RANDOM MUSING: A POINT OF VIEW
“Poverty – Field of Broken Dreams”
Raymond Dele Awoonor-Gordon
15 July 2010
It’s a golden rule of restaurants that the
longer the description on your menu, the less you
will get on your plate - ditto politics. Perhaps it
is in the light of this and the nest of vipers
unleashed by the terrifying actions and inactions of
the past thirty odd months that some people are
demanding to see more dividends from the government
and democracy, instead of a hole-in-the-corner
stuff.
People can challenge with some degree of justification
the continued harangue of the government but the
open fact is that you cannot have tumour and
continue to massage it with all the blood.
Poverty is one of our tumours right now and it
threatens to even derail all that is being achieved.
And if the truth be told, the level of poverty in
Sierra Leone is frightening and the degradation of
the masses, very painful.
Repugnant and abhorrent, poverty, which also destroys
dignity, has taken the food off many tables and
plates. It has become the middle name of most of the
people. Yet, the rain of poverty amidst plenty is a
creation of the system. It is a cobweb.
During my recent visit, I observed the sufferings
people are enduring to survive. Young men and women
milling around hopelessly with agony written all
over their faces. Even those who used to be a bit
well off and had relatively good jobs had suddenly
begun to see a dip in their lifestyle.
Before you say it, yes, I had a glimpse of light in
some parts of town (not in Regent though). I saw a
cleaner city. I saw a few more businesses having a
go at it but with apprehension. I saw all the jeeps
on the roads giving a false impression of growth. I
saw power play and naked oppression. I also saw
graft in technicolour. I saw the beaches and all the
‘good’ there is to see.
But above all, in the midst of the beauty that is
Sierra Leone, I saw the masses being criminalized by
poverty. I saw those who travelled in moving
coffins; saw those who could not afford the basics
because of escalating prices. I saw those who ate
meals without any nutrients just for survival and
those who greedily grabbed anything in sight at
parties as insurance against hunger the next day.
Be it APC, SLPP, PMDC or ZNP (Zombie National Party –
to which many of our people belong), governments are
elected to take the nation to the apogee of
development. So, when trying to pin a government
down on how it intends to treat a tumour like
poverty becomes like trying to catch a bar of soap
in the bath, we need to face reality.
Sincerely speaking, apart from the orgy of
socio-political jitters, dithering and vendetta,
when was the last time that issues such as poverty,
which matters to the ordinary man, dominated the
headlines? When did you last see the government
become so passionate that the issue does not become
a photo-shoot?
April 27 and the free health programme? Why that day?
Why the fanfare? What state is the programme now?
Before you answer, pay a discreet visit to the
hospitals or ask those you know to do so and report
back.
Yes; it is a laudable effort but was a proper short,
medium and long term planning carried out before its
launch or was it just politically expedient, like
most of the other programmes? See Sierra Media
Express Report on the changing face of childbirth in
Sierra Leone (13/7/10). It is just one of numerous
unbiased reports highlighting the truth of the
programme. But I guess we have to start somewhere?
Is that so?
Sadly, because the stadium of spectators and onlookers
is flooded by those who have been blinded by
emotions and who simply rise to jubilate the
slightest stimulus and stones thrown in the
direction of opponents, the inertia and glaring
developmental stagnation is masked by the
superfluous tokenism being delivered in terms of
improved infrastructure.
The country’s resources are unprecedented and the
opportunities that lie before the people to live a
decent and good life are enormous. Unfortunately,
these opportunities are not being exploited for the
good of the generality of the people. There is too
much poverty in the land and not enough concern for
the under-privileged.
Hear this from International Reports on Sierra Leone:
“Real economic growth rebounded strongly after the
war, 27 percent in 2002, 9 percent in 2003, and just
over 7 percent for 2004-2007, before slowing down to
5.5 percent in 2008. However due to the global
financial and economic crises, the growth rate
further slowed down to 4.0 percent in 2009. Poverty
is heavily concentrated in the rural and other urban
areas outside Freetown. Revised estimates suggest
that 66 percent of the population lived below the
poverty line”.
“The HPI-1(Human Poverty Index) value of 47.7% for
Sierra Leone, ranks 128th among 135 countries for
which the index has been calculated.”
Reports talk of considerable progress being made in
key areas of the Poverty Reduction Strategy which
began in 2005 but all the economic theories of this
world are mere jargons to the illiterates, the
market women, traders and those whose lives do not
reflect this claim.As far as I am concerned, the
correction of past shortcomings, though a welcome
development is not an achievement but a positive
progression. That progression now needs to translate
into reality in the lives of the generality of the
people through sustainable strategies and not more
spin.
This age-long manipulation of the common psyche by
the political class is what has led many into
believing that any highlight of government’s
inadequacies or demand for the fulfilment of the
social contract with the people is an
anti-government vuvuzela.
Our leaders wheel and deal in luxury and comfort while
the majority wallow in poverty, penury, pain and
misery as well as grope in the darkness of ignorance
and paralysis. Instead of challenging them, we allow
them to hold us to ransom through ethno-religious
and political intrigues borne out of their inability
to unleash potentials in governance.
Those who can afford their needs may not be
appreciative of the great extent to which the less
fortunate ones go through to make ends meet. From
food to housing, social infrastructure to education,
health etc, there is a crying need to change despair
to hope, create a responsible and responsive
government as well as save our resources and make
Sierra Leone work once again.
Let’s not be under illusion about the difficulties
ahead but which ever way we look at it, it is either
we reform and damn the consequences or we continue
with this social flaw, hand over our heritage of
backwardness to future generations and live with the
resultant explosion of those at the brunt of the
exclusion, despondency, dejection, squalor and
penury.
Without a shadow of doubt and given the pedestal on
which the country once stood as well as the huge
amount of aid that has poured into our national
coffers, all indices right now, point to the painful
and cruel fact that Sierra Leone is a nation whose
potentials and promises are being wantonly misused
and grossly abused.
Government is busy buying international and diplomatic
support by allowing the country to be used like an
empty womb but it is no secret that any
administration that is highly dependent on aid pay
too much attention to donors and too little to the
actual needs of their own citizens. This is our
scenario.
Those who a while ago did not know where we lived
now define and design our progress chart of which
they and their nationals and firms are chief
beneficiaries; all because of our lack of vision and
the absence of programmes and objectives towards
which our people, with our huge resources, can be
channelled.
Foreign powers and influences through their cold
calculations of strategic interests rather than
principles or our needs bait us with ‘loose’ coins
and promises of grandeur that are hinged on majority
of our people remaining poor and serving as cheap
labour for their capital flight and the sustenance
of their own country’s economic welfare.
Sierra Leone’s future depends on the empowerment of
small businesses and wealth creating entrepreneurs.
There’s a need for credible plan to help these
groups to have access to cheap funds and a tax and
regulatory environment that will encourage hard
work.
It can be argued that the government is laying the
groundwork for the future path of development but a
diagnosis that takes three years without effective
treatment will only turn the disease into malignant
tumour.
The small miracles of hope that the government has
so far achieved are being threatened as the
grumblings of the people turn into cries of agony.
This is beyond the usual rhetoric. It is past
politics. It needs urgent and serious attention.
Die hard apologists and spin doctors who are well
insulated from the poverty in the land can continue
to sing ‘it is well, it is well’ and frown at the
impatience of some of us but they see not the
walking dead on our streets as the standard of
living nose dives and the economic growth rate falls
to 4%
Three years into the life of this government of
change and anti-poverty measures and ideas like
macro-credit finance to lift people out of the
dungeon of poverty are still not in the realm of
reality but second place to sloganeering.
Looking into the horizon, permanent and lasting
solutions to human development challenges, health
and educational issues are not yet dotting the
landscape. Some palliatives are in place but not
practical socio-economic policies and ideas designed
to eliminate this scourge of our society.
The unjust charitable structures that are being
foistered on the nation are the source of our
economic stagnation. You cannot run away from direct
wealth creation, increased purchasing value and
widespread employment and expect to be prosperous.
You need loans to villages; you need cheap and
available health care and a reversal of foreign
dominance of key sectors of the economy, etc.
Ineffective government poverty alleviation methods
of the past three years has ensured that the
legacies of the past have been aggravated by the
global economic downturn, making it even harder for
the so-called efforts to be visible.
If President Koroma does not fix the roof while the
sun is shining and tie together all the necessary
and relevant strands of the rebuilding process,
particularly the alleviation of poverty in the land,
the gigantic socio-economic and political problems
facing our nation will become a time-bomb.
While there are no quick fixes, they need to be
solved through a comprehensive approach before the
threats they pose destroy our very existence and the
government’s own attempts in this field of broken
dreams. It’s been three long years coming.
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