Freetown – Part 1, Too Much Freedom

I spent my two weeks Christmas holiday with my family in Freetown, Sierra Leone. I was born in Sierra Leone but I have not visited my home country since 2011 so I was looking forward to going back. Freetown is the freest place that I have ever been to. It is one of the most religious tolerant places in the world. For example, holidays such as Christmas and Ramadan are not religious holidays, but national holidays. Everyone celebrates these holidays, whether your Christian, Muslim, Atheist or whatever.

Another form of its freedom is its lack of law enforcements. There are police officers, but they are paid so little, less than £2 a month (even in Africa this is not enough to pay one week’s rent), that they take bribes and try to make extra money through corrupt means. The president is too busy spending the country’s money on his mistresses to care about the people of the country. This means that you can bribe your way out of almost everything, and the police are not paid enough to care. People park everywhere! Drive on the wrong lanes, always speeding, throw their rubbish on the streets and so much more. Everyone is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and I hate it.

Although there are some benefits of complete freedom, such as religious tolerance and overall tolerance for different cultures (Freetown is full of Lebanese, Chinese and Indian businessmen/women), my country needs structure. Freetown is still in an age where electricity is not guaranteed, where running water is a luxury and this is all because the people are too free. There are no taxes, and if there was no one would pay, the postal service no longer exists because of the lack of boundaries. Each government institution is crippled with corruption.

This makes me so sad to see. Sierra Leone is a country that is rich in gold and diamonds, our economy should be one of the best because of the amount of natural resources and minerals that we have. And yet we are one of the poorest, why? Because there is no structure in the country. I love my country, but it needs to be less free, it needs laws and law enforcement officers that are paid enough money to do their job properly without taking bribes. It needs government officials to actually care about the people and to want to make their lives better. It needs the youth of Sierra Leone to have bigger dreams for our country, because we are the future.