Regardless of who wins the March 27, 2018 presidential runoff in Sierra Leone (Salone), a demigod will be sworn in on inauguration day. After spending five weeks in Salone and observing activities at the height the 2018 election campaign season, I see no progressive changes in the attitudes and mentality of our people.
A “demigod” is a mortal being who is elevated to divine status by other mortal beings. The people of Sierra Leone do this every 5 years when they elect a president. The result is a “Supreme Leader” who progressively gets intoxicated with power and wealth, while he and his cronies act like gods who must be feared and whom no one dares to hold accountable for their crooked deeds.
ELECTION FEVER
Like a pandemic, the 2018 election has gripped every man and woman in this nation of seven million. Every person above the age of fifteen, regardless of his or her station in life, is a diehard and active supporter of one of the men vying for the presidency. It is impossible to find a silent voter in this country. Even people whose professions require them to be neutral or nonpartisan cannot help it; from law enforcement officers to religious leaders, all are declared supporters of one candidate or the other.
Regardless of where you are in the country, you cannot escape the daily bombardment of traffic halting political parades or rallies, newspaper, TV and radio interviews and reports of several of the 14 men vying for the presidency. When the candidates’ convoys are en route to one of their many parades, public and private vehicles give way to them on the highways and city roads, as they approach with speed and pompous.
The scene of these men addressing their supporters projects the image of Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus taught and healed the people.
Standing on platforms, with hands up in the air, waving at huge crowds of supporters who are clad in T-shirts bearing their pictures, these candidates have nothing to teach nor powers to heal. Yet they are cheered, praised and songs are composed for them with lots of dancing where ever they appear.
WORSHIPPING GODS THEY KNOW NOT
Supporters frequently engage in arguments with one another, in defense or praise of men they have elevated to the divine status before electing them. These arguments often lead to serious disputes and the disputes often lead to fights, injuries and sometimes deaths.
Unfortunately, the elevation of political candidates to godly status in Salone is not based on moral grounds. Most of the candidates have no track record of contributing to the socioeconomic development of their communities or the nation. In fact, a hand full of the men has actually occupied important national positions, with track records of being thriving kleptomaniacs, exploiting the people and resources.
Their “victims” are now worshiping the same men who have done nothing but enrich themselves and abuse their powers against their own people. This begs a nagging question: Are the people of Salone “victims” in the election process that produce leaders who abuse and exploit them and their land?
I submit that Salone people are not victims. They are active contributors to the creation of the demigods who exploit them and plunder the nation’s resources. The people of this mineral-rich nation are neck deep in poverty and highly illiterate. The idea of a people exercising their political rights through the electoral process is completely lost on the people of Salone. So help us God!
In their blind support of candidates, Sierra Leoneans not only passionately glorify the candidate but also take personal offense at any criticism of men they hardly know. Ask any average supporter about basic personal information regarding their candidate and they would not be able to provide any. Yet they are ready to die or kill for him. Candidates’ grown or minor children are all nicely tucked away safely in the security of the western world, where they are receiving the best education and opportunities. Meanwhile, the most disadvantaged youth of Salone parade behind these men, getting beat up and sometimes killed.
TRIBAL POLITICS AND NEPOTISM
Historically, the winner of the presidency in Salone appoints cabinet members and other political appointees from among his people, including his campaign network, his tribe, and region. Often placing people with no qualifications in key positions.
This practice motivates the large flock of Salone people, in the country and the diaspora, to blindly and vehemently support candidates mainly along tribal and regional lines. Salone people in the Diaspora are especially desperate for such political appointments, as they have seen others with no qualifications go on to become rich and powerful deal-making ministers.
This habit of nepotism has littered key ministries in Salone with individuals who only know how to enrich themselves through corrupt means, with absolutely no knowledge, skills or abilities to function, in the least sense, for their ministries. Hence, the perpetual decay of the socioeconomic condition of this donor-dependent nation!
GOOD PERSONAL CHARACTER NOT REQUIRED
Candidates generally feed the public with personal accolades, such as their privileged higher education attainment (fake or real), wealth, professional and personal attainments. Instead of critically assessing candidates holistically, supporters ignore their personal characters and focus instead on their personal achievements (real or fake), with no assessment of their potential to lead with compassion.
Salone people generally disregard their candidate’s personal characters. They fail to understand that a person’s personal character is a great predictor of how he would handle social issues as a leader. Even when opposing candidates try to highlight character flows of their opponents, it always falls on deaf ears of the people and the media.
As a result, wife beaters, womanizers, and deadbeat fathers who have not been responsible for their own biological children are among the candidates who are glorified, held as saviors for the people living in deplorable condition in this small nation.
It is quite common for supporters to refer to their candidates as the “savior” or “God sent” for the people of Salone. In print, radio, and television, you frequently read or hear commentators sternly warn that if a certain candidate were “unfairly treated” in the electoral process, ‘it would threaten the peace and security of this nation.’ In other words, supporters would be willing to engage in physical violence in the name of their candidates, should they lose the election.
WOMEN AND THE YOUTH ARE THEIR OWN ENEMIES
The most unfortunate part of this senselessness in Salone elections is that women and the youth, who are the most marginalized demographics, are the politicians’ greatest tools.
Women are always active in the background, providing logistic support to candidates. Without women, no candidate has a chance to even run a campaign in any jurisdiction. Women are doing the grassroots organizing, cooking, canvassing and many more for the numerous candidates and their parties.
To make matters worse, women are generally not supportive of women candidates. Even though there are two women among the 16 candidates contending the 2018 presidency, the two have been hardly heard of or heard from. The people and the media have largely ignored these female candidates.
Until you look on the ballot, you would not know women were contending the presidency in the 2018 elections.
Even the much-touted presidential candidates’ debate of February 15, 2018, was limited to the 6 most popular men.
Ironically, women and the youth have been in the forefront of glorifying these men, to the point of hero-worshipping. The youth are used mostly for rallies and physical intimidations. With the high rate of youth unemployment and school dropout, this idle population shows up at events in high numbers, wearing parties’ or candidates t-shirts and sometimes high on drugs. These young people are often aggressive, vocal and violent, all in the name of men they hardly know.
The history of Salone elections tells us that the men who win on the backs of women and the youth have always neglected issues and concerns of these demographics, right along with the socioeconomic problems plaguing the rest of the nation.
Once a candidate wins, he is no longer accessible to the very people who put their lives on the line to put him in power. He becomes “The Pa,” unreachable and untouchable, a billionaire within a few years.
This ordained demigod would spend the next five years ensuring that the very people who fought with their brothers, sisters, and neighbors in his name, remain uneducated and continue to wallow in their state of dire poverty. It is the only state in which he and his cronies would be ensured of a population that could be used as tools in the next election.
Until these practices, attitudes and mentalities change, the people of Salone are doomed to remain in the merciless hands of the demigods they create every five years.
References
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 
Indeed this is becoming a canker in Africa. We vote people to power who do not have the interest of their people at heart. Politician are touted by their tribes and this is polarizing countries. Every in Africa is cladded in party clothes with no regard to the common good. Lord have mercy on our continent.
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Yes, cancer caused by selfishness and greed.
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