June 08 records 1001 confirmed positive cases: in the midst of denial and the search for political capital, what next and how next?

By: Ibrahim Jalloh-Jallomy ✍️

Yesterday , Sierra Leone records a thousand and one confirmed cases of COVID- 19. It was serious and descriptive of a future doom. 

The structural arrangements and lined up personnel are significantly great for a reversal of the trend. Anecdotally, about 75% of the response structures and personnel are second generation combatant outfits. The IPC measures or Safety protocols introduced five years ago are largely the same as today with noted exception of the face masks and the ban on congregational prayers. The rest are the same. It is a convincing argument that we in Makeni have more face masks and Veronica buckets than the population of the city. The gap is the proper utilization of these items. We sense a broken culture of denial and resistance to change. Worst to note is the existence of a group of Sierra Leoneans wanting to Makeni political capital out of a horrendous national crisis. Equally disturbing is the disengagement of key national stakeholders from the response efforts, some are vainlessly waiting for invite to save a dying nation. Disappointingly, the invite will never come. It will be an endless Waiting for Godot.

The refusal to comply with the safety protocols coupled with a rigid culture of political denial is complicating. The compliance rates are ridiculously low and the alternate enforcement drive at extreme low ebb. Most response players think and believe that enforcement should be a last of last resorts. This position would have been plausible if the growing and sustained abrogation of safety protocols were out of ignorance but, as it is, it is a case of corrosive impunity with deliberate definition backed by shadow political patrons and unprogressive mindset.

The close to three months old virus in Sierra Leone has dented key productive sectors of state. The economy is hard hit and while on recovery mode after close to eleven years of obvious fiscal decipline arrest! Education is on standstill. The revamped Heath infrastructures are reversed. Agriculture, the mainstay for the rural majority, is severely disrupted and correspondingly livelihoods are ruptured.

The stampede and loud call for throwing off the curfew and dismantling the inter district lockdown are severely reckless anticipations.

With an abundant political will, proven working response structures, an above average motivated health sector workers, appreciable streaming of support from our international development partners, what else are missing in the equation? What gaps? What deficits?

The obvious threats to victory over the COVID-19 are still the search for political capital, an undefinable obsession for political denial, obvious disengagement of key national figures and the growing and sustained repulsive culture of non compliance.

We need a conversation, an intense engagement and an outright crusade to let Sierra Leoneans believe we are a dying nation if we don't recollect the appetite to think well and behave well. Let us all remember that nobody escapes the judgement of history.