By Umaru Fofana
The Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone has exposed many things: from the obvious to the discreet, from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the altruist to the self-serving – both at the leadership and the followership.
The outbreak has also exposed the nonexistence of our healthcare delivery system despite all the noise hitherto caused about what had been achieved in that sector. It has laid bare our overdependence on our former colonial masters – United Kingdom – generations after independence in 1961. It has shown us our true friends and those who are interested in us simply for our natural resources. Have you wondered why the Arab countries are not here helping us despite Sierra Leone being a Muslim majority country?
Anyway…It was to be a diplomatic spat helped only by the fact that it was a lone action by a president who – for some bizarre reasons – was pursuing a personal agenda as is so often the case that Sierra Leone has had leaders whose true national interest credentials are in tatters. President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was to visit the United States but he chose to travel to Iran. Not that any nation should define the foreign policy of another if that does not conform to the national sovereign interest, but I still keep wondering what President Kabbah’s agenda was for preferring Iran to the West.
It was he, Kabbah, who again put Libya perhaps ahead of any other country in terms of his preference in the world of diplomacy. Ghadaffi, who had sponsored the massacre of innocent Sierra Leoneans through his support for the brutal RUF rebels, was so readily “forgiven” by a president for whose sake the RUF had carried their worst orgy of killing and maiming when they turned out to vote for him in 1996.
Then, opposition leaders Ernest Bai Koroma and Charles Margai were shouting out their uvulas in condemning Kabbah’s romance with the Arabs. But later, when O (opposition) came to P (power), all of that changed. President Ernest Bai Koroma would allow Ghadaffi to visit State House amidst backslapping, and his administration in parliament – unsurprisingly with the open support of the now opposition SLPP in parliament – would confer him with an honorary parliamentary title. Desecrating out House of Parliament not only because of the history of Ghadaffi’s involvement in our mayhem, but also because he did not believe in our own system of democracy. How things change indeed!
The Koroma administration would perfect the relationship and widen the romance with the Arab countries under the guise of investment. They would tout the so-called development interventions of these Arab countries – developments that were contained only on paper and seemed to be smokescreen for something else. They would clog our email boxes with press releases of one Arab Sultan or Emir coming with some largesse or another. The headlines were ludicrous: the world’s smartest Arab leader invites President Koroma; the richest Arab leader romances with President Koroma; the tallest Arab leader salutes President Koroma; the shortest Arab prince hails President Koroma, the most handsome Arab businessman kowtows before President Koroma, etc, etc. Diplomatic ties were speedily and inexplicably established with the United Arab Emirates. Bla bla bla! Then Ebola struck. Where are all these Arab leaders!
When Ebola struck, we came to know our true friends and those who were here only for our rich albeit mismanaged mineral resources and for the benefits of our leaders only. Have you wondered why our leaders like and even prefer those undemocratic Arab leaders? They are not accountable to their people so they give their petrodollars to our leaders and not to our countries. Yes! Self-development is the key while a flaky make-believe “development” for the nation is more talked about than actually carried out. Even with all their brutality against the people of the Niger Delta, the multinational company, Shell, has stayed in and with Nigeria through thick and thin. So where are our so-called investors when Ebola came! It is not a question because we all know the answer to it.
The Arab countries not only fled, they abandoned us. And we have all criticised the West for tough restrictions introduced to keep our Ebola at bay and protect their citizens. Yes, we have! Agreed that some of the reaction has been kneejerk and unscientific, but they encouraged their citizens to come and help us out. They pumped their taxpayers’ money into our mess. Their leaders even visited – like the French president Francois Hollande did in Guinea. And these are Christian nations and we always say they hate Islam and Muslims and we forget they were also in Kosovo helping a Muslim nation.
Even charity organisation the Muslim countries have, have been nowhere to be found. I am a Muslim and I feel very strongly about this! Go to our cemeteries and see who pay or coordinate to help give dignity to the dead who are mostly Muslims. Go to the Ebola quarantined homes and see the NGOs that take food to the people – they are mostly Christian organisations. Go to the hospitals and see the NGOs that work there – the foreign health workers are mostly Christians. And these are NGOs that depend on handouts from their public back home who are mostly Christians, or their government which are also Christian.
I know the Arab world, or much of it, is at war. But so are those countries that are here helping us. Qatar is a rich country regardless, and so is Saudi Arabia. And they have no wars of their own except for those terrorists they sponsor in other parts of the Arab world including the infamous ISIS or Islamic States.
And now that Ebola is in the back foot in Sierra Leone, inshallah, we must demand accountability from our leaders in whatever romance they are involved in with these Arab leaders. Our mineral resources – or concessions to mine them – should be carefully awarded with the nation at heart and not awarded to some coy boys simply because they have dollars in their briefcases to bribe with. If this Ebola leaves our leaders as stupid and selfish as the war did, what could erupt here could make the RUF brutality seem like a playing golf.
© Politico 28/01/15
