Nyakeh's Column

 How Polirized is our Country's Politics? 

How Far Has Our Politicians Taken Us For Granted? 

Is or Are There Hopes For Clean and Developmental Politics To Thrive in Our County?

Answers To This Questions have been well etched in the Article Below. Don't forget to Share and Leave Your Comment. Have a Good Sunday Read!! 😊 

       Politics in my Country.

By; Mohamed Dauda Kamara

Let's not play politics inattentively, fumbling at the irrevocable decisions we have made, setting bad governance ablaze in an honorary ambience because we will always be the products of what we will choose to plant during elections. Politics in my country comes with a gripping effect, more innocence and agile. Uproarious and bleeding, senseless and irreparable. The upheaval is way too adamant, scorning us over and over again, without much resignation. Touring with our features, smuggling our development with opened arms, and there is still nothing we have done about it. This is politics in my country.

With independence gained from England, with the hope that our country will be born-again from the mayhems of colonialism, we are yet to be fully born and raised. And with our brothers at the hem of affairs, we have failed our independence. Our country has turned into a game, everyone is ready to play and win alone and not with the masses, who have been giving thunder-sounding applauses. Who have enjoyed the grotesques of face-off. Who have voted because it's their party. Who have betrayed their country over tribalism and regionalims. Who have quarrelled with their neighbors because they do not belong to the same party. Who have voted because they have been promised with something in return. And who have allowed the effect of "tota-pak" to hold them in mindless violence and vulgarity.

 A country where speaking the truth has become a crime: it's now called endangering the state's security. "Freedom" in all legal forms is not the free-for-alls. Many journalists have been put behind bars, for speaking the truth, maltreated or sometimes asked to apologize to the party in power for publishing something of public interest. While media freedom is just a mere saying in this country, every media house wants to break out of poverty, and so, media ownership determines what goes to the public. We are in a caged freedom, drenched in the impression that our "Fundamental Human Rights" are respected because United Nations says so. Those who oppose the system, would be intimidated by a ferociously, raged voice from the police. And hence, the "Rule of Law" is somewhat suspended while police brutality sprawls into the nerves of activists who will clamorously decline injustices in society. Our justice system has then become senile and selfishly dependent as our nation baths herself into the new dawns of hypocritic governance.

Author, Mohammed Dauda Kamara. 

 Our politics seems irredeemable because we have found loyalty with it than our country. Patriotism to us is a simmering, ingratituous  description of our days. But the real patriotism had long been dead. We live a proof of bad patriotism. It's no longer about patriotism. It's about "partisanship." If we fumble against a system, that is because our own party is not in power so that we can also join hands in looting this country's money. But That's the least the elites of this country will do, in having a share of patriotism. And for us, the real victims of our bad politics, we would say they are patriotic. And that's patriotism to us. People who speak against policies when they are not in power and implement those policies when they are now in power. It's a get-together for them, but little we know as a nation. We still act myopically. This is politics in my country, where patriotism is about jailing people who protest against social injustices, who protest against bad system, who speak against our bad democracy. Here, this act of bad governance is called by the party in power as being loyal to the state. But the state is already bleeding in a limbo. And to put us in a good mood, we, the half-eduacated and uneducated citizens of this nation, they will say to us that it's for the good of this nation and for the good of all. A scalding mother is being buried alive by her own children, and it's called loyalty for giving birth to them.

This richly blessed country had sunk into her ruin. We like it. Don't we? And we would not correct our mistakes. We would do the same in 2023. We would either elect Alusine or Alansan, whose similarities are binded by the same notion. With a groping jubilant, we would smile heartily while we would enfranchise another five-year-old suffering. And it would be called "franchise." For the half-eduacated or uneducated, this is the time we would brag, a time we would earn little respect from them, a time we would see them around, playing football with us, doing the common-man job and a time we would be told that voting is our right, and we would definitely not be told that having equal access to this country's resources is also our right. And we would not ask them what is our right in having equal access to our resources. We would follow the crowd, painting our faces in red or green, dancing hungrily on the streets, holding "pot-cover" clanging them in disregard of another dangerous five-year-old suffering on the waiting. This is politics in my country, so alarming and literarily overwhelming yet constipated and congested by the greedy folks. Such a formidable Politics, which is designed to entertain us with sweet words, lure us into voting without thinking about our wellbeing in the next five years. Here in my country, when it's time for politics, the past begets the present, and the future is hardly remembered. We are content about victory for the party we support so that our friends, colleagues, and neighbors; who are supporting the losing side would not heap mockery on us.

The worst misfortune in this country is experienced by those of us who are the victims of our bad politics. There is least mercy for us, the beggars who sit in the sweltering heat of the sun, hoping to survive from a penny.The shoe makers who sit on a wooden bench or a rubber stool: with a fly-over-head umbrella, almost fading and paling during the constant gaze of the sun, waiting for customers to bring their shoes for mending. The peddlers, who trek tirelessly even when it's raining, with their commodities bolted on their head, craving for a sale to make ends meet. The less paid teachers, who are still hoping for an increments of their salaries, so that their retirement would not be indecent and challenging. The already rejected ruralizers, whom, in fact, are more loyal to their parties, destined in their farms or swamps, without pure and safe drinking water, without electricity, without sufficient medical facilities, and without better education. The unemployed youths, whose despair has already been mixed with anger, are still on the brink, waiting to be ignited by these politicians to fuel violence when the need arises. The underpaid labourers, who are not given special treatments by the Ministry of Labour. The university students who cannot have access to scholarships because they lack political connection. Earning scholarships is no longer about academic prowess. It's about Political connection. The jobless graduates, whom, are put on a stay-at-home, with the original copies of their degrees; well-kept in a brownish envelope, dibursed in a cupboard or drawer, somewhat half-eaten by cockroaches or rats. And the sick, who are ignored and abandoned by doctors and nurses because they are poor and cannot afford their hospital bills. They lie in bed, looking frail and haggard. This politics in my country.

And above the "big-big" talks about our country's democracy: which is only played by two major political parties, who exchange the one batton after every ten years. Our quotidian democracy is humiliating: a kind of abominable democracy, wane and upside down. Our democracy is a something-like a deceptive power, raised to please the international world, and then lowered to hurt the masses. And we say Sierra Leone is a democratic state. Where is our "cripple-on-crutches" democracy, learning to take a step without a crawl? Maybe some of us, the half-eduacated or uneducated do not really understand how does democracy work. We know for sure that democracy is all about the electorate, voting their candidates. So, we go about boasting that it is democratic to vote and to be voted for. Barely do we understand how does democracy work, and what is in its true nature.  And even when some of us know, the real democracy, we will sprinkle a little pendulum of public opinion, and it's clear to say this country is democratic. What infuriates me is not the denial to our wrecked democracy. It's the continuous deception of it that is practiced on all of us for over twenty years now. Democracy, come out of your disguise and let the people know what you truly are. To fool us the masses over and over with big jargons, they will say 'democracy everywhere in the world is not fully practiced. Not even America, where it was born by Abraham Lincoln.' 

 

Let's conclude with bribery and corruption. Everyone of these echelons are always more concerned about "bribery and corruption" when they want us to vote for them. They will tell us that a particular, winnable war, will be waged against Bribery and corruption. And it will shock you to know, the Anti-Corruption Commission will only devour less paid teachers, and their pupils when they are caught in examination malpractices. This kind of bribery and corruption will be aired on radio stations, published online and will be the current fad. I'm not saying "Bribery and Corruption" is nice in anyway. But if we must sincerely and loyally eradicate bribery and corruption, then it must start with the upper class. Those who play with our elegant notes. They should be brought to law if accused with enough corroboration. Sadly, in my country, the upper class or those in power are protected against Bribery and corruption while we the masses, are brought to the law when bribe or when we are bribed with sometimes a small amount ranging around a hundred thousand Leones. Therefore, bribery and corruption will always hinder this country's development. One man will eat what millions of citizens could have eaten. Let me not dissipate my wrath anymore. This is politics in my country, where bribery and corruption were one of the key factors that bloodied our country during the 11 year civil war. I pause for a cup of tea at Macauly Street.