Reasons why president Koroma of Sierra Leone and his ministers are in China?

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 30 November 2016

President Koroma and key ministers are in China this week to appeal directly and personally to the Chinese political leadership, especially president Xi Jinping. They desperately need help – and they need it fast.

Sierra Leone is at risk of falling apart, due to rampant corruption, economic mismanagement and politicisation of business and everyday public life.

Nine years ago, president Koroma was the new kid on the political block – after winning the 2007 elections, with whom anyone and everyone interested in getting their hands on Sierra Leone’s rich natural resources wanted to do business. And there were few offers, including the Chinese.

Today, president Koroma and his senior ministers need to secure the ruling APC party’s term in office for another five years at the polls in 2018. But staying in power for another five years costs money. The country is bankrupt.

Can China help president Koroma’s ruling APC party stay in power beyond 2018?

Large swathes of the country’s population, especially the youths are getting very restless and jittery about the worsening state of the economy. The opposition SLPP and the media are turning up the heat on the government’s poor record in office.

On a level playing field – in a free and fair election, and should conditions in Sierra Leone continue  as they are, president Koroma’s ruling APC are most likely to lose the 2018 elections – a real possibility that is now sending shivers down the spine of senior ministers.

The government is struggling to pay the salaries of public sector workers. Public procurement contracts are being cancelled and contractors are not being paid.

Budget for the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018 is seriously in doubt. The Electoral Commission is not sure where the money will come from. The international community have pledged to pay part of the cost, but the government would need to raise at least $12 million to foot the elections bill.

President koroma and victor foh at APC conference 30 april 2015But there are more immediate political issues troubling the Koroma presidency. In a few months time he will stand down as Chairman and leader of his party, if constitutional changes are not quickly cobbled together by the ruling APC party executives at the forthcoming party convention.

The power struggle to replace president Koroma has already begun. Even the Chinese are getting nervous about Koroma’s replacement.

The Chinese leadership will want to ensure that any decision as to who replaces Koroma as leader of his Communist ruling APC party – and effectively the next president of Sierra Leone , sits comfortably with their investment portfolio in Sierra Leone, and that China’s political and economic interests in the country are not jeopardised.

As president Koroma prepares to leave office, visiting China possibly for the last time as president of Sierra Leone must be seen as a priority in more ways than one.

china2But what is shocking is the president telling the Chinese  Xinhua News Agency last week that the reason for his visit is to “study the Chinese system of growth through its model of economic development; and how the Chinese are able to create economic zones that have helped diversify the Chinese economy.”

Quite simply, many of the president’s critics regard this statement as crass stupidity, if nothing else.

Here is a president who has wasted nine years in government, focusing more on feathering his own nest and those of his friends, political allies and close family members, admitting he does not have a clue as to how the economy works.

Sierra Leone has become a state sponsored ‘Koroma friends and family enterprise’. He has done absolutely nothing to tackle abject poverty in the country.

Since coming to power in 2007, and despite claiming to have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on road construction – mainly in his northern tribal heartlands – critics argue, unemployment has reached 80%.

Poverty in saloneAverage monthly inflation has doubled the 2007 levels; the Leone has dropped in value to the Dollar – matching its 2007 value; economic growth has fallen by 50% below the 2007 rate of 8%; adult and childhood mortality have worsened – not to speak of the Ebola scourge which took the lives of more than 5,000 people in just eighteen months, due to poor governance and corruption.

The president, his cabinet ministers and senior ruling party officials have woefully failed to use their intellect to implement simple measures, aimed at diversifying the economy away from reliance on mining revenue, despite all the political rhetoric and claims about the president working hard for the people..

In 2011 the president launched his Private Sector Development Strategy to grow local businesses and create jobs. But it was a big scam. After five years of launching that strategy, the costs of starting up and expanding local businesses in Sierra Leone have more than doubled.

Few local businesses are paying taxes – even if they can afford to do so. Political patronage and corruption have become more ingrained into the economic life of the country than ever before.

With more than $200 million given away every year in tax and custom duty waivers through political patronage and high level bribery by the senior leadership in the government, there is no surprise the government is now bankrupt.

president-koroma-in-china-with-ministers2So why is president Koroma in China this week, along with his most senior and trusted ministers – Logus Koroma (Transport minister and head of the ruling APC election campaign strategy), Minkailu Mansaray (Minister of mines and presidential hopeful), and Samura Kamara (Foreign affairs minister and presidential hopeful)?

If president Koroma is to be believed, they are there to study the Chinese economic model of success.

Accusing a president of lying is a very serious responsibility, and one that should not be taken lightly. But when a president tells the poor people of Sierra Leone -many of whom are dying of malnutrition and starvation that he is off to China to study their economic model of success, questions must be asked.

president koroma celebrates end of ebola - 061115Is the president telling lies to cover his true reasons for going to China?

After nine years as president and with less than two years left before he and his ministers leave office, they have today arrived in Beijing, China, on study leave to learn about how to manage Sierra Leone’s economy. This is shameful indeed.

Putting aside president Koroma’s hoodwinking of his people, the truth about his visit to China this week must be seen in the context of prevailing circumstances in Sierra Leone, be they economic or political.

Immediate cash to rescue the economy

President Koroma is more than $300 million short of cash to run his government and to continue to operate business as usual, with no prospect in sight for a better life for the majority of the population that are living on less that $1.50 a day.

Can the Chinese leadership provide a bailout for the Koroma government?

Mamamah airport project

It is now more than two years since president Koroma and his ruling APC requested help from the Chinese to build a new international airport in the north of the country. But opposition to the project has been widespread and fierce.

Lungi Airport 2014Estimated at $400 million to build, the new airport proposal was to be financed by a loan from China at 12% interest and with the agreement that when completed the airport will be managed by the Chinese.

There are serious questions about the cost-effectiveness of the project and its value for money proposition.

To make matters worse, there has been no feasibility study conducted for the project, nor has a business case been presented to parliament for approval – along with the government’s request for the Chinese loan.

Both IMF and World Bank officials have expressed serious concerns about the country’s affordability of a new airport costing $400 million, at a time when its president is globetrotting with a begging bowl asking for donor aid to pay for healthcare.

But it seems the Chinese ambassador to Sierra Leone,  Sierra Leone government ministers, and ruling APC party executives are keen to see construction of the new airport commence well before the 2018 elections.

The country’s foreign affairs minister Samura Kamara had made it abundantly clear that, the government’s objective for the airport project is political, rather than purely economic. He too has accompanied president Koroma to China.

But it is reliable understood that the Chinese leadership in Beijing are not entirely convinced that given the country’s life threatening priorities – healthcare,  sanitation, access to water and electricity, a new airport should be at the top of the government’s shopping list.

Without the Chinese government financial support, president Koroma’s dream of an international airport named after him when he is long out of office will not materialise.

Will the Chinese leadership in Beijing grant president Koroma his wish this week?

New investments in agriculture and fishing sectors

The massive financial impact of falling global prices for iron ore and the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone cannot be denied. It is estimated that the Koroma government has lost about $200 million in export revenue.  But the government’s over-reliance on the mining industry for its income had been heavily criticised, even before the global economic downturn in 2008.

fishing in sierra leoneThe government is now hoping to attract investments in other sectors, especially large-scale agriculture, fishing and tourism.

But since declaring that Sierra Leone was opened for business in 2011 at an international donor conference in London, president Koroma has not been able to win the confidence of large swathes of investors.

The country quite simply lacks the basic requirements for an attractive industrial location – an educated skilled workforce, reliable supply of water and electricity, a strong climate of law and order, good healthcare system, and a relatively affluent population.

The Chinese have managed to prop Sierra Leone’s ailing economy with billions of dollars, invested mainly in mining, agriculture and infrastructure development.

But will president Koroma convince the Chinese leadership in Beijing to do more?

Stronger security ties with China in preparation for the 2018 elections

The president and his ruling party officials are desperate to get their hands on sophisticated communications surveillance, detection technology and expertise to help control the use of social media – especially Facebook and Whatsapp.

theresa-mbomaya-awarded-by-children-rights-group-after-whatsapp-fiascoNo other nation in the world is better at using technology to control the use of the internet and social media by their citizens than China.

And after the recent arrest of female university student – Theresa Mbomaya by the Koroma government, for sharing a Whatsapp message the government says is subversive – calling for an all-out national strike, president Koroma will be in good company this week in Beijing. (Photo: Student Theresa Mbomaya received an awarded this week in Freetown from children’s rights group).

Senior ruling APC party executives are worried about the use of social media by young people to express their dissatisfaction with the government. With elections due in 2018, there are fears among ministers that, social media may usher in regime change through the ballot box.

Will the Chinese authorities supply the Koroma government with the surveillance technology and expertise needed to control the use of the internet in Sierra Leone – especially social media?

6 Comments

  1. We the people should not allow ourselves to be hood-winked by APC or SLPP anymore. They are all we have known since independence in 1961. There is nothing which distinguishes them from one another, which effectively means that we have a one-party state, all but in name.

    They both play sentimental politics at crucial moments, centred on tribe and ethnicity. Both the educated and non-educated fall for it. The educated are the worse, they are like sheep being led to the slaughter house with their PhD firmly in their hand, all because they are eager to be made ministers. They don’t even have a political ideology.

    Having drugged the so-called opposition SLPP to maximum efficacy, President Koroma now strides the world doing all he can to keep APC in power come 2018. The Chinese seem like a good bet at the moment to help him and his party pull off yet another victory in 2018.

    It won’t surprise me if as election day draws nearer there is suddenly a constant supply of electricity, water and cheap petrol as the APC top hierarchy plead and beg everybody with access to government funds to placate their kleptomania somehow, for a limited period to enable the government to use the windfall to provide these amenities on demand at subsidised prices.

    Their confidence in such a move to generate the desired result is bolstered by their conviction that the typical Sierra Leonean voter has an incurable case of amnesia.

    Once they are voted in again they will bring in SLPP from the shadows as they have done with Bernadette Lahai and her gang to enjoy the spoils, which will fill their mouth to the extent that they cannot speak.

    Earnest Koroma does not have to get the Chinese to teach him how to run the economy of such a small nation like Sierra Leone, endowed with unbelievable natural resources. To do so is a serious indictment of his administration on charges of monumental neglect.

    SLPP are no different. Fellow Sierra Leoneans we must band together as one, forgetting our ethnic and tribal heritage by voting in a third party come 2018. Only then can we expect a semblance of progress in our country.

    Since they know the ropes, SLPP and APC will provide a potent opposition which will liven up the political atmosphere.

    • Mr. Sorie I can understand it myself that you are more than APC. Please let me say this to you, do not compare SLPP and APC. This is like death and sleep. In terms of bringing democracy and peace in the country, that was brought by SLPP including Bio himself.

      Why some people do not appreciate others’ efforts? Talk about Koroma and his APC thieves, but this is the end game for you guys. Everyone just woke up in the morning and started saying damn rubbish against Bio, why? This must stop.

  2. Yes, only if Sierra Leone goes with China’s program for her development. China provides aid. Therefore, it is to be spent ultimately on Chinese terms.

    If Koroma cant accept the conditions for development through Chinese loans, then he will not stay in power much longer. He had nearly ten years to get things right, to no avail.

    He is a squandering failure that does not deserve to lead this poor (but promising) country.

  3. Having recently visited Sierra Leone, I have laid awake at night wondering where one would start to get the country on the starting line properly.

    I attended school in Freetown in 1962-63, when my father worked in Pademba Road prison. It was a lovely country with lovely people.

    The people are still lovely and our old house and school are still there. But the infrastructure, decay and day to day running of the society is shocking.

    Where does one start?

    • Hi Paul, this is a sad article indeed , shows no progress. I used to live there too from 1978 to 1989 , amazing memories. I used to live in a lovely house in Guma Valley and spent my weekends at Alex Beach Bar. :) rgds Sawan

  4. Kudos for a well written and informative piece. I cannot agree with you more. The airport project is billed to be a fiasco, if not a catastrophe for our country. We do not have the type of air traffic volume that should warrant a second airport.

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