By Umaru Fofana
I am not sure if this is due to the leadership style of successive Sierra Leonean presidents that entrenches the demigod status enveloped in sycophancy towards our leaders, or just the way of life in our society. Whatever it is the notion of President Ernest Bai Koroma being treated in a messianic way is, among many other things, destroying the productivity level of especially public officials. It may have worsened in recent times but it is fair to say that it did not start with the current president. So it has been since I started watching our heads of state.
It is common for suspicious eyes to be pierced through public officials who do not display a colossus of a presidential portrait in their offices - and perhaps even homes. Smacks of communism in all but name. Even more abhorrent and wasteful use of taxpayers' money is the fact that public officials abandon their offices to attend some event of some sort - some of them phoney ones - simply because President Koroma is in attendance.
I was in southern Sierra Leone for most of last week, doing a TV documentary for the German station, ZDF, on multinational large scale farming and smallholder agribusiness. After days in Pujehun it was time to move to Bo and press on with cassava production. Interesting as that may sound it is not the thrust of this piece so will leave it for another day.
From Pujehun I called the provincial headquarter town of Bo to confirm accommodation for my team. My favourite hotel in the town is J&M. In some European countries the best service and attention is found in the so-called family hotels or family guest houses. J&M probably qualifies for such. The staff are like a family, with an eye for detail and hands-on attention which makes every guest feel specially treated not knowing all others are also treated same.
I felt compelled to call the hotel to reconfirm my booking because some of my friends called me from the town to say that all hotels had been booked by the make-believe presidential entourages of all shapes and sizes. They included ministers, heads of Parastatals, senior civil servants, senior university administrators, etc, who were there simply because President Koroma was visiting. Most of them had nothing to do with the presidential visit. And their trips were not only on the taxpayer who would have to bear their cost and that of their drivers' and all the exorbitant per diems that would go with such, but these public officials had abandoned their offices on working days.
It is common practice, however loathsome, for the entire cabinet - sorry the entire government - to cluster in a place simply because the president is there attending some function. Say, for instance, some commissioning is happening at Miatta Conference Centre, do not bother to see any minister in their office until that event ends. Chances are that they will be at the Centre. Not only when the event ends but also when the president leaves the venue which he often does before the end of the function as he is only there mostly for opening ceremonies. Understandably. He has a lot of things to tend to. So do his ministers. But no. Once the president leaves all these functionaries storm outside. Even those ministers whose offices are organising the said event leave once the president does. Not only that, it serves as a fig leaf for some of these officials to attend to non-official functions on the pretext that they were attending a presidential function. This is absurdity and idleness at its height.
One is tempted to think that the functionaries are to blame. Why not! Why do they not remain in their offices and give a proper account of the hours for which they are being paid! Why do they not realise the impact of their absence from work! Why do they not come to appreciate the fact that in addition to their absence their staff hardly function which is largely due to the lackadaisical approach to work in this country whose workforce is mainly poorly trained and largely inert and abysmally motivated or monitored.
Yes, as I say, the public servants are to blame for chasing the president wherever he goes, never mind what he goes there to do. They can stay back in their offices and be useful to the state. But I have been told by several people in public service that their absence from presidential functions can cause them their job. "It is easier for the president and his team to notice your absence than your presence" a senior government official told me.
Be that as it may, a president who wants his team to be productive would discourage them from following him all over the place when they have no official business to do with him. Unless they have direct function at a particular event, the president can tell them to stay in their offices and work for what they are being paid. Even jealous husbands hardly chase their wives around the way most political appointees in Sierra Leone do the president.
Some of these appointees do so thinking it is the surest way to shore up their positions. They lobby for their friends and relatives for more positions and contracts. "A wan memba you, sir". If you are tempted to laugh I can understand but this is too serious a matter to laugh over.
One gets the impression that cabinet meetings are one-way street discussions. The demigod approach we see outside can make us have a snip view of what goes on behind those closed cabinet room doors. If you fear that you can be sacked for not attending an event in which you are completely irrelevant, would you dare disagree with the president even when he is moving towards a direction that is against the good of the nation? Even my one-year-old daughter knows the answer to that. But we all know why most of these public servants - not civil servants - are in office. For all the reasons except public service. If you get that then you get the reason for this running-around the president by ministers and other political appointees. Never mind at what cost.
(C) Politico 13/02/14
