By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
There is an increasing tendency in Sierra Leone whenever hardship deepens to ask whether God has turned away from us, whether our prayers have stopped rising or whether somehow our nation has become forgotten among nations. It is an understandable question born out of frustration, but it is also a dangerous one because it risks directing attention away from where serious national examination should begin. Sierra Leone is not a forgotten country. Sierra Leone is a country that must increasingly ask itself whether it has forgotten the disciplines, expectations and collective habits required to build a functioning state. For too long we have looked for explanations in destiny while avoiding examination of decisions, structures and national behaviour.
The reality is that Sierra Leone cannot continue describing itself as poor without honestly interrogating what poverty means in a country with fertile land, mineral resources, youthful energy, access to the sea and a global Diaspora that contributes enormously to household survival and local economies. The contradiction between what Sierra Leone possesses and what Sierra Leone produces should disturb every citizen. A country with these advantages should not continue being defined by unreliable electricity, unstable water supply, expensive food, weak infrastructure, limited industrialisation, unemployment and public services that remain inconsistent after decades of independence.
Too often our politics consumes the oxygen that development requires. Elections receive enormous energy, public mobilisation and financial commitment yet governance frequently struggles to maintain the same urgency after victory is declared. Political competition increasingly appears stronger than institutional competition. Citizens become defenders of parties instead of defenders of outcomes. Leaders become symbols rather than administrators and criticism is too often interpreted as hostility instead of participation in governance. We celebrate appointments more than performance and treat political access as achievement while ordinary people continue measuring life through prices, opportunities and quality of services.
If Sierra Leone is to move forward then governance must become less emotional and more measurable. Roads should not become campaign achievements but normal expectations. Water should not become a special intervention but a guaranteed service. Electricity should not become a public celebration but a standard condition of economic life. Citizens should not need extraordinary gratitude whenever the government performs ordinary obligations. A serious nation builds institutions that deliver regardless of which political colours occupy office.
This is where examining other countries becomes useful not because they are perfect but because they demonstrate habits that sustain the national movement. The United States remains one example that deserves observation. America has political division, social inequality, public criticism and many internal tensions, yet despite these realities its institutions continue functioning at levels that attract investment, sustain innovation and maintain influence. This did not emerge because American politicians are naturally superior. It emerged because citizens expect results and continuously apply pressure. Communities organise. Taxpayers question. Media interrogates. Public officials are challenged. Systems become more important than personalities. The government is expected to work because citizens behave as though public office exists to serve them.
In Sierra Leone we sometimes reverse this relationship. Public services are occasionally treated as favours rather than obligations. Citizens lower expectations and adapt to conditions that should provoke stronger demands for reform. We pursue personal connections where systems should exist. We celebrate proximity to power instead of insisting on accountability. Too many people reject corruption publicly while seeking exceptions privately. Too many condemn tribalism but excuse it when it benefits their interests. Too many complain about leaders while reproducing the same habits in communities, institutions and daily interactions.
Economic stagnation then becomes inevitable because politics alone cannot produce growth. Sierra Leone continues operating within an economic structure where survival dominates productivity. Imports remain high, local production remains insufficient and opportunities remain limited. The burden falls hardest on ordinary people who continue carrying rising costs while incomes struggle to match realities. Food security alone should be enough to force national reflection. There should be no serious conversation about food vulnerability in a country with Sierra Leone’s agricultural potential. Agriculture must become industrial, profitable and attractive to younger generations. Farmers require financing, storage, processing and markets. National development cannot continue relying heavily on importing what can be grown locally.
Electricity remains another example of stagnation becoming normalised. Reliable power is not luxury. It determines whether businesses expand, whether schools perform, whether hospitals function and whether industries emerge. Water follows the same logic because without reliable access communities remain trapped solving problems that should already have been solved by public systems. Infrastructure cannot continue appearing as isolated projects. Infrastructure must become connected national planning.
Healthcare deserves equal urgency because the quality of healthcare determines confidence in the state itself. Hospitals should not become places where outcomes depend on connections or luck. Healthcare workers require support, facilities require investment and public health must become more preventive than reactive. Education also requires a more serious conversation because enrollment figures alone do not build economies. Education must produce competence, innovation and opportunity. Young people should not complete education only to discover that there is no visible pathway forward.
Youth deserve more than slogans because they are not asking for miracles. They are asking for possibility. They are asking for environments where effort matters and progress remains achievable. Women and girls equally remain central to national development because no country succeeds while limiting the participation and potential of half its population. Opportunity must become practical and measurable rather than symbolic.
Religion must also examine its role. Sierra Leone remains deeply religious and that remains one of our strengths, but religion should produce ethics, accountability, service and discipline. Prayer should strengthen action rather than replace it. Religious leaders and elders continue carrying moral influence and that influence becomes meaningful only when it is used to challenge wrongdoing, encourage responsibility and defend public interest.
Perhaps the deepest challenge facing Sierra Leone is not scarcity but adaptation. We have become too accustomed to conditions that should disturb us. We celebrate survival instead of demanding transformation. We reduce expectations and slowly begin believing that dysfunction is normal. That mindset becomes dangerous because once a society normalises decline it becomes difficult to mobilise for progress.
God has not forgotten Sierra Leone. The harder question is whether Sierra Leone is prepared to stop waiting for rescue and begin building the standards, institutions and expectations that transform nations. Development does not arrive because people deserve it. Development arrives because people organise themselves to produce it.