SIERRA LEONE: Deforestation Leaves Poor Vulnerable to Landslides

June 6, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Abdul Samba Brima and Jessica McDiarmid

FREETOWN, June 6, 2011 (IPS) – Samuel Weekes remembers when the hills stretching out beyond the heart of Freetown were green.

"Fifteen, 20 years ago, those hills were covered in trees. Today, most those trees have been cut down, mostly for housing purposes," says Weekes, the director of population studies at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone’s capital city.

Freetown is wedged between the Atlantic Ocean and steep hills leading inland. On the hills around the city, homes cling to steep slopes, some held together by "packings" – as the locals refer to the makeshift terracing. There are no roads here, only steep paths held together with stones. In some areas, residents have to literally scramble up to the next level of terrace.

In a community near the university, two infants were killed when a boulder came loose from the slope above and crashed through their house last year. But resident Ibrahim Conteh says they don’t know of any building codes they should follow to erect their homes safely.

"Heavy rain can come and just pass through the house and cause accidents to happen," he says, standing near a three-metre drop to the roof of a house below. "We try our best to make sure we put in place things to try make sure no bad things happen."

"People find it difficult to find a place to live, so they come here."

When they want to build, says Thaimu Turay, they clear off the trees, break the stone and make packings. "No one tells us how or where to put our structures," he says. Weekes says government needs to plan carefully and enforce existing regulations limiting the amount of building that can happen on hillsides.

"How much of that is being done, I don’t know," he says. "Government has to be very proactive to set limits beyond which they should not go and those limits have to be closely monitored."

Yet as the city’s population balloons to well over a million people – exact figures are not known – space is becoming ever harder to find. More and more people are clearing to make way for homes – some grand mansions, others no more than a few sheets of tin pieced together – raising fears of landslides and other calamities as development spreads unchecked up the mountainsides. Those fears are fresh on people’s minds now as the rainy season’s daily deluges begin.

Weekes attributes the burgeoning crisis to unbridled population growth and rural-urban migration, as thousands flock to the city in hopes of better opportunities. Part of that is due to what Weekes calls "skewed development."

"There’s a vast difference between Freetown and other urban and rural areas," says Weekes, sitting in his office at West Africa’s oldest Western-style university. "If you can improve development in other urban areas and in rural areas, you might be able to relieve some of the stress on Freetown."

Dr Kolleh Bangura, the director of Sierra Leone’s Environment Protection Agency, says the growing population is forcing people to build on the hills, with little regard to building regulations.

There are zones where construction is banned, but "there is no respect for these green belt areas," says Bangura.

He says it’s difficult to control the building, despite the dangers it poses, citing the "politicisation" of the issue and the brutal murder several years ago of a lands official who went to demolish illegal structures on a hillside.

The government puts little pressure on those carving up the hills now, says Bangura, who warns laws must be revisited and resources expanded to deal with the growing population.

Experts warn that if growth continues at its current rate, "serious problems" will beset this city, not just with loss of forest cover, but sanitation, water and electricity supply and other infrastructure, which is already hugely lacking.

Freetown is far from alone when it comes to the scramble to find space for ever-burgeoning populations on inhospitable terrain. From Pakistan to the United States to the Philippines, people are settling on steep ground, with sometimes devastating consequences.

Weekes attributes the burgeoning crisis to unbridled population growth and rural-urban migration, as thousands flock to the city in hopes of better opportunities. Part of that is due to what he calls "skewed development."

"There’s a vast difference between Freetown and other urban and rural areas," says Weekes, sitting in his office at West Africa’s oldest Western-style university. "If you can improve development in other urban areas and in rural areas, you might be able to relieve some of the stress on Freetown."

Cyril Mattia, spokesperson for Freetown City Council, says Sierra Leone’s civil war, which ended in 2002, brought many people to the city. Some never left. The growing population, he says, is "destroying the very fabric of the municipality."

Mattia says many of the structures carved out of the hillsides are not authorised.

He says the bulk of responsibility for planning and enforcement of the city lies with the national government, but the municipality works on "sensitisation" to encourage people to avoid unsafe areas.

"Most of the land has been encroached upon and they are very hard to remove because of political reasons," says Mattia. "We have huge rainfall in this country and people are also playing with the soil.

"Eventually disaster will occur."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Development, Environment, Report Tagged With: , ,

SIERRA LEONE: Growing Pains for Local Councils

May 2, 2011 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Mohamed Fofanah

FREETOWN, May 2, 2011 (IPS) – He was all over the place during the 2008 local council election campaign, but no one’s seen the councillor since he won his seat, says Freetown journalist Ismael Bakarr. "He just disappeared."

Bakarr, a resident of ward 106 in the Sierra Leonean capital, says candidates across the country promised to accomplish things once elected that have proved beyond their powers as ward councillors.

"[Our councillor] promised to bring pipe-borne water to the area and there is still nothing," says the journalist. "We had a power outage for over three months but the councillor was nowhere to be seen."

Local governance not built in a day

Sierra Leone re-introduced local government councils in 2004 after a 30-year absence; the experience of the last six years is prompting questions about how to successfully introduce effective democratic authority and responsiveness at the local level in a country where few have experience of active participation in governance.

Devolution of responsibility to local councils is behind schedule, with responsibility for key services such as water and waste management and infrastructure like roads among the important areas remaining under the central government’s control.

Traditional chiefs are also proving reluctant to yield their long-standing control over collecting and spending local taxes to the new authorities.

All this has weakened the power of councils to make their presence felt. But the problem is compounded by weak capacity of councillors and ward committees elected to represent different parts of each local council.

Better understanding the problems

Campaign for the Voiceless is a national non-governmental organisation working on improving the quality of – and interest in – social accountability in Sierra Leone. Supported by the Governance and Transparency Fund of the UK Department for International Development, CAMPVO has carried out a public perception survey to capture the challenges, gaps and possible solutions to problems faced by local councils from the point of view of the people they are meant to serve.

The survey found that councillors fail to organise community meetings to discuss development, provide updates on needed services or to solicit constituents’ views on issues.

CAMPVO director Mohamed Turay confirms Bakarr’s view that councillors and constituents alike are still not clear what the roles and responsibilities of local government are.

"[Citizens] do not seem to know, for example, where to turn to when there is an outbreak of disease in the community or what to do when there is a water or security crisis," says Turay.

"The effect is a personalisation or privatisation of action by individuals and families in response to these community needs."

A recent power outage in the New England Ville area of Freetown due to a faulty transformer illustrates this finding. Instead of the local councillor leading the process of restoring electricity, it was family heads who went around the community, pooled resources and bought a replacement transformer – unwilling to wait for the National Power Authority to take ages to replace it.

Councillors defensive

"We have to be invisible," says Councillor Michael Bayoh of Constituency 246, in the Tinkonko Chiefdom of the rural district of Bo, "because to call a meeting means that people will be expected to be refreshed [to be given food and drink] and most times we do not have the money to do that."

The challenge is that Sierra Leoneans are still feeling out the strengths and weaknesses of a new level of government. The majority of councillors are poorly educated and unemployed; in many cases they imagined election to local council as a way out of poverty. But the post comes without a salary; instead councillors are now viewed by their constituents as politicians – meaning rich.

"Councillors are only receiving a meagre sitting fee of three hundred thousand leones (about 70 dollars) per month and these monies are paid on a quarterly basis… and are always late," says Remi Martin, a councillor in ward 250 in the Lugbu Chiefdom, also in Bo District.

"We are not being paid salaries and most times people have this concept that we are politicians and very rich so there is all kinds of demands from us, from financing community projects to domestic expenses."

Bayoh agrees. "The expectation of people is really a challenge for us and when you do not meet those expectations you begin to dig your own grave for the next council election. The people will surely bury you."

The councillor told IPS that working with his ward committee is also hampered by lack of resources.

"They are not given travel allowances to attend meetings – especially when the town or sections they represent are far from the district council. They in turn expect us to handle all their expenses and we cannot. So most times, a whole year will pass and we are unable to meet."

Future success

Yet the example of New England Ville residents raising their own funds for repairs demonstrates that local leadership and resources can be mobilised for community needs. The trick may be to replace exaggerated expectations of this level of government with the slow building up of popular confidence in local government in keeping with its gradual consolidation.

The Decentralisation Secretariat, the national body charged with designing and implementing local government, has introduced new minimum standards of education for councillors, as well as providing training and technical staff to help councils go about their tasks.

Having completed its survey, CAMPVO is now working to improve engagement between councils and citizens. This should go some way towards aligning people’s expectations with the real powers and capabilities of their local councils and councillors.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2011.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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Chinese Aid Bringing Smiles to Sierra Leone Farmers

October 23, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Mohamed Fofanah

FREETOWN, Oct 22, 2010 (IPS) – "I think I am successful now," says Fanta Jabbah. "I am able to take care of my three children and support my husband; now I have a say in my household."

Jabbah is the chair of a 26-member organisation of farmers in Lumley, just outside the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown. With support from the Wuhan Municipal Foreign Co-operation (WMFC), she has gone from growing food just to feed her family, to a farmer who sold rice to the government to support farmers in other parts of the country.

The WMFC is a Chinese government aid project which is improving the agricultural output of groups like Jabbah’s in Freetown, as well as others around the cities of Bo and Kenema. The project has provided hybrid rice and fertiliser, as well as access to power tillers, combined harvesters and a rice mill.

A translator is an essential part of the team, and the Sierra Leone government has taken care to organise further translation into local languages so to facilitate the sharing of farming techniques.

"The Chinese people gave us this new rice and they came with their big machines to plough the land," says Jabbah. "Then they told us that when we sow the seeds we should cover it up and that we should not do heaps but sow on the flat land."

The Lumley group were dubious, but it took only a single growing season to overcome this.

"We were skeptical because previously we would make several heaps and then throw the rice seeds on them and leave them to grow and then hope and pray it turns out well. But when we experimented with the Chinese way of doing things, we realized that the rice was doing better than what we used to sow in our own way," said Jabbah.

Comprehensive support

Xie Yu Fei, who is coordinating the WMFC in Freetown, told IPS that the idea is holistic support for the groups they are working with. "We take them through the planting season up to post-harvest stages."

The techniques being shared are basic, he says. "We show them how to apply fertilisers, how to space their crops – especially rice – and how to sanitise their farms. Previously they would just weed on the farm and leave weeds and other debris around the farm and this brings in bacteria that destroy their crops.

WMFC’s technicians also advise the local farmers on the best time to plant various crops.

Claudius Farnnel, the agriculture ministry’s extension supervisor for the Freetown urban area, says other development partners have operated farmer field schools similar to the Chinese demonstration farms. "However their projects are not sustainable they start for 3-4 months engage farmers, then everything stops, and their support, in terms of inputs is relatively small," he said.

He added that the Chinese have proved willing to provide long-term support, as well as targeting local associations of farmers. The WFMC has invested just under $800,000 in assistance.

He is optimistic that such support can reduce Sierra Leone’s dependence on imports of rice. Rice is the country’s staple food, and the government is encouraging its production to preserve valuable foreign exchange for other needs and bring the price paid by consumers in the country down. A 50-kg bag of rice is presently sold for 120 leones – about 45 dollars.

Farnnel noted that in the peri-urban areas around Freetown, there remains the problem of finding adequate land for extensive rice cultivation.

High-yielding hybrids are part of making the most of limited space. Last year, Farnnell says, the demonstration plot at Ogoo Farm location in Freetown was planted with a rice variety called Yanshualuohao. It’s performance was outstanding, yielding 4.5 tonnes per hectare – two to three times more than a typical yield.

This variety has now been widely distributed to farmers around the capital.

Beyond the farm gate

Chinese assistance in processing harvested rice has also been essential.

"It would have been a major problem for us if we did not have the rice mill," said Aminata Mandowa, another beneficiary of the Lumley agricultural station. "With the bumper harvest, most of the rice would be spoilt, but the Chinese [milled] the rice for us on a cost-recovery basis and that has enabled us to take it to the market and sell easily."

Fei said that his programme’s support is not limited to farmer-based organisations. Every year since 2005, 30 or more farmers and Ministry of Agriculture officials have been sent to China to study agronomy and acquire practical skills.

"The Chinese had made tremendous impact in the agricultural sector in the country," said the Public Information Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, Mohamed Conteh. "They are manning the rice research station in Rokupr in the Kambia district. And that research station had been helping in shaping the country’s rice production."

He told IPS that Chinese agriculture experts are present all over the country and have also been helping the government and individual farmers with production of sugar cane at the Magbass sugar complex in Magburaka, in the north of the country.

"This Chinese aid is actually touching on the lives of Sierra Leoneans," Jabbah says. "I am now looking for a bigger [piece of] land [to buy] with proceeds from previous yields to expand my rice farming. I thank the Chinese so much for helping me stand on my feet, I hope they continue to stay and help many other Sierra Leoneans."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Agriculture, Development, Report Tagged With: , ,

SIERRA LEONE: Unfulfilled Promise of Free Maternal Health Care for Mothers

October 17, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Mohamed Fofanah

FREETOWN, Oct 16, 2010 (IPS) – Marie Musa, 37, is devastated. After the mother of four gave premature birth, her baby boy died a few hours later – because the hospital did not have enough incubators to rescue the infant.

Musa, a fishmonger who lives in the slum community of Susan’s Bay, east of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, complains bitterly about the severe lack of resources at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital, Freetown’s main public health facility: "Nobody could do anything to help my baby".

Aminata Sesay, one of the hospital’s nursing sisters, explains the staff did everything they in their power, but without an incubator, there was nothing they could do save the infant. "It needed to be placed inside an incubator, and there was none available," she says, shrugging her shoulders.

The hospital has only three incubators, and all of them were already occupied on that day. The facility needs at least ten incubators to meet the demand, the nurse reckons.

Princess Christian Maternity Hospital’s resources are under continuous pressure. It’s 140 beds are always full, and women are routinely discharged early in order to make space for new admissions.

Resource shortage

In August, the same month that Musa’s baby died in hospital, James Bamie Davies, commissioner of the customs and excise department of Sierra Leone’s National Revenue Authority (NRA), announced in a government gazette an auction of medical appliances, including eight incubators.

According to the commissioner, the incubators were a private donation to the health ministry by a Sierra Leonean emigrant who works as a nursing manager at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. But after their arrival, the health ministry had failed to clear them from the quay.

NRA public information officer John Baimba Sesay told IPS the incubators were put up for auction in accordance with the Customs Act, which states that if goods are not cleared by customs within 30 days, they have to be auctioned.

Only the public outcry that followed the announcement of the auction in the gazette, did the Ministry of Health and Sanitation spring into action and recover the goods.

Dr Samuel Kargbo, director of the reproductive and child health programme of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, admits that the unavailability of equipment and infrastructure as well as the extensive bureaucracy within his department has hampered health care provision throughout the country.

It has also partially counter-acted the benefits of the free public health care services for children under the age of five as well as pregnant and lactating women, which government launched on 27 April in an attempt to reduce high child mortality rates in the country.

High child mortality

One in five children die before they reach the age of five in Sierra Leone, and one in eight women die during childbirth, according to the 2008 United Nations Human Development Index.

In the five months since the introduction of the new services, public health facilities have experienced critical challenges in implementing the new policy, as they lack skilled health personnel, particularly gynaecologists and nurses, notes Kargbo, adding that many hospitals throughout the country don’t have running water, electricity and generators.

According the national Ministry of Health, Sierra Leone, which as a population of 5.7 million, has only eight obstetrician-gynaecologists employed in the public health system and about the same number working in the private health sector.

There have also been serious allegations by civil society organisations that some patients are asked to pay for those services, even though they are free of charge.

Aminata Sesay told IPS that, to improve their salaries, some health workers try to extort money from women in labour who don’t have a choice but to pay if they want to be assisted.

Nurses’ salaries have been increased substantially by government after a countrywide strike action in May – from $35 a month to $130 a month – but health workers say this is still not enough for them to survive and to justify the long hours they are expected to work.

The cost for a bag of rice is about $30 and, considering the high cost of living and to settle utility bills, I think we need $500 a month," Sesay complains.

First successes

Despite his vocal criticism of the public health system, Kargbo highlights the fact that Sierra Leone is still trying to recover from its twelve-year civil war, which only ended in 2003. "It is a gradual process, and we have started to see a few successes in the five months after the free health care started," he notes.

"We have noted an increase in the utilisation of health facilities by over 80 percent, whilst it was at 30 percent before the free health care policy was introduced," Kargbo further explains, saying that only ten percent of women used to give birth in a hospital setting.

He promised the health department will focus on the swift implementation of the new health policy throughout the country and monitor quality of care: "We have instituted a mechanism to address complaints, and we have a monitoring team to see that the implementation of the health care policy moves smoothly."

Data collected in the countries’ twelve districts in the past five months show an overall drop in maternal and infant mortality rates, according to Abass Kamara, public relations officer at the Ministry of Health. Port Loko district in northern Sierra Leone, for example, counted only one maternal death per month since the introduction of the free health services, compared to an average of eight maternal deaths per month before, he says.

Karmara is optimistic that these are first signs for a continuous improvement of maternal and child mortality rates in Sierra Leone: "Things are beginning to look up."

Mayalie Bangura, 34, a teacher who lost her first child during childbirth, is one of the mothers who recently benefited from the new policy, when she was pregnant with her second baby. "After my water broke, my neighbours rushed me to the Satellite Clinic in Freetown. The nurses helped me during labour, gave me blood transfusion and other medicines," she recalls.

Says Bangura: "After a week, I was strong again and discharged with my healthy baby boy. I could not believe that I did not have to spend a single dime. Before, it would have cost me over 800,000 Leone [$200]."

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Gender, Health, Report Tagged With: , ,

A Place for Women in Sierra Leone’s Military

September 24, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS

By Mohamed Fofanah*

FREETOWN, Sep 23, 2010 (IPS) – A woman took position alongside male soldiers at the graveside of a fallen colleague. She positioned her AK47 on her shoulder, and on command fired into the grey sky with the others.

Mariatu Sesay became at that moment the first woman in the Sierra Leone army to take part in a 21-gun salute to honour a dead soldier.

Onlookers were not used to seeing women in such a role. Yet women are becoming a more common sight in the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), after a gender policy introduced to ensure equal opportunities, with support from the Accra-based Women Peace and Security Network (WISPEN) and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Sierra Leone is a patriarchal society where women and girls are subjected to structural discrimination by practice, custom and law. The subjugation of women was worsened by the 1991-2002 war and its aftermath. A 2004 report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) noted the army’s role in the systematic rape of women and girls as a strategy to sow terror.

But it is a changed army now. "We are breaking the boundaries and barriers that limit our women in the RSLAF," Chief of Defence Staff, Brigadier-General Robert Yira Koroma tells IPS. Koroma said the army has brought in flexible standards so women can clear the physical recruitment processes.

There are an estimated 300 women in the army, of a total troop strength of 8,500, says Col. Michael Samura, in charge of personnel. And they are stepping further and further.

"We have initially sent seven female soldiers to Darfur under the UN peacekeeping operations. For the next deployment we have prepared 20 female soldiers to be sent to Darfur. This I think is phenomenal, given the fact that it has never happened in the history of our army," Samura said. And Koroma says there are now four female platoon commanders.

The RSLAF is also putting a conducive workplace environment in place. "We have instituted a board to handle sexual harassment complaints," says Gen. Koroma. "We have also established a board responsible for promotion so no officer will be able to victimise any soldier, especially female soldiers. There is a chain of redress, so any soldier could exhaust this chain to seek relief."

The big challenge is recruitment. "There is still the problem of getting quality women to apply for the army," says Gen. Koroma. "A large proportion of women in this country are uneducated but the army cannot lower its standards in order to absorb more women." The educational requirement is a basic school certificate.

A senior secondary school certificate is required for officer posts.

Brigadier-General Kestoria Kabia, who is the first female combatant brigadier-general in the sub-region, tells IPS "we are trying to get as many women as possible who are interested in the army to join the force and also see to it that those who are already in the army operate under favourable conditions and are not discriminated against in any form, structurally or otherwise."

*This story was originally published by IPS TerraViva with the support of UNIFEM and the Dutch MDG3 Fund.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


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SIERRA LEONE: Anti-Corruption Campaign Nabs Top Officials

April 17, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Apr 17  (IPS)  – The crusade against corruption seems to be gathering momentum in this West African country, with the arrest and prosecution of senior government officials, including cabinet ministers.

The latest to be roped in by the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), is Afsatu Kabba, the then-Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, who is currently facing a 17-count indictment for graft and abuse of office. Kabba was sacked immediately the indictment was announced.

She was charged shortly after the conviction, in March, of another cabinet minister, Sheku Tejan Kamara, who was heading the Health and Sanitation ministry. Koroma was found guilty of awarding contracts to his cronies without opening them up to public tender. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment, but avoided jail by paying the alternative fine of $40,000.

At his inauguration in September 2007, President Ernest Bai Koroma announced a zero tolerance approach to corruption and vowed that public officials who engaged in graft would be arrested and prosecuted.

”No one, not even members of my family, will be spared (in this fight against corruption). There will be no sacred cows in my administration,” the president announced at the national stadium, in front of a crowd of more than 25,000, including foreign diplomats and donor representatives.

Within a year, he had strengthened the ACC, enabling it to take on cases without waiting from approval from the attorney-general or the justice ministry. The ACC also now has its own court and judges, separate from the normal judicial set-up. Before Koroma took office, prosecution of cases of corruption depended wholely on the whim of the attorney-general and there was seen to be major political interference in the operations of the ACC.

In March 2009, senior officials of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), who had allegedly colluded with Lebanese importers to under-value goods, were arrested and charged. The president personally ordered these arrests; along with officials from the country’s immigration department, who are accused of selling Sierra Leonean passports to foreign nationals, they are awaiting trial for corruption and attempting to defraud the state.

At the start of 2010, President Koroma summoned cabinet ministers, heads of parastatals and other government agencies to State House to warn them about endemic corruption in the public sector.

The president threatened to sack and prosecute anyone found wanting; this public warning seems to have emboldened the ACC’s head, Abdul Tejan-Cole, to address corruption without fear or favour.

Festus Minah, head of the Civil Society Movement of Sierra Leone, is pleased by the new vigour with which corruption is being routed out. He finds the ACC is now more receptive to partnership with civil society, including gathering cases of suspected graft.

”It is only now that we are seeing cabinet ministers and high profile public officials arrested and prosecuted. What was lacking before was the political will and so the fight against graft was jettisoned by interference from the executive arm of government.”

This view is widely shared. Retired civil servant Mary Johnson says, ”The prosecution of senior government officials and public workers on corruption charges send out the right signal, that the president is determined to rout out this cancer from our society. He must be supported by all Sierra Leoneans.”

The ACC, which was set up in 2000, is partly funded by the British Department for International Development. DFID has often insisted on the independence of the anti-graft body. DFID has a staff member attached to the ACC and Commonwealth judges and investigators help run the affairs of the commission.

”No one tells me what to do, who to arrest and prosecute or how to conduct my investigations. The ACC is totally independent and we are guided by our mandate, which is to expose and fight corruption in whatever form,” ACC head Tejan-Cole told IPS.

The ACC boss adds that his commission has introduced new strategies in the fight against corruption. These include the setting up of Integrity Clubs in schools, publicly recognising Sierra Leoneans who are deemed to have demonstrated the highest integrity, radio and TV jingles, as well as rewarding  individuals who report suspected cases of public graft to the Commission.

”These strategies are proving very rewarding because there is now more public awareness about the fight against corruption in the country,” Tejan-Cole maintains.

Notwithstanding this success story, the country’s opposition claims the president’s anti-corruption crusade is been exaggerated and that the Chief Executive is practicing what it brands as ”selective justice.”

The secretary general of the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), Jacob Jusu-Saffa, rants: ”Our party raised key issues to the president, bordering on governance and these include members of the president’s family been protected from prosecution. The president’s sister has been benefiting from untendered contracts and his brother getting duty waivers, of goods imported, running into hundreds of thousands of US dollars.

”We see this as corruption. Period.”

The SLPP wrote an open letter to Koroma in November 2009, just ahead of a donor’s conference on Sierra Leone, held in London. The letter is thought to have harmed the Sierra Leoneans government’s efforts to secure pledges of aid.

The president dismissed the opposition’s charges as ”cheap politics” and the recent clampdown on government ministers and key political allies seems to support his point.

”This government has made a difference in the fight against corruption. The president has empowered the ACC, making it more independent and several high profile prosecutions have been made. I believe the president must be commended,” says Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, the minister of information and communication, who also doubles as the official government spokesperson.

Having presented documentary evidence supporting its claims, the SLPP insists there is more to be done.”Why has the ACC not gone after members of the president’s family that we have exposed as been involved in corruption? Are they sacred cows?” Jusu-Saffa questions.

Corruption has been a hallmark of Sierra Leonean politics since at least the era of Siaka Stevens, when massive spending to host a summit of the Organisation of African Unity engendered matching levels of financial misconduct. It continued under his successor, Joseph Momoh, becoming so bad that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission regarded it as one of the factors that ignited the 1991-2002 civil war.

At the end of the conflict, in 2002, one recommendation of the truth commission was that corruption be tackled by the government head-on if the country is not slip back into war and anarchy.

And, president Koroma has made this campaign his priority, something that – if he is seen to be succeeding – could earn him a second consecutive term, come elections in 2012.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Politics, Report, Transparency Tagged With: ,

RIGHTS-SIERRA LEONE: Journalists Under Attack

March 31, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Mohamed Fofanah

FREETOWN, Mar 30  (IPS)  – Sierra Leone has become a place of torment for journalists practicing their profession.

Recently 10 journalists were manhandled and beaten during the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party’s (SLPP) delegate’s conference.
At the conference, the delegates had a disagreement during their debate to amend the party’s constitution.

”Some members began to walk out of the hall, we (journalists) wanted to capture this moment and do interviews, but we were surprised when youths and senior party members fell on us. They beat us, confiscated our cameras, recorders and then prevented us from covering some of the other sessions,” explained Ishmael Bayoh, one of the journalists who was attacked. Bayoh works for Awoko newspaper, a local tabloid.

But this is not an isolated incident, it follows several other persecutions by public officials and ordinary citizens on journalists.

Reporters Without Borders, an international NGO that seeks to protect the interest of journalists, reported that in February 2009 four journalists were abducted and intimidated by members of a women’s secret society that practices female genital mutilation (FGM).
One of the abducted journalists was forced to walk naked through the streets of the city because they had been conducting a series of interviews in order to mark International Day of Zero Tolerance of FGM.
The matter was reported to the police but the women were not prosecuted.

In September 2009, the correspondent for Standard Times, Fayia Amara, was beaten up by a police constable for trying to photograph the constable allegedly smoking marijuana.

Another recent incident was the alleged threatening calls received by radio journalist Melvin Rogers, from the Deputy Minister of Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations, Moijue Kaikai.

Rogers filed a report on a local station, Radio Democracy 98.1, on Feb. 25 alleging that Kaikai had visited Lugbu, Bo District in the run-up to the recent local council by-election. He had allegedly done so after reported violence in the area, allegedly fuelled by government officials, had led the president to issue a warning that all persons not involved in the conduct of the elections should avoid the area.

The director of Society for Democratic Initiatives, a media advocacy group, and some of his staff members, reported that they received death threats after publishing a report highlighting the press conditions in the country.

The report lashed out against the continued use of the Criminal Libel Law, which the report states is hampering the work of journalists. Under the law, a journalist or anybody who writes and publishes material considered libellous can be arrested and jailed, whether or not what they published was true.

The report also catalogues over seven cases of assault on journalists and the fact that nothing was done by police about these incidents.

”These attacks and many more are calculated attacks on journalist to gag us and deprive us of our freedom of expression,” said Bayoh.

The secretary general of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Mustapha Sesay, said that these continued attacks on journalists and the inability or willful neglect by the police to prosecute these matters shows that the state is against journalists.

”The association will fight tooth and nail against those who think that they can get away with intimidation to restrain the press,” he vowed.

The Minister of Information, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, said it is very unfortunate that members of the media were subject to attacks, but stated that government upholds the right to freedom of expression and would protect the lives of its citizens.

Bankole Morgan, the regional officer of the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone condemned the attacks and the intimidation of journalists. He said journalists must be free to ask tough questions and demand accountability from their elected officials.

”I am so afraid now as I am practicing my profession. I don’t know when my very presence will threaten and infuriate people and they will beat me up because I am a journalist, or what I write would sooner or later land me in prison because some government official feels slighted,” said Bayoh, who is still recovering from his attack.

Sesay said that the SLPP officials who beat up the 10 journalists have admitted to their crime and agreed to pay the journalists’ medical bills, replace their damaged items and to also compensate them.

”We are actually concerned about compensation, because we do not want people to mistreat journalist and then pay them afterwards,” Sesay said.
He referred to an instance where the police paid compensation to several journalists they beat up. The journalists were covering a SLPP stalwart demonstration in March 2009 when the attacks too place.

”As an association we are ready to support our membership to ply their trade without fear or favour and nobody will continue to trample on our rights,” Sesay said.

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Human Rights, Report Tagged With: , ,

EDUCATION-SIERRA LEONE: Government Ignores Demands for Additional Teachers

March 17, 2010 by

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Mar 17  (IPS)  – Ismail Conteh has been teaching for the past year-and-a-half at a primary school in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown – without receiving a single cent. He is one of hundreds of teachers recruited by schools to match the ever-growing number of pupils.

Since the country’s government started to aim for universal primary education in 2003, classes have continuously become larger, with an average of about 50 pupils per teacher. Yet, the national Department of Education has employed only few additional teachers so far.

Trying to fill the gap, numerous school authorities decided to hire teachers at their own discretion, instead of waiting for the education department to appoint more staff. Now, the education department is refusing to pay those teachers’ salaries.

About 3,000 teachers, including Conteh, have been working in public primary schools without receiving the 40 dollars due to them each month. Attempts by the national teachers union to negotiate payments with the education department have been unsuccessful.

The standoff has mainly been caused by lack of adequate planning from government side, unionists say. Having its eyes set on reaching Millennium Development Goal 2 – universal primary education – the government mainly focused on enrolling more children, while ignoring the fact that more teachers need to be employed to teach additional pupils.

Sierra Leone Teachers Union (SLTU) president Abdulai Brima Koroma calls for salaries to be paid out soonest: ”These teachers are entitled to salaries. They have been giving their services to the state under very unattractive conditions and deserve to get paid at the end of every month.”

The SLTU held several meetings with education officials, Koroma says, but without results: ”We have told ministry officials that standards in schools are falling, with students producing bad results. This is having a devastating impact on the very universal primary education we are trying to achieve.”

The education department, however, maintains it will not pay the salaries of teachers who were employed by schools. ”We have a database of teachers recruited by the ministry, and we can only pay those teachers. The school authorities that recruited (additional) teachers will have to find a way of paying them,” said education, youth and sports minister Minkailu Bah.

Bah admits, however, that achieving universal primary education is not only about mass enrolment of children: ”I agree that our schools are overcrowded and that we need more teachers. But it is the ministry that has to do the recruitment, with consideration of budgetary constraints.”

He says government chose to first focus on building more schools across the country: ”You can find schools in virtually every town and village. We are paying exams fees and providing school materials, especially for the girl-child, and we are also encouraging enrolment of children.”

IPS was unable to obtain statistics on primary school enrolment, number of teachers or national education budgets from the department.

Teachers criticise government for focusing mainly on quantity, while letting the quality of education deteriorate. Joseph Kamara, head teacher at another public school in Freetown, says the education department is making short-sighted decisions: ”The government is anxious to meet the MDG of universal primary education, and so it is enrolling more kids in schools.” But the finances to make this expansion possible have still not been made available, he says.

In the past two years, Sierra Leone recorded dismal results in the state-run, regional schools examinations in comparison to neighbour countries Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and the Gambia. The exams are conducted each year by Accra-based non-profit body West African Examination Council (WAEC).

This compelled Sierra Leone’s president Ernest Bai Koroma, who once worked himself as a teacher, to set up a commission of inquiry in late 2009 to investigate the causes of declining education standards.

The commission, which submitted its findings in early March, recommended the formation of a schools monitoring unit to make education more effective and results-oriented. It also suggested improving working conditions of teachers through better teaching materials and better pay.

Government says it is in the process of reviewing those recommendations, but until decisions are made, budgets approved and changes implemented, public school teachers will continue to work without salary.

”It is frustrating, to say the least. You can imagine how I barely survive with my wife and three children. We live in a two bedroom flat, and I pay about $50 rent a month. On top of that, I pay electricity as well as water bills,” said Conteh.

He says teachers’ morale is low: ”I have seen dozens of colleagues leave for private schools where salaries are more attractive and paid promptly.”

The only money Conteh currently earns is from private lessons. His income is complemented by a few dollars his wife makes by selling vegetables, cooking oil and fish at a market. ”But this is not enough to take care of my family,” he says.

Several other public school teachers told IPS they live in similarly difficult situations.

Lamented primary school teacher Michael Jones: ”Classrooms are overcrowded, with more than 60 kids in one class in some cases. The children hardly concentrate, school materials are few and far between, and the teachers are not getting paid.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2010.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Education, Politics, Report Tagged With:

SIERRA LEONE: Mining Bill Queried

December 23, 2009 by

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Dec 23  (IPS)  – Sierra Leone’s parliament has come under serious scrutiny by opposition legislators, civil society and members of the public for ‘breaching procedures’ and ‘undermining the constitution’.

It follows the passing of a Bill in parliament titled the Mines and Minerals Act 2009, which seeks to overturn some of the bad mining laws inherited by the government, such as giving unbridled concessions to foreign companies, and ignoring the concerns of people living in devastated mining communities.

It also aims to introduce mining reforms. But the opposition, as well as democracy-watchers, say the Bill was not gazetted and adequately publicised before being tabled in the House.

It was at first thrown out by the Speaker, upon objections from members of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) that the Bill was not properly tabled in parliament, and because of the lack of public consultation. It was re-introduced only days later by the minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Alpha Kanu, despite the fact that it still had not been gazetted.

The 44-member SLPP contingent in parliament boycotted the debate on the Bill. The 59 members of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC), assisted by some members of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), their smaller coalition partner, nevertheless went ahead and hastily got the Bill passed.

This has divided the House further and put its integrity under test.
”Bills must not be rushed through parliament for the sake of political expediency. If the public shows interest in any Bill it must be publicly and widely debated,” commented Emmanuel Tommy, the minority SLPP’s leader in parliament.

”This is a test for our fledgling democracy. Procedures were flouted in the way the Bill was tabled, and that is why we as a party decided to walk out of the House and refused to take part in the debate.”

Another opposition MP from the PMDC, Sheka Samai, took a swipe at provisions of the Act, especially the one giving legal protection to government officials who control and regulate the mining industry.

”The section that says the minister, director and other officials of the ministry cannot be prosecuted in the line of their duties, as long as they act in good faith, is unacceptable. This concentrates power in the hands of the officials, and leads corruption and abuse of office.”

The MP added that the 0.1 percent of gross revenue given to the mining communities ”is grossly inadequate and ridiculous”. The land belonged to the people, and they must benefit from the mines that destroyed their lands, and forced them out of traditional farming.

Political watchers here believe the Bill was rushed through parliament in time for the Donors’ Conference on Sierra Leone, held in London, from Nov 1 to Nov 20.

Commented Desmond Cole, an analyst: ”The government had to present a comprehensive mining policy document, since it was trying to attract foreign investors. It had to do this, though it was clearly wrong in law. It simply did not have much time on its hands.”

Civil society, too, has been up in arms against the Act. Leslie Mboka, of the Coalition of Activists on Just Mining, told IPS: ”The Act is faulty, and needs to be withdrawn and re-written. It simply gave excess powers to the minister and his officials, giving them immunity from prosecution.

”The so-called Minerals Advisory Board has no oversight functions, and the minister is not obliged to listen to it. This will lead to unbridled corruption.”

Mboka also wants the people in mining communities to have a greater say in policy, as well as benefit from infrastructural and social development.

”Their lands are been destroyed with no reclamation done. They are paid a pittance as royalties, and their agricultural activities have been overrun by big mining corporations, which have no regard for the welfare of the people whose lands they exploit,” Mboka fumed.

Like other civil society activists, Mboka argues that the Act is not in the best interest of the country and must be withdrawn. But this is hardly feasible, since it has been passed by the House of Parliament and is awaiting presidential assent.
Yet this is expected to cause a drawn-out debate.

Many believe parliament is rushing laws that could be detrimental to the country, as long as they are in the interests of the ruling party. This is not the first time that parliamentary majority has been used to rush through Bills.

During the administration of the previous SLPP government, that lost elections to the APC in 2007, Bills were pushed through as and when the governing party wanted. The then opposition APC at least once staged a similar walk-out of parliament.

The country was governed under a single-party dictatorship from 1978 to 1996, with the APC in power. Some fear that the indiscriminate pushing through of Bills, as was done in the past, may scupper the nurturing of democracy and stall development.

Michael Conteh, a rights activist, says: ”Democracy entails mass participation. But if a whole opposition party walks out of parliament, then their voices as well as the aspirations of millions of their constituents will not be heard in decision-making.”

The furore over the Mines and Minerals Act has also alerted ordinary members of the public to their rights as the governed. The debate has hit the airwaves and made headlines. Talk shows are being organised on the vibrant community radios, and people are discussing the Act in public places and on public transport.

One angry father of seven, who lives in the rich diamond-producing district of Kono in the east, told IPS: ”This is ridiculous. How can they be making laws for our region without involving us, the locals? We see diamonds carted away from here daily, but remain impoverished.

”Our children don’t go to school, our roads are bad, and we don’t even have pipe-borne water. It is really unfair.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2009.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Development, Environment, Politics, Report Tagged With: ,

CORRUPTION-SIERRA LEONE: Song Sparks Governance Debate

November 18, 2009 by

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS

Mohamed Fofanah

FREETOWN, Nov 18  (IPS)  – Nothing has ever sparked a debate on the state of governance in the country like the song released by one of Sierra Leone’s most popular artists, Emerson Bockarie.

The song, ”Yesterday Betteh Pass Tiday”, recorded in Krio, means ”yesterday is better than today” directly translated into English. It has sent shock waves and started debate all over the country, not because of poetic lyrics or a dance rhythm, or the zouk style popular in Sierra Leone, but because of its trenchant social commentary.

The song compares the performance in government of the previous Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) regime and the ruling All Peoples’ Congress (APC). Bockarie points out that government in Sierra Leone was bad under the SLPP, but is worse now.

The song highlights corruption, the high cost of living, nepotism, tribalism, poor service delivery, poor government salaries and a static economy, concluding that things have not changed for the better under the new government.

”We identify with this song because Emerson said it all, nothing seems to move,” said Sahid Sesay a secondary school teacher in Freetown. He said the government had given a 20 percent increment in salaries, but this had had no impact ”simply because all the prices of everything in the market have gone up”.

The APC government came to power on a platform of change, and in his inauguration speech President Ernest Bai Koroma announced he and his team would show ”zero tolerance on corruption”.

Mohamed Turay, a research assistant at the Fourah Bay College in Freetown, said: ”I think the government is still yielding in principle to an anti-corruption strategy in order to satisfy requirements for donor funds, without fully implementing it. The commission is still crippled by a lack of political will.”

Turay cited the case of Afsatu Kabba, former minister of energy and power, who clearly flouted the procurement rules by giving out a contract to Income Electrix, an independent power provider, for the supply of 25 mega watt (MW) generator whilst there were other favorable companies that would have cost government less and that even when the contract was awarded only 10MW was installed and commissioned.

”But nothing came out of it. She is now sent to head the ministry of fisheries and marine resources. How can we say the government is serious about fighting corruption?” asked Turay.

He also said the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Act directed that public officials, including their spouses and children, were to declare their assets. While the president had declared his, most of the ministers and other public officials had not declared their assets, in spite of the commission.

Valnora Edwin, the director of a Sierra Leone non-governmental organisation called the Campaign for Good Governance, said there had been a slight improvement in some governance structures.

Edwin noted that the new ACC Act of 2008 had been strengthened, and the commission now enjoyed real independence. ”But I think we should see that there are no sacred cows,” she hastily added.

”We are also seeing that the government has been trying to bring electricity to the city, but it is yet to be fully operational, and it should not only be for the capital but for the whole country.”

Edwin added that the transport and road networks were poor, and the communication tariffs very high. ”The country’s telecommunications are not working, and the private phone companies are charging a lot of money. All of these contribute to a poor environment for investors.”

She said: ”No one will come with investments to the country, and the few that are coming are transferring the high cost of overheads onto the consumers, so the cost of living will always be high.

”I think we still have not got the right kind of people to push the country forward, so it is the same situation as with the previous government which was fraught with poor governance structures, prevalent corruption and a diving economy.
”The health sector is the worst, as there has been a shortage of personnel. Doctors are still in short supply. There are no specialised nurses, there is no research, and medicines are inadequate and expensive. We see this in the high rate of infant mortality and maternal mortality,” Edwin said.

There are still difficulties with the supply of purified pipe-borne water in the capital, Freetown, let alone the districts. These shortcomings follow the gloomy 2008 State of Human Rights Report by the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL).

Although accepting there had been good scores by the government in not inhibiting the registration of media organisations, and the restructuring of the judiciary to better handle matters in the districts, the report stated that Press repression, poor prison conditions, a corrupt police force, the inadequate protection of the rights of women (including an effective and efficient response to violence against women) were still a reality.

The report also said Sierra Leone faced enormous challenges in the fulfilment of human rights (especially economic and social rights). The HRCSL recommended that the government ”should ensure the availability of a comprehensive health service, including drugs, ambulances, doctors and other health personnel in hospitals and health centres throughout the country”.

The public relations officer of the ministry of health, Abasss Kamara, accepts that Sierra Leone has the worst infant and maternal mortality rates in the world, but claims the government is taking great strides to deliver in the health sector, and drastically reduce these mortality rates.

”We have developed a five-year National Health Strategic Plan to address reproductive and child health. We have already instituted a three-month plan to target health centres and hospitals
in five districts and the capital, which will be upgraded in training and equipment to respond to maternal health care,” Kamara said.

He revealed: ”We have already launched a tele-medicine project, and doctors in Sierra Leone will be able to consult with experts all over the world û especially in India û to facilitate surgical procedures. This project will ease the shortage of manpower and expertise in the medical sector.”

The minister of information, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, told IPS the government had promised to fulfil all its pledges to the people of Sierra Leone.

Kargbo argued that some of their policies had been translated into tangibles. ”One can see that the country improved its overall ranking by climbing eight places to 148 (from 156 in 2009) in the annual Ease of doing Business Index, which ranked 183 economies.

”This means we are creating a good environment for business, jobs and money flow.”

The Ease of Doing Business Index was created by the World Bank to survey regulations directly affecting businesses, and does not directly measure  general conditions such as a nation”s proximity to large markets, quality of infrastructure, inflation, or crime.

Kargbo continued ”Overall, Sierra Leone emerged ahead of its neighbours, Liberia (149), Cote D’Ivoire (168) and Guinea (173) in the Mano River Union.
”We have provided electricity which has been very bad in the previous governments, and we plan to improve on it. We have prioritised agriculture, and increased the agriculture budget from 1.7 percent (which we inherited) to 7.7 percent.

”We will focus on human development by improving social services. For this we will push forward our policy of decentralisation and devolution of service delivery to local councils,” said Kargbo.

All of these were in line with the country’s Agenda for Change, a poverty-reduction strategy.

”People should be patient, because development is gradual, but the president has promised that life will be better for Sierra Leoneans ûand we mean it and will deliver.”

The ACC had recently indicted the country’s minister of health and the president had relieved him of his duty as minister while he answers to his charges. The ACC’s Commissioner, Abdul Tejan Cole, has told the plenary session of the UN conference on corruption in Doha on November 9th that over 17,000 public officials including the president and all ministers and parliamentarians had declared their assets to the ACC.

Salamatu Bah, a petty trader in the city centre, said ”The government is trying, and things are better now than before. I disagree with Emerson’s ”Tiday Betteh Pass Yesterday”, but the argument should not be which regime is the better or worse. We have voted for change and change is what we demand.”

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2009.

This article may not be republished, broadcast, framed, or redistributed without the written permission of IPS – Inter Press Service. Republication of this material without permission from IPS, the copyright holder, constitutes a violation of United States and international copyright laws and may result in legal action.


Filed Under: Africa, Politics, Report, Transparency Tagged With: ,
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