NARCO PLAGUE HITS SIERRA LEONE
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
Millions of dollars or trillions of Leones have been expended by the Bio-led SLPP Government on international journeys in the guise of rebranding Sierra Leone. The President has undertaken hundreds of such trips, and says he would continue to fly, but so far, his efforts have seemed like throwing water on a duck’s back – a waste of time, energy and state resources.
It is hurting that amid the purported rebranding moves, the country continues to be pitched in money laundering and drug trafficking scandals. Sierra Leonean nationals have been frequently intercepted and arrested with drugs in foreign lands, and back home, the devastating consequences of the drug trade could be felt everywhere as the lives of young men and women are visibly being ravaged, by the use of kush in particular.
International dishonour continues to hover over Sierra Leone’s dignity. Since January 2021, the country’s profile remains assembled and archived by the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).
INL has been helping Sierra Leone to address a variety of regional security challenges, such as countering human trafficking, wildlife trafficking, financial crimes, and corruption. It aims to disrupt transnational organized crime, improve bilateral law enforcement cooperation, support justice sector development, and improve security and human rights conditions throughout the judicial process and corrections operations.
It has trained Sierra Leone Police on how to effectively manage public order situations by promoting and implementing a national decision-making model. This training and mentoring was instrumental in facilitating presidential election cycles in 2018 and 2023 which were uncharacteristically marked by very few instances of election-related violence.
In 2020, an INL project helped create and institutionalize a professional law enforcement curriculum at the Sierra Leone Peacekeeping and Law Enforcement Academy (SILEA) that integrates respect for human rights and the rule of law.
INL funded INTERPOL and AFRIPOL’s first joint operation “FLASH-WEKA” in 2023, which aimed to dismantle the organized crime networks behind human trafficking and migrant smuggling in Africa and beyond. Intelligence received in Sierra Leone via INTERPOL triggered a police raid rescuing 15 suspected trafficking victims.
Sierra Leone is not a stranger to INL, therefore, and a summary of its released Report depicts prevalent drug trafficking and money laundering activities in the country, such that it is being used as a “transshipment point from South America/Asia to Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States.”
Corruption, the cankerworm that derails national development, is also tagged by INL as a pervasive problem in the country, depriving the citizens of the access to basic public services. The Police is marked compromised, and the ‘criminal justice system of the country inefficient and backlogged.’
Money laundering and drug trafficking are globally despised for their negative effects on nations. It nurtures criminal sects, and drug traffickers/smugglers are empowered to entrench their enterprises, undermining political and economic stability. If the activities thrives unabated, it could take toll on the moral fibre and fabrics of people’s lives, and nations and their governments could be destabilized through terror tactics.
Human Capital Development, one of Bio’s government agenda for a prosperous nation is being challenged, as the prevalent drug situation in the country is diametrically opposed to such a vision. A nation linked with money laundering and drug trafficking activities incurs upon itself an international dishonour and the erosion of confidence in all of its credentials. With all of the disrespectful tags attached, Sierra Leone’s integrity hangs on a thing thread – its reputation and dignity have been dragged to the mud by unscrupulous individuals for self-glorification.
However, even as the country has had too much of social challenges, diplomatic injury and shame from the drug thing, the authorities are not known to have stoutly moved to nip in the bud the global dishonour. This seeming inertia reeks of political complicity in the drug thing!