*Young girl Sierra Leone

Written by Boima J.V.Boima, a Liberian-British trained journalist,  currently working for the New Democrat newspaper in Monrovia, Liberia. This piece was written from Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Photo on Flickr by benzpics63

With the  latest album by  Sierra Leone’s most popular political singer, Emerson Bockarie, many have attested that severe hardship exists in Sierra Leone, which undermines the progress and development of post war Sierra Leone.

The album, Yesterday be Betteh Pass Teday, which first sold 10,000 copies is said to have sold out in all  the markets because of massive demand. The album catalogues the development made by the previous government of Dr. Alhaji Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and compared them to the acclaimed successes of the current government headed by Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma. The name of the album is a way for the singer to say he liked the old government better than the new one.

Bockarie’s album sales surpassed the previous Bobor Bele, an album that contributed to the end of the Kabbah-led Sierra Leone Peoples Party, SLPP, in the 2007 general elections. In clubs, dancehalls and social gatherings in Sierra Leone,  the music Yesterday Beteh Pass Teday has become a household song for every Sierra Leonean with children under 10 and adults singing and dancing. It is an easy way of hiding their frustration and hardship in a country where all hope lies in the future, said local journalist Fayia Amara, who chatted with this writer in Kenema City,  Sierra Leone.

Bockarie said that despite an incremental increase in the salaries of teachers by the Koroma-led  All People Congress,  most cannot afford to meet their needs as corruption continues to loom in people’s lives.

Though the main road linking the protectorate to the hinterland is almost completed, with many parts of the city including the upper lands of the country enjoying constant  electricity, a better standard of living for the five million people in the country still remains a major challenge in the post-war country thus underming its  peace and stability.

The singer stated how poverty and hardship continue to barricade the lives of the poor out there whose only hope for change is placed in the campaign promises of President Ernest Bai Koroma. In the 2007 presidential elections Sierra Leoneans voted, saying “I nor know for you, but me yesterday betteh pass teday” meaning “I don’t know about you, but my previous days were better than the present.”

Despite the billions poured into the country by donors, the masses still live in abject poverty with many going without enough food for the day. “I don’t really know what is happening now…..things are just getting harder and harder…You cannot believe that I have not eaten a cooked meal for the past three days ,” said Miata Jusu, 65, to this writer in Moyamba.

Amidst all this, the government “mouth piece” Minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo still blames the current situation on the former regime stressing that when his government came into office they found a shattered economy and are making enormous progress.

But when an immigration officer, whose named is withheld for his protection, was asked at the Gendema border about why he had placed a Christmas box for travelers crossing into Sierra Leone to drop gifts, he pointed to the hardship and low salaries as the main reason for why he has had to extort money from holiday travelers who were eager to visit their loved ones in neigbouring Sierra Leone.

“If I nor do dis me brother, de Christmas no go fine for me en me fambul,” he said in a simple Krio language ; meaning,  If I don’t  do what I am doing now my brother, the Christmas will not be good for me and my family.

“We acknowledge the fact that there is hardship in the country, but we also want the masses to note that we inherited this  hardship. The APC led government will soon start implementing promises made during the campaign era,” Information Minister I.B. Kargbo said to the local media in the country.