‘’We don’t deserve to suffer this way; we have everything as a country but we are still poor,” says a man who was having a privilege conversation with a colleague passenger on a taxi.
Sierra Leone is believed to be one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources but it is still poor.
It is the common view usually expressed by ordinary Sierra Leoneans that the Sierra Leone is rich but its people are the poorest in the world.
Since the country gained independence from April 27, 1961, Sierra Leoneans are still poor in every aspects (welfare, health, education, technology, services).
Despite the forefathers who helped the country got its independence from British colonial power, the ‘lion mountain’ nation has failed to provide the basic needs of her citizens.
Poverty has been the terminal illness of majority of Sierra Leoneans.
The nation’s focus after independence was politics above all matters.
Early politicians who governed the West Africa small nation had ambivalent feelings.
They failed to reunite themselves for the betterment of the young independent nation.
At the time, while late Milton Margai, Sierra Leone’s proudest pioneer of her independence, called for a change to help the nation to develop.
Other politicians like his brother Albert Margai (deceased); Siaka Probyn Stevens chose the wrong path.
On Sierra Leone’s perilous path after independence, some political analysts pointed that Sierra Leone’s first leader, Prime Minister Milton Margai, died too soon at a time the country had not been planned well.
It is true that a country that just gained independence needed a careful restructuring and reformation. But the lion mountain country was not lucky.
Once called the Gold Coast of West Africa, Ghana, was lucky enough to have seen her first leader, Nkuwame Nkrumah, after the country’s independence from Great Britain, to have survived for a number of years before he passed away.
Nkrumah was able to help develop and restructure Ghana. He was able to unite Ghanaian politicians and students to embrace Ghanaian values. Nkrumah’s nationalism campaign in his home country, in the late 1950s, after the British handed over nation to the Blacks, played a pivotal role in changing the mindset of Ghanaians.
Today, the people of Ghana respect their culture and express a deep pride in their country. As such, Ghanaians never had had civil unrests like other African nations.
For Sierra Leone’s case, it was expected that her pioneer of independence, late Prime Minister Milton Margai would have moved the nation to another level.
But, since he had had politicians who fought hard to undermine his administration, and the fact that he did not stay alive for a number of years, Sierra Leone became poorly planned as greedy and rogue politicians took after Milton Margai.
Since 1961 to date, Sierra Leone is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Sierra Leoneans don’t have plenty food to eat. Neither do they consume ‘healthy diet’ that could them to grow strongly to do farm work. Currently, inflation is rising, causing foodstuffs and basic commodities to increase in prices. The average Sierra Leone could not get a day an equivalent of one dollar.
Agreeing with the two passengers on a taxi which was heading to the main town, “Sierra Leone’s is blessed but lacks kindhearted leaders”.
The first speaker, the other passenger, went on that though Sierra Leone has two uninterrupted seasons, dry and wet seasons which are good for agriculture.
Yet the leaders of the nation are not investing in agriculture like China which grows her own food and sold the surplus to other nations in the world.
“What is more that is left since we have cassava crops, rice, groundnuts, palm trees that we could derive oil from, we have maize” he highlighted.
Like the man, most Sierra Leoneans who have traveled the length and breadth of West Africa region would be heard saying the same that some nations in the sub region like Senegal grows and depends on groundnuts as their main exporting commodity.
But we don’t export anything nowadays; so what would you expect, a rise in the dollar against our local currency.