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Corruption: Playing the blame game with a thriving culture?

Corruption: Playing the blame game with a thriving culture?

Reverend, I want to commend you on your article: Corruption: What else do we want President Ernest Koroma to do? Written Wednesday, March 17, 2010 http://www.cocorioko.net/national/2566-corruption-what-else-do-we-want-president-ernest-koroma-to-do

And to ask your kind permission to allow me to add my humble voice to the debate that has been spinning around about Ernest Koroma and his efforts to battle corruption. Most of the articles I have read about corruption in Sierra Leone seemed to patronize or condone Ernest Koroma’s policies. Let us face the fact, for the first time in the history of our nation; God has finally heard our cry, He has blessed us with somebody with the heart and smart to run the country! No wonder some of us are so obsessed with President Koroma that we wish we could give him the moon. Others have become so besotted with his personality and charisma that they wish they could build a virtual wall around him, as it were, to protect him from his so-called “bitter critics.” I think the average Sierra Leonean is suspicious about the intensions of the ‘honest politician,’ either because he does not exist or because he exists only in the land of fairy tales.  

That brings me to the gist of your article—Corruption: What else do we want President Ernest Koroma to do? My readings of the history of the Press tell me that the independence of the press is sacrosanct. They (the press and journalists) are the custodians and the guardians of the news; the purveyors, if you like, of multidimensional information intended to inform and educate. They are like you said, “the mouth piece of the people.” They have a moral and ethical obligation to keep abreast of the recondite details of what is newsworthy and to dispense their responsibility without fear or favor. Bias is perhaps too thick a word to use. But that’s exactly what they should avoid; the seductive pull of playing favorites.

You definitely took sides in your article! I know you love your president because he is taking the monster of corruption by the horns. Eureka! I love him too, and most patriotic Sierra Leoneans that I have spoken to love him. They love his fierce and tenacious determination to rebuild the country. Above all, they believe in his no-nonsense approach to fight corruption. They love him to the extent that they are willing to stake their love through constructive and good-faith criticism so he would not be caught up in the maelstrom of his own tenacity, but rather would fight the battle to the finish. Yet when the press or journalists of your caliber begin to pick their motives apart, then that becomes a problem. I noticed that you quoted the Bible. Hallelujah! But you forgot that even Jesus had his own critics among them His mother and father; both criticized him for leaving their company during the census episode.

Decades of nepotism and clientelism perpetuated by inefficient administrations have made corruption insidious in Sierra Leone; it is now a multi-million dollar culture, an acceptable way of life, a means to an end. Over the decades, successive administrations created the environment for corruption to flourish. Now it thrives and throbs in the arteries of each and every government department. Sierra Leone is a nation where corruption has become institutionalized, endemic and pandemic; to the extent that good and honest people who refused to be corrupted are considered abnormal, insane, sinful, and deviant, just like the Man—the protagonist in Ayei Kweh Armah’s novel “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born” that you so eloquently cited. Corruption is the panacea of all that is sick and rotten in our culture in general and our politics in particular. In Sierra Leone, police officers are corrupt, politicians are corrupt, the civil service is corrupt, judges, lawyers and their court officials are corrupt to the bone. Visit their offices, you would be appalled to find that beneath the surface of all the gentility, the sense of duty and beguilingly warm smiles lurked a shameless desire for sleazy money. Eighty percent of all the monies changing hands in all the government departments find their way into private bank accounts. Public officials have one thing in common—they all have no compunction about lining their pockets with fast funds. The private sector rinks of corruption and business entrepreneurs, especially the Lebanese and their coterie of middle-men frolic in the tidal wave of corruption. Teachers, doctors, drivers, bankers are all corrupt; because it is a way of life and perhaps the only acceptable means to succeed. Even the press is corrupt! James Jonah, in an interview to the United Nations in June 15, 2001, said “a profusion of inexperienced newspaper reporters and editors who are taking advantage of the opportunity to create a free press are quickly yielding to the temptation to accept payments from people who want articles written to their specifications…Many of these people are not trained journalists…” So let’s cut through the chase, let’s cut neatly through the tedious razzmatazz of simply stringing the president along. Criticism is nothing to be hysterical about. Everybody has the right to criticize him, and I am sure president Koroma does not mind. In every vibrant democracy, criticism is one of many ways to checkmate the powerful.

If Sierra Leoneans are criticizing their president, perhaps they think he is putting himself in an untenable situation with no prospect of escaping from it. Perhaps they feel that the institutions of state are too vulnerable and too weak as to make corruption a venerable way of life. If the police whom I think are the most corrupt are not being paid well, and they are not getting any incentives for a job well done, and their meager salaries are not being paid on time, trust me, they will indulge in corruption to feed their families and their network of extended relatives. The same is true of the politicians; who consider politics as a means to an end. I am saying this unequivocally and without any apology, every politician in Sierra Leone is corrupt, and corrupt to the bone! Only the unfortunate ones are getting caught. Hajas who indulge in politics have a long history of aiding and abetting corruption.  But the case of Haja Afsatu Kabba is unfortunate. I only hope she does not get gummed and slobbered to death before all the evidence of her malfeasance become available.

We applaud the extraordinary efforts of Abdul Tejan-Cole and the ACC, we applaud the intensions and leadership role of the President Ernest Bai Koroma, he is certainly a visionary, but we also reserved the right to criticize him. Sierra Leoneans will continue to criticize him until they are certain that he is not just playing the role of the honest politician. We hope his measures are not half-hearted, we hope he will rise above the fray; and that he would not become corrupted himself. We hope that as the battle rage on, Human Rights would not be swept under the rug. All the culprits deserve a speedy trial because justice delayed is justice denied. After all, this is his war, he ran on the platform of transparency, accountability, and making corruption a thing of the past. History will judge him right or wrong based on the amount of success he accomplished and not on the amount of support he gets from the Press and the average Sierra Leonean.  Fighting corruption is a long haul but it can be done and his policies are a step in the right direction.

John Donaldson Sesay (JohnDonne)

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  • i’m right by your side brother JohnDonne…… preach on

    6th April 2010

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