President Koroma: The jewel of the international community
Since the post-independence era, Sierra Leone has had the unfortunate situation of having some unpatriotic government functionaries that were only bent on milking the country’s natural resources dry through mismanagement and outright corruption that went unchecked. (Photo: Alhaji Jalloh, IA, Saudi Arabia/author)
Some of these functionaries amassed ill-gotten wealth at the detriment of impoverished Sierra Leoneans. Erstwhile President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, for instance, attracted unprecedented donor funds from multi-lateral organizations and other development partners for several development programmes after the decade long civil conflict. But the general belief among many Sierra Leoneans is that those funds were mismanaged by some officials in his Government.
And the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) at the time had no prosecutorial powers to charge and try corrupt government officials for corruption offences. Corruption was therefore celebrated by some of these officials.
It was no surprise that to the 2007 Presidential and Legislative elections, all donor funds were halted after it dawned on multi-lateral organizations and other development partners that the SLPP Government was corrupt through and through. Stalwarts in the ruling party reacted by complaining that the International Community was finding fault with them as a pretext for a ‘regime change’.
The elections were conducted and the SLPP lost to the then Minority Leader of Parliament and Presidential Candidate of the then opposition All People’s Congress (APC), Hon. Ernest Bai Koroma, an insurance guru. SLPP’s attempt to rig the elections through ballot stuffing did not cut ice with the National Returning Officer and Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Dr. Christian Thorpe, who had the temerity to cancel 477 polling stations in the SLPP strongholds where over-voting was reported to have taken place on broad day light.
The election of President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma to power therefore provides another opportunity for the International Community’s assessment and reaction to the governance patterns in Sierra Leone. Indeed, they gladly discovered that the leadership President Koroma was providing for Sierra Leone was totally a different kettle of fish. In fact, an SLPP elder who begged for anonymity recently told me during my recent visit to Freetown that despite President Koroma took the reins of power at the height of global economic crunch; he had recorded phenomenal successes in several key sectors within the purview of his “Agenda for Change”, such as providing electricity supply to Freetown which until late 2007 had been the darkest city in the world.
In recognizing President Koroma’s achievements for the development of Sierra Leone, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote in the London – based Guardian, one of the leading newspapers in the world: “First, his government brought light to the darkest city in Africa, when it saw through and finished the Bumbuna Hydroelectric dam. Next he took on healthcare –with some of the worst infant mortality rates in the world. Sierra Leone’s programme to abolish medical fees for children under five and pregnant women was an ambitious and impressive programme of reform. Six month on, Sierra Leoneans are seeing the result for themselves in their local communities. The number of pregnant women delivering in hospitals has more than doubled and almost a million children are expected to benefit before the end of year (2010)”.
If such commendable statement had come from any government official, detractors would have begged to differ because of partisanship. But interestingly, the statement had come from a very powerful and reputable former world leader. What he said of President Koroma underpinned his political conviction that Sierra Leone is marching forward under the leadership of our President. Such recognition by Tony Blair is enough to see President Koroma as the precious jewel of the International Community.
The country has gained much of international recognition because of President Koroma’s sincerity – his dedication and determination to bequeath to Sierra Leoneans what should be referred to as Modern Sierra Leone when he would have ended his second term of office in 2017.
We have come a long way as a nation despite our political differences, but the fact remains that President Koroma’s exemplary performance in five years has impressed the International Community, especially donors and other development partners. That was why donor funds kept flowing into Sierra Leone despite we were going into election, a feat which President Koroma’s predecessor never achieved in 2007.
And in spite of President Koroma’s glorious achievements in five years, he has again promised to do more in his second term in office because the International Community reposed confidence in him as a genuine leader that wants to redeem his people from abject poverty and leave behind an indelible legacy Sierra Leoneans would never live to forget in haste.
In five years, President Koroma strengthened peace and national security that Sierra Leone ranked 52nd peaceful nation in the world, ahead of the greatest nation of the world, the United States of America, and many other developed countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Under his shrewd leadership, Sierra Leone ranked second in 2012 among the 29 hottest economies of the world.
It was an economic forecast done by the World Bank, one of the most reputable International Financial Institutions across the globe. Even the World Bank’s semi-annual “Global Economic Prospects” Report for two years based on 2012 growth estimates placed Sierra Leone on a very high comfortable ground among 29 countries in the world whose economies are marching in step with the World Banks growth rate.
Under President Koroma, Sierra Leone has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. And according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Report last year, our economy was growing by 32%. And according to President Koroma, “Our reforms have substantially increased domestic revenue collection from LOW level of Le536.9Billion (8.9% of GDP) in 2007 to Le1.5 Trillion (11.6% of GDP) in 2001. The expansion in mining activities and discovering of hydrocarbons is expected to substantially increase revenue in the coming years.”
President Koroma has efficiently and effectively managed our national economy through several reform programmes, including the enactment of the Government Budgeting and Accountability Act and the adoption of Financial Management Regulations, the enactment of the National Public Procurement Unit followed by the establishment of a central regulatory authority for procurement and a Complaint Review Panel. With such developments, it is believed that President Koroma has the fullest support of the International Community that has come to recognize and report his huge achievements for the development of Sierra Leone, including the World Bank, IMF, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, WHO and other UN agencies such as UNESCO, UNICEF and UNDP. Apart from these multi-lateral organizations, International Non-Governmental Organization like Transparency International and the UK-based Global Witness has also joined the cause of reporting the huge achievements of President Koroma to the outside world.
With such massive international support President Koroma is enjoying, based on his genuine leadership and determination to leave a legacy behind at the end of his tenure, only the sky will be our limit in making Sierra Leone a prosperous country (under the Agenda for Prosperity) that will be the envy of Sub-Saharan African.
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