Ebola – Politics of life and death at the expense of citizens Sitting here thinking about countless examples of proactive governments brings to mind the recent beheading of a US journalist Steven Sotloff which saw the immediate and outright condemnation by President Obama and the US congress, followed by the mobilization of NATO allies and the promise to destroy Islamic State wherever they are hiding. Another point of reflection is the timely and effective reaction of the Nigerian government towards containment of Ebola infection, when Liberian-American financial consultant Patrick Sawyer flew from Liberia to Lagos and collapsed at the airport. Lagos, a city of well over 21 million people saw the robust response of authorities reducing the likelihood of infection. That cannot be said about Sierra Leone and Liberia Sadly; I was in Sierra Leone in February this year at the time of the Ebola outbreak. Initially this deadly virus outbreak impacted neighbouring Guinea in December 2013, and then suddenly Liberian became victim to the disease in January 2014. By now you will expect the Sierra Leone government to take necessary actions in response to the deadliest disease outbreak neighbouring countries; sadly the government was busy with other important state affairs at the time while the death toll continued to rise in both neighbouring countries. Hell broke loose in February 2014 when the disease finally impacted Sierra Leone, by then I was sitting in a local palm wine hut on Bo/Kenema highway drinking and eating monkey soup, completely oblivious of the fact that the very soup I was enjoyably consuming was the medium of Ebola transmission. The then minister of health and sanitation, Ms Miatta Kargbo, denied the existence of Ebola in Sierra Leone, while she was all over the television and radio programs slamming those advocates for raising awareness about the deadly nature of Ebola virus, the innocent citizens in Khaliun were dying in larger than acceptable numbers on a daily basis. Only for Ms Kargbo to confirm in March 2014 that indeed Sierra Leone was impacted by Ebola virus, she however emphasized that the number of infected people were statistically irrelevant and that the disease was being controlled and closely monitored. No known measures were implemented to prevent the spread of this lethal disease, as the commander in chief, His Excellency Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone remained awfully silent at the time he was most needed. Scott Williams famously said that “a great leader doesn’t care about being the leader, but instead cares about the mission, the vision and the people they are leading” but this Ebola outbreak spelt out a different kind of leader in the person of President Koroma. Considering that the Ebola outbreak started in February and the president was observed to have dragged his feet, appearing very unenthusiastic to even acknowledge the deadly nature of the outbreak until Wednesday 30 July 2014 when he addressed the nation for the very first time in 6 months since the Ebola outbreak in the country. This was by far the most shocking of all that a sitting president can remain awkwardly silent while hundreds perish at the hands of Ebola without offering any words of courage and strength to his people. Notwithstanding that, the president declared state a state of public health emergency in response to the deteriorating Ebola virus disease outbreak in the country. Announcing his ingenious national response plan to initiate the fight against the disease, appointing himself as the chair to champion the implementation of the plans. His so-called eleven point’s plans included the establishment of a special account for donations from corporate interests, organizations, the diaspora and the general public to support the fight against Ebola. Since then, millions was donated by well wishes both internally and externally. Interestingly, funds were being collective directly by the president in the State House as regularly reported by the State media, leaving the rest of us wondering why is the president collecting cash in his office when a special bank account was established just for this purpose. I am lucky to be living in democratic and somewhat transparent country such as Australia to know that donations shouldn’t be collected by leaders in cash; rather such funds should be collected through proper accounting process. Take for instance the NSW Premier Barry OFarrell who, in April this year, sensationally resigned after being caught out over bottle of wine worth barely $3,000. Now imagine Prime Minister Tony Abbott receiving cash donations in parliament house when there is already an existing government bank account for such purpose, such is the faith of Sierra Leone under the esteem leadership of President Koroma presently. Which draws me to the quote “anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.” – Publilius Syrus Not only is the president directly involved in collecting funds, members of parliament and his very own wife, the FirstLady of Sierra Leone, has also been photographed collecting cash Ebola funds as well. Ironically, such photos took social media by storm as a large proportion of empty Sierra Leoneans celebrate the success of fund collections when we all know that such amount should be directly deposited into the nominated bank accounts. This brings to the question; do you truly understand the politics of Ebola in Sierra Leone?
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 00:55:29 +0000
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