THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN SHORT TERM NEEDS AND HOW TO BUILD A CAPABLE AND ACCOUNTABLE BIO LED GOVERNMENT

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March 19, 2022

The need to build a capable and accountable Sierra Leone under the current Bio led government has emerged as a leading priority for the international development community. Sierra Leone Live investigation seeks to contribute to a more conceptually informed understanding of state-building, adopting a political economy perspective.

Our investigation in this area starts out by explaining why state-building under the current Bio led government in Sierra Leone has become such a prominent objective on the international agenda and laying out the conceptual and historical foundations of state and state-building. Our investigation argues that, while state-building under the current Bio led government is now a major issue of concern, it lacks conceptual clarity, including in language. State-building, nation-building, governance and democratisation are overlapping, but distinct processes. Our investigation understands state formation and state-building as long term, tumultuous and conflict-ridden processes that are also deeply political and requires the active participation of all that matter irrespective of their political parties affiliations, region or tribes.

Our investigation further explores the evolving debate on state functions from both a conceptual and a more immediate state-building perspective. In the context of state-building situations, in particular, it emphasises the need to distinguish between ‘constitutive domains’ of the state (political settlement, security/establishing a monopoly of violence and the rule of law, and building an administrative and fiscal system) and ‘output domains’, that’s the range of public services that Sierra Leone provides as a state. In the end, the rationale for having Sierra Leone derives from expected outputs and services. However, for Sierra Leone to generate a reliable supply of services and other public goods, the Bio led government must have a solid foundation in the ‘constitutive domains’. Thinking for the most part about state functions in terms of outputs can lead to a relative neglect of these constitutive domains. One of the key messages in this investigation is that the priority should be to start a process of institution-building in the constitutive domains and to take a basic approach to output domains. The investigation also highlights that sequencing within domains rather than simply between them is crucial.

Our investigation also explores the roles played by domestic versus international actors in state-building processes under the current Bio led government. Domestic actors are crucial, but their perspectives on state-building and the incentives and constraints that they face in such situations have thus far received only limited attention. For external actors, one of the key challenges is that of coordination – especially where a particularly wide range of external actors are involved ( INGOs, development partners etc.) The question is how to maximise their positive impact while minimising the potentially harmful effects of their involvement.

We analyse three further overarching challenges to international efforts to promote state-building in Sierra Leone:

The ways in which certain political economy factors like corruption, competition for power and neo-patrimonial structures continue to hamper state-building projects in fundamental ways.
The limited evidence-based knowledge about “what works” in building and reforming Sierra Leone.
The viability of the state-building model that the international community has promoted, based on the simultaneous pursuit of institution building, democratisation, and marketisation.

From our investigation, professionals we spoke with agree that state-building efforts need to be shaped and led from within if they are to be legitimate and sustainable. Among other things, this calls for a greater understanding of the political economy of state-building, including a greater appreciation of the incentives, challenges and opportunities that various domestic actors face. From our investigation, we also draw out the following lessons and recommendations:

Lessons from historical experiences are relevant and should inform thinking about current and future state-building trajectories. Within the international community, it is essential to elaborate on a more encompassing, holistic and realistic approach to state-building that focuses on the constitutive domains and the creation of a nationwide public.
Sierra Leone’s international partners need to be more fully aware of the dilemmas and trade-offs involved in state-building processes. State-building is a highly complex undertaking, and there are no easy or straightforward answers. Some of the difficult choices that international partners confront include:

Achieving a balance between strengthening the central structures and institutions of the state and promoting decentralisation and the empowerment of local leaders and government entities.
Achieving a balance between meeting short term needs, which often implies short-circuiting ineffective state institutions, and supporting longer-term state-building goals (e.g. service delivery vs. capacity-building).

International partners in Sierra Leone need to be much more aware of the tensions that may be embedded in the state-building model they are seeking to promote (in which state capacity and institution building are linked to democratisation and marketisation). While the fundamental aims of this three-legged state-building model are worthy, it is essential to recognise that the three processes do not always work in mutually reinforcing ways, especially in the early phases of state (re)building. As such, international partners in Sierra Leone need to pay much closer attention to the viability of this model and to how it relates to the actual outcomes achieved in recent externally supported state-building efforts.

In particular, they should think very carefully about how to prioritise and sequence their different interventions, being mindful of the context and specificity of any given setting, while drawing on existing experiences and insights. There needs to be greater congruence between the ambitiously interventionist agenda embraced by the international community and the resources it is willing/able to commit to such transformative state-building efforts.
Knowledge gaps and the constraints that impede international partners in Sierra Leone from acting on lessons learned must be addressed more fully and honestly.

WHY SIERRA LEONE ECONOMY FAILED TO BUILD RESILIENCE TO MANAGE EXTERNAL SHOCKS

By

Mahmud Tim Kargbo

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March 13, 2022

Strengthening the Financial Sector. Bank of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone News at Sierra Leone Live

Why did Sierra Leone’s economy fail to manage external shocks? More specifically why did President Bio’s government fail to build internal and external resilience to better navigate shocks? Policymakers under the current Bio led government in Sierra Leone often ask these questions, but it appears they usually do only when aftershocks are already disrupting our economy, making adjustment more difficult. For more than three years, policymakers in the Bio led government in Sierra Leone failed to understand that what is truly required to build resilience is a set of short and medium-term policies, all of which are consistent with long term economic strategies.

When faced with external shocks, the typical reaction from Sierra Leone policymakers under the Bio led government is to reduce the long term development budget (save free quality education) and protect recurrent expenditures. However, they failed to understand that these policies rob Sierra Leone’s economic capacity for growth and its ability to manage future shocks. Supporting the argument that policymakers under the current Bio led government refused to understand that in the very short term, managing shocks requires buffers at four levels:

The first level should be composed of foreign exchange reserves that are accumulated in good times, including IMF balance of payments support. The government policymakers failed to understand that these foreign exchange reserves, should have sheltered the market from wild swings in domestic currency and supported smooth adjustments in the face of current account deterioration of external price shocks.
The second should be a buffer of strategic food reserves. The Bio led government failed to understand that in times of scarcity or potential increase in international prices which often reflect in local prices, these food reserves help Sierra Leone maintain food security and mitigate pressures on the fiscal reserves as well as cushion wild swings in domestic food prices inflation drives.
Third, the Bio led government failed to understand that there should be a buffer of oil reserves for an oil-importing country like ours. During the rise in pump prices, inflationary pressures on domestic prices are amplified and can be further exacerbated by the need for power generators for electricity.
Finally, as Sierra Leone is dependent on commodity prices, the current Bio led government should have created a fund for smoothing out commodity price cycles or swings and ensure such funds are utilised without fair or favour to indigenous entrepreneurs nationally. Sierra Leone since independence lack such a buffer, which is why commodity price changes are often accompanied by economic crises.
Turning to medium and long term policy solutions to external shocks, it is important to first consider recent trends in economic performance and resilience within Sierra Leone. Over the last three years of the Bio led SLPP government, Sierra Leone’s economy experienced a very weak growth driven by weak or no improvements in institutional capacity, an environment of none policy clarity, a weak move towards political accountability, above all, an ineffective and inefficient development and implementation of long term growth strategies or visions.

The Bio government’s strategic country-level visions have, for the most part, failed to practically emphasise public investments to close the infrastructure gap, lower transaction costs and unlock productive areas for private investments. But public investments never encouraged complementary private investments at the same time with a sense to enhance the profitability of existing and future private investments through the channel of lowering transactions costs. The focus for the future should have been to professionally execute these trends and make sure that public investments are protected so that they can lay the groundwork and capacity for future growth, especially in terms of epidemic and natural disasters.

Importantly, the changing demographic dynamics will have a significant effect on Sierra Leone’s economy in the years to come. A large Sierra Leone middle class is emerging. This middle class if it’s a class of patriotic nationals that are desperate to see their country move forward in a number of tangible ways based on the resources we possessed as a nation. They’re innovators, policymakers and leaders that want to stop the flow of greed, corruption and other complete unpatriotic acts within the current policymakers and circulate wealth to all nationals irrespective of their income bracket.

Therefore, managing short-run shocks and protecting public investments for future growth will potentially become a reality once this group is drawn into the sphere of policy and economic management. In the past and to date, the Sierra Leone economy continue to suffer from the fact that there are too few incentives to advocate for public investments oriented towards future growth due to the delayed onset of benefits from these policies. To ensure follow through on public investments, Sierra Leone should only enter into meaningful regional arrangements where strong group pressures will provide additional political accountability.

REGULATION IS HOLDING BACK ECONOMIC GROWTH and here’s What We Can Do about It

By

SLL

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March 10, 2022

by Mahmud Tim Kargbo

In the years following the financial crisis, international regulatory measures have increased substantially. But recent reforms (Basel III is one example that comes to mind), governments in countries seriously affected by massive poverty like the government of Sierra Leone, need to focus more on detailed procedures and processes rather than successful outcomes. Not to mention most of these regulatory changes have been made or substantially transformed on the national scale, without expressed regard to national implications.

So why does this matter to the current Sierra Leone government?

Well, without clear, uniform, and appropriately focused global regulation, economic growth is likely to stall and financial stability for all becomes harder to achieve especially for poor nations like Sierra Leone which still has a high rate of corruption, poor infrastructure, the politicisation of the civil service, removal of experienced civil servants from the civil service sector after a change of government, lack of skilled labour, weak protection of other democratic values and the possibility of contacts being cancelled on a whim. Relatively few people have reaped the rewards of economic prosperity. And that’s a problem. The current environment is creating incentives for risk-adding behaviours, such as structuring transactions to circumvent regulatory barriers, an overly-narrow focus on compliance, and increased activity in less regulated areas such as shadow banking.

This cost and complexity of process-oriented regulation have also resulted in oligopolies among the few organisations that are grappling to keep up in Sierra Leone. Heads of smaller organisations I spoke to, said this creates an important impediment to growth. Many cite a gap emerging between regulations on the books and those are that enforced. This creates a fragmented system where organisations essentially choose what regulations they follow, thus creating new and invisible risks within the system.

Similarly, the environment is also having an impact on the talent pipeline. Young people and high-potential talent said to me they are beginning to see roles as compliance-oriented, rather than strategic and business-focused. The regulatory focus is also limiting the pipeline of personnel in governance and regulatory roles; senior financial and accounting professionals who could bring deep experience to regulatory jobs often resign or sit in their offices in frustration.

It will be recalled that in this past December, while there has been global agreement on some regulation, over 50 executives and experts from civil societies, business, journalists, finance, and accountants joined together to figure out how to reconcile the gap between a globalised business and finance industry and the predominantly ‘national interest’ approach to many regulations.

The roundtable, hosted by IFAC and the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants sent a clear message to the regulatory industry: we need global reform, now. Attendees from all sectors voiced their concerns that the current structure is limiting both innovation and growth. As one of our colleague participants said: “The costs involved with an idea have become so complex, it’s no longer worth the effort.”

So what can we do?

The meeting ended with roundtable participants agreeing on ten principles that they believe are the path forward towards a global regulatory system:

Clear Objectives in the Public Interest: All regulations should be set for the benefit of the public where they are to be effected
Proportionate and Balanced Approach: Regulations should be applied for different types and sizes of organisations
Evidence-Based Assessments: All regulations should be subject to ongoing evaluations to determine the effectiveness of cost and time
Appropriate Resourcing: Ensure regulators have the resources needed to address the complexity and scale of the corporations and markets they are expected to regulate
Collaborative Action: Provide robust incentives for collaboration in order to create country-based regulatory ecosystems
Consistent & Coherent: Address the gap in consistent regulatory systems
Transparent & Open: Broad transparency during the regulation development process that allows all impacted parties to be involved and share insights about potential implications
Active Oversight: More active and independent oversight of regulators
Systematic Review: Ongoing reviews and evaluations of how new regulations are performing
Deliberate Enforcement: Ensure that the enforcement of new regulations are fair and visible

As right-minded nationals push regulators to consider their impact in Sierra Leone, we also hope to drive them to further embrace these key principles to ensure the right environment is in place for sustainable economic growth nationally and globally. Nationals are urged to consider the role regulation plays in setting that stage for genuine growth in Sierra Leone.

WORLD BANK, IMF, EUROPEAN UNION & GOVERNMENT WHO LOSS SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PATH TO THE HUMAN ECONOMY?

By

SLL

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March 7, 2022

by Mahmud Tim Kargbo

It’s the clean truth that creating decent livelihoods in the modern age will require massive investment in public goods. Generating the revenue to pay for these investments in a poor country like Sierra Leone is not an easy political task, especially with unpatriotic nationals in social positions of trust partnering with rogues of neocolonial institutions (World Bank, IMF, European Union etc) in the thick of formating and effecting such policies. While the rich too often find ways to dodge taxes, the poor cannot afford to pay them. The middle classes, feeling abused by the “self-serving elites” and the “entitled poor,” are in open revolt when subsidies are removed in essential goods. This is the political reason why the tax burden must be shifted from labour to capital.

In the current Sierra Leone political economy, however, the suggested policy shifts will certainly be an uphill battle. Whether the political economy of modern capitalism will be more conducive for the Human Economy is an open question. On the one hand, Government, IMF, World Bank, European Union, etc know with distributed technologies across Sierra Leone and network the economy with our huge mineral deposits we have the potential to democratise the means of production. On the other hand, the unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of a single individual with very weak independent institutions to fact check the Executive Arm of government points to the opposite direction. But if the IMF, World Bank, European Union say they are in Sierra Leone to promote democracy and they are the ones providing the funds to sustain the democratic institutions, why are they tolerating such undemocratic acts? Is it because they are equally deceitful and more corrupt? Why are they plotting to further punish our poor people by asking for the removal of subsidies just to squeeze the government to pay their rogue debt considering the current deplorable standard of living of the suffering majority? If the United States, Britain and other advanced countries are increasing their subsidies on essential commodities why is the IMF pressuring our government to remove subsidies on essential goods? This is no longer an issue of the government, but the majority of our people are currently sleeping in abject poverty.

Bizarre we were last told an IMF, World Bank, European Union and government alliance around basic income schemes indicate a window of opportunity. Modern days capitalism is reshuffling political fortunes, and progressives should go out of their way to build coalitions around the need to boost demand. After half a century of supply-side economics and cost-cutting politics, putting incomes back into the centre of economic thinking is an opportunity our government, IMF, European Union and World Bank must not miss.

The government must have understood by now that building the Human Economy is not a technical task, but the outcome of political struggles. Only a broad societal coalition will be able to implement the necessary policy shifts. To build this transformative alliance, we need a platform on which as many communities as possible can come together. This platform cannot be a smorgasbord of policies, but a narrative that explains how we can make the modern age transformation work for everyone.

What could this narrative sound like? Amidst the conflicts over rogue IMF, World Bank and European Union policies and the government, identity and distribution transformation, we need to strengthen the foundations of solidarity among all members of the society. This can only be done through a new social contract for the SierraLeone modern society. This social contract needs to be brokered around a compromise between all stakeholders.

The Human Economy offers such an inclusive compromise. In essence, it transcends the conflict between capital and labour by making human capital the engine of the economy. For capital, the Human Economy offers a solution to the existential threat of collapsing consumption demand. For the working population, the threat of mass unemployment is mitigated through decent livelihoods. And for political decision-makers, the looming threat of social unrest is relieved.

The Sierra Leone social democratic path to development, in other words, creates the necessary demand to sustain the modern economy, the social security our people need to embrace permanent change, the political stability required for the implementation of disruptive reforms. The social contract for the digital society, in a nutshell, is to provide full capabilities to everyone who is willing to contribute to the common good.

A renewed hope for Sierra Leone’s mental health problem

Health

By

Jaime Yaya Barry

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March 4, 2022

I recently visited the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital (formerly Kissy Mental hospital), and I can’t tell you how impressed I was by what the Ministry of Health is doing there. The MoHS, through a solid collaboration with Partners In Health, has overhauled and transformed the facility and now equipped it with decent beds, running water, and constant electricity. The ministry periodically assigns professional healthcare workers who treat patients with dignity and respect. I found nurses and other healthcare professionals playing and telling jokes with patients. The facility now looks more like a treatment and rehabilitation center than the prison and mental colony it used to be. The experience is something I don’t get to often see in the many psychiatric hospitals I have visited across Africa.

Right from the entrance, you can tell how much has changed. There is a massive increase in the number of families taking their loved ones to the center for regular checks because they are confident about the level of treatment and respect patients now receive there. I found more students willing to pursue careers in mental health.

Why does this matter?

Transforming the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital has long been overdue, but our country’s current efforts come at a very significant phase. Still reeling from decades of trauma caused by the civil war, natural disasters, and other internally inflicted trauma from political instability and poor leadership, there’s a spike in drug and alcohol use in Sierra Leone in the last few years, especially among young people. These days, you don’t need to go to the “hoods” or slums to talk to drug and alcohol abusers. Spending a few hours at a bar or club in places like Lumley beach road will reveal this sad reality. While Lumley Beach Road remains one of our country’s prestigious locations and tourist destinations, it is becoming a drug and alcohol consumption point. This is an even bigger problem for the Sierra Leone Police.

I met senior police officers who said they now work extra time and remain even more vigilant on weekends along Lumley Beach road and other neighborhoods. The police said the number of road accidents and random fights, especially along beach road, has increased, with many cases related to drunkenness or being high on drugs. The Aberdeen police station receives such cases every weekend and on most weekdays. Some police officers consider it a national security problem.

The sight of young people indulging in alcohol and drugs is

scary and threatens Sierra Leone’s future. I sat with some users who said they take alcohol and drugs to escape from the realities around them. Others say to help them relax or give them a higher vibe.

Dr. Abdul Jalloh, the Specialist Psychiatric and Care Manager at the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital, said, even though many users see drugs and alcohol as the solution to the problems around them, the effect provides “a two-way traffic – depression leading to more drug abuse, and drug abuse causing more depression, and other mental disorders.”

In the past, family members generally condemn people suffering from mental disorders due to the country’s lack of proper treatment and care. Now the work of Dr. Abdul Jalloh, Abdul Kargbo, the executive director of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, along with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and its partners, have seen massive transformation at the Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital in the last three years alone. The efforts also led to increased collaboration between the ministry of health and major international organizations like the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the West Africa Epidemiology Network on Drug Use, the African Union Pan African Epidemiology Network on Drug Use, and the International Consortium of Universities on Drug Demand Reduction. These collaborations are HUGE for us as a country.

Through the collaboration, ECOWAS recently supported the hospital and National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to train about 31 core drug educators on how to prevent drug abuse. There is currently another training on reducing drug demand and developing a universal treatment curriculum for healthcare professionals as part of drug treatment and rehabilitation. ECOWAS provided additional support for refurbishing the drug treatment and rehabilitation center in the hospital, which the Government of Sierra Leone will soon commission.

Tackling mental health problems is critical to the development of every nation, and the steps taken by the ministry of health (and its partners) are vital in overcoming Sierra Leone’s mental health problems. And hopefully, with these new developments, the ministry of health will allocate more resources on early interventions through prevention, promotion of well-being, and increasing investment in primary healthcare. But most importantly, the government will also work on other areas in the country to improve the lives of citizens because that is the only way to sustain these efforts by the ministry of health.

Pétit-a-pétit, we will get there. I, personally, don’t subscribe to the saying that Rome wasn’t built in a day. We will build our Rome overnight if willing and committed people lead in the right places or positions.

Alpha Kanu and the APC – The Good Old Times : Parts 1, 2, & 3

By

SLL

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February 28, 2022

ACC AND THE FUTURE OF SIERRA LEONE : LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

By

SLL

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January 2, 2022

By Emperor Bailor Jalloh Journalist in Freetown

The Anti – Corruption Commission ( ACC) of the Republic of Sierra Leone was established in the year 2000 as an independent institution to lead in the fight against and control of corruption through prevention, investigation, prosecution and public education. It has powers to investigate and punish corruption in addition to other related tools useful to detect, suppress, control and eradicate corruption. Therefore, the ACC under the brave and unique stewardship of Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala ( Esq) is vehemently eyeing the brighter future of Sierra Leone for posterity to come with real commitment and dedication in the fight against corruption in this beleaguered nation. ” Fighting corruption is the biggest emergency issue for Sierra Leone”. Francis Ben Kaifala.

As the ACC needs the full cooperation of every citizen as a civic responsibility, Section 13 ( Duties of the citizen) paragraph c, in the Sierra Leone Constitution Act No. 6, 1991 states it clearly. ” Protect and preserve public property and prevent the misappropriation and squandering of funds belonging to the Government, local authorities or public corporations “. Eyeing the brighter future of Sierra Leone by the ACC, the following achievements of the Commission are worth considering: On October 11, 2021, ACC presented its 2020 Annual Report to President Bio in State House, Tower Hill in Freetown, in compliance with Section 19 ( 1) of the ACC Act of 2008 as amended in 2019. Presenting the 2020 Annual Report to President Bio, the ACC Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala Esq thanked the President for his unwavering support to the Commission. ” Your Excellency, even with Covid – 19, we continue to do our work for the people of Sierra Leone. We thank you for your support and we are appreciative of it “.

The 2020 Annual Report covers but is not limited to the work and activities of the Commission in 2020, especially in the areas of; public education, prevention, assets declaration, national strategy implementation, intelligence, investigation and prosecution. In 2020 also, the ACC was able to recover Eight Billion Leones ( Le 8, 000,000,000) from corrupt persons and secured over 90% convictions rate from cases investigated and charged to court. The Commission also conducted massive systems and processes reviews of public offices as well as public education and outreach activities nationwide. 2020, was also a year Sierra Leone scored 81% in the indicator on ‘Control of Corruption’ in the Millennium Challenge Corporation ( MCC) scorecard and ranked 117 out of 180 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. Afro Barometer also recorded a drop in corruption prevalence from 70% to 40%; all of which are new high progression of Sierra Leone.

In 2019, the Corruption Perception Index ( CPI) the country registered its highest score of 129 in 2018 to 119 in 2019, and 117 in 2020. The Afro Barometer Corruption Perception Survey Report indicates that the fight against corruption has moved from 40% in 2015, to 66% in 2019. In 2020, Citizens’ Perception of corruption prevalence reduced from 70% in 2015 to 40% in 2020. The National Corruption Perception Survey in 2019 also indicates that 92% of respondents believed that the ACC is deeply rooted in the fight against corruption.

Conclusively, the aforementioned achievements of the ACC indicate that for the ACC and the future of Sierra Leone, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Banana Water – Freetown Sierra Leone

By

SLL

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January 1, 2022

ERNEST BAI KOROMA’S NEW YEAR’S 2022 PRAYER POINTS

By

SLL

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January 1, 2022

By Mahmud Tim Kargbo

What in heaven’s name could this deceitful politician Ernest Bai Koroma be doing in a place supposedly meant for the worship of God in 2022?

Oops, guess most of these places of worship in Sierra Leone aren’t really places of worship, but places of showmanship and deceit.

Guess what the prayer points of this modern days dictator will be:

1. deity, continue to blind the people from discovering my deceit and thievery.

2. deity, allow me to continue to use tools of ethnicity and regions bigotry to continue to hoodwink and fool the people whilst I rob them blind on many fronts

3. deity, may the seeds of confusion I keep on sowing amongst the Sierra Leonean population be sufficient to keep them from uniting to ask for my blood for having misruled them so harshly

4. deity, deliver all my main media and social media critics unto my hands so I can keep on teaching them one lesson or the other

GOD’s MIRACLE HARVEST MANIFESTING IN UMARU NAPOLEON KOROMA’S LIFE

By

SLL

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December 29, 2021

By Mahmud Tim Kargbo.

I woke up the other day ready to begin the new year, and when I began my routine Pinterest check this morning, I stumbled upon this quote in my feed:

“The politician who does not require validation from anyone is the most feared politician on the planet.”

As a journalist, I have always been fascinated by the threat that progressive-minded young politicians pose to a society built on the subordination of old and non-progressive minded politicians. I like to think that a man like Hon. Umaru Napoleon Koroma is a strong, fierce man capable of holding his own intellectually, physically, and mentally. He has developed a unique perspective in Sierra Leone and how it treats right-minded young politicians who do not subscribe to typical political stereotypes.

As Umaru Napoleon Koroma continued to grow, he embraced his personality: sassy, full of gumption, curious, determined, rational and respectful. These qualities all sound positive. He does not like to be fucked with, and he is willing to ask for what he wants and take it when necessary. Often he is told that he is “too passionate” about his Sierra Leone People’s Party and country goals in life, and what makes his deviations from many young politicians even more pronounced is his ability to handle a position in his political party that was initially held only by old men.

My point is, people are always going to be there telling Napoleon Koroma why he should be demure and sacrificing his dreams for others. I am telling him to give those people the middle finger, smile, and continue his merry way. In my years of life on earth, I have heard many people trying to change bright young minds in Sierra Leone, tell them things are impossible, encourage them to lower their standards and goals, shape their personality to fit the needs of a society inherently threatened by their establishment empowerment, and try to explain to them what a true “young bright mind” is.

It is okay, brilliant even, to be an independent, strong young man in a country that wants you to be weak. Strap on your big man boots, fill your mind with ambition and intellectually stimulating thoughts and tell the country to watch you kick some ass and be an amazing person while doing it. There is no correct way to be a young, determined man, and it is admirable to be resilient and strong. Napoleon is not letting a few people break his spirit or shape his soul. He continues to create a soul that he can live his whole life nurturing and expanding, rather than one sullied by outside forces. He believes Sierra Leone can be an extraordinary place, and one day it will accept him for the lovely person he is, but first, it will try to tell him how to look, feel, behave, and react. Do you want to know why Sierra Leone will love Umaru Napoleon Koroma one day, never like before? Because he will force it to.

I am always astounded by how many people think that because Umaru Napoleon Koroma is strong and intelligent, he’s made of stone, untouched somehow by emotion and feeling. Napoleon understands that there is a time to let himself feel, and there is a time to get shit done, and they are usually not at the same moment. Napoleon believes something impressive about remaining composed long enough to deal with a situation or get through it before falling apart. Napoleon understands one can be strong and sensitive at the same time.

Napoleon doesn’t need to be like a man in movies who fall on the sofa in a fit of tears at any sign of trouble. That is not the only type of man in the world. Napoleon, keep on enjoying what he needs to do and then allow his defences to drop after he weathered the storm. He understands if he let himself succumb to sensitivity at the wrong moments, he will end up with a slew of regrets. Sometimes his strength is misunderstood as coarseness or insensitivity, but right-minded nationals know it is exactly the opposite. Napoleon is always very sensitive to the situation’s strength and goes from there. He knows that being strong and sensitive is always possible for a right-minded young man.

Napoleon knows weakness is not attractive. That’s why he enjoys being intelligent, kind, strong, passionate, and modest. This guarantees him that whilst he may not attract everyone, he continues to attract better people, people who value the same things he is doing. Some say Napoleon is too young to grow frequently. He is brutally honest with powerful penmanship and fortunate enough to have accomplished some difficult things in his short life. He may not have many people that others truly love, but he has the right people. The right people are not intimidated by his strength or unnerved by how little value he places in negative critics’ opinions. Even when they are, he will overcome them. Screw everyone else. He dulls not his shine to fit in. Napoleon understands the person he will have the most complex, important relationship within his life is himself, and as trite as that sounds, it is true. At the end of the day, he needs to be proud of himself and genuinely invested in being satisfied with who he is. Napoleon refused to let other humans or forces in this country make him unsatisfied with himself. He knows if he’s brilliant and sympathetic to the plights of others, the right people will love and admire him for his unique spirit.

A strong bright young man is a truly terrifying thing to behold because he is capable of anything, and that is fucking awesome. Napoleon masters the art to embrace how truly threatening a bright young mind can be to a society hinged on shoving brilliant young minds into prescribed roles. He knows how to be strong for many reasons, especially this one. Society can only change when immersed in extreme pressure, and Napoleon understands he can be a huge factor in that pressure for positive change. Many right-minded young Sierra Leoneans want to one day see a Sierra Leone where young people who are strong and intelligent are not encouraged to lessen themselves to suit the needs of others bent on exploiting the nation to satisfy their selfish desires. Don’t you? Some people would argue that Sierra Leone has already seen this shift, which has seen the beginning. However, young and intelligent bright minds are still subordinated and marginalised in Sierra Leone politics.