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FREETOWN: ABDULAI SAMURA: About nine months ago, Ernest Koroma and his APC cohorts promised heaven on earth in Sierra Leone if he won the election. He condemned all the policies of the SLPP as nothing to write home about. He told the Sierra Leone electorate that he has what it takes to govern a country. It is becoming clear that the government of Ernest Koroma will end up being the most incompetent in the history of Sierra Leone. Yes more incompetent than J. S. Momoh’s. The extreme hardship in the country is set to expose the policy nakedness of Ernest Koroma’s government. It is my contention that Ernest Koroma is fully responsible and should be rightly blamed for the hardship he has brought upon the people of Sierra Leone through his lack of policy direction.

One cannot help but notice the despicably anguished apologia for a failing government from some of the press houses in Sierra Leone. A presidential candidate runs on policies meant to benefit the populace. He is expected to implement those policies he campaigned on. But all we have been hearing is that we are part of a global market. Can the president please spare us the reminder about the obvious? Do they want to tell us Sierra Leone only became part of the world economy when APC won the elections? This government must be taking Sierra Leoneans for fools. Sierra Leone like, Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire and others are all part of the global market. It is true that the world is experiencing global shortages. The difference between those countries and Sierra Leone is that they have sound policies to cushion the effects of the global hardship while Ernest Koroma has none. The lack of sound policies and vision on the part of Ernest Koroma has rendered him to look like a deer caught in the head lights of a loaded truck with failed brakes. The cluelessness, incompetence, and exclusive focus on politicking by Ernest Koroma and his government has led to the extreme hardship in Sierra Leone.

Serious leaders like Abdulai Wade of Senegal and Kuffour of Ghana have put policies in place to cushion the global hardship blow. These leaders have shown that their countries are more important than party politics. They have also shown they are competent leaders. Any leader who constantly blames his subjects for failed or absence of economic policies is like the proverbial bad workman who always quarrels with his tools. Ernest Koroma and the APC government are bad workmen. Their plan is to blame everything on the attitude of the Sierra Leonean. This is the kind of logical bankruptcy that embarrasses even the intelligent APC supporter. When it is hardship it is global but when it is time for them to craft policies, it becomes attitudinal change. The government of Ernest Koroma refuses to take responsibility for their policy incompetence and some press houses either because of ignorance or promise of benefits haplessly reproduce the silly lines.

What did countries like Senegal and others do? They provided a short term subsidy to cushion the effect. In times of crisis, a competent government employs quick fixes while they seek a long term solution. Unfortunately, Sierra Leone cannot afford even a quick fix because the APC government has squandered all the reserve that was meant for such crises and now they are raiding the NASSIT funds. Imagine the president allegedly spending $1,000,000 on African trips that yield absolutely no benefit for the country. Imagine a government spending $7,000,000 a month to buy fuel for a generator that provides sporadic light for parts of the city. Such policy decisions epitomize the height of incompetence and sound policy bankruptcy. This phenomenon has resulted in the lack of funds to ameliorate the hardship in Sierra Leone.

A competent government would at this time be laying out policy initiatives to deal with the hardship. Instead we keep hearing the same bleating sounds about it being the fault of everybody else but Ernest Koroma and the APC government’s incompetence. It is sad to note that with such glaring policy bankruptcy and incompetence exhibited by APC, things would only get worse. It will get to the point wherein blaming it on global market and attitudinal change would no longer work, then what would they do? What a sham!