By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
“This story is one that brought tears to my eyes! Believe me or live it, I am worried for Sierra Leone I will lose myself to worries”
– Alpha Amadu Jalloh
I know with this no one will like me and many may hate me but my feelings are my feelings and my rights are my rights to determine and tell my story our story. Indeed Sierra Leone with everything in its favor is yet a place of no example to emulate not even to imitate. Everything is dead: knowledge is dead, honesty is dead, belief in the Almighty is dead. Where do we turn? Worry fills my head and torments my mind. Where do we turn? Who do we call for help when our shepherds have abandoned us? Yet with no inspiration nor motivation the youths are doomed and the future is dark like a stormy evening awaiting rains no one can determine the destruction it yields.
A Land Blessed but Cursed in Practice
Sierra Leone is a land richly blessed by God. Its soil is fertile, its rivers abundant, its diamonds sparkling, its mountains majestic, and its seas generous with fish. Yet we live in poverty. How can a nation so abundantly blessed remain so helpless? The answer lies in the collapse of values. Our leaders steal and the people clap for them. Our politicians lie and we cheer louder. Our so-called intellectuals trade their conscience for political appointments. What example do we have left to inspire the children?
In schools, teachers are no longer motivated. Many show up to teach but their focus is not on raising a generation of thinkers. They are themselves broken, underpaid, neglected, and without respect. What then will the students learn? They see teachers struggling and politicians in brand new SUVs. The message is clear: education is no longer the road to progress. Dishonesty and political allegiance are.
Our religious leaders, once the moral compass, now compete for political favors. Some sell their pulpits to politicians who stand before the congregation and pretend to be God fearing, only to return to their offices to loot. The holy places, once sanctuaries of guidance, have now become stages for hypocrisy.
Youth Without a Compass
The young people of Sierra Leone are caught in a web of despair. Every young man and woman dreams of “greener pastures” a phrase that has become a code for escape. To migrate is now the ultimate ambition. From Freetown to Koidu, from Bo to Makeni, the aspiration is not to stay and build but to run away and serve another land. We do not blame them. What do they see in their own homeland? Corruption everywhere, unemployment everywhere, failed institutions everywhere.
The streets of Freetown are crowded with okada riders, young men who once dreamed of becoming doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs. They now risk their lives daily just to earn enough to survive. Others loiter in ghettos, smoking and drinking away their youth because society has offered them nothing. The lucky few with education and skills spend years applying for jobs that never come unless they know someone in power or belong to a certain political tribe.
When the youth look up, they see nothing but discouragement. When they look ahead, they see a dark tunnel with no light. When they look behind, they see a history of betrayal. Sierra Leone has given its young people no motivation, no inspiration, no reason to believe.
Leaders Without Vision
What we have in abundance are politicians but not leaders. A leader inspires, motivates, sacrifices, and shows the way forward. A politician deceives, manipulates, and enrichs himself. Unfortunately, Sierra Leone has too many politicians and almost no leaders.
Every five years, elections come with promises. We are told about “new directions,” “big fives,” “agendas for change,” “visions for development.” Yet when power is secured, the promises evaporate like morning dew under the sun. Roads remain broken, hospitals remain without medicines, schools remain without books, and jobs remain illusions.
The ruling class has mastered the art of deceiving the people while enriching themselves. They build mansions in gated communities, send their children abroad for education, fly overseas for medical treatment, and then return to tell us to tighten our belts. It is wickedness of the highest order.
A People Numbed by Survival
What is worse is that the people have grown numb. Hunger silences anger. Poverty erases courage. Many are too busy searching for food to worry about accountability. The system has deliberately weakened the people to the point where they have no energy to demand better.
We are quick to forgive politicians who exploit us and even quicker to forget their sins. Yesterday’s thief becomes today’s hero simply by crossing to the ruling party. Our standards have collapsed. A minister caught stealing millions can still stand in church and be hailed. A politician who bankrupts the state can still command respect once he distributes rice during elections.
This moral decay has poisoned the nation. How do you inspire children in such an environment? What lesson do they learn when dishonesty is rewarded and integrity is punished?
A Society at War With Itself
Sierra Leone is also divided against itself. Ethnic politics has replaced merit. Tribalism has suffocated national identity. We no longer see ourselves as Sierra Leoneans first but as Mendes, Temnes, Limbas, Fullahs, and so on. This division is constantly exploited by politicians who use tribe as a ladder to climb only to kick it away once in power.
The result is that qualified people are denied opportunities because they belong to the “wrong” tribe or region. Mediocrity triumphs over merit, and loyalty to a political godfather counts more than competence. This disease has spread through every institution from the civil service to the army, from the police to the judiciary.
When justice is for sale, when employment is for tribe, when success is for connections, what motivation do the people have?
The Death of Faith and Hope
Even belief in God has been corrupted. Religion should inspire hope, but it has been reduced to spectacle. Prophets and miracle workers mushroom across the country, promising wealth and prosperity but delivering nothing but deception. Desperate people cling to them because they have lost faith in everything else. Yet instead of lifting the people, many of these so-called religious leaders exploit them.
Hope is dying. Faith is dying. Patriotism is dead. The only thing alive is selfishness, greed, and a desperate instinct for survival.
Where Do We Turn?
So I ask again: where do we turn? Who do we call? Our shepherds have abandoned us. The political shepherds steal from us. The religious shepherds deceive us. The intellectual shepherds mislead us. The youth are lost. The old are silent. The women are ignored. The poor are trampled upon.
Is this the Sierra Leone we dreamed of after independence? Is this the land our ancestors fought to build? Is this the nation for which countless lives were lost during the war? What have we done with our freedom? What have we done with our democracy?
A Dark Storm Looms
The future looks like a stormy evening awaiting rains no one can predict. Our youths are restless, our economy is collapsing, our politics is toxic, our morality is rotten. Without change, the destruction will be unimaginable.
But change will not come from the same politicians who profit from our misery. It must come from the people themselves when they decide that enough is enough, when they refuse to be bought by bags of rice, when they hold leaders accountable, when they demand merit over mediocrity, when they unite as Sierra Leoneans first before tribe and party.
A Final Word
I write these words not out of hatred, but out of love for my country. A love so deep that it pains me to see Sierra Leone reduced to nothing but a land of no motivation and no inspiration. I may be hated for saying this truth, but truth must be told. Silence is complicity.
Sierra Leone deserves better. Our children deserve better. Our ancestors demand better. The time for excuses has passed. Either we rise to reclaim our dignity, or we sink deeper into hopelessness.
For now, the reality remains: Sierra Leone is a land of no motivation, no inspiration. A land of wasted potential. A land where hope is dying. But perhaps, just perhaps, by naming our sickness, we may begin to seek the cure.