The following commentary was in response to Sierra Leone’s trade minister Mr. G.B. Kawusu Konteh, who urged trade inspectors to enforce the law to combat the escalation of prices of essential commodities such as rice and petrol. Wednesday, May 22, 1985 ( The Globe newspaper, Sierra Leone)

It would appear that trade inspectors have outlived their usefulness in Sierra Leone, judging by their ineffectiveness. If they were not working within a system in which nobody is in charge, they would have been declared redundant several years ago.

Their retention in the face of non-profitability adds one more bleak chapter to a discredited regime.

The role of trade inspectors is arguably to seek the interests of the masses vis-a-vis the petty and big-time traders who are by and large the exploiting classes. The decision by the ministry of trade and industry to once more issue public notices stipulating prices of fuel, rice, and other commodities reproduced elsewhere in this issue is most welcome.

The government has designated certain goods as essential commodities which in essence are vital to the survival of the people. It is public knowledge, however, that the trade inspector, from a position of financial weakness, is forever bought over by the trader whose activities are inspected.

It is rather too late in the day for Mr. Kawusu Konteh, who has held his present ministerial post for over one year, to rail at his men for failing to enforce the law. The statements of the minister in this regard could only be taken with the insincerity they deserve.

Hypocrisy by our leaders has become an entrenched institution in this unfortunate land and neither Mr. Kawusu Konteh nor his so-called inspectors of nonentity could alter its size or burgeoning scope.

The people have to reckon with the real facts of life that only by banding together and acting as one in their respective areas under the leadership of genuine parliamentarians or other local heads, could they stem the tide of our inhuman inflation.

Under the present fortuitous circumstances in which our trade inspectors find themselves, they can only show a change of attitude for the worse.

Mr. Kawusu Konteh’s broom is too old to sweep clean.

One of several editorials while acting editor of The Globe newspaper (Sierra Leone), May 4, 1985, which captured the attention of the American Embassy in Freetown, and I eventually landed a job at the Voice of America(VOA).

It will be 40 years next month since a virtually unknown Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe seized power in Liberia in a bloody coup. His end was no less bloody.On his visit to the White House, President Ronald Reagan greeted him as Chairman Moe. Reagan did not care to know the name of his guest.

It was the former president of Liberia William Tolbert, who once said, “I will raise the Liberian people from mats to mattresses.” The meaning of his utterance had scarcely been realized when he was killed by a group of soldiers led by the then 28-year-old, Master Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe.

Along with him, thirteen of the people who had wielded political, economic and social power for 33 years under the banner of an autocratic setup, that was the True Whig party, were executed within ten days at the Barclay Training Center.

Though the Master Sergeant was known to lack adequate background to political education, he was received with open arms by his people mainly because he had brought an end to an overfed regime.
On April 12 this year, as the sergeant cum commander’s voice came blaring on the air with messages to mark the fifth anniversary of his regime, the Liberian people had little to be pleased with, concerning the state of affairs in their country.

Reasons for this are not far-fetched. Personality and ideological conflicts among the top brass of the revolution appeared. Patriotic and conscious Liberians like Dr. Togbana Tipoteh and Boima Fahnbulleh were fired from office.
Of late, a spate of arrests has been the commander’s pastime. In June last year, he ordered the arrest of the editors of The Daily Observer and The New Liberian. Later, because of an alleged coup plot, Mr. Doe arrested his main political opponent connected with the forthcoming election.

These and more have engendered resistance and raised some skepticism in Master Doe’s intention for Liberia. Compounding this situation, was his call on all cabinet ministers who may want to contest the November elections, to resign from their posts while he(Doe) retained his. What an autocratic act!
Forgetting that the people are tired of rhetoric and are more concerned with reality, the commander keeps paying lip service by saying that he will improve the economy before July this year. Has he walked into an Aladdin Cave? Is it possible for him to come about this within so short a time when he could not salvage the economy with five years in hand?

If it is Sergeant Doe the people of Liberia want as a leader, we shall soon know in the November elections. And if a democratic handover to civilian rule would come to pass, Master Doe would have done a hero’s job. The world will judge the Liberian system by its content, for “it is not difficult to distinguish between systems which have the distinctive characteristics of democracy from those who do not because democracy is a term which determines content.”