Why Sierra Leone needs to change her immigration laws

My Fellow Countrymen: Chief Bombolai’s eloquent explanation about the state of political affairs of Sierra Leone, has demonstrated that he is truly a Sierra Leonean patriot. What I have often told these guys on the forum is that being APC or SLPP has nothing to do with the love of a county. What many of us have seen in Sierra Leone is that, no Sierra Leonean should voice the ills of our society, or, talk about the changes that could be done in our old and archaic immigration laws – and that is what I am just ready to do.

Furthermore, I am going to fight so hard for any politician who wants to run for any office in Sierra Leone to get citizenship clearance from the CID, and the Immigration agency in Sierra Leone to prove that you were born in the country, or, that your parents are/were – actually citizens of the country. There should be a length of time for the intelligence department of the CID, and immigration department of Sierra Leone to investigate those facts; and to clear the individual.

If I should say that I was born in Koindu, Kissi Bendu, there are the older ones who saw me grow in Koindu, go to school in Koindu, and maybe further my education to other parts of Sierra Leone. You can’t just go around telling people that you attended any institution in the country, and although you were born out of the country – you should become president of that nation. Only in Sierra Leone that people are so blind to such falsification of citizenship.

How could someone just say that my mother was born in a village near Kailahun, or Mobai, or near Kenema, or Bo, and that my father was born in the north and no one investigated such facts, and such a person should become president among highly qualified Sierra Leoneans – as if we are fools living on planet Jupiter.

I will make it possible for politics to change in Sierra Leone with the coming elections by following these procedures:

1.   Political contestants should prove their citizenship by getting clearance forms the CID, and the immigration and naturalization agency in Sierra Leone. If you falsify citizenship, you should go to jail.

2.   Any area a political contestant wants to represent a district, chiefdom or constituency in Sierra Leone, should be requested to send a delegation of a number of indigenous sons and daughters to sign papers to show that that person was actually born there, and if they lie, all of them should go to jail.

3.   The parents of the political contestant, should be investigated if alive, or through intelligence if they ever become citizens of the country? If not, the individual should be forced to update his/her immigration status within a limited time frame or, face a fine, or deported.

4.   The CID and other law enforcement officials should do field research on individuals who they suspect are claiming false citizenship in the country. If they are found, they should be fined, or face severe consequences.

Moreover, most Sierra Leoneans feel that a country is a free dancing hall, where anyone could enter, dance, get drunk, sleep and wake up the very next day, and declare citizenship. This nebulous idea has to change. Some political parties ought to change their attitudes too, or else, the electorate should not vote for any of their representatives.

No citizens should suffer in a very rich country like Sierra Leone, but with a flooding of undocumented aliens, the meager resources our people supposed to enjoy are equally shared with them, and thus, government in power faces the brunt of accusations of corruption, and other vices that may create hardships for our people.

It should be comprehended that the perpetuation of poverty in our Sierra Leonean society, and from generation to another, is not heavily determined by access to capital on the part of individual groups, but that the plethora of freedoms given to undocumented foreigners who have entered the country illegally, have ravaged the resources our poor citizens should to live on. We have agreed to live in a decadent establishment.

Why should any government in a civilized nation sit aside to see the economy of the state ravaged in corners and alleys in cities, the criminal trade – money in a black market? Such a trade could be conducted in our banks so that the government could benefit from foreign exchange. Sierra Leone is one of the countries that have the highest number of unscrupulous and undocumented foreigners on the west coast of Africa.

Sierra Leone has to revamp her immigration laws, and that the CID agency should use intelligence to root our unscrupulous and undocumented aliens who only come to ravage our economy, abuse our kindness, and belittle our human intelligence.

Only in Sierra Leone could someone become president, although his is a foreigner.

What a shame?

By Michael Fayia Kallon, Social Critic

www.makonabooks.com

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