Just like Rwanda, Sierra Leone could rise but….

Like the Kinyarwanda adage goes, ‘akanyonyi katagurutse nikamenya aho bweze’ (the bird that does not fly will not know where the harvest is ready)—this simple saying crowded my mind during my recent trip to the West African State of Sierra Leone partly due to my earlier high expectations. Sierra Leone’s history is similar to that of Rwanda in some ways. Central to this similarity is the decade long civil war that claimed thousands, though not on a similar magnitude like ours here. However, it had its own ugly portray of insanity with rogue militia amputating and maiming innocent civilians. The ringleaders of Sierra Leone’s inhuman acts, members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are locked up in our Mpanga prison enjoying conditions and facilities that most of their countrymen and women cannot afford in their daily lives. Unlike Rwanda, Sierra Leone is blessed with all sorts of precious minerals. It has the third largest iron-ore deposits in the world. It has Gold, Diamond, oil and timber reserves. Its Coastal lining has the natural beauty of accommodating some of the best holiday resorts in the world. But despite these resources, Sierra Leone remains one of the poorest nations on the African continent with almost 70 percent of its 6 million people living below the poverty line. Its capital, Freetown presents one of the ugliest sides of poor planning. It has no basic infrastructure, no proper hotels, dilapidated road network, over flowing sewerage systems and an absence of basic necessities. In Kigali, internet has become a basic right for almost everyone, in Freetown, internet is a luxury had to come across. And the million dollar question is; how does a country endowed with such natural wealth fail to make good of this God given gift to make the lives of their people worth living. True, Sierra Leone went through a decade of war, much longer than ours. Their war ended only 10 years ago and to be fair 10 years is a short time to register any significant transformation. Also President Ernest Bai Koroma seems have done a lot in the last five years he’s been in power. But despite this, the post conflict recovery of Sierra Leone might take long to begin bearing fruits simply because of some stages this country skipped. Sierra Leone was rushed into issues of democracy before it could put its own house in order. It was rushed into electioneering before the common man would taste the initial fruits of peace and be able to make informed choices. Some might disagree with me but history from post conflict countries shows that before such nations taking a meaningful democratic path, there’s a transition period of about 10 years or less to first work on the basics. Here in Rwanda, we went through the emergency stage that lasted almost 4 years and then the rehabilitation phase that took about 5 years before we launched the development stage. It was at this last stage that competitive electioneering started. The same case happened in Uganda after the NRM government took power in 1986. These stages are not peculiar to Africa alone. It’s a trend that has roots in the history of the most post conflict countries including the latest ones like Afghanistan and Iraq. The important lesson here, is that this transition to democracy gives these post conflict governments chance to work on the basics, to move out of the recovery stage before being subjected to the pressure of elections. If the post conflict government is sane, it is given chance to make some decisions not necessarily popular with the prevailing situation but which are largely forward-looking and good for the future of the nation. This is what Sierra Leone has largely missed. Immediately after the war in 2002, the country rushed into democratic elections without taking time to first agree on a common vision for the country. The next election that came in 2007, saw the opposition take over. This year, they will hold another presidential poll in November and yet in post conflict situations, this is when the first election should be taking place. True, there could be a good side to this political direction. Because of time limitations, an incumbent might be under immense pressure to deliver of his promises, which could lead to fast tracking the development agenda. The problem is that there are hardly any examples especially on our continent where this has worked. Today, you would be wasting time to talk about democratic rights in a country where access to information using the power of internet is a luxury to the few. You cannot speak of free speech where getting to know what happens beyond you borders is not something you can independently find out. Yes, Sierra Leone is endowed with natural resources and a great people but their post conflict recovery might take longer simply because they jumped into a fast moving train before they could learn how to crawl. On twitter @aasiimweakaeus@yahoo.com

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Just like Rwanda, Sierra Leone could rise but….