Sierra Leone Discovers Oil

Fantastic! This is the news we have been waiting for. We can now all sit back, relax and watch the dollars roll in. We do not have to do one more day’s honest work. We can now shelve all our responsibility as citizens and leave everything in the hands of the government, because, henceforth, everything is going to be alright. Or will it?

Look at Nigeria. See how far they have moved in the half-century since they struck oil there. They are rich, bolshie and assertive. On the surface. But we don’t even need to dig deep to recall the wars, political upheavals and societal disruptions that have turned the country sideways. Forty years after Biafra, the Delta is festering in an environmental catastrophe, and mayhem and extortion are the order of the day. And the extorting is not limited to disaffected youth who are demanding a piece of the action. The larceny and extortion are at the highest echelons of society and at levels that cause the eyes to water. Still, governors, Presidents and their hangers-on continue to help themselves to millions, if not billions, while the lowly citizen, whose land is being devastated, has nothing to celebrate.

I used to think that the curse on Sierra Leone was our diamonds, in that they were tiny and so easily smuggleable, to coin a word. On the other hand, we have seen how ultra-large carriers, full of Nigerian light sweet, can execute a disappearing act so slick (no pun intended), as to make diamond trafficking look clumsy.

So we have all the lessons to learn from our big brother down the coast. But we have internal lessons of our own as well, including those from diamonds and iron ore, and how the regions where these resources are found have suffered their own crippling neglect.

Now is the time to set down the benchmarks and draw the line beyond which we will not allow our leaders to go. Now is the time for us to declare what we expect from oil revenues (which, by the way, are still only presumptive. We do not know the extent of the reserves or their quality). I highlight our leaders because they are the custodians of our national and natural assets. We have no right to expect oil or other extractive companies to look upon our needs with fatherly concern and provide for our welfare. That is the job of those who have been given the electoral mandate to look after us and our affairs. They are under the obligation to demand and secure the best deal, not only for the country as a whole, but especially also for the areas where the extraction is taking place. If these latter feel they have not been given a fair share, we will only be piling up trouble for our country, which has suffered enough at the hands of a usually incompetent and corrupt leadership.

Let us demand therefore, that the details of every agreement, contract, arrangement, codicil etc, be put in the public domain. We owe it to ourselves to be forever wakeful and vigilant. Only in this way will we begin to reassert ourselves as a nation of people with vision, energy and drive, ready to take our destiny in our own hands.

Tell Fren Tru