By Umaru Fofana
The Lomé peace accord had been signed. Foday Sankoh finally decided to come to Freetown after much dithering. And it took the then US Secretary of State Madeline Albright to make that happen. Days turned to weeks and weeks into months. Then he decided to visit the President’s Lodge at Hill Station. Yes to meet President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. But, perhaps, to also take an up close and personal look at the place he hoped he would one day occupy. That was not to be. He was to die much later.
After a meeting with President Kabbah described by both sides as “brief but significant”, Sankoh came outside. Two colourful peacocks at the Lodge started singing. He smiled as if to say they looked beautiful. I think he even said so. I cannot remember quite well. That was followed by chants of “Papay! Papay! Papay!” by tenders at the Lodge as if eulogizing the man who had wreaked havoc on almost every Sierra Leonean (family). Expectant! They expected, and actually looked on in anticipation, that the man they had called "killer" and "butcher" and hated, would give them money.
Then Sankoh reached for his pocket. The President Lodge onlookers surged towards him. He pulled his hand from inside his apparently deep pocket and brought out bundles of crispy banknotes. He splattered them on the staffers. Then an armed security guard who sat on a rooftop like a bat perched on the Cotton Tree or perhaps like a sniper, jumped down. He paid more attention to his anticipated money-dropping rebel leader than the gun he was carrying to protect the country's elected leader. He got his.
As Sankoh walked towards his motorcade, he noticed the gardener. Another dip into his pocket. Another largesse. Another sprinkle of money he definitely had not acquired genuinely. But the people appreciated. As they rubbed their hands with glee, one of them turned round, smiling so broadly that I could count all his teeth. Then he said in Krio: "Better to work for Sankoh than to work for Kabbah". Money. Just money. The thing most Sierra Leoneans would disregard morality for. The thing they would even compromise their nation for. The root of all evil. Perhaps.
Such was the fame, or infamy, he commanded for being "thrifty" that President Kabbah was derided for what his apologists would say he ought to have been hailed for. Those apologists would tell you that he was the closest you would have to incorruptibility (as defined in the Anti-Corruption Act) at the presidency. I cannot vow for that. But I do not have any to the contrary either. He had no business holdings that we were aware of, so he was not known to have abused his office, deliberately or inadvertently, to peddle influence in favour of his companies or even buy (over) new ones.
There was a story during Kabbah's presidency, that someone took a truckload of Christmas gifts to him around this time of year. He refused to accept them and asked instead that they be taken to those who needed them and could not afford. And the late former Ghanaian president, Prof John Attah Mills publicly announced that nobody or organisation should take gift to him under any pretext, Christmas or not. The announcement was also made around this time of year.
But Kabbah's attitude, perhaps strange in this part of the world, was pooh-poohed by many who saw him as frugal, including those who could have called Foday Sankoh a patriotic Sierra Leone regardless of his stupid carnage brought to this country. Professor Mills was also only appreciated after his passing. And both his party and the opposition, and all sides of the media divide, posthumously agreed that there existed no evidence of him having been corrupt as leader of the country. And that is standard with which the relatively enlightened Ghanaian public now judge their current and future presidents. Not by how much he dishes out to people of all shades if only for them to pledge their support to or eulogise him, giving him the impression he is the closest you get to a Father Christmas or even God.
It can be argued that it is not a bad thing for a head of state to be philanthropic. But when such philanthropy gets to the extent that the raw cash opens raw emotions and gets too raw for the understanding of sensibility and sensitivity then it becomes concerning. It boomerangs. Sometimes not to his realisation. Then his appointees start sprinkling cash to their own constituents or even finding ways of sustaining the doling out of freebies. And money, not ideas or equal opportunity for all, becomes the way to the heart of the poor and compromised. The destruction of a society starts there. Everything gravitates around it. Soon money becomes the means of gaining popularity. Consequently power. And bribery becomes the vogue. And corruption is entrenched. Soon, if not already, everyone who aspires to run for public office tries to acquire money by any means necessary if only to win. Once they win, if they do, payback becomes the preoccupation. Not good governance. Not accountability. Not good standards. Then compromises are struck. Principles are eroded. Multinational companies rule. The nouveaux-riches get richer. Deprivation visits the masses. Prosperity for the ordinary people becomes a distant possibility if at all possible.
Section 51/4 of the Anti-Corruption Commission as amended in 2008 stipulates thus: "Where a gift or personal benefit exceeds five hundred thousand leones in value or where the total value received directly or indirectly from one source in any twelve month period exceeds five hundred thousand leones, the public officer shall (a) make a report of that fact to the relevant public body within such time and in such form as may be prescribed by the Commission; and (b) file with his annual declaration of assets and liabilities a statement indicating the nature of the gift or benefit, its source and the circumstances under which it was given or accepted.
"(5) A public officer who fails to comply with the requirements in subsection (4) commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine three times the value of the gift or benefit or thirty million leones, whichever is greater or to imprisonment for a term not less than one year".
I wonder how many of public officials have ever declared gifts they have received in excess of this amount. And I bet my life that none of them would be speaking the truth if they said they had never received any "gift" exceeding that amount of Le 500,000. And at least there is an allegation, which has not been denied, of a mining company giving US$ 1 million to a senior government official, as contained in an Africa Confidential Report.
But, again, it will have to come down to the people who clamour for cash donations to ask the tough question: Where do these monies come from? Otherwise today we will get our own personal share, (of the CAKE as they say), and destroy the country including the future of our children and other relatives through greed. It starts with us, and should be led from the presidency. Since the buck stops there, the walk must begin there. Otherwise we will have another Foday Sankoh in future, whose ills of the past we will ignore and elect to the presidency, simply because he gave us money. Money that will not benefit us at all. There is, definitely, pride in poverty.
(C) Politico 28/11/13
