By Tilly Barrie
What are the actual roles of some state institutions in Sierra Leone? I ask because their roles are vague, if at all they have any meaning so I want these institutions to explain to the populace what their roles and functions are.
You will agree with me that there are a lot of misconceptions about the existence of some of these institutions or what they actually represent. For the purpose of this piece I will restrict my curiosity to just a few.
Go talk to some people and they will shrug off such a conversation with the usual Krio retort: “Bo me ar tire sef…ar nor know waytin dem dae pan. Govment jis d wais money pan dem”. (Meaning: we are fed up with it all and do not know what they are doing. Government is merely wasting resources on them).
I for one do not want to accept this belief. Government should enact laws to govern them. But wait a moment! It would be enforced for a few months and you would hear people saying: “Nor mend dem ya, na wae dem belful”. (Meaning: Don’t mind them. It is because they are well fed).
Are these institutions coordinating to promote good governance? No, No and No! Believe it or not, they are NOT. Let these institutions explain to us their achievements since their inceptions.
Take the Attitudinal and Behavioral Change (ABC) for example. There is nothing to write home about despite trying to unshackle themselves, following the landing in the net of the Anti-Corruption Commission. Lawlessness and indiscipline have been on the increase since the ABC Secretariat was set up. The ABC personnel spend time bluffing around government offices, on television and radio, instead of constructively engaging the grassroots of society in the slums, petty traders, taxi and ‘podapoda’ drivers and bike riders.
What is happening to the Environmental Protection Unit? What are they protecting? Nothing! Slums are on the increase. The breadth and depth of the sea are being dangerously reduced every other day. Mining companies are pillaging communities. The hills are being dug up with no effort to bank the loose soil. Buildings are going up without permits and obviously without proper planning. Communities are springing up without space for recreation, cemeteries and toilet facilities. Thus most people in such settlements are forced to defecate into containers and plastic bags and empty or throw the feces into streams in communities like Red Pump, Congo Water, Savage Street, Samba Gutter to name but a few. As for deforestation, I look forward to the day when the animals would resist human invasion and say ‘enough is enough.’
Where are the regulators like the Standards Bureau and the Consumer Protection Agency? Do they really exist at all? People do not believe that they do. Sierra Leone has become a dumping ground for all sorts of expired and substandard products. We now have ‘junk cornflakes’. Street traders sell expired food stuffs and sundries under the very nose of the so-called regulators.
Can I ask the Ministry of Labour whether the Factory Inspectorate still exists? If so, I bet they are not doing a good job. I will hasten to say that the labour inspectors and factory inspectorate inspectors do their inspection through back doors, leaving employees at the mercy of their employers. Every employee has a right to work and medical compensation.
Metrological Department is a white elephant. I would rather you went to the fishermen and asked them about the weather. And there is the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA), whose specialty, it would seem is to issue tenders and supervise projects. We all know the benefits being derived from these tenders and projects to the extent they mortgage their authority and respect. There are potholes here, potholes there and potholes everywhere. And the rains are just around the corner with the signals of their intent already with us. Jeeps I think are the only alternative for these potholes. Passengers in taxis and ‘poda podas’ suffer waist and back pains travelling the length and breadth of Freetown.
What bothers me most is that the President, who has many things to do, is always called upon to take the lead in directing us on how to conduct our affairs. And when he did so, people who should have done that before on his behalf would go around trumpeting the president’s directive: “the president says this”. Had the President not called to order the launch of “Operation WID” the city would have been a mess. But come to think of it, is Operation WID a success? No, I say again No. it has run out of steam, lost its momentum and gone out in whimper.
The police, traffic wardens and city council police are taking undue advantage of the operation and are having a field day. They have overlapping duties so we wonder who is in control. Are we to go back to the President to ask him to launch the operation again? Mr. President the ministers have signed a performance bond with you, but personnel in the ministries, departments and agencies have a lot of explaining to do to buoy your government.
