WHAT A YEAR 2023 WAS!

THE YEAR 2023 has come and gone. But the memories it left behind will continue to linger on in the minds of many people across the world. Several landmark events occurred in the year 2023, prominent amongst them are the war between Russia and Ukraine, which broke out in February 2022, and the Hamas-Israel war.  At the beginning of 2023, the Russia-Ukraine war was almost one year old. Despite the passing of time, the pain, devastation, hardship, and destruction of lives and properties in Ukraine and across the world continued to take their toll at a pace and magnitude that shook the world. This shows clearly how the world is intrinsically interconnected, wherein when one part of it proverbially sneezes, the other will catch a cold.  Sometimes, the cold is caught very fast, and soon it becomes super serious. Even though the theatre of the Russia-Ukraine war is hundreds of thousands of miles away, its excruciating impact is felt by countries and people far and near, with fragile and highly dependent countries like Sierra Leone being the hardest hit.

One of the immediate consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war was the prevention, by Russia, of grain from leaving Ukraine, which many people considered to be the breadbasket of the world. This singular act alone created food shortages around the world and caused the costs of food to be very expensive. Before what Vladimir Putin referred to as “Special Operation” began, Ukraine was one of the world’s top food producers and exporters because of its abundance in grains and other food products such as poultry, corn, and sunflower oil. All of this changed suddenly after the war began and the world was thrown into an abyss of food crisis and human suffering.

On the home front, Sierra Leone conducted Presidential, Parliamentary, and Local Council elections on Saturday 24th June.  These elections posed a big test to the Sierra Leonean citizens’ resolve, especially politicians, to keep this country together even in the face of serious challenges. The road leading to the casting of ballots on E-Day was not smooth; it was rough and littered with jerks, bumps blind curves, and open bridges. Some of the key electoral activities leading to the polls included an unprecedented Mid-term Population and Household Census, national civil registration, voter registration, reintroduction of the District Block PR System, and printing of ballot papers. Each and every one of these activities generated controversies among citizens. 

However, the elections went ahead as scheduled. Incumbent President Julius Maada Bio was declared the winner on the first ballot by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone with 56% of the valid votes cast. The opposition All People’s Congress rejected the election results for what they described as “irregularities” and demanded a re-run. It was not given to them, though. The election observers in their various reports noted a “lack of transparency in the tabulation process” and “statistical inconsistencies” of the results announced by the ECSL.  The domestic elections observer group, National Election Watch, in their 2023 electoral cycle report states: …” The tallying process in all regions failed to meet international benchmarks of openness and clarity…”. 

The APC amplified their protest by boycotting governance. And for four long months, the quality of the country’s governance suffered as the opposition APC boycotted both Parliament and the Local Councils. The return of the APC to governance was secured at the Tripartite Dialogue facilitated by the Commission for Peace and National Cohesion and brokered by the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and the Commonwealth. The dialogue was concluded with all parties signing a Communique/Agreement, committing to doing their bits to maintain peace and national cohesion as specified in the Agreement. 

Whilst Ukraine was still grappling with the war imposed on them by President Putin and Sierra Leone still reeling from the impacts of the June elections, Hamas dealt a devastating p blow to Israel. The armed militant group, Hamas, carried out an early morning attack on Israeli communities on 7th October; several Israelis were killed or wounded and over 200 others were adopted and taken to unknown locations in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. The Israeli government responded swiftly, unleashing its military might with the aim to completely annihilate Hamas. The death toll on the side of Palestine rose to more than 20,000 people, including children and women, before the turn of the year. The responses of the International Community to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine threw a shining light on the insincerity, dishonesty, hypocrisy, and double standards of the so-called world powers and the serious lapses and weaknesses of global institutions such as the United Nations. This is manifested by the fact that the UN has so far been unable to secure a guaranteed ceasefire and reduce the ongoing human suffering in Palestine despite the UN Security Council Resolution demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the release of hostages. 

As the Gaza war continued to defy all remedies, the Yemen-based Houthi rebels reinforced themselves and started attacking commercial ships plying the Red Sea, targeting mainly vessels carrying petroleum products.  This further compounded the global economic meltdown and brought more sufferings to many fragile states across the world. 

As the year drew to a close, on Sunday 26^th November 2023, residents of Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown, were rudely woken up by sounds of heavy gunfire coming from the Wilberforce community where the country’s main military barracks is situated. On that fateful day also, the main and largest maximum-security facilities on Pademba Road and the premises of the International Criminal Court on Kingharman Road were allegedly attacked by the assailants and hundreds of prisoners were freed. After the euphoria had died down and the guns had become silent, the government authorities spoke out to the citizens and confirmed to the whole wide world that the incident of the 26th of November was a botched coup aimed at unseating the government of President Julius Maada Bio. The immediate aftermath of this incident saw the arrests of dozens of people to “assist the police with the investigations”. Also, former President Ernest Bai Koroma was invited to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Sierra Leone Police for questioning. He was subsequently detained under house arrest and later charged with treasonable offenses.  

This incident had a chilling effect on the economic and social well-being of the country. Since it happened at the time people were finalizing plans to travel to the country for the Christmas vacation, many reportedly canceled their trips, causing another huge economic loss to the country and further compounding the already growing mountain of problems of the citizens. As we tearfully wave goodbye to a year like no other in the recent history of the world, we pray that 2024 will be the year of solutions and positive breakthroughs individually as citizens and collectively as a nation.