Sheka Tarawally’s November Promises

I have to confess that I was a fan of candidate Ernest Koroma given his business background. His professional experience in the business sector seemed fit for the predictive model required to reconstruct or build on whatever he inherited from the outgoing President Tejan Kabbah. To say the least, he bolted off the start line in September 2007 with performance based governance that was commendable. There are no known sustainable controls setup to monitor his transformational idea, which leaves us wondering a lot about the health of the economy.

The May 15^th 2012 edition of Cocorioko carried an eye catching hypothesis written by Mr. Sheka Tarawally (in photo) in which he stated that the SLPP flag bearer should not contribute to the discourse on the youth and economy. The interpretation is that the President Koroma is doing such a fine job, there is no need for Maada Bio is coin up alternative ideas. That Sheka Tarawally fails to convince an educated audience that Maada Bio’s focus on youth and the economy is redundant remains unquestionable.

To imply that there are no better options compared to what Koroma’s government is currently rolling out, or that Maada Bio’s exclusive ideas on the youth and the economy are negligible is questionable. I beg to differ on whatever explanation fits his premise because Sierra Leone’s economy has been in a constant state of disrepair at the hands of successive leaders since 1980.

It would therefore be justified even if arguably, to tie statistical facts or substantively quantify the President’s string of accomplishments to reduce Maada Bio’s concerns on the youth and the economy as redundant. No knowledge is gained from the long qualitative political prose written by Sheka Tarawally because he could not establish a solid defense of his null hypothesis with the numbers required to render the alternate invalid. I would imagine that in his capacity as a government official, he should be in command of performance metrics to support his facts.

There comes a time when you are compelled to peel facts below the surface to see the naked truth. We no longer live in a blind age where information on government’s fiscal activities remains controlled or classified. That was part of the problems limiting the judgment of the elderly generation of Sierra Leoneans. Most people do not know the meaning or relevance of the gross domestic product GDP or consumer product index CPI. Constructive and thoughtful questions were not asked because Sierra Leoneans were not privy to adequate information or data. Today’s generation benefits from the free flow of information all over the web.

This and succeeding administrations should be using the web as a platform to compute, publish, educate and even defend critical policies and their effect. As an example, how many Sierra Leoneans migrated out of poverty through policies or poverty reduction programs? It is perhaps the best public relations platform to spell out the challenges that lay ahead and what is been done to tackle them. Issues such as 3.8% annual population explosion and a corresponding decline in productivity are central to the economic challenges of our time.

It is out of scope for the Deputy Minister of Information to evolve as an attacking mouth piece of the current administration. One wonders what the constitutional role of the Deputy Minister of Information really is. I thought that in this age of the internet, the Ministry of Information and Communication could shed some light on its mission or objectives, via an official website like contemporary West African Nations. All one finds is a blank webpage under construction with rights reserved since 2011; which is to say that the government’s greatest pillar of information and communication is on mute.

The next question is why the indiscriminate attack on of the SLPP flag bearer? Why the offer of immunity to other Party flag bearers? The SLPP delegates who voted Bio as flag bearer had a strong reason to believe he is a viable intellectual alternative. Rather than focus on attacking the SLPP flag bearer, why not let the President run on his achievements, or survey a stratified sample of the population to check the pulse of the voters on the President’s performance since he took office. In this instance, the latter is more civil, focused and politically healthy.

Debating micro economic issues and outlining solutions to voters is the moral and winning argument not throwing crude verbal attacks in a society scarred by a decade of bloody violence. The rest of the world including political consultants, views these attacks as clear indicators of continuing dissent that could result in violence. If the attacks score favorable political points, they also hurt the nation by transmitting doubts to analysts, investors and tourists.

On that note, the Deputy Minister’s reference that “Whoever knows the most elementary aspects of the economics of a country would immediately notice that President Koroma’s ‘Agenda for Change’ actually has as its core cardinal objectives the youths and the economy.” resonates with the times as an extension of a civil economic discourse. Are Sierra Leoneans better off today under the President’s ‘Agenda for Change’? An accurate response comes from these binary options; yes or no.

Here are other specific inquiries for the administration. What is the quantitative output to date on a $ 6.9 million (P121052) investment in support of the Youth Employment Support Project (YESP) to address unemployment of people aged 18-35? How many youths have been added to payroll since October 2007 to date? What size or proportion of the population lives above, at, and below a $1.00 a day since 2007?

How does Sierra Leone’s dismal economic performance weave its way into austerity measures in Europe or to J P Morgan’s $2 billion trading loss? J P Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon will find humour in Sheka Tarawally’s attempt to create such a correlation. These issues are so mutually exclusive, referencing them in no way qualifies as excuses for the state of the Sierra Leone economy. The President is doing his best, but it’s up to the voters to decide whether they like what he has offered since he took office in 2007.

In direct response to Sheka Tarawally, here is one reason why the youth and the economy are not redundant. Governments, businesses and households are the three major pillars in a macro economic model. Youths form part of the household. Household savings is one of the major sub activities of the model. If a household had $5.00 in 2007 and converted it to Leones for deposit in a savings account, assuming the official exchange rate of Le 2996, the deposit will be Le 14,980. If the household withdraws the savings today, after a 5 year period, the net withdrawal excluding interest on the principal totals Le 14,980. Converted to Dollars based on today’s market rates, the account holder would receive $ 3. The weakness of the economy through its currency forces the account holder to suffer a net loss of 2 dollars. It is one reason government has a stake in setting interest rates and another reason why it is not redundant for Maada Bio to talk about the economy.

With no accurate record or verifiable counts of jobs created, no scorecard showing the variance to the last administration, claims of jobs created are not credible. We know there is an exploding youth population, high rate of unemployment, a bloated debt burden, a deficit from frivolous spending, increasing rate of poverty, increasing price of essential goods and services, all of which makes Bio’s propensity to talk about the youth and economy absolutely judicious.

Without providing a mechanical link between the bold promises below and actualization within the given timeline, one cannot rush to preempt the outcome, but come November 30, whether President Koroma wins or loses the election, ‘We the People’ will revisit and hold the Deputy Minister of Information accountable for the following promises;

By the time we go to elections in November, Maada Bio would realize that the economy will no longer be a topical issue – at his peril! Cocorioko May 15, 2012
In November, for sure, Freetown would be enjoying 24 hours electricity Cocorioko May 15, 2012
By November, Sierra Leone would be rich enough to supply thousands of bags of rice into the market, and an abundant reserve of fuel Cocorioko May 15, 2012
Indeed way before November, there would be a significant improvement in the water supply system Cocorioko May 15, 2012
By November this year, yes November 2012, thousands of youths would have found themselves in meaningful employment opportunities Cocorioko May 15, 2012
So, caeteris paribus, by November when we would go to the polls, thousands of youths would have found themselves meaningfully and gainfully engaged in the ICT sector either as technical staff, or administrators, or trainees or mere labourers Cocorioko May 15, 2012
By November, with the fibre optic benefits trickling in, even the tariff of mobile phones will significantly go down – I mean the prices of top-up cards will go down Cocorioko May 15, 2012

I am looking forward to these promises remembering Ghandi who said that “a man, who deliberately and intelligently takes a pledge and then breaks it, forfeits his manhood”. As we patiently wait, let’s celebrate democracy for offering alternatives as a channel for shaping the promulgation of new ideas.

Rtd Capt. Ken Josiah, Six Sigma Blackbelt ASQ, Process Improvement Consultant

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