29 April, 2008

Adeyemi Paul

Despondent Adeyemi

Measuring the Heart Beats

Yesterday I was sad. My office staff and a lot of my friends and close relatives were a little apprehensive.

"What is the matter with you?", "It is like something is not right,” "I've never seen Adeyemi in this mood," were some of the questions concerns raised. Actually, something wasn't right with me at all, but I was being reluctant to express the hidden pain that was tearing my heart apart.

Many months ago, President Ernest Bai Koroma was cajoling Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora to return home to come with their money and expertise and rebuild this nation. He essentially was requesting his compatriots to give up their (in comparison to the majority of Sierra Leoneans in the country) comfortable lifestyle, steady income (albeit through hard work), and a prosperous future.

The promise of a new beginning in Sierra Leone is appealing I'm sure, to many who are only now away from Sierra Leone due to circumstances and the past violent history of the country.

But, what did our President say to those who have returned home, people who have given up their comfortable lifestyles in other countries to invest their hard earned savings into businesses in this country, employ fellow brothers and sisters in the hope of giving them the opportunity to make something of themselves and provide for their families, only to be stabbed in the back by people who are too lazy to work hard, who steal, and prove themselves untrustworthy? This does not exactly encourage people to return to the land of their birth.

And what about those people who look a gift horse in the mouth? I mean those that are taking advantage of their status and only think of themselves? Do they not see the opportunity that is smacking them in the face? Do they not see that they are not only being short-sighted and foolish, but they also ruin the opportunity for their fellow employees and citizens? Do they not care about what other people have given up for them? Shame on you lazy bones!

Sierra Leone will not move forward until the people are willing to move forward in their attitude too.

We should all be proud and band together to beat the corruption, beat the laziness and the unwillingness out of our psyche and put our country back on the high pedestal it used to occupy.

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