By Umaru Fofana
Sometimes I wonder what system is best: a one term-only approach, a two-term-only or a limitless term. Of course they all have their advantages. But have a taste of the disadvantages. Elect your leader for only one term and they do not bother to fulfil their promises because they no longer will face you for your votes. Get them a two-term limit and they show their true colours when they get the second inning. And an indefinite term easily turns an African leader into a dictator and gives them the false sense that without them there is no-one else. On the bright side, supposedly at least, a two-term limit should actually give a purposeful leader the chance to kick buts to get things done. After all they should have no political considerations in doing this as they would no more be facing the electoral either within their party or outside of it. Except, perhaps, if they are leading the African National Congress in South Africa, they do what they believe is right regardless of it being politically correct or not. But do not say that to a president who is hell bent on choreographing his succession and planting or even forcing his successor upon society. If anybody thought President Ernest Bai Koroma would shine brightest and be more decisive in his second and final term they must be throwing up that optimism or swallowing their guts in disappointment and uprooting their hair in frustration. And unless he changes tact he may well go down in history as the first president to become a lame duck so early in the day. I say so early in the day because it is not unusual for presidents serving their final term to become lame duck. But it is shocking and surprising when less than a year into that term they lose grip of things that they should otherwise have in their grasp like president Koroma seems to be doing. The way things are going at present would make one conclude that President Ernest Bai Koroma has become a lame duck, four years too soon. He is at war with his Vice President whom he continues to ostracise by shifting to the backburner and treat so loathsomely. His ministers speak terribly ill of each other and behind each other; not based on any real ideological difference but pettiness. There is internal rancour in his government. His cabinet seems to be in sixes and sevens. Ministers are busy working for themselves, as if they are under no supervision, instead of in the people’s interest. Some other functionaries keep arrogating themselves powers as if to tell the president to go hang. And then there are those who are outside this remit who have positioned themselves to provide a counterpoint. They do not even need binoculars to see through the goings-on. And leakages keep oozing out. My dad would tell me that you do not smell your hands after using the toilet unless you are unsure of how well you washed them. I wonder what emboldens an appointee if they do not have some grip over the president. Blackmail perhaps? Or have they carried out some collective debauchery? If so then who will bell the cat? Sadly, in all this the president is helped by the same factor that is destroying the masses. The opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party are in a shambolic state of nothingness and stupidity. And the masses are caught between a tottering government and a tinkering opposition. And that is the beginning of the tragedy of a nation. Koroma’s decision to suppress the democratic right of members of his All People’s Congress who might be interested in succeeding him as leader of the party may come to undo him, as trenches are being both dug and dug out. He has surrounded himself with cronies many of whom have their eyes firmly set on enriching themselves and plotting some succession plan. They have forgotten so soon about what happened in the run up to the 2007 elections within the then ruling SLPP party. They do not care about the known unknowns let alone the unknown unknowns. To them the people are so stupid that the majority will always vote for them. Like APC, like SLPP! President Koroma is losing grip of two of his strongest strengths chiefly his road infrastructure. Of course he is also losing his youthfulness which was another of his strengths in yesteryears. The road projects are on clay legs. Provincial and district headquarter town projects are in turmoil. Apparently riddled with corruption in the form of backhanders no one is asking contractors why their road work is so bad that there have to be contracts awarded for the same roads almost every year. Some of the roadwork has been abandoned for ages. No actions are taken against any of the defaulting contractors who perambulate like bogeymen. Leaving many questions unanswered. Effectively leaving the much-touted road projects in limbo amid potholes. The solar street lights are disappearing and no-one is saying anything to anyone about it. His other flagship programme, electricity, is nauseating to a lot of people. People in the east go for weeks with a flash. Clean drinkable water which he has so often spoken about is still a luxury. Even though he chose to bloat his cabinet to create an appeasement ministry of water resources the effect is only negative – more expenses on government. The country is drifting. Its people are polarised more than ever before. Brinkmanship is taking over governance. Today we are told one thing and tomorrow another thing is done. The slightest criticism sees one being sent to the gallows by their attack dogs. There is not a family that is not hit by the harsh economic reality save if they are close to the seat of power; yet we keep being told that our economy is booming. Local content policy is being touted on the one hand, suspect foreign companies are still being allowed to do things that ordinary Sierra Leoneans can very easily do and for less. And the political class can only look after themselves. We have forgotten about the huge issues at stake and the leaders are feeling very insulated as they bask in the fact that the majority of the masses are uneducated or illiterate or both. Wastefulness is still a trend as epitomised by a bloated cabinet, government and their appendages. State House has more people than there is work to do. The cabinet is much larger than there is anything to carry out. In effect there is an unnecessarily large and bloated government while the tax payers’ money suffers. And for a government whose alpha and the omega is the president it begs the question as to whether that is actually needed. But one gets the feeling that sacking some of these fortune makers and deadwood is undoable and even unthinkable. Leaving one with the impression that a promise or perhaps covenant was gone into as we approached November last year. While the real contract signed with the people in that November is being so easily forgotten. But as a friend asked the other day: “Why secure power and then just abandon ship, if not literally, at least metaphorically?” I add, perhaps both. The president seems to have lost the Midas touch which would turn anything into gold. (C) Politico 24/09/13
