By Hassan Ibrahim Conteh
Abdulai Simbo Sankoh, Businessman
What I would advise my colleague Sierra Leoneans from my experience since 1999 is that we should have love for one another. We must like our nationality and everyone that is a Sierra Leonean, because from that time what we seen in our neighboring Guinea differences between Sierra Leoneans and Guineans. Guineans have love for one another, even the poorest and the richest Guineans would show love to each other. But Sierra Leoneans, we don’t have that attribute. So we should show love to ourselves in order to develop our country.
Lamin Conteh: Businessman
The government has tried. We’ve seen some amount of development in terms of light, education, infrastructure. But for now things are very difficult, especially for the youths. For a youth to get Le1,000 or 5,000 a day is not really easy. It is only with God’s grace that you will wake up and be able to get something to make a living. I am begging the government for it to make us feel like we are Sierra Leoneans, because foreigners are the ones enjoying in this country that is what we observed. While we the peaceful citizens or youth of this country do not have the facilities expected, we always feel the pain. This is because they will say pay this tax but at the end of the day one man will sit somewhere and eat all the money. When they arrest him and put him into custody they will ask him to pay Le1 million after he will have stolen Le100 million. So I’m begging on the government to be strict on these issues. Price control is another problem. For example, if you take a taxi say for Lumley, you will spend more than Le 3,000. In fact, if you want to get transport just say I have Le 5, 000, otherwise they will not look at you. Look at the fuel price, it has been reduced worldwide but why are we not having any reduction here? We expect the transport fares to be reduced but up till now the government has not done anything to address the situation. One thing I know is that we have a culture in Sierra Leone that when a price of something goes up it will never fall down.
Bockarie: Businessman
Foday Sankoh brought this war; he told us that things are hard but later it turned out to be a different situation. Now, from the war we have learnt some lessons because those days when something happens they would think of a war situation. But when this war came we learnt different lesson. Now the youths have changed but the government of the day is depriving the youths of this country because the more there is hardship in the country the more the crime rate increase. Initially, they told us about youth empowerment. But we don’t have jobs; we don’t have anything to do. And this will misled some to do things that are not supposed to be done. So, all these are the things that create problem in a country. No better food and job. We are languishing in this country. In other countries you will see youths working because there are jobs created for them. This will make some to be involved in crime like stealing. When some are taken into prison, they will commit the same crime when they are out. I thought we would have learnt a lesson from the experience of the war but the same attitude still continues.
Other countries have grown but in Sierra Leone we are not growing. Every day when we wake and sleep we are grumbling that things are hard. The government really needs to do something for us. The average life of people is very deplorable. You will take a year without any achievement but in other countries somebody will spend just one year and when he returns he is rich. We have still not yet learned our lessons; we talk but people do not follow what was said. When the time of politics come they will say youths. They will arrest youths for causing violence but they are not giving them jobs.
Ibrahim Sannoh: Businessman
For me it is like the youths have not learned any lesson from the war, because most of the things that cause the war are the ones that are happening now. If they would have learnt something they would have known what to do. But now there is injustice, corruption, political thuggery. These are the things that cause the war. All those things that cause the war are seen happening more that even before the war. These things are repeating more than before the 1991 – 2002 civil war. I believe that the youths must learn. Politicians are not masters. They are there to service us. We don’t need to walk up to them and crying for help. They should be our servants. But they’ll take everything and put in their pockets. All these will create grudge among the youths. The way things are reversing, I am afraid, it will be disastrous. These cliques, that have already been politicized, they think that they are doing them good but they are doing the worst. When they are hiding under the cover of politicians, they think they are helping themselves. They are doing the worst thing. I am begging all the youths to be sensible so that we cannot have a replica of 1991- 2002. Now the country has been reversed. It is rotten. So we need to put a structure in order to run the country well. So that the country will improve because the peace that [President] Kabba left with us is fragile. Police killing, police brutality - all these are injustices that will make the youths to revert to violent activities. I am talking to the government to change their attitude towards the people. Let them give us the quality services. Let them be telling us the truth. Let them stop telling us lies because if you continue to lie to someone when he realizes that later it will not be easy. We are not expecting to use any other means other than these media houses. This is the only medium that we will use to let them know that there is injustice in the country. Instead of people deciding ‘to go to the bush’ [taking up arms], it is better we start explaining to them now to realize that all is not well. The youths are hungry. The youths are disgruntled! The clique business has increased and lawlessness has overshadowed the country long since. It is at the highest degree more than even before the war. And it is lawlessness that creates anarchy.
(C) Politico 23/03/16
