By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
In Sierra Leone, merit is dead. Education is a scam. Dreams are buried beneath the feet of political patronage and tribal loyalty. It is no longer about what you know, how long you’ve studied, or how brilliant you are. It is who knows you or better yet who you know. We live in a country where hard work is mocked and connections are crowned. Where the gatekeepers of opportunity are not academic boards or hiring panels but ministers, mistresses, party loyalists, and family members of those in power. This is not a random frustration. It is the collective cry of a generation suffocating in silence.
Walk through the streets of Freetown, Bo, Kenema, Makeni, or Koidu and you will see them. Graduates with honours degrees clutching their brown envelopes, certificates laminated with sweat, degrees earned through sleepless nights and sacrifices. They roam from one ministry to another, from one private institution to the next, hoping, praying, sometimes even begging to be given a chance. But unless you have a godfather or godmother in high places, your future is as useful as a candle in a storm.
Let’s stop pretending. In this country, your degree is just decoration for your bedroom wall. Your CV is a paper plane flying nowhere. If your last name doesn’t ring a bell in political circles or your phonebook doesn’t include at least one Honourable or Director, then forget it. You can graduate top of your class and still end up behind the counter of a mobile credit kiosk while someone who barely passed their WASSCE or didn’t even sit to one is named as Special Assistant to the Minister. Why? Because their uncle is in cabinet. Or their sister is dating someone who is.
This is the truth many fear to speak. But I will speak it. Loudly. Aggressively. Because I am tired.
I am tired of watching brilliant young people rot in despair while mediocre ones rise on the wings of nepotism and partisanship. I am tired of hearing stories of thousands of applications received for ten jobs then realizing that those ten jobs were already shared out before the advert even went out. I am tired of the fake interviews, the theatrical recruitment processes, and the lies we tell ourselves about transparency and equal opportunity.
Let me be clear. Sierra Leone is not suffering from a lack of educated people. We are suffering from a lack of integrity in leadership and governance. We are not unemployed because we lack skills. We are unemployed because we lack connections. The system is rigged. The game is dirty. And those who play it are proud of it.
In this country, that statement is not hyperbole. It is policy. We have normalized incompetence so much that mediocrity now looks like excellence. When you enter a government office half the people don’t even know what their job description is. Some of them can’t write a proper memo or speak good English yet they sit behind air-conditioned desks paid by taxpayer money while the true intellectuals hustle in the sun.
It is not just politics. Even in the private sector connections determine who gets in. Jobs are no longer advertised based on qualification. They are shared among families and friends. Those who run these institutions are afraid of hiring brilliant people because they fear being outshone. So they prefer to employ the dull and the loyal over the competent and the outspoken. It is a deliberate sabotage of excellence.
And what happens to the youth? Depression. Migration. Crime. Suicide. Frustration. Many young people after years of school and no job simply give up. Some flee the country. Those who can. Risking their lives in boats and deserts. Some resort to crime or drugs. Some become cyber beggars. And some. God help us. Join the very political mafias that destroyed their dreams hoping to get crumbs from the corrupt banquet table.
And yet our leaders stand on podiums and talk about youth empowerment. What empowerment? You have created a system where youth must either join your political party, praise-sing you on social media, or become your errand boys to eat. If they dare to be neutral or critical you blacklist them. If they protest you beat them. If they organize you arrest them.
Is this a country or a cult?
It raises your hopes just to dash them. We tell our children to stay in school but for what? To become what? Interns for life? Job seekers with no job in sight? Professionals who are permanently unemployed?
We glorify politics and vilify knowledge. That’s why today everybody wants to become a politician. Not because they want to serve but because that’s where the money and the influence are. Why be a doctor and earn a pittance when a junior minister who does nothing earns more than the Chief Medical Officer? Why be a lecturer struggling to pay rent when a failed candidate’s brother becomes Ambassador overnight? Why start a business when your competitors are given tax waivers and you are slapped with bribes?
This madness has consequences. When we reward the connected over the competent we build a nation of thieves not thinkers. When jobs are bought and sold like tomatoes in the market we destroy merit and replace it with mafias. When degrees are ignored and loyalty is prioritized we kill innovation and celebrate stagnation.
And we wonder why our country is not developing?
Sierra Leone will never progress until we dismantle this cancerous culture of man know man. Until we create a system where everyone has a fair shot regardless of tribe, party, region, or who their father is. Until we start rewarding merit, competence, and integrity we will keep recycling failure.
To the young people reading this. Do not lose hope but know the truth. The system is not built for you but you must fight to change it. Speak up. Organize. Vote wisely. Hold leaders accountable. Build your own tables if they keep you out of theirs. Learn skills beyond the classroom. Network but don’t lose your soul. And when you make it open the door for others.
To the leaders. Enough of the hypocrisy. Stop preaching meritocracy while practicing nepotism. Stop encouraging education while rewarding ignorance. Stop advertising jobs when the winners are already picked. If you cannot lead with fairness then step aside. The youth of this country are not your slaves or your stepping stones. They are the future you are killing.
To the institutions both public and private. Audit your hiring practices. Diversify your recruitment. Respect the process. Don’t wait for someone’s call before you shortlist a candidate. Let competence and character be your criteria not connections and currying favor.
And to the international community. Stop giving awards to governments that crush youth potential. You say you care about development. Then start funding systems that support merit not regimes that celebrate corruption.
I am angry. I am tired. But I am not defeated. Because I believe in the Sierra Leone that can be. The one where a poor boy from Kabala can become a permanent secretary not because of who he knows but because of how well he performs. Where a girl from Pujehun can become a CEO not because her uncle is a minister but because her ideas work. Where education leads to opportunity not to endless waiting.
We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to the next generation.
Let us build that Sierra Leone.