Nurturing the spirit of public life in a democratic society

From October 2012 leading to the November 17^thelections to date, I have been fascinated by the expansion in the democratic space of Sierra Leone, with specific reference to the growing debates on national issues. First, I started by enjoying the debate between my two senior colleagues, Messrs Abdulai Bayraytay and Kalilu Tutangi particularly when their debates will always end on intellectual reasoning whatever the controversies were.

In 2013, I have been partially moved by the writings of Engineer Andrew Kailie’s “Ponder My Thoughts” not only because his articles bring both the practical and academic flair to debates on national issues, but also for his professional suggestions he attempts to make at the end of those articles. Suffice it to say that professionals that have served this country or from the diaspora, owe it to share their experiences on critical issues as we all try to support His Excellency the President in his quest and action oriented strides to make Sierra Leone a middle income country by 2035.

Again, I have recently been enticed by the growing debate generated by Civil Society organizations, adding voice to the Media on national issues. At one time it was the Health Alert and the issue of “pot holes” in Freetown. At another time, it was the Health Network Sierra Leone requesting Government to suspend the activities of London Mining and investigate certain institutions in the mining sector.

In the public sphere, it was the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Transparency International (TI) survey report on bribery in Sierra Leone and now the Sierra Leone Police Force and its alleged killing of a pupil of the Ansarul Islamic Secondary School at Guard Street.

In all of these, my concern has been the reaction of the Chief Executives of the affected institutions. First I start with the good news as Bra Kailie will always do. The erudite Legal luminary and Commissioner General Anti-Corruption was very magnanimous in accepting the report and being careful not to reject the outcome of an internationally accredited survey. This, the Commissioner and the Commission did, even when Statistics Sierra Leone which is a more professional institution, in that direction, tried to challenge the credibility of a report which now has been used to evaluate Sierra Leone on the MCC scale. The erudite Commissioner took it as a challenge and not emotional or personal – that is a display of leadership in the public sphere. Do not always be defensive, sometimes accept blame publicly and reprimand your staff internally or examine the circumstances under which the institution works.

The first lesson from this writer is that as leaders, at the upper echelons of both political and corporate governance levels, we must be prepared to take blame and corrective actions. It does not help to be emotional about issues bordering on public opinion.

My second point is from a deductive management perspective and relates to the issue of the erstwhile Minister of Works and Infrastructure, my very good friend (I almost cried…). He was to have accepted the reality that the “pot holes” exist in the city and even laud the Civil Society for bringing the issue to fore. He was also to have identified SLRA’s slow implementation of road maintenance in the city. Instead, my good friend was both politically and professionally defensive; proffering excuses such as “ it was during the rains” and so he took along the blame of the implementing agency, SLRA, which is primarily responsible to take corrective action. Unless otherwise, the CEO of SLRA must have gone without the Minister if the latter proactively took blame as a supervising Ministry. I agree that there are more ramifications than already analyzed but most of the other factors are very latent.

Now to the central issue of the alleged Police killing at Ansarul Islamic Secondary School. Following the incidence, many Civil Society Organizations came out with Press Releases calling on Government to investigate the matter of Police involvement including reforming the Police to meet its current challenges in a democratic society. The outspoken Chairman and Leader of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) also expressed the considered view of the Party. The view is that the Inspector General of Police should identify the “Trigger-Happy” OSD or he resigns his position as IG.

My concern is the reaction of Government and that of the Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police Force, (accepting and/or shifting blames). On the side of Government, as I earlier suggested in the case of the erstwhile Minister of Works, Government brilliantly condemned the incident and called on the Police Force to answer the many questions from the public. In fact, the Deputy Minister of Political Affair’s version was more pragmatic and one would see the sorrow expressed by him and how he was defensive of Government and necessarily the Police Force. On the other hand the seeming actions allegedly taken by the Inspector General on an issue of public concern is to say the least a lack of public spirit.

In the first place, our Force for Good is inevitable and remains largely professional in its conducts and executing its constitutional mandate. However, the Force has always been defensive, never to accept blame and say sorry to the public as if it is ‘a holy order” that is infallible. For God’s sake, we are all humans and prone to make mistakes. In public life, we should accept blame and say sorry when necessary. What we need to note is the fact that this is not an isolated incidence rather a cumulative negative trend from Kono to Bumbuna, Wellington to Ansarul to name the once I recall; all relating to riot control of armless civilians.

For me any response by way of showing remorse from the Police is cosmetic and may evolve out of Government irrevocable determination to get to the bottom of the matter and not the spirit of public life that requires Public officials to say sorry and sometimes even resign when necessary.

I will only caution those in public offices to understand the following.

Even Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) score card rates Sierra Leone high on Governance and so our democratic credentials are good.
In a democracy, there are many interested parties –the media, Civil Society Organizations concerned about diverse issues.
The need for financial and social accountability has geometrically increased over the years to the extent that even the Hon. Minister of Finance and Economic Development popularizes the Report of the Auditor General.
The Anti-Corruption Commission is still functioning in the midst of the daunting challenges.
Emotional intelligence is highly required in the performance of public duty.
Openness and team building within MDAs is necessary.
The public offices we occupy are never ours rather only held in trust for the citizens of this country.

In conclusion, I am still left with the unanswered question as to whether the Civil Society has the right to give Ultimatum to Government or rather only to strongly suggest its views on national issues.

By Ahmed SaybomKanu –BSC, MPhil Sociology (Management Consultant)

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