A Letter from Freetown

By

Bala Muhammad

balamuhammad@hotmail.com

 

No, it is not a belated April Fool’s article. I really am in Freetown, Sierra Leone, all last week, this week and next week. Beautiful country. Lush and green all over. Beautiful beaches. As Egypt is said to be a gift of the Nile, one can say without doubt that modern Sierra Leone is a gift of ECOMOG, the Nigerian-led West African troops that forcefully dislodged warmongers several years ago. Surprisingly, when one expected to see signs of devastation all over, there are not many signs of the brutal Sierra Leonean civil war of the mid 1990s.

 

Many Nigerians would recognise some of the following:

“Health Minister threatens to resign”

“I did not become Minister to enrich myself,” says Health Minister

“Top Health Ministry officials sent on compulsory leave”

“What happened to all the money spent on power?”

“These power outages are killing us”

“We must do more to fight corruption”

“My government has zero-tolerance for corruption,” says the President”

“Food prices skyrocket: poor people suffering!”

“This President is so slooowwww!”

 

No, these are not Nigerian issues being discussed by Nigerians, thought they will fit in so perfectly; these are headlines from several Sierra Leone media, as the agenda for discussion all over the country. And the Sierra Leone media are not discussing Nigeria; they are discussing their own country’s problems. It is always interesting to find that developmental problems are similar all over the so-called developing countries.

 

When I left Nigeria, we were in the middle of the Federal Ministry of Health scandal; when I arrived Sierra Leone, they were in the middle of a scandal in their own Health Ministry. The difference is that here it is the Minister that is fighting alleged corruption in his ministry over drugs purchase. When I arrived, I also found Freetown reeling from constant power outages. And they are lamenting ever-rising food prices; and the lecturers’ strike; and generally ruing their lot. So familiar I immediately felt at home.

 

Sierra Leone is a small West African country geographically tucked neatly under the wings of her bigger neighbour Guinea. However, unlike Gambia further west which is almost completely surrounded by Senegal, Sierra Leone does share a border with Liberia to the south east and the Atlantic Ocean to the south west. All other parts border on Guinea. The population here is no more than six million (and so they are shocked and awed to learn that my Nigerian state, Kano, has nearly ten million people; and it is only one state out of thirty six.) And Sierra Leone people say they have a problem?

 

The new President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, was elected last year in polls adjudged by many to be among the cleanest in Afirca. His now-ruling All Peoples’ Congress, APC, defeated the then incumbent Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party, SLPP, of former President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, whose deputy, Solomon Berewa, was SLPP’s candidate in the election. When after the August 2007 polls no clear winner emerged, a September run-off was held between the two, and Koroma won. Surprise of surprises (as far as African politics is concerned), the defeated Berewa was in attendance at Koroma’s swearing-in.

 

Sierra Leone is planning a National Communication Strategy, and its President intends to inaugurate a comprehensive Attitudinal Change programme for his country. (Perhaps by now some readers may begin to understand why I am here; to advise the Sierra Leone government how best to go about doing that). President Koroma wants Sierra Leoneans to stop being ‘cry, cry babies’; always blaming the past for their misfortunes. He wants them to look to the future for solutions. Yes, the country has been wracked by a senseless civil war, he says, but that is past. We have to face the future; we can’t face the past, he adds.

 

I have been assigned a driver by name Amadu. For the first few days we have been together, I thought he was either dumb or did not speak much English. To every question I asked, he would answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’: no more. Then last Friday, as he dropped me off and we parted for the weekend, I dashed him a handsome tip and bid him bye. Next Monday, it was a new Amadu I saw. He was all smiles, so jovial, so friendly. And his English turned out to be excellent. It was that Monday I even knew there was air-conditioning in the car: he switched it in on full blast. As we departed the hotel, he drove by the lovely Lumley Beach and showed me other interesting places. Kai! Money dey open mouth! (This is not our Pidgin English; it is Krio, or Creole, as Sierra Leonean pidgin is known).

 

Puff! Pant! Puff! Pant! That’s your correspondent going up the eighth floor of Youyi Building in central Freetown, to the Ministry of Information and Communications to meet the honourable Minister Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo. As happens in many countries in Africa, the lifts have failed again. But here, there are seven lifts in this ten-storey building which serves as a Federal Secretariat. But all seven lifts have packed up. Reason? Lack of maintenance. Familiar? Well, after going up and down eight floors for several days, my doctor can now rest assured I am getting exercise beaucoup, as they say here, and there is no need for me take up golf.

 

There is a very interesting phenomenon I have noticed here about beggars at this Youyi Bulding. Most of the beggars are amputees from the civil war who have lost one or both hands, a leg or both. Though civil wars are anything but civil, this begging by amputees seems quite civil; they line up at a distance from the main gate, but conspicuous enough to be seen. They then take turns to limp over and open your car door with a remaining hand, if any, as you made to depart. They then ask for charity. What a pitiable site! You can’t help but help.

 

There is this argument that minerals are perhaps a curse for Africa. Despite the fact that Sierra Leone possesses under its soils 26 out of the 29 most sought-after minerals in the world, it came bottom in the latest UN Human Development Index. And the country is rich in these minerals, especially diamonds! In fact, the third biggest diamond ever discovered in the world, coming in at about 970 carats, was unearthed in this country. The then President named it ‘Star of Sierra Leone’. But it is not in the country today, it has been sold.

 

But for minerals, there may perhaps not have been wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Especially Sierra Leone. Perhaps but for oil also, Nigeria would have been a poor, agrarian country, but at peace with itself. Diamond is here, but it has scarcely changed the life of the average Sierra Leonean. But it has changed the lives of many a Lebanese who are all over here; in Freetown, in Makeni, in Bo, in Kono. They are buying the diamonds and making a quick Leone.

 

The International War Crimes Tribunal is still sitting in Freetown, trying those accused of war crimes during the country’s brutal civil war. But according to many people I met here, Western ‘justice’ is no justice at all. First of all, no one would be sentenced to death, even though they have caused the death and maiming of so many. But the most painful aspect of it, according to a journalist friend who covers the trials for his media establishment, is that the accused are growing fatter and fatter by the day; their breakfast includes toast and baked beans, and they have Yorkshire pudding for supper. Many Freemen of Freetown would not mind changing places with these ‘prisoners’.

 

Did we not, on these pages sometimes last year, discuss some two miserable zeros a certain Soludo wanted to subtract from our currency? Yes, we did. That proposed subtraction reduced the nation to a very serious argument about the merits and demerits of zeros. And we all remember how some wise people alerted the President that Soludo did not ask for his permission, and the suggestion was dumped.

 

Well, here in Sierra Leone, the zeros are just too many. One US dollar is almost three thousand Leones ($1=Le3,000). Now these are at least three useless zeros you are seeing here. And they don’t like them either. Thirty years ago, I have been informed, a US Dollar was almost equivalent to one Leone. When zeros weighed heavily on the Ghanaian Cedi, they jettisoned them; so did the Sudanese sack them from their Pounds, as did Brazil earlier. We love our zeros in Nigeria. Keep them safe.

 

Last week, my countryman, and my hometown-man Alhaji Aliko Dangote was here in Freetown. As the richest man around these shores, no wonder there was merriment on the part of government. No, he was not here to look for diamonds; the Lebanese have beaten him to it. He is here to provide electricity, yes, yes! He is investing in several sectors, but especially in electricity where the Dangote Group would soon establish the means to provide Sierra Leone with up to 150 megawatts of power. President Koroma was all smiles at the dinner he hosted Alhaji Aliko. Pertinent here to remind Dangote that Kano, his hometown, is also in dire need of 150 megawatts of electricity too. After all, the Hausa say sayen nagari mai da kudi gida!

 

Sometimes when discussing with people here in Sierra Leone, you would hear them talking longingly about a Saviour. The other day a Minister was talking so passionately about this Saviour so much I suspected he was in spiritual rupture. But I needn’t go far for this Saviour; he is also from my hometown. His name is General Sani Abacha.