He is the first head of state to be indicted, tried and convicted by an international tribunal. The crimes for which he was convicted ranged from acts of terrorism, murder, rape, pillage, sexual slavery, inhumane acts, including mutilations and amputations, outrages upon personal dignity, cruel treatment, recruitment, enlistment and use of child soldiers, and enslavement.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone, a hybrid of Sierra Leone and international law, was first established in 2002 to try ‘those who bear the greatest responsibility’ for the appalling atrocities committed during the 11 year rebel war in Sierra Leone which started in 1991 when a group of RUF (Revolutionary United Front) rebels crossed from Liberia into Sierra Leone and started terrorising the people. The Court’s quest to pursue international justice has not been without difficulty and controversy.

Following the deaths in 2003 of Foday Sankoh, the infamous leader of the RUF, and his psychopathic henchman, Sam Bockarie, there were calls for the Special Court to be disbanded before the trials had got underway. Sankoh and Bockarie were undoubtedly the two most responsible for the atrocities and their deaths, (Sankoh’s whilst in detention in Freetown and Bockarie’s in Liberia, ironically on the alleged orders of Taylor), robbed the Sierra Leone people of seeing the two brought to justice for the havoc they had caused. Sankoh had in fact already been found guilty of treason and sentenced to death in an earlier Sierra Leone Court but it was the international community, led by the US and UK, who had insisted on pushing through an ill-conceived peace agreement which left Sankoh as a de facto Vice President and in charge of the country’s diamond wealth. When Sankoh reneged on the terms of the peace agreement these same countries then pushed for him to be tried as a war criminal.

The calls to disband were ignored and the Court pursued its quest to prosecute others for the atrocities. Johnny Paul Koroma, the head of the military junta which had removed President Kabbah in 1997 was indicted but he fled the country and disappeared. Chief Sam Hinga Norman, one of Kabbah’s ministers and widely regarded as one of those most responsible for defending the people and restoring peace and democracy to Sierra Leone, was also indicted but he too died in detention before his trial was concluded. The trials for nine other members of the three warring factions, the RUF, the AFRC/SLA and the CDF were concluded a few years ago and these nine are now serving out their long sentences in a prison on the other side of the continent in Rwanda.

But these nine were generally regarded as lesser figures in the conflict and therefore much hinged upon the trial of Charles Taylor, whose support for the RUF prolonged the conflict. The manner in which the Court’s Chief Prosecutor, David Crane, unveiled Taylor’s indictment nearly derailed the delicate negotiations which were taking place at the time in Ghana to persuade him to stand down and bring an end to the equally bloody conflict in Liberia. The Ghanaians ignored the indictment and handed Taylor over to President Obasanjo in Nigeria as part of the peace process and Obasanjo held him in Nigeria despite intense international pressure from many, including the US Government who issued a $2 million bounty for his capture. Obasanjo finally handed Taylor over to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf upon her election as Liberian President in 2006. She immediately passed him over to the Sierra Leone Special Court who whisked him off to The Hague to commence his trial, which dragged on for the past four years.

The Taylor conviction is hailed as a justification for all the Sierra Leone Special Court’s efforts. In welcoming the conviction, Brenda Hollis, the Court’s present Chief Prosecutor, claimed: ‘Today’s historic judgement reinforces the new reality that Heads of State will be held to account for war crimes and other international crimes. This judgement affirms that with leadership comes not just power and authority, but also responsibility and accountability. No person, no matter how powerful, is above the law.’

Some have questioned this claim. It has been pointed out that Taylor was not the only head of state involved in the Sierra Leone conflict. They note that the origins of both the Sierra Leone and the Liberian conflicts emanated in Libya under the guidance of President Gadaffi. They also note that some of the arms and ammunition for the RUF passed through the neighbouring West African country of Burkino Faso with the supposed agreement of President Compare. However, neither of these two heads of state was indicted.

It is also pointed out that in setting up the Special Court a waiver was granted against indicting members of the peacekeeping force including the West African force, ECOMOG, who according to the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission were responsible for 1% of the atrocities. (According to the TRC, the RUF were responsible for 60.5% of the atrocities, the AFRC/SLA 16.6% and the CDF 6%). It’s also worth mentioning that the US Government, one of the strongest supporters of the Special Court, had concluded a bilateral agreement with the Sierra Leone Government to ensure that no US national could be brought before the Court.

Undoubtedly, alongside the deployment of British troops, Taylor’s removal, allied to the imposition of the embargo on the sale of ‘blood diamonds’ through the passing of UN resolution No. 1306 contributed significantly to ending the Sierra Leone conflict. During his presidency the export of ‘Liberian’ diamonds increased twentyfold, even though Liberia has far less diamond resources than diamond rich Sierra Leone. One of the highlights of the Taylor trial was the appearance of the supermodel, Naomi Campbell, to explain her gift from Taylor when meeting him in South Africa of a cache of diamonds – ‘dirty-looking stones’, as she described them. According to some press reports, Taylor amassed around $800 million in his personal bank account during his presidency while the Liberian economy plummeted.

There will be few tears shed for Taylor’s plight, not least in Liberia itself, where he subjected the people to a bloody conflict for years. Taylor’s election in 1997 was on a platform of in effect ‘if you don’t vote for me I’ll go back to killing you!’ It is somewhat ironic that for these crimes in which he was clearly more directly involved, he has not been held to account.

However, does Taylor’s conviction really deter other criminal heads of state, as has been claimed by the Special Court and its supporters? Taylor’s conviction had been preceded by that of President Milosevic by the Special Court for Yugoslavia (the ICTY) but Milosevic died before his trial ended. The ICC trial of ex President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast will now follow. The ICC’s indictment of President Omar al-Bashir does not appear to have had much effect on him and the situation in Sudan, and the ICC’s indictment of Joseph Kony has seemed to prolong the conflict in northern Uganda.

The ICC is still celebrating its first conviction of the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubango. There are currently over two dozen people indicted by the ICC for war crimes or crimes against humanity – all of them African. This focus on Africa has incurred the wrath of many African leaders. The Rwandese President, Paul Kagame, has dismissed the ICC as a new form of imperialism created by the West. Charles Taylor’s defence counsel, the Jamaican born British QC, Courtney Griffiths, has said that the process risks being viewed as ‘neo-colonialism’.

Have the activities of these courts of international justice made it easier to resolve conflicts, as has been claimed? When attempting to resolve conflicts it is usually necessary to persuade both sides of the conflict to cease fighting and killing, lay down their weapons and negotiate a peaceful agreement. Often this will require not only understanding, patience and skilful diplomacy, but also some form of concessions such as pardons and/or amnesties. The activities of the ICC and the Sierra Leone Special Court have demonstrated that such provisions and assurances negotiated on the ground in good faith become meaningless once the juggernaut of international justice comes on the scene. What incentive, therefore, will there be for some of those to stop fighting?

Sentencing for Charles Taylor has been set for 30 May and subject to any appeal he will serve his sentence in a British prison, at a cost of some £64,000 per annum to the British tax-payer. It has been estimated that his trial alone has cost $50 million, within an overall cost of over $200 million. Has it been money well spent? Supporters of the Special Court will say that justice comes at a price but for the victims of these terrible atrocities, the poor people of Sierra Leone, who continue to eke out a living in one of the poorest countries in the world, they may have other views.

Peter Penfold

When the Catholic priest, Father Giorgio Biguzzi, arrived in Makeni, the northern provincial capital of Sierra Leone, in 1974, he found a bustling well-ordered town. The streets were paved, there was constant electricity and running water, the shops were well stocked. Indeed there was nothing he missed from his days growing up in Italy. He could even buy his favourite Italian ice cream! Now as he steps down from serving as Bishop of the Makeni Diocese, he leaves a town which is slowly recovering from years of rebel war and neglect.

Born in Cesena, Italy in 1936, Bishop Biguzzi was ordained a priest in the order of Xaverian Missionaries in Parma in 1960. Prior to his arrival in Sierra Leone he worked in the United States where he obtained a Masters degree in education at Marquette University, Milwaukee. After teaching at the Catholic secondary school in Makeni, he returned to Italy for a while to work with the Xaverian Fathers, and then in 1987 he was called to become the second Bishop of the Makeni Diocese.

Sierra Leone is predominantly a Moslem country but Sierra Leone sets an example to the world for inter-religious harmony. Although the country has gone through years of fighting and instability, the conflicts arose out of greed, corruption, mismanagement and deprivation, not inter-religious rivalry. Moslems and Christians live in harmony with one another. Inter faith marriage is not unusual. For example the former President Tejan Kabbah, a Moslem, was married to Patricia, a Catholic Christian. The Christian church is very active and the Catholic church in particular, thanks to the efforts of people like Bishop Biguzzi, has made a deep and lasting impression upon the lives of the ordinary Sierra Leoneans.

As in so many African countries, education is regarded as a luxury. Families make great sacrifices to educate their children. An educated child who goes on to get a job is seen as the means by which a family can lift themselves out of the poverty and deprivation which they face. Bishop Biguzzi helped establish several Catholic schools and places of learning throughout his vast diocese, including Fatima College, which last year became the University of Makeni, the only university in the whole of the north of the country.

But it is not only in the field of education that he has left his mark. Several health dispensaries were established under his guidance. The dissemination of information is a key to the development of a country. Recognising this, Bishop Biguzzi established a radio station, Radio Maria, which is heard throughout the country.

Life in Sierra Leone has not been easy for him, especially during the years of turmoil brought about by the 11 year rebel war. Bishop Biguzzi was twice kidnapped by the rebels and his modest ‘Bishop’s House’ in Makeni was looted and damaged on three separate occasions. Twice his Bishop’s ring, given to him by the Pope on his appointment as Bishop, was stolen by the rebels but each time it was returned to him. On one occasion one of the rebels said to the Bishop ‘I know you, you’re my Bishop, you gave money to my family so I could study. Don’t worry I’ll help you get your ring back.’ And he did!

I had the privilege and pleasure of staying with Bishop Biguzzi on several occasions in the ‘Bishop’s House’ in Makeni during the difficult times. Around the breakfast table I was fascinated listening to him as he radioed the various Catholic priests dotted around the far flung corners of his diocese. It was clear from this that he had a better knowledge of what was happening around the country than all the diplomats and UN officials sitting in their offices in the capital Freetown.

Notwithstanding the difficulties he faced, he won the respect of all those involved in the conflict including the rebels because of his understanding and compassion. He played a key role in mediating the end of the conflict. As a member of the influential Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone, he took part in the various peace talks to bring an end to the conflict; and he continued to play a vital role in the process of healing and reconciliation. At one stage he was even considered to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established to help the healing process. His efforts were recognised in 1999 by the award of the ‘Cuore Amico’, the Nobel prize awarded to missionaries by the Roman Catholic church.

As Bishop Biguzzi now steps down and hands over to a Sierra Leone born successor appointed by the Pope, things have much changed. The war is now a distant memory. With the present president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, hailing from the north, there is much development taking place in Makeni. Once again it is a bustling city with roads being paved, buildings going up and electricity flowing. As ‘Bishop Emeritus’ he does not yet know what the future holds for him but what is certain is that the future of so many Sierra Leoneans now looks better because of his years of dedication and service. Sierra Leone should be ever grateful and we wish him well.

By Peter Penfold

NAA: Dr Marah, can you tell us about the new government initiatives to deliver the agenda for change?

Dr Marah: I think I will have to take you back a bit to give you a gist of what has happened and what it is that government is doing to continue to deliver the Agenda for Change. First, the agenda is basically development aspirations that His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma sets out in a single document to lead the country into transformation. The initiatives mostly centre on agriculture; free health care service delivery; fisheries and marine resources; facilitating private sector development, etc. But the key sector as he has always said is agriculture, such that all chiefdoms in Sierra Leone, 149 of them have got an agri-business centre (ABC). A total of 191 ABCs are meant to create wealth through providing facilities, for example, rice mills, for small holder farmers to be able to process their goods to increase value chains and access markets. It is unprecedented in the history of Sierra Leone to have been able to reach out to farmers at the farthest and remote areas of the country. In addition, financial services associations or FSA’s, call them village banks, if you like are been constructed in pilot districts for e.g. Koinadugu. The rationale is to create access to credit for farmers.

If you wish that I speak to others, I will say the free health care initiative is among the most successful stories been told across the African continent. What we have here are public health units as well as hospitals located across the country. What do they do? They provide free health care service to lactating mothers and under-five kids. This initiative is supported by development partners.

So those are some of the key policy initiatives that are bearing fruits. I can go on for example to fish landing sites that are been constructed in Tombo, Goderich, Bonthe, Shenge and many more. What government is providing to small holder farmers through the ABCs is the same it is doing for artisanal fishermen.

NAA: On the review of mining agreements?

Dr Marah: Government inherited the Koidu Holdings agreement. His Excellency, the president said in one of his addresses to parliament that he will review mining agreements. True to his words we have successfully reviewed the Koidu Holdings agreement and the terms and conditions are now better for Sierra Leoneans. We have successfully reviewed the London Mining agreement, which was also not as robust as expected. We are now in the process of looking into the second Koidu Holdings, which is for the Tongo fields in the east of the country. We are looking into Sierra Minerals and others. The president has created a minerals negotiating team where respective agencies are represented.

NAA: On the petroleum question; In Ghana, oil production by Tullow Oil started within 24 months of discovery, can that process be replicated in Sierra Leone?

Dr Marah: It depends on what is under the seabed. At present Anadarko are drilling so as to be able to declare commerciality. When once they are able to declare commerciality would we then go into production. They are at the highest point of exploration. Other companies are lining up but what we are doing at the moment is to ensure that the blocks that are available are awarded to companies that are interested but it has to be done through a process that is in tandem with international best practice, it will be open, transparent and they will have to meet the technical requirements.

Yes, we would wish that we go in to production as soon as possible and the legal framework that will enable and guide the process was concluded in 2011. A new directorate has been set up; so what we are looking forward to is ensuring that government continue to create the enabling environment such that the companies that have been awarded licences would be able to do their work and that the petroleum directorate, which is the regulatory agency would ensure that these companies abide by their work plans. We are looking forward to ensuring the oil sector becomes productive in the country.

Government will soon be setting up a national minerals agency. So the ministry will continue to provide policy but the minerals agency will be responsible for implementation, which will make the sector efficient.

NAA: On his work with ministers and ministries, civil servants and govt agencies?

The office of the COS is responsible for coordinating the affairs of ministries of govt and that is an uphill task. My mantra is, that as COS I am learning to be chief of my conscience and servant to all; and I do so accepting the fact that no one can know it all, do it all or do it alone; to be brilliant is not enough, so could it be said of being patriotic. I think what you need to do is to collaborate, to coordinate and to be humble and to learn. So, my relationship with ministries has also been a learning process. But, what we have succeeded in doing is to ensure that the president’s message that he wants to run the country as a business comes to fruition. So, what we have done is to continue to support the president, to ensure that ministerial contracts are reviewed and that ministries report on a quarterly basis.

NAA: And that they do deliver also perhaps?

Dr Marah: To a very large extent some ministries do deliver, not in all cases though, but a good number do deliver and that has helped the transformation process.

What we have also done is to ensure that we cascade the contracts being signed by the ministers to permanent secretaries, directors and senior officials; because, they are the implementers. So, they will be implementing the elements contained in the contracts signed by the ministers. So to date we have 69 permanent secretaries and directors that have signed performance contracts with their ministers. Like I said, patriotism alone is not enough; the world is moving towards transparency, accountability through performance reviews, and that is what we have put in place.

Now we have also decided to strengthen state-owned enterprises. Development delivery should not be achieved only at the policy level. We have to go down to the level of implementation. And the key implementers are service delivery agencies, including SALWACO, the water agency and Guma Valley Water Company; and you have the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), and the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) etc. To date we have 27 of those agencies that have signed performance contracts with the president. Performance contract in process puts heads of agencies in the spotlight, because there is a requirement for them to report to the president. And we do review their performance. We achieved this level of unprecedented collaboration, not because we were gladiatorial or we worked or sounded like supervisors, but through coordination and building partnerships. We have been able to work with them collaboratively to an extent that they now understand that performance contracts are building and taking the nation forward.

We have also decided to cascade performance contracts down to local govt level. At the moment Bo, Kenema and Makeni districts have performance contracts signed, which the president will be reviewing very soon. And we now have performance contracts for all district councils, city councils across the board for 2012. The objective is, because govt allocate billions of Leones under the decentralisation initiative, there is a need to put a mechanism in place through which people will be held to account. So we are working in collaboration with the minister of local government, the ministry of finance, and the resident ministers to ensure that the city and the districts do their work in tandem with the contracts they have signed. We strongly believe we should hold people to account.

NAA: On his views about the prospects of a transformed SL?

Dr Marah: I am much more confident and hopeful now than before I took up post as COS to the President. At the moment, the ministry of finance is leading the development for the successor Agenda for Change 2. The agenda for change 2 will build on the Agenda for Change 1. At no point in time as a nation have we been able to craft a structured development agenda than now. And the fact that we are working on a successor programme means that we have learnt from our mistakes and can build on our strengths. So I am hopeful that the future will be bright. And in addition to the agenda for change His Excellency the president announced that every Sierra Leonean should be part of the process that he called the Sierra Leone Conference. He made two declarations: firstly, that every Sierra Leonean should become a public monitor. Secondly, every Sierra Leonean should work toward achieving a middle income country status, and if possible to become a donor country within the next 25-50 years. The Sierra Leone Conference looked at and continues to look at development opportunities to be able to advise this government including succeeding ones as to what areas to be leveraged, what it is that we can do and what would be the role of citizens to ensure the country progresses. The idea of the conference is to find ways to set goals for the transformation of our country.

NAA: On a slightly different topic, Diaspora voting; his government view on giving the vote to Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora given the vast contribution that people in the Diaspora make to the socio-economic development of the country through remittances etc.?

Dr Marah: His Excellency the President values the opinions of our compatriots in the Diaspora. In his wisdom he set up the Office of Diaspora Affairs as part of an earlier initiative; I suspect that he can go to any length to ensure that the aspirations of Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora are met. When and how that will happen I am not sure, but visionary leaders have their own way of sequencing reforms. So I will say we wait and see where the President is going on that

NAA: His views on next steps and relationship with President?

Dr Marah: For me there are no next steps, any sort of next step depends on what is being directed by the President. My relationship with the President is warm and good, it has always been. Because I strongly believe this is a leadership that ought to be celebrated. I say this borne out of a number of facts that I will like to share.

President Obama recently said his government is willing to work with countries that are doing well, he made specific mention of Sierra Leone. And, at the last UN General Assembly he singled out President Koroma at a lunch, demonstrating U.S.A. endorsement of President Koroma’s leadership; it means that President Koroma’s vision of transforming the country is in sync with the values that the U.S.A. holds.

Recently also, in Busan in South Korea, Sierra Leone was identified as the most responsive fragile state in the world. This is in accordance with the 10 principles of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It also includes recognition for a working relationship with development partners that are at an upward spiral.

Recently, Transparency International rated Sierra Leone 2.5 in 2011. In 2010, it stood at 2.4. This means that the President’s fight against corruption is bearing fruit.

There are many accolades that the country has received and continue to receive because of the work of His Excellency the President. But he believes that we must not be complacent and must continue to challenge ourselves.

For instance, the fibre optic is here, what should we do about it? Should it be the vehicle that transforms this country? How should we help the private sector become part of the transformation story? How do we harness the enormous resources and potential of our youth and women folk to help in the transformation process?

This enduring development thinking by His Excellency sits well with my background working with the Commonwealth. I endorse him as a visionary leader; I commend him as a leader who believes in the future of this country, and one that has been able to reach the remotest part of the country. He is a President that listens. He is a leader who thinks ahead of his generation, and is able to set the pace for the next generation.

But then the civil service is weak; the structures of governance were destroyed during the civil conflict. So, the challenge the President faces is how you achieve this transformation with a weak public service in a country where women have been marginalised for several years; where the youths have not been in the mainstream. The President is trying to do all of these together; build the public service; bring on board accountability; put in place Transparency Sierra Leone; hold the Sierra Leone Conference; come up with one Agenda for Change, now working on a successor Agenda for Change, within a short period of time, which is enormous for anyone and by any standard.

In these circumstances all we could do is throw everything in for him to ensure that he delivers on his vision for the country. I must commend members of the Diaspora also who are helping the President deliver on his vision.

The year did not start well in Sierra Leone. Yet again there were skirmishes between supporters of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), during a by-election for a seat on the Freetown City Council. These two parties have been at each other’s throat for the last 30 years. Is this a portent of things to come in November? Or will things change finally for the better? Many Sierra Leoneans are hoping for the latter.

At least the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has started the electoral process on a less fraught footing. While the dust was settling from the skirmishes, the NEC began its long-awaited voter registration using a biometric system for the very first time. The system will capture the thumbprints and facial features of the estimated 3.5 million eligible voters. When the Commissioner of the election body NEC, Dr Christiana Thorpe, was in London last year, she explained that the nationwide exercise would take 60 days. The NEC expects average registration to take 7.5 minutes, with each centre registering 80 people a day and 4,800 over the two-month period. ‘I am encouraging young voters, especially first time voters, to come out and vote to exercise their democratic rights,’ Thorpe said at the start of the registration on January 23.

The 2012 presidential candidate for the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Julius Maada Bio, on the campaign trail in the SLPP heartland of Bo in the Southern Province in September with his supporters, crossed swords with stalwarts of the party in power, the All People’s Congress (APC). The new SLPP presidential candidate was injured in the process. In retaliation, the APC’s local headquarters was razed to the ground.

There were heated arguments over who was responsible for the violence. But the Independent Investigation Panel, headed by Awoko newspaper publisher Kelvin Lewis, found that the APC, SLPP and the police were partly to blame for the confrontation. While the APC and SLPP were culpable, the police were just incompetent – abjectly failing to nip the violence in bud. The media, too, were equally responsible because of their irresponsible use of language and lack of ethical probity, the Panellists found.

The Index evaluates 53 African countries (prior to the South Sudan’s secession from Sudan) on four counts: Safety and Rule of Law; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Activity; and Human Development. The ratings are scored out of a total of 100 points.

According to the findings, a great deal of the continent saw economic improvement in the past year; though that was matched by nearly as many countries seeing a stagnation and decline in Safety and Rule of Law.

‘If economic progress is not translated into better quality of life and respect for citizens’ rights, we will witness more Tahrir Squares in Africa’ said Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese philanthropist, businessman and head of the foundation.

This year’s top rated country was defending title holder Mauritius (with a total of 82 points), followed by Cape Verde (79), Botswana (76), Seychelles (73) and South Africa (71) respectively.

The lowest ranked country was Somalia, scoring only 8; a figure which comes as little surprise given it has been consistently lowest since the Index was launched in 2006. The country’s lack of a central government and protracted civil conflict has worsened in recent times, and the devastating famine brought on by the worst drought in over 60 years has done nothing to ease the challenges the country faces. Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo followed with second and third lowest ratings.

‘A clear link can be observed between a balanced, equitable and inclusive approach to all categories of governance and national progress. These findings strongly challenge the narrative that supposes governments should pick and choose which areas to focus on at the expense of others as a natural and unavoidable trade-off of leadership.’  Ibrahim said.

The index reports that over the last five years two countries have much improved in terms of governance; Liberia and Sierra Leone. Both countries emerged from civil wars during the earlier part of the decade, with charted improvements particularly apparent from their scores in Safety and Rule of Law and Sustainable Economic Opportunity.

Trends from the data can be difficult to justify. Although the findings do indicate island nations tend to fare better than their counterparts on the mainland (Cape Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles all occupy top five positions), Madagascar has charted a significant decline since 2006 largely driven by statistically significant decreases in score for Safety and Rule of Law and Participation and Human Rights.

Prior to 2009, the Index was limited to the 48 Sub-Saharan African countries, ignoring Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

The foundation also awards a yearly Prize for Achievement in African Leadership of $5 million (£3.2m) paid over 10 years and $200,000 annually for life thereafter to democratically elected former African Heads of State who have delivered security, health, education, rights, rule of law and economic development to their constituents and who have democratically transferred power to their successors in the last three years.

The Prize is believed to be the world’s largest, exceeding the $1.3m Nobel Peace Prize.

Ibrahim said of the panel’s decision, ’It is wonderful to see an African leader who has served his country from the time of colonial rule through to multi-party democracy, all the time retaining the interests of his people as his guiding principle. The fact that Cape Verde with few natural resources can become a middle income country is an example not just to the continent but to the world. President Pires embodies the type of leadership the prize is designed to recognise.’

While the value of the Index’s ambition is praiseworthy, some scholars have questioned the effectiveness of the Index and particularly the ability for civil society to engage with its results. Telling certain countries they are failing on governance is not universally constructive; and for the two years in which the panel chose not to award a prize for achievement is likely to have provoked anger from some camps.

BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding has questioned whether a better incentive scheme could be found. Awarding ‘an annual bribe – a bribe for not accepting bribes’, he argues, undermines the cause by rewarding ‘the sort of behaviour that should surely be taken for granted’.

Despite the country affirming their commitment to Human Rights and Maternal care, the advocacy group have called for ‘necessary steps to abolish the death penalty in national legislation and to commute existing death sentences to terms of imprisonment’ said Brima Sheriff, director of Amnesty Sierra Leone.

The Human Rights Council is to adopt the Universal Periodic Review outcome on the country.

Thirteen states raised the issue of the death penalty during the review, calling for a moratorium on executions, abolition of the death penalty, and ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The group also want the country to reinforce transparency and accountability by monitoring and investigating shortcomings in the national health systems, and to respond robustly to allegations of corruption and systematic malpractice.

The organisation has also urged authorities to establish complaint mechanisms within the health systems and inform patients about their right to redress.

The country must also commit to conducting a periodic assessment of progress using ‘UN process indicators’ to monitor the availability, utilization and quality of emergency obstetric care.

Amnesty published a recent document stressing the ongoing challenges faced by pregnant women and girls in Sierra Leone. They report that drugs and other essential medical supplies are often unavailable at health facilities, or they are charged for free care.

Their research has also brought to light serious deficiencies in accountability across critical areas of the health system.

The move to improve healthcare in connection with birth delivery and address maternal mortality, healthcare policies and family planning was also welcomed.

The Free Health Care Initiative, which was launched in April last year, should provide pregnant women and lactating mothers with free treatment at government-run health facilities. However, the Amnesty report, ‘At a Crossroads: Sierra Leone’s Free Health Care Policy,’ suggests that women are being asked to pay for drugs, when they cannot afford to do so.

Amnesty’s Africa program director, Erwin van der Borght, said that ‘the health care system remains dysfunctional in many respects.’ He said that although since the Initiative was introduced, women are accessing antenatal care and delivering their babies in health facilities, ‘many women continue to pay for essential drugs’ and ‘women and girls living in poverty continue to have limited access to essential care in pregnancy and childbirth’.

The report shows that the Sierra Leonean government has introduced some initiatives to address these issues, including increasing women’s access to health services and improving the pay and training of health workers. However, van der Borght says that ‘effective monitoring and accountability systems’ are needed for the reforms to be a success. There are currently no effective complaint mechanisms for women, and the monitoring systems are currently focused on looking at individual facilities, rather than looking at the barriers for women accessing services. More effective monitoring and accountability would serve as the basis for promoting change which will allow women to give birth more safely, and enjoy their right to maternal health.

‘The government has taken some important steps to address these challenges. However, deficiencies in the monitoring and accountability system allow poor practice and mismanagement to go unchallenged, and have provided some people with opportunities to exploit the system and plunder valuable medicines,’ said Erwin van der Borght.

Amnesty International say that they have had a positive response from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation regarding this report. However, in order to ensure that health care interventions are accessible to women and girls, and that there are remedies to any violations of women’s human rights, they are calling for the government to strengthen and establish systems of monitoring and accountability.

It is known that only God and fools do not change and therefore there is no need to labour this issue. The fact is that people who do not change their attitude are like stagnant water. They breed reptiles of the mind.

The setting up of a Secretariat by the ruling APC government for the sole purpose of coercing or coaxing the people to change their attitudes was the first inkling that the Koroma regime was either creating jobs for the boys, or did not have its priorities right in the face of monumental problems still extant as the country was then, in 2007, just five years away from a devastating war.

Cynics of the scheme have been proven right as the personnel of the Secretariat demonstrated a negative change of attitude that landed them with somewhat hefty fines but sparing them jail after being indicted on 17-count theft and misappropriation charges. Incidentally, one of them was a former small time DJ in the United States and spokesman for the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) junta and penultimate staunch supporter of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).

Hardly a week passes by without some bizarre happening in the public domain or private sector that will not be in consonance with any positive change of attitudes.

The current scam is that 6 % of the drugs for the Free Health Care Scheme cannot be accounted for according to UNICEF, which has been supplying the drugs.

Forty-three containers of drugs were stranded lamentably at the Freetown ports for over two months while maternity and under-five cases are increasing all over the country. UNICEF vowed not to release the containers until there is full accountability.

These aberrations went on under the nose of two major civil society organizations, namely, the Health for All Coalition headed by Charles Mambu and Health Alert, headed by Victor Koroma.

Mr. Mambu, who has been carried over from the SLPP regime, has proved to be a sly character who is now suspected to be a clandestine supporter of the APC and so would not carry out his functions with the vibrancy it deserve.

Under the watch of his coalition, which boasts of more than 1,500 monitors all over the country, the stranded drugs disappeared at the ports without trace. His specious excuse was that the quay is out of the mandate of his coalition but people have been wondering whether his coalition and Health Alert are really effectively monitoring the scheme.

The health hazard in this scenario is that when these drugs have expired, as they are likely to, especially in hot and humid conditions, they would find their way to pharmacies to be part of the billions of Leones worth of drugs that are destroyed on a quarterly basis.

One unchangeable attitude is that of the motor drivers and their Drivers’ Union in a system where over 95 % of public transportation is carried out by the private sector.

And the crunch is borne mainly by the Freetown and Western Rural Area commuters who are constrained to fork out two or three times the fares stipulated by government.

This is simply because the drivers cheat on destinations while the police in collusion do not give a two-penny damn. This malaise appears to be incurable and it has been the syndrome through successive governments.

Examples are better than precepts but the examples of the leaders of the incumbent government are not anything to write home about.

From the horse’s mouth as it was President Ernest Bai Koroma who said at the Miatta Conference Center in 2008: ‘Fellow Sierra Leoneans, I am pleased to inform you that I met a solid foundation upon which my administration will work assiduously to continue to rebuild our country.’

The self-same Ernest Bai Koroma later said at the Kenema Playing Field in June 2011: ‘My APC government met a big hole in the state coffers. There was not a single cent when I took over.’

Thus, it is that the untruths and dishonest policies of the APC have not changed, as the foregoing coming from the leader himself as example of lip service speaks for itself.

Infallible records show that in fact Le 524, 991 million of Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) reserves were left in the Central Bank by the SLPP government in 2006 at the end of the financial year.

As at now, figures from the same Bank indicate that the reverses have been completely siphoned out from the Bank’s coffers by the APC government.

Over six months ago, what appeared to be a faithful promise was made by the Minister of Information and Communications, I.B. Kargbo that former employees of the defunct Sierra Leone Daily Mail would have their backlog salaries and entitlements paid within two weeks.

The hapless employees were told to open bank accounts into which their benefits would be paid.

Some were constrained to lend money to open those accounts.

Over two months on nothing has happened. It remains a pipe-dream while the ex-employees continue to die out.

Thieving on a grand scale has not changed even by an iota since the hoisting of Attitude Change to the status of a state scheme.

If anything, the scheme which has now resulted in being a mere cliché has resulted to the worsening of negative attitudes.

The APC was heralded into office as it were by the alleged theft of cables meant for the Bumbuna Hydro Electric Dam Project by the brother of the Head of State, about which nothing else has been heard ever since.

More recently, there have been credible media reports about cable thefts. Thieves broke into the residence of workers of the $31 million fibre optic project according to the Minister of Information and Communications, thwarting development in the process.

Rioting and fighting during university and college elections continue changelessly.

At Njala University recently, students went on a rampage during which they smashed window screens of vehicles on sight and inflicted bodily harm as well, heedless of the consequences.

This was in spite of cultism which had been denounced by the university authorities and the police since the APC government setup their redundant Attitudinal and Behavioral Change (ABC) Secretariat.

Ibrahim Foday, a young reporter of the Exclusive Newspaper in Freetown was on Sunday 12th June, 2011 stabbed to death by some youths residing at Kossoh Town, some 15 miles east of Freetown, after a scuffle in a land dispute. That was an instance of attitude change by violence.

Take this! Forty thousand civil servants across the country refused to submit their asset declaration forms to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) as of the deadline of 31st May, 2011.

(Incidentally the first deadline was 31st March, 2011 but had to be extended for want of compliance.) Investigations revealed that only ten thousand civil servants out of fifty thousand submitted their asset declaration forms to the ACC.

According to the ACC’s Head of Professional Standards and Assets Declaration Unit, the Act stipulates that every year civil servants receiving salary from the consolidated revenue fund must declare their assets or update them annually to ensure transparency and accountability.

While it is true that a fish starts to get rotten from its head, it is equally true that example is better than precepts, which is why the negative examples of the Head of State will obviously result in a follow-my-leader situation.

When, oh when will the attitude of the leadership of this country towards discrimination against citizens from other regions or tribes by appointments and sackings change?

Unfortunately, this negative attitude has filtered down to the lower echelons of our society with grave consequences. This attitude further widens the divide between ethnic groups and smaller units of society.

Lack of adequate law enforcement has been another bane in this matter of getting attitudes right.

The attitude of ‘sticking to it’ even in policies that are patently wrong and unworkable should change if the government is not to regard itself as infallible.

The ABC Secretariat failed from the word Go.

It did not notch up any tangible success while it lasted and should be scrapped forthwith.

The whole concept of attitude change, as in all development focused countries, should be left to various strata of society as it was in the beginning.

Arguably, the foisted Attitudinal Change scheme has succeeded, unfortunately negatively. Shall we try character change this time round?

By our Freetown correspondent