By Hassan I. Conteh

This is the lame-thinking usually expressed by a good many of Sierra Leoneans.

That when prices on goods and foodstuffs go up, they’ll never climb down again.

They have come to form such  a ”stereotype” mentality over the years since the civil war ended in the country.

That was after the year 2002 when things turned out to be seen very differently by Sierra Leoneans.

Most people don’t longer have trust in the government of whatever in power.

Here, we mean institutions of governance no longer command the respect they deserve before the civil war broke out, starting 1991 and ending in 2002.

I was in Class 3 then, age-11, when the Peace Accord was signed in Togo, Lome.

The struggle to keep power in the hands of few by the few has been the dominant pattern in Sierra Leone’s politics ever since 1961.

1961(on April 27) was the period when Sierra Leone had her independence from the Great British Empire.

The Africa continent was overcame and ruled by European powers.

The clamoring to annex more States in Africa, Asia, South America by some European greatest nations like Belgium, Portugal, Spain , Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, had suffered strong resistances by Asia and Africa nations after the decline of the Sugar Plantation in America and Europe.

The call for independence by particularly Asia nations such as India and Africa nations like Ghana first sparked growing momentum in the beginning of the 1950s.

Other nations in Asia, Africa and South America later joined the bandwagon, calling for ”full independence” of Nation States.

”Africa for Africans” dream-slogan pervaded the continent.

Many States, however; in Africa such as Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya including Sierra Leone, had gained independence from Great Britain 1950s.

We learnt all these through our history and government books while  in school.

We had been told of the greatness of The Maghreb, The Horn of Africa, The Gold Coast, and that of Timbukto in Mali.

The European ” clamoring” for States had ceased long ago. Then, it came the ”clamouring” for Power by Africans after freedom from Europeans.

Power struggles among Africans took a toll-lead over Africa for Africans’ dream.

Africa had had a dim past in the past decades.

And the present is full of nebulous hopes for Africans.

There had been coups here and there in the past after the new formation of African nations.

There are coups again here and there as recent as a coup attempt in Niger end of this July, 2023.

There had been coups in Mali and Republic of Guinea in 2021.

There are also talks of elections fraud (Nigeria and Sierra Leone as of February and June 2023) and climate change disasters on the continent.

The future for African people is filled with narrow hopes.

Narrow-thinking by young and old Africans is sweeping down the feet of the continent.

Africans seem to have lost total hopes of a brighter days ahead.

Talk to a Sierra Leonean now about his dream for his country.

His/her answer might be: ”You know what, Sierra Leone will never develop again.”

You can’t change that from him.

He/she believes that because the nation still lags behind other countries on the continent because of ”bad leadership.”

A good number of Sierra Leoneans you would also dare to talk to might also tell you  this:

”When prices on food jump up, they won’t come down again even if another government comes in power.”

That has been the common perception ingrained in the minds of most Sierra Leoneans.

They would argue you out that a sack of rice was sold in the days of Pa Kabba (Late President Ahmad Tejan Kabba) just Le 60,000.

Under Pa Ernest (Former President Ernest Bai Koroma) it went up to Le 200,000.

Under Pa Bio (President Julius Maada Bio, the current leader) it was sold Le 600,000 (just in 2022 alone, in his government five-year term).

Now, a bag of rice is sold at/above Le 700,000 (as of June 2023).

But, the question, that one quiet observant like me would like to ask is: ”Why would other nations dont’t get inflated prices on food to last longer or continue to go up and up and up ?”

Do we as Sierra Leoneans grow our own food to eat like in the past when rice was in abundance ? Starvation is hitting Africa continent.

A State in Nigeria had its people looted food from some stores just about two days ago.

Kenya’s Nairobi has had scarcity on onions supply in the country.

Onion prices in Sierra Leone are skyrocketing.

Where is Africa heading to? The Ukraine-Russia Crisis is affecting the world and Africa seems to be on the wrong-end. We’ve got to be serious about agriculture.

Oil palm prices on a five-gallon size in Sierra Leone have been most times higher and lower in the past than the current prices indicate. Now, a pint of oil palm cost Le 9,000 (as of July 26-31). Lately, the price per pint jumped down to Le 7,000 (as of early July 1-13)

There have always been fluctuations on prices of local goods on the markets.

Sometimes, prices on seasonal foodstuffs tend to  go up or low, depending on the harvests that year.

Other times prices on vegetables, rice seeds , fruits, and other types of food become very cheap in the markets.

That just tells you a simple scenario that if we produce more crop yields regularly on rotational basis in the country.

There will be a balance on the scarcity and abundance on food crops on our markets.

Or, the cheaper ones will dominate the more expensive ones.

We may also have more food to eat home and export to get more cash from other countries than how we have come to be seen so dependent on more imports.

The higher we import the more it will partially cause prices on foodstuffs to double up or become ever expensive always on our local markets.