By Ibrahim Tommy
Sierra Leone is on the verge of losing its next generation of female professionals, thanks to the increasing rate of pregnancy among young girls, particularly in the countryside.
The country’s illiteracy rate is among the highest in the world – about two-thirds of the population – and women constitute the vast majority of the illiterate lot. This perhaps partly explains why, in spite of purposeful advocacy to increase women’s representation in critical governance institutions in the country, the current level of female representation in governance is embarrassing and pathetic, to say the least.
There is a strong correlation, in my opinion, between education and economic empowerment. On balance, people who are functionally educated are more likely to get access to, and manage financial resources efficiently. Economic empowerment somewhat translates into political representation, and perhaps nowhere in the world is this a reality
than in Sierra Leone. Although women constitute the majority of the population, they are poorer and remain grossly underrepresented in critical decision-making institutions.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report 2004 (http://www.sierraleonetrc.org) identified the exclusion of large sections of the population from decision-making processes as one of the causes of Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil war.
While the landscape of female representation in governance is gradually changing, a lot more needs to be done. Until 2008, for example, there was no female councilor in the entire Koinadugu District Council. The last parliament (2007 -2012) had only 17 women out of 124 members of Parliament. There is currently no full time female minister, following the resignation of former Health Minister Zainab Bangura. One only needs to look at the leaderships of academic and financial institutions in the country to get a clearer picture of how women continue to lag behind in terms of representation in key institutions. There is only one female managing director of a commercial bank in the entire country, and I am still struggling to remember the last time a woman headed anyone of the Sierra Leone’s university institutions.
In light of the foregoing embarrassing facts, one would have hoped that the trajectory was showing positive and clear signs for the future. Unfortunately, no! Thanks to a band of unregulated motorcycle (OKADA) riders that has exploded in the country in the last decade, girls as young as 11 years are getting impregnated mostly by motorcycle riders in rural communities. But the weak social and economic infrastructure in the country may very well be creating the enabling environment.
In other words poverty, illiteracy and underdevelopment are basically conspiring against the future of young Sierra Leonean girls. Access to schools and basic social services is a hassle in Sierra Leone, and it has reached probably crisis proportions in the rural areas. Limited access to basic social and economic services exacerbates poverty, and forecloses affected sections of the population from achieving their dreams. This is precisely the case in many parts of the country, and it is now playing into the callous and mischievous hands of OKADA riders.
In some communities such as Mateneh Village in the Bombali District, children walk for at least four miles to access the nearest senior secondary school. In a community where formal education has had literally no practical, positive effect on its inhabitants, it takes some convincing for a young child to cover eight miles every week day to shuttle from home to school and back. On some days, particularly during off-season, many children walk to school on empty stomach. Spare a thought for this child who then comes across an OKADA rider, probably old enough to be her dad, but is willing to provide money and free school ride in exchange for sex. The result, as we found out recently, is obvious: the girls are giving in to the sexual demands of OKADA riders. This has had a huge increase in the number of teen pregnancies to the extent that some communities are planning on either banning OKADAs or organizing community groups to help clamp down on the scourge of teenage pregnancy.
It is not OKADA riders alone. School boys are also responsible for some of the pregnancies. In some chiefdoms, therefore, bye-laws that seek to stem the rising rate of child pregnancy have been developed. Some of the provisions are as stiff as they are sensible. In the Tikonko Chiefdom, for example, any school boy who impregnates a school girl
must also stop school and wait until the girl is able to resume schooling. The chiefs say it is a retributive mechanism that seeks to discourage school boys from unprotected sex, and ensure that parents are keeping tabs on the activities of their sons. What probably jolted the chiefs of Tikonko into action was after they failed to find female university graduate who hails from the chiefdom to head an ultra modern boarding school for girls which had been constructed
in the chiefdom by a charity.
The Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law is currently implementing two ENCISS and Trocaire-funded projects aimed at enhancing access to justice and reducing sexual and gender-based violence in the Bo and Bombali Districts, respectively. These projects require me to undertake periodic monitoring visits in order to interact with beneficiaries,
listen to their concerns, and get a sense of how the project implementation is coming on. In the last couple of weeks I visited at least eight villages in the Bo and Bombali Districts. These visits gave me a fantastic opportunity to meet with ordinary men and women who toil everyday to take care of their families. Parents who till the land as well as those who undertake small scale businesses. I also got a chance to meet with those who seem to have been preoccupied with thoughts of how to protect their daughters from the disrupting influence of OKADA riders. Many parents told me of how their daughters have prematurely left school because of some unplanned pregnancy caused by an OKADA rider.
In each community, I counted at least five “girl mothers” who were still young enough to be in primary school. Each parent sounded helpless in the face of the latest onslaught, as I could clearly guess how bleak the future of their children and grandchildren would be if something was not done almost immediately to salvage their communtiies. Clearly, they need help – not only in terms of reversing the current trend of rising “OKADA babies”, but also in terms of providing social and economic services. There is need to build more schools in small communities, train teachers and pay them salaries lucrative enough to pull them towards rural communities. Perhaps, the Ministry of Education should think of a system that ensures teachers are rotated periodically just as police officers or civil servants are. This
would help address some of the physical barriers to accessing education, which in some ways, are now contributing to the rising spate of teen pregnancy.
We can’t afford to focus only on the kids in the big cities. We have to make learning a reality and attractive in rural communities. Laws relating to non-consensual sex need to be enforced. Thankfully, a Sexual Offences Act that criminalizes sex with girls under the age of 18 years has been passed. Like with most laws in Sierra Leone, implementation will be a key challenge. Therefore, law enforcement and justice agencies will need to step up their energy and commitment levels to be sure that those who clearly breach the law are brought to justice. Communities also have a role of play. They’ve got to be more watchful and protective of their kids.
If Sierra Leone is genuinely committed to meeting the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the one relating to education, the Sierra Leone government needs to focus on promoting basic education at the rural level. It needs to build more schools to create easy access, but more than just constructing the buildings, we need motivated and well-trained teachers. Otherwise, we’ll wake up one day and not find any girl from Mafoita and Makeni Lol in the North or Nyandehun and Bundorbu in the South. OKADAs are a special type of menace for residents of Freetown, and in the provinces, they are busy exploiting an unfortunate situation by “producing” mothers who should otherwise be going to school. Something needs to be done about it almost immediately, I plead.
Ibrahim Tommy is the Executive Director of Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law – Sierra Leone
