By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The latest survey of Afro Barometer has revealed that Sierra Leoneans have less trust in public institutions, including the presidency, than they had in 2012.
The report, launched on Wednesday, 16 December, also revealed a reduction in popularity of President Ernest Bai Koroma and his governing All Peoples Congress, APC.
Afro Barometer is a Pan-African institution headquartered in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, with a focus on fostering accountability in governance. It does so through regular surveys conducted across member countries in key governance and accountability areas.
In Sierra Leone, Afro Barometer works in collaboration with the civil society group Campaign Good Governance (CGG), and its surveys are conducted by the Freetown-based independent research firm ITASCAP.
This latest research which was conducted between May and June of 2015 focused on issues like corruption, trust and performance of political leaders. The results show that in all three categories the level of trust people had in public institutions dropped. For example, the level of trust in the Local Councils in 2012 was 69% and that has gone down in 2015 to 59%.
Trust in the ruling APC, in power since 2007, nose-dived from 47% to 42% in 2015.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of this report is the drop in the trust in President Koroma. The research showed that public confidence in him had gone down by 18% since 2012; it now stands at a mere 52%, which means just half of the population of Sierra Leone believes in him to lead the country.
Public trust also fell in other institutions like the army, other political parties, parliamentarians, and the National Electoral Commission.
The results of this survey should not be seen as a trial for politicians and public officials but rather as one that should be seen and treated as a test to our democracy, Ibrahim Sesay, an official of CGG who presented the survey findings, told audience at the Civil Service Training Institute, at Tower hill in Freetown. He said the report has relevant data for consumption by officials.
In the past reports like these have been seriously challenged by government officials, particularly on the grounds of the methodology that was used in conducting them.
Umaru Katta, research analysts at ITASCAP, the organization that conducted the field work of the survey, shed light on the methodology that was used and described it as “thorough.”
On corruption, the survey showed that 7 in 10 Sierra Leoneans believe that corruption has risen from 2012 to 2015 and only 17% of respondents say they will resist paying bribe which is an act of corruption.
Alhassan Kargbo, the Outreach Coordinator of the Anti- Corruption Commission, said the 17% is a shocking figure and noted that this highlighted the level of challenge the commission had in front of it. He stated that the commission had made massive strides in fighting corruption by climbing up to 50 steps upward in the global corruption index.
However, Kargbo acknowledged that they still had an enormous challenge as a commission to combat corruption.
Edmond Koroma, Programs Director of the pressure group Transparency International Sierra Leone, noted that in fighting the menace of corruption, citizens and the government must all get the will to resist and fight it.
In the coming weeks the result of the survey is poised to provoke debates on a lot of issues concerning trust, corruption and performance of public officials.
The Afro Barometer surveys are conducted once after every three years and they focus on social, economic and political environment of 35 countries in Africa.
(C) Politico 21/12/15
