By Umaru Fofana
It is one of those tragedies of our country’s media that when something happens there is the tendency for a kneejerk response to it, with many journalists often pursuing their selfish agenda and attempting to cover up even if at the expense of the public good.
About turns sharper than u-turns – let us call them V-turns – are embarked upon without contrition and almost unashamedly. The headlines change not because we want to give people their right of reply, but rather because we have been “settled” or influenced somewhat. And the truth goes out of the window while the facts start getting blurred or even buried.
Despite its seriousness, or may be because of it, I do not wish to postulate about the rape allegations against the now former Deputy Minister of Education, Mahmoud Tarawallie. Probably by the time this article is published he would have been charged and arraigned before the courts. So stacked the odds are against him that I had to watch, over the weekend, two movies by one of my favourite Hollywood actors, Michael Douglas.
Not that FATAL ATTRACTION and DISCLOSURE have any exactitude to the allegations against Mahmoud Tarawallie as made by a young university student who cannot be named. After all, the lady is not the minister’s boss nor had they had sex before, both sides have told investigators. Except that in the case of Fatal Attraction, it makes us leave some room for some doubt in the present matter we are faced with between the minister and the varsity student. But again my focus here is not on the allegations of rape.
I am interested in knowing how many public officials are not weighed by their consciences at this incident – rape or consensual sex – in exchange for (promised) favours in their official capacity. Is it not an open secret that some government officials have turned their offices – paid for by the state – to their sex parlours. Skimpily clad girls roaming corridors of public officials are no longer the exceptions, rather they are the rule. Is it not an open secret that many government officials go to the provinces on so-called official assignments with concubines some of whom are less than 18 years old and with whom they spend more time than the work they are paid to go do. Is it not a known fact that government grants-in-aid and even bursaries for international studies are awarded to applicants in exchange for sex or other personal gratitude by both civil servants and public servants in the ministry or even outside of it? Does anybody need telling that governing party membership and blood relationship are among the key determinants in awarding what should be an entitlement to and an equal opportunity for all Sierra Leoneans?
The ministry of education has not only proved to be one of the worst performing in the last six years owing to the chaos caused in that sector and the attendant educational decline, it is also apparently one of the most corrupt. For ages students have been complaining over the method of awarding government grants-in-aid which, for the most part, sees deserving, needy students being left out for those who hold ruling party positions or cards on college campuses or have other favours to offer in exchange including sex and cash.
The Minister of Education, Dr Minkailu Bah, for example, is on record as referring to Sierra Leoneans, who were sent to China by the Asian country’s embassy here but not through the ministry of education, as having gone “through the back door”. Even though he knew full well that they were genuinely sent by the embassy here through their other partners including for example the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists. As such the minister insisted, and got away with it, that they be not given any form of assistance by their own government as did those whom he (Dr Minkailu Bah) recommended. Scores, perhaps hundreds of bursaries for international studies are awarded every year by foreign governments. But those who get sent to Russia, Germany and Turkey, among others, are those who are close or even related to those working in the ministry of education or in government generally. What makes some Sierra Leoneans less so than others apart from reasons of nepotism, sex or political affinity? More irksome is the fact that it is known to all but nobody has bothered to look into it.
Perhaps the Commonwealth, Nigeria and many other governments and organisations including the United Nations who provide scholarships here for overseas study should learn from the current development and copy from the United States Government who determine directly their own awardees. That is not the best way to go; it is the ONLY way to go in a country as corrupt and partisan as ours. Left in the hands of a ministry where partisan bigotry and other forms of discrimination are the norm can only entrench disparity and discrimination.
I cannot help but always mention the fact that the British Home Affairs Minister, David Blunket was forced to resign simply because he requested for the visa application file of a Phillipino maid of his partner. He did not influence it in any other way whatsoever. The fact that he requested for the file was deemed influencing and compromising enough to have undermined the process and given the applicant an undue advantage. Not here. Not in Sierra Leone. Worse things have happened.
Ministers call university lecturers for admission for their friends or relations or their friends’ friends. Some even send their signed business cards to prove the point. Why would they need to do that if they were not seeking to corruptly influence the process? When someone qualifies for something they do qualify for it.
I will plead that we do not even mention the awarding of space to the Hajj. So corruptly determined by government that you wonder what the country has turned into.
An ethics committee should be set up to look into how grants-in-aid and scholarships have been awarded in the last five years and see if the entire system will not collapse due to corruption, nepotism and other forms of favouritism. A Sierra Leonean has to have some connection in government to be able to have what clearly is their entitlement. And it did not start yesterday. It has been there almost for as long as anyone cares to remember. It has only got worse.
And those friendly governments that award such scholarships should reconsider their methods of doing so. Yes they want to strengthen bilateral relations and so want to award these scholarships through the ministry of education. But they are not necessarily getting the best students or helping the most deserving or needy of the people.
And this is where the media should focus on without let or compromise. I know some of us are so influential that some of these corrupt practises may have been carried out at our say-so. Some journalists may have asked for scholarship for their relatives or friends or even concubines. So how can we call for a wider investigation of the matter? But it behoves any government that is serious to stamp out such decaying tendency to probe it. For once, and for only this, I am willing to serve President Ernest Bai Koroma’s government on any such committee.
(C) Politico 17/09/13
