An essential ingredient in the education of any nation is the reading culture. That is epitomised by the availability and smooth-running of especially its public library system. The arguments and grumblings have been going on that the standard of education is on a downward
spiral in Sierra Leone. Where else to look for for a remedy than the classrooms and the libraries. As Madini Bash-Thomas writes for POLITICO, our national library is in limbo, and unless urgent steps are taken, things will get far worse before they ever get better.
The Sierra Leone Library Board can conveniently be said to be an endangered species of a Parastatal. It is supposed to be contributing substantially in the educational, cultural and information development of the nation. This can however not happen where there is deep-rooted mismanagement, made worse by dictatorial and parochial decisions taken not too long ago by the current Minister of Education, Dr Minkailu Bah.
Imposed by Dr Minkailu Bah as Chief Librarian at the Sierra Leone Library is a man quietly referred to by many of his staff as “Our Little Emperor”. It is the first time a virtually non-librarian is heading that institution of professionals.
Sallieu Turay has a 6-7-month long postgraduate diploma in library studies, a lowly-rated qualification by any standard. But first to the genesis of the story:
The Sierra Leone Library Board was equipped with a highly-qualified British-trained professional fashion. There were reading, debate and
quiz competitions among schools, clubs and other groups, adult education, etc. across the country. There was also satellite television complete with educational and football programmes at the headquarters.
My reasonable knowledge of the library gained through my interaction with the library environment as a researcher and a long-time reader
dating back to the early 1990’s gave me the opportunity to meet and make friends with mostly the front line staff and numerous fellow readers. All the facilities once accessible in the library are now a thing of the past, making the Sierra Leone Library Board a shadow of its former self. After the phasing-out of the highly professional two-year British diploma staff cadre in the leadership – due to retirement – at different times, it became the new convention to match with Commonwealth standards, that the positions of Chief Librarian and Deputy Chief Librarian could now be filled in only by people who with a Master's degree or an experienced person with the Honours degree in the library profession.
Anyone lacking these qualifications could only occupy the offices in an acting capacity until a qualified professional was recruited. This meant putting out an advert to be sure such a person does not exist within. The practice did indeed start with the assumption of the position of Deputy Chief, and then Chief Librarian by Victor Coker, a result-oriented professional.
Coker became the first Master's degree holder to head the public library in Sierra Leone. Before then he had worked overseas as a United Nations’ public librarian and some reasonable number of years at the Sierra Leone Library Board.
With the very close relationship with their stalwart, now late UMC Rev. Isaac Ken-Greene, the then Sierra Leone People’s Party appointed
him chairman of the Board. Sallieu Turay was appointed Deputy Chief Librarian throwing overboard the new line of intellectual and professional thinking on the succession. This was at a time when there were already many qualified librarians at the Sierra Leone Library Board. The guy, Sallieu effectively used his political connection.
Coker’s term was extended for a year, so he could set the machinery in motion as per a new thinking for his successor. The Reverend whose term had actually ended, and was now a caretaker, had died a few months earlier. This means the Board was now an interim body headed by a man named only as Deen, also an SLPP stalwart and a close friend of Turay's.
All this was during the months running to elections in 2007. It was rumoured that Turay had even already been promised the top position
by his party friends if the SLPP won. This did not happen. It was not good news for him. It was therefore time for new strategies.
The unsuspecting new Minister, Minkailu Bah took over the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Luckily for Turay, one of the new minister’s right-hand men was a former teacher colleague of Turay's in one of Freetown’s eastern schools. The first thing he succeeded
in doing was to see that Coker’s extension be abrogated by the Minister; hence Turay became the Acting Chief Librarian of the Sierra Leone Library Board.
You can give this to Minkailu, that he was apparently innocent at the time. This could be seen in his immediate regularization of the Board
by appointing an internationally-distinguished professor of library education as the new chairman of the Board, and most of the other members were renowned librarians, including the Director of the Institute of Library and Information at Fourah Bay College.
The first major decision faced by the professor and his new Board was to regularize the position of Chief Librarian as per new thinking. The
distinguished ladies and gentlemen knew little that that position was a minefield – a no-go area. There was somebody whose vested interest was to invest in it, and that he was apparently busy pouring different forms of capital in the investment.
The Board, which had the mayors of Freetown, Bo, Kenema and Makeni, and other appointees as members as per the Sierra Leone Library Board Ordinance of 1959, sat to deliberate on the filling-in of the three key positions – Chief Librarian, Deputy Chief Librarian and Principal
Librarian. The position of Chief was to be treated first. Turay, as the now Acting Chief Librarian, was thus the Acting Secretary to the Board. As what was clearly part of the investment, some non-professional members of the Board stoutly pushed for non-consideration for any other person and that no advertisement was to be made for the position, contrary to what is stated in the Act. The professionals stood their ground, that it was a profession; therefore ethics must be maintained; that the best person should be sought.
A compromise was struck that instead of looking within for a qualified person an advert was to be put out. A question which had been settled long ago came up again for bitter argument, again introduced by the same two non-professionals. The argument? That the qualification was to be a Master's degree holder from any profession. Note, it should be reiterated that this was at a time when many qualified librarians were already available both within and without the Sierra Leone Library Board. Meanwhile Turay had earlier gone to Njala College, not under Prof. Abu Sesay’s regime, to study for a classroom-related master's degree in Educational Administration. The professionals were again too tough. The qualification stood at a Master's degree in Library, Archive and Information Studies (MLAIS), not MEA.
Turay as Secretary was to put out the advert. He did but in very few newspapers, and one of the applicants said that he saw two different dates as deadline for submission of applications. Applications were received by Turay on behalf of the Board. He himself applied, notwithstanding his qualification, or the lack thereof.
About this time, an issue of missing books under the supervision of Turay came up. They were books coming in periodically in containers from the United States book charity organization, Children International. It must also be noted that Turay, whilst fighting for the chief librarianship of the Sierra Leone Library Board, had also registered an American-related book sales outfit as an NGO, called Book Trust.
(That’s completely another story on its own).
The Minister suspended the interview, ostensibly to carry out an investigation. The Board carried out an independent investigation. Action was taken by the Board in tandem with the Board’s conditions of service that affected Turay. One of such actions was demotion (in a way being in line with the informed impression of the Board that he had behaved unprofessionally, so could morally and professionally not hold the position of Deputy nor Chief). To their shock, Minister Minkailu Bah ordered the Board to reinstate Sallieu Turay, failing which he threatened to sack them.
The professor and his Board, though appointed by the Minister could not fathom such seeming compromise of ethics from a minister they had thought represented a new Sierra Leone. They sought audience with Dr Bah. After sitting for ages at his waiting room, he saw them only to give a stronger order that Turay must be reinstated or he would sack them. There was an exchange of mails between the two parties. The result: the minister’s hammer came down – he sacked all the professionals. In the professor’s place, he appointed as Chairman, Professor Gbamanja, who is also one of the Chancellors at the University of Sierra Leone, Head of Postgraduate, etc., etc..
Gbamanja in no time confirmed Sallieu Turay as Chief Librarian. He also allotted a monthly salary to himself (not sure if such chairmen are entitled to salary or sitting fees). Recently, from the decentralization policy funds put aside for library development, at the Freetown City
Council, Turay bought a new official jeep, even though there is another recently-bought jeep and an old Land Rover. This one is for his personal use as he even refused to mark the institution’s name on it like was done with first one.
It is understood that Alim Sesay, aka Awoko, of the Government Assets Commission was after him to do that. This jeep was bought at the expense of low staff salaries, no useful books in the libraries across the country, and very low public library activities. Misplaced priority, you would say.
As for the US book charity, Children International, they withdrew their massive aid as soon as they learnt that Turay was now the substantive head of the library. A lot is happening at library headquarters these days, with the Byzantine emperor shouting at and intimidating the staff, mass recruitment of unqualified staff, opaque accountability, conflict of interest, nepotism, especially in favour of some female staff. The questions that come to mind include: is Dr Minkailu Bah impressed with this? Is this the legacy he is bequeathing to the children and people of this nation? Does he count this decision of his as part of his contribution to the Agenda for Change? Until the issue at
national library are addresse, any plans for an educated generation will die even before it is put to bed.
Madini Bash-Thomas is a Researcher. Email: thombash@yahoo.com
