President Koroma has to act.

President Ernest Koroma’s recent admonitions of  his ministers and civil servants  for the  corruption at the citadel of state institutions is a rhetoric that he need to translate in to effective political actions if his policies on attitudinal change and zero tolerance  is to succeed.

The president took office with corruption as prevalent as ever.  So the problem is not of his creation but a systemic one that is as old as the institutions themselves.  Also the selling of Sierra Leone passports to non Sierra Leoneans for financial emolument is not a new phenomenon either.   But the fact that these scams have been uncovered at the time of his government drive on attitudinal change and zero tolerance show that political rhetoric don’t work without a positive actions. I commend the president for lambasting his rogue officials.

However, given his knowledge of these malpractices by his officials, which prompted his address to them, the president now needs to convince the general public of his determination to deliver on the promises he made under oath when he took office.  The action or actions he takes, (and actions are needed) against those involved will define his leadership, because these are criminal act that requires stern measures to restore the peoples trust in the institutions that is supposed to serve and protect their interests.

I believe that President Koroma has shown some encouraging signs against corruption by the dismissal of three of his ministers earlier implicated in graft as well as parliament granting independent prosecutorial authority to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to operate and bring crooks to book.  But unless he takes bold measures beyond the simple warning, he gave to his state officials, I am afraid that the game is still on for dishonest officials who have habitually cheated our people by their abuse of authority in public office.

The president needs to get tougher in this particular instance because the selling of our country’s passport to foreign nationals poses an existential threat to the democratic function of the state, our security and national identity.  A country cannot function when its institutions are undermined by the very officials enmeshed in systemic corruptions. Nor can a government that presides over these institutions that failed to bring to account those responsible can pass the test of good governance. And since good governance is an essential requirement for the support of international stake holders, it is all the more imperative for president Koroma to act now, without which his administration would be deemed to have failed in delivery on its core promise on corruption.

Every country needs to determine who enters her country and should put in place policies to control them whilst they are in the country. The only people that are not subject to immigration control are Sierra Leonean citizens.  But where, as it has been revealed, although not new, that there is connivance between the registry of birth and immigration personnel to sell passport to non Sierra Leonean, it is, in my opinion,  an act that constitutes the gravest of betrayer of trust involving public officials. In simplest of term, it is in the higher order official criminality.

There are thousands of non Sierra Leoneans holding genuine Sierra Leone passports in the United Kingdom, European cities and other part of the world.  In the age of war against international terrorism, drug and human trafficking and money laundry there is an added urgency for the government to take measures to ensure the integrity of our national passport and stop it falling in to the hands of international criminals, who can cause great harm to our nation especially among international law enforcers.

For these reasons, I would like to proposed the following cause of actions which I hope could be worthy of consideration.

(1)  Because the passport selling is coordinated with the registry of birth, the president should suspend the head of these departments with full pay and set up a full public inquiry with the view to prosecute the culprit.

(2) The president should also institute a comprehensive review of the operation of these departments, modernise its workforce and technology to enhance their capability against fraud of this magnitude. To that extent, I suggest that all records of births and deaths in the country should be put in a secured national data base and accessed only by a verifiable security cleared personnel.

(3) Because of our porous borders and lack of control over it, the government should have a National Immigration data base to record all foreigners entering Sierra Leone by whatever means. To enhance this process, I suggest that parliament pass in to a law imposing a legal obligation on all foreign nationals, including ECOWAS members to report at the nearest designated authority for screening and registration within two weeks of entering Sierra Leone. The ECOWAS protocol does not exempt citizens of member state from Sierra Leone’s immigration control, so it is essential that we introduced a mandatory registration for ECOWAS citizens. Those who fail to comply should be removed

(4) Government should capacitate the immigration staff to enforce the effective removal of those who breach the immigration laws through resources, training and intelligence across the country. Covert surveillance in targeting nationals of risk countries that threatens our security either through drug peddling, human trafficking and other predatory activities of potentially criminal nature that affect our sovereignty and social cohesion should feature prominently in future policy making.

(5)  Multiple thousands of illegally issued and acquired Sierra Leone passports are in possession of foreigners because of the rogue activities of our Law officers and civil servants.  To minimise the danger of the use for criminal activities, I suggest that the government instruct our overseas embassy staff to issue public notices in their respective host countries for all those in possession of Sierra Leone passport, who resides in those countries to register their passports with the immigration section of these embassies.  Similar methods should be applied domestically by immigration staff.

State personnel should use their sixth senses in checking with a passport data base, (if there is one in Sierra Leone) to identify possible areas of fraud and invite any suspect for an interview.  Where it is established that the holder of a suspect passport is not entitled to it or had obtained it fraudulently, the passport details should be recorded as void in a data base and confiscated. In such circumstances, Interpol should be alerted with the suspect’s personal details on the passport.

Many countries are now issuing a biometric passport to their nationals. The North African country of Algeria, my wife’s country, has introduced biometric passports.  Sierra Leone can decide to move biometric, which could help exposed those in illegal possession of the country’s passport. This could be a long process and could have financial implications but the danger of leaving things as it is will be far more costly and chaotic in the long term.

Immigration is the nerve centre of any government policies and it should not be dithered upon when national issues are at stake.  This shameful and unpatriotic conduct of government officials should no longer be allowed to fetter on unchecked because our security, peace, economy prosperity and identity depends on how our public officials honestly discharge the responsibilities we, the people, entrust in them. Action rather than political rhetoric should be brought to full play.

The buck stops with the president, he must act now to give credence to his promise of attitudinal change and zero tolerance on corruption. 

Yankuba Kai-Samba, London

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