By Isaac Massaquoi
Consider
the ten political parties and their numerous supporters; consider the
many journalists travelling up and down this country with them;
consider all those civil society groups who are undertaking all sorts
of projects related to this election; consider all the Election
Observers – local and international; consider all the money going
into holding rallies and mobilising supporters; consider the
hostility now being generated between and among even blood relations
and hitherto close friends and then ask this question: Why are they
all so interested? The answer you get will unmask whatever is hidden
behind the façade to reveal the true faces of November 2012.
Let’s
start with Ernest Bai Koroma and Julius Maada Bio. For them election
2012 is nothing more than getting hold of state power and with that
control the people and their resources. That’s what elections are
really about for many politicians; whether they are in Africa,
Europe, Asia or the Americas, they are out looking for power.
You
must have noticed that I confined myself to only two parties – APC
and SLPP. The truth is, in 2012 only the two have any realistic
chance of taking State House. Some people won’t like me saying this
but that’s what I think will happen. I am prepared to witness a
strong political earthquake because somehow I believe both big
parties will only seriously reform their attitude to governance when
they are taught a good political lesson at the polls.
Politicians
from both the ruling and opposition parties normally put on a brave
face in public places but deep inside they are being consumed by
anxiety and the fear of being defeated and thrown out of office
remaining in opposition for a long time. In this part of the world
the inconveniences that come with that are too hard to fathom. It’s
not easy. This should help us understand why the stakes are so high –
why many believe their own party must win or they are doomed. That’s
an extremely bad situation to put oneself in a contest as fluid as
the coming elections.
For
ordinary people who know that for them it’s a daily struggle to
survive there’s a point at which their survival skills become
well-honed and they just get on with it. But for Presidents,
Ministers, those Special Assistants, government contractors, when
they lose their jobs, they start life all over again.
When
a minister is sacked, he is ordered to hand over without delay his
expensive official vehicle – all expenses paid – to the person
taking over from them. The former minister returns to his Peugeot 504
and because his weekly fuel allocation is wiped out, he queues up at
petrol stations. He is then told to move out of his official
residence and be at the mercy of ruthless estate agents and greedy
house owners in Freetown who ask to be paid in US dollars. All his
staff including driver, gardener and cook, are withdrawn. All those
Special Assistants who hang around the big man with their YELIBA
(praising-singing) habits melt away fast. Those colleague ministers
who manage to survive the re-shuffle soon refuse to pick his calls
and all friends in high places also pull back. Suddenly, our former
minister has become a burden unto them.
Next,
look for the former minister trying to be a normal person again. It’s
a sight to behold. Now he begins to call his real friends again or
even visit them. For five years he refused to talk to them. The
secretaries are trained to say “the big man is in a meeting”. All
those meetings are ended rather abruptly and our man becomes
accessible again.
Do
you now see why some people resort to violence to keep their
positions in government? Against all reasonable calculations, some of
them continue to believe that their parties will stay on in office
hence prepare no Plan B. Politicians are a breed apart.
Civil
Society Groups
Civil
society people love elections. Left with them alone, there will be
elections every year. These are the people who give the elections all
sorts of characterization. Look at what they have been saying about
Election 2012. This is the “most crucial” election ever; it’s
“a make or break election” for this country; “this election
could be marred by violence” and “marginalized women need special
consideration.”
The
next moment they are writing some of the best project proposals,
asking for huge amounts of money to tackle these “challenges”
facing the country in the interest of “democracy and good
governance.” With the massive improvement in technology, hundreds
of press releases are issued on a daily basis about everything,
ranging from the possibility of stray pigs at Kroo Bay joining
political rallies and ending up as pork chops on somebody’s dinner
table to the inability of a political party full of charlatans to
speak a language the people understand.
Inevitably,
the press releases land on the tables of editors of the many
news-hungry media groups we have in Sierra Leone. The elementary
rules of handling a press release are broken many times by the desire
to fill airtime and space. I am not teaching journalism here but just
read some of the papers and give me a call.
So
a press release that says nothing and lacking any true relevance to
the big national questions, takes centre stage for at least 24 hours.
Watch when a talkative politician who’s clutching at straws
suddenly decides he needs the votes of Kroo Bay people. He becomes a
PIG RIGHTS ACTIVIST. He hurriedly calls a news conference and appears
on breakfast programs advocating for people to stop eating pork
because as Joe Hill says “they take their teeth cut their throat”.
The
Media
Election
time is also good for many ordinary journalists. All sorts of groups
dig out money from underneath the Atlantic Ocean to organize one of
those many feel-good training exercises in elections reporting. The
journalists and their trainers collect small amounts of money to keep
life moving. This workshop culture is becoming the biggest stumbling
block to comprehensive, well-thought out media training programs in
Sierra Leone. No matter what SLAJ says these workshops remain largely
uncoordinated, with disjointed training modules and programme
objectives.
A
media trainer was once brought to Freetown for an elections training
program. He is a good journalist but he wasn’t really prepared for
the job. But he needed the $ 5,000, tax-free pay, and five days
all-expenses-paid trip, hotel and food. As his local counterpart
getting a very disgraceful percentage of the visitor’s fees, I
found myself doing more than I had bargained for. I didn’t want the
participants to die of boredom.
Then
there’s the international news coverage of African elections. On
Election Day coverage is about high or low turnout; it’s about
political violence; it’s about accepting the result; it’s
congratulating the people for voting peacefully, as if they are
dealing with vandals – very patronising coverage indeed. This is
mainly the job of our colleagues who land in Freetown on parachute
and begin to report even before their backpacks are put into their
hotel rooms.
So
for example you will hear them say “many Sierra Leoneans believe
that bla, bla, bla.” Those Sierra Leoneans are mostly found in the
taxi cab that drove them to the hotel.
They
spend all their time with election observers from around the world
who come in about a week before the election and leave before the
results are declared with their verdict.
It
is so predictable these days – the opposition will cry foul and the
observers will agree that some rigging did take place but it “is
not enough to affect the final outcome.” In other cases, they will
declare the elections out of touch with democracy – certainly
neither free nor fair.
I
can’t even remember what they said about that dynastic succession
in Gabon, as bloody as it was. Ali Ben Bongo is a big statesman in
Africa, hosted in France by the defeated Sarkozy. Laurent Gbagbo is
not so lucky. Charles Taylor pushed his luck too far. Issayas
Aferworki, the meddlesome guy in the horn of Africa will have the
same fate as Charles Taylor. He’s been in office for very long
without asking his people for a fresh mandate. He needs to keep them
in fear of a non-existent enemy to control them. He is losing that
enemy in Somalia.
Now
the election is over and everyday journalists will flock to British
Council to hear Christiana Thorpe announce 5% of the result. Next
day, another 5%, and then 15%. Meanwhile Independent Radio Network
will be hammering away with results from polling stations, which soon
make no sense with the caveat, “these are only provisional results”
and no percentage points given.
After
three weeks, Christiana Thorpe will announce the final result, which
would have been known on the streets anyway in advance. I just hope
the biometric system will help speed up counting. Three weeks will be
difficult to accept this time. Senegal has twice more voters than
Sierra Leone and it’s just one hour away by air. They were finished
within 48 hours. We must do the same.
While
we wait for NEC to announce the result, the whole country will grind
to a halt. Government offices will be empty, colleges will go slow,
things will be in the wrong places. Speculation about everything will
be the favourite pastime and the economy will suffer badly. Sierra
Leone’s political transition process is messy and leaves a lot of
gaps in governance. Ernest Bai Koroma tried to work his way out of it
but he could have gone one step ahead by putting in place a
Transition Act.
On
the first day of parliament all the MP’s turn up in their party
colours, further dividing the country along party and colour lines by
that symbolic show of partisan loyalty inside the people’s
assembly. How about those people whose parties do not cross the
threshold, are they not supposed to be represented by those sitting
there?
While
all this is happening, the ordinary people are getting ready to start
another round of grumbling that will last for five years. The more I
think about this ritual we call elections, the more I am completely
disillusioned with the whole thing.
