By Umaru Fofana
In the next couple of days or weeks US ambassador to Sierra Leone, Michael Owen leaves the place that has been his home for three years. And I have to warn him that this country is infectious and I would not be surprised to see him wake up for the rest of his life with memories of this great country and its hospitable and resilient people, especially its hoi polloi. Ambassador Owen could feel free to ask Peter Penfold, the former British high commissioner who came here by road and has hardly been able to stay away for a whole year.
Michael Owen has been a worthy ambassador to a country that has transitioned pretty well from the war-battered condominium of bullet-ridden houses, to one whose skyline and roads have changed considerably in the last decade. Thanks to the iron ore boom and the potential for oil and gas of commercial quantity.
He hobnobbed with civil society and the downtrodden. He gave the government their due. So he did the opposition. He meandered his way coolly as he took up his post especially with his appointment coming in the wake of the controversy that had surrounded his predecessor, June Carter Perry. She was a terrific diplomat in her own right even if her interest in the strengthening of democracy and the opposition in Sierra Leone would prove not to the liking of the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma; something that seems the easiest, quickest and surest way for a diplomat in Sierra Leone to be deemed to have behaved “in a way incompatible with their status”.
When he was coming to Sierra Leone, like when the affable Mark Carr was taking over from the amiable Danna Van Brandt as information officer at the embassy, we were unsure as to what the new diplomat would bring. As fans of the English premier league champions, Manchester United, the only thing we knew about Owen was that he had the same name as one of our stars at the time.
Since Ambassador Owen’s arrival three years ago, the much-needed Peace Corps Volunteers have returned to the country after a long hiatus, with more than 200 having served in various secondary schools and around ninety currently serving actively throughout the country.
Under him the US provided technical training and equipment to the Sierra Leone army to become effective peacekeepers on the continent. He also helped in the training of the police especially around the last presidential and legislative elections, a process to which over US$ 4 million was donated. He ensured Sierra Leone qualified for the prestigious Millennium Challenge Corporation compact which could bring millions of dollars to the country to support a range of development projects.
Perhaps most impressive to me, because it had to be with his personal character and showed his down-to-earth tendency, was that the outgoing US ambassador visited at least three times, every district in Sierra Leone and became the first US ambassador to visit the island on Bonthe.
That is a watershed and it reminds me of my favourite all time US ambassador, Smith Hempstone. As ambassador to Kenya from 1989 – 1993, the former journalist and author sang and danced with the downtrodden in Kenya and joined hands with them in the fight to bring back democracy to the east African country. He became the people’s ambassador. He visited areas that were hitherto no-go areas for western diplomats even though to the dislike of his host government. All to ensure democracy and good governance in a country that had a funny and phony system of accountability.
Owen has certainly not been Ambassador Smith Hempstone. He did not need to be. The two situations are different not least because Sierra Leone is worlds ahead of where Kenya was in the late 1980s and early 10990s, democracy-speak. But an excellent ambassador he has been nevertheless. He has traversed the nook and cranny of Sierra Leone searching for the forgotten needs of the forgotten people in those forgotten places.
As he departs the shores, it reminds me of his former colleague, British High Commissioner Ian Hughes whose modesty and self-effacing tendencies did not take away his bluntness in speaking the truth to his host government. Both men acquitted themselves brilliantly and have concluded their tour of duty. This is where Sierra Leone has always floundered and another thing Ambassador Own leaves behind.
He leaves behind a country whose decency-deficit poses a serious threat to its existentiality; something that potentially undermines its continued peace and prosperity. Its unsatisfactory mineral resource management and cronyism in appointments to positions and in awarding those mining contracts could hunt and haunt Sierra Leone yet again.
When she was foreign minister of Sierra Leone, I had an interview with Zainab Bangura on the decision by her government to recall all the country’s ambassadors abroad. It followed an election in which the governing party had been defeated. And it all looked to me like the old primitive political bigotry that would affect all sections of the Sierra Leonean society simply because of a change of government.
Mrs Bangura said that the recall was a part of her government’s plan to replace the ambassadors with career diplomats and make the Foreign Service “more civilized, better organized and more effective and efficient”. As weeks turned into months, and months into years, it became apparent that nothing could be further from the truth. If anything many of those who replaced the ambassadors were far less of career diplomats. Like it had always been, appointment into ambassadorial positions became a compensatory thing like most other appointments in Sierra Leone. So much so that our missions serve the party under which they are appointed and not the country and its people whom they really represent.
Western ambassadors more than just represent their president or the ruling party in their country of assignment. They work for their country and stand there for each and every one of their citizens. Appointment to diplomatic positions abroad is as political in Sierra Leone as it is deemed rewarding. A few years ago, a group of visiting Labour MPs was in Sierra Leone. They called to have a chat with me at the Alex’s Beach bar and it was impressive how the British High Commissioner here provided them with full honours and assistance. A visiting opposition leader from a civilized country is accorded assistance and facilitation by his embassy staff. But an opposition leader from Sierra Leone to another country is derided by embassy staff there who would not want to be seen to be having anything to do with him.
Democracy is the best gift any Western diplomat can leave with the people of a nation where democracy is grappling and where people worship their leaders out of fear and the leaders use fear to terrorise the masses. In the words of Thomas Jefferson: “When the people fear the government there is tyranny. When the government fears the people there is liberty”.
President Ernest Bai Koroma is now set to have the third US ambassador and the third British high commissioner to Sierra Leone. It underscores the orderliness with which those countries handle their foreign postings. It shows how their ambassadors and other diplomats serve their countries and not the party in power. It shows how people are appointed with civility. Their ambassadors are deployed on a fixed term basis. It does not matter whether elections are held back home and which party wins their diplomats are clear on when to take up office and when their term ends. So when there are elections back home, they do not have to return to campaign blatantly for their political survival. It is not about time that Sierra Leone brought some order into its foreign postings so that our ambassadors and diplomats would be there for all Sierra Leoneans regardless of their political persuasion? Is the time not now ripe for us to send ambassadors on a fixed term basis so that regardless of elections back home they are assured of their job? In other words, is it not time for us to be decent and implement that Foreign Service posting Zainab Bangura was talking about even if she did not mean it? It is time for some order and orderliness in our order abroad.
© Politico 30/07/13
