak out loud.

As we enter our 51st year of our Independence, make us into a loving people Lord.  Let the Attitudinal and Behavioral Change be our watchword and our crusade for violent-free elections and a better tomorrow.  Let us show the world that our forefathers did not agitate for independence so we can tear ourselves into pieces.

April 4th was a very sad day for conscious people vis a vis the passing away last year of our friend, brother and mentor, Richard Olu Awoonor-Gordon.  He passed on April 4, 2011 and will be remembered always, especially as we aspire for a brighter future.  He was one of the Generals of the struggle to right the wrongs plaguing our economy.  May God bestow favor on his soul and may he be emulated by surviving colleagues!  I remember how frustrated he was with the stark hypocrisy with which certain government officials embraced Dr. Ernest Koroma’s call for Attitudinal and Behavioral Change (A&BC) nationwide, Olu Gordon (of blessed memory) in an unprecedented journalistic ferocity lambasted anyone reported of derailing the A&BC engine regardless of who that individual was.  May those of us who respect his memory emulate him in exposing the cankerworms of our national development!

Awoonor-Gordon took on certain senior A&BC officials who had to answer charges of corruption in the Anti-Corruption office in Freetown.  If I am not mistaken, that patriotic attack was couched in a PEEP on-line publication captioned:  Isn’t it about time that we recognized that …is incorrigible?  This happened to be the last online article by Olu Awoonor-Gordon that I read.  It was on the site for a long time.

I wonder what he would have said of the fines levied against the A&BC “crooks”.  Was the fine not a little ridiculous for the offence?  Oh dear Lord, when will the country be run by independent professionals?  When will unfettered judges preside over the peoples’ cases?  Those who are found guilty of corruption are but the enemy of the people and must be seen as traitors!  Help our leaders to spot them and shun them that they cannot pilfer, pillage and plunder our resources!

Having made that pertinent digression, I urge you all to change your attitudes as we enter into election campaigns.  We must remember to change our attitudes, especially as we prepare for a 3-in-1 election (i.e., Council, Parliamentary, and Presidential).  We must all encourage friends and family to discuss issues not people.  We must engage our leaders not cuss them.  We must question their integrity; potential and commitment not blast them on tribal or regional lines.

Father in heaven we pray that our politicians and their supporters must not take it that we are going to war.  We are done with war a long time ago, and let us don’t forget in a hurry that during the war, the righteous and the wicked suffered proportionately.  We are one people.  In some families, like that of the APC Secretary General’s for example, his elder brother is a staunch supporter of the SLPP.  The victory for the APC resulted in the appointment of their sister as an Ambassador to Liberia.  If the SLPP wins, who knows what other benefits the family will get under the banner of the other brother?  Should they fight because they belong to two rival parties?  If the APC retains power, will the Secretary General’s family not continue to benefit from the victory?

A lot of families who do not agree with one another’s political preferences still love each other even though they belong to two arch-rival parties.  In my Sesay family, there are some staunch APC and SLPP alike yet we are one sweet and supporting family.  This and more reasons should serve as reminder that we must not fight or kill for power.  If we are not of the same football club yet we wine and dine after our teams play and one side wins or loses, why must we make politics a do-or-die affair?  If it was one party’s turn yesterday, tomorrow, another one will emerge.  Tejan Kabba came and played his role and left.  Today is Ernest Bai Koroma’s turn.  One day another person will take a turn.  It is not like the Siaka Stevens days when the presidency was for keeps.

Those who are planning to wage war to secure power, may God expose and disgrace them.  (Sometimes the supporters take the law into their hands and embarrass their leaders.)  May the hammer of Governor Clarkson fall heavily on would-be mischief makers and may the violent sides in the three-in-one elections loose.

Again I repeat that it is not a do or die situation.  When Mr. Solomon E. Berewa was sick, it was the APC government that sent him abroad for treatment.  It may be his entitlement but if the government had not wished to grant him the courtesies, he would not have enjoyed it.

I have noticed that many a time, certain so-called political analysts are quick to brand their compatriots as “die-hard SLPP supporters” or “moles” as if they are referring to people from space.  Or, as if people in the civil service are not entitled to support a certain side.  This attitude must change if we want Sierra Leone to survive the 2012 slated elections.  Like I said earlier, attitude is everything.

Why must we hate our compatriots simply because they do not agree with us politically?  Right here in the United States, President Obama has given very high positions to people of the Republican party because he thinks they can serve in those capacities better than the Democrats he knows, without trying to subject them into turning to Democrat supporters.

Most times in Sierra Leone, the moment people are given positions, the next thing they do is take the membership of that party that they had not agreed with earlier and when the party is voted out, they turn coat a second time.  We saw this happening under President Tejan Kabba’s leadership and it may be happening under the President Koroma’s dispensation also.

I want to use this opportunity to admonish Sierra Leoneans to desist from calling their compatriots derogatory names.  Should the tide change later, these same finger-pointers are the very ones who will jump boat and scream “crucify him!”  They say noisy is the bucket with no water.  In other words, the people who point fingers are the ones seeking opportunities.

I thank you God for President Ernest Bai Koroma and the A&BC initiative.  The President Koroma that I know has always been a pro-active leader constantly engaged in searching for ways and means to improve on the lot of the people and institution/s he leads.  This A&BC thing that is being touted today was a phrase that gained wide currency at RITCORP during general staff meetings.  (I was a RITCORP employee back in those days when the President was its CEO.)  When on a visit to the US sometime last year, the then RITCORP company Secretary, Ambassador Joseph Conteh and I mused on those days at RITCORP and how the A&BC helped improve that institution.

This is to say, prior to Dr. Koroma’s involvement in national politics, he had that ideological conviction that attitudinal change promotes good work-ethics and therefore a vehicle for prosperity.  To this day I still remember those attractive end-of-year financial bonuses that came out of our consistency in adhering to Ernest Koroma’s call for A&BC.  I trust the same will happen for the country if we change our attitudes for the better.

God I thank you that in this global financial crisis, our economy is doing marvelously well and that is because, our President sees it fit to run the country as a business.  In case you did not know, RITCORP is a success story.  Sierra Leone would be a success story and we shall enjoy the bonuses that come with success.  Once again, a very happy Independence Anniversary to you all.

Felix F. Sesay, Alexandria Virginia, USA.

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