Samuel Kallon 
Africa 24 news
Sierra Leone is known to be very, very free to live on or habited than even most African countries.
One can’t even compare the West African small nation to some decent and civilized nations in Europe and other advanced nations in the world over.
People who are born in Sierra Leone and have travelled to other countries within and between Africa have re-told their testimonies over and over again to comrade Sierra Leoneans.
What they’ve observed while visiting nations in Africa like Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gambia, and Sudan, tells a stark difference in human behaviours of those citizens to citizens of Sierra Leone.
One of the travellers was relating his experience while staying a short while in the capital Yamoussoukro.
“Our friend dropped a banana peel on the streets of Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast. Before he did that we had advised him that this is not Sierra Leone and that he needed to take great caution. But he never heeded our advice as he continued to drop of the banana peels so recklessly.
“A police man, an Ivorian was watching us pretending that he was not looking at us. Moments later, the police followed us and grabbed our man. He flogged him with a solid cane for throwing the ripe banana peels on the ground.
“The men told us tell your friend that here is Ivory Cost; we don’t tolerate dirt on the streets.”
Another Sierra Leonean who had travelled extensively to Arab nations and in African countries had shared his experiences, too.
“This is the only country [Sierra Leone] where you can see strangers walk freely without them having clearances or stay permit documents from state authorities. While I went to Sudan few years back, I had to stay at the airport for hours fearing that I might be arrested if I walked away on the street without a clearance.”
These scenarios point to Sierra Leone’s statelessness in upholding the ‘basic laws’ which regulate citizens and foreigners’ behaviours.
The lack of state’s commitment to discipline its citizens and nationals from other countries has rendered a collapse in the justice system for many in Sierra Leone, respect for public spaces, and abuse of office.
It is common to see a typical Sierra Leone urinating in front of a public space such as at a national stadium entrance, spitting a cough on the wall of Victoria Park, or seeing a young man spraying a college wall, school or throwing some rubbish in the main street or in some gutters during the rainy season.
With these negative behavours by reckless Sierra Leoneans, are the police or municipal law officers there to fine or arrest defaulters?
The answer to the question above might be the root-cause of the problem to the filthy nation and dirty city we live on to see as a people.
