Activism can be pretty exhausting. No doubt about that. In a place like Sierra Leone where every facet of society is degenerate, you’d be nigh tempted to speak up almost on everything and every day. You see, that can take a serious toll on one’s health and mental balance. The last two years have been the most challenging of my life. I lost both parents and was clobbered with grief. Deciding to remain pious to the original ideals of the rebirth of the destiny of our nation also came at a severe professional and social cost. I made a decision to take a month long hiatus this year from activism to focus on healing process and self-preservation. I have to admit that I didn’t quite get that uninterrupted break as I had to grant AYV an interview on the Supreme Court’s decision against the IG’s ban of vehicular movement on the last general elections. When you are riled up with so much passion for activism, even taking a deserved break is so hard. But I enjoyed every bit of my time spent away from the inevitable tolls. Some days are hard—I must admit—because it seems you’re always belligerent even though a system founded on wrongs can’t be upended by mere persuasion and prayer. My default antidote is to remember the struggles of those who perish in our hospitals (especially pregnant women), those who with unending tears await justice from our courts for many years, students who are let down by a system that merely awards degrees and certificates (fake or otherwise) but not skills, parents who have to get up every day to confront hardship head-on, children who are born into a nation that only guarantees them lack of everything and all of us who are left at the unwearied mercy of poverty and decadence in a land renowned for its lustrous diamonds. In one of my Uber trips, the driver asked where I’m from and once I told him—he said, ‘oh that’s the land of blood diamonds’. For many who’ve not been to Sierra Leone, they know our country as that tiny nation that is blessed and accursed with precious stones. But we, the citizens, know a different nation—a country that has become an expert in letting his people down, a land disemboweled by the politics of the north-west and south-east, a land where 60 years and more, our engineers cannot give electricity, our lawyers cannot dispense justice, our doctors hardly save lives; our accountants only multiply our failures and our corruption only thrives.
Sometimes in activism, you feel immersed in a lot of opposition from near and far. Not everyone would like or appreciate your work however messianic it is. There are folks who’d doubt the sincerity of your work and those who’d think you’re only doing it for the limelight. I believe that these skepticisms aren’t misplaced because of the many examples of manipulations of activism. But because there is so much fake news and disinformation around shouldn’t cause real new stories not to be told or true journalism whether traditional or citizen’s not to be practiced. And I’ve come to learn that those who appreciate the work of activists are in the majority. From folks who affirm my hope in the possibility of change; to those friends who hold up my hands when they begin to get knackered. To those people who consider me the outlet of the whispers of their hearts and the sundry followers who add fire to my courage. It is because of you that I must recharge to come back and fight the good fight and cause troubles pregnant with positive change.
During this break, I binged on many books and articles on leadership, politics, governance, and justice. They have affirmed my belief in the possibility of a new narrative of leadership and change. I share the sentiments of Lee Kuan Yew that “leadership needs a people who are activists with good judgment and interpersonal skills…” Leadership must be activistic to succeed because while politicians are driven by elections, power or wealth, activists are driven by convictions. To stay true to those convictions can often be gruelling and this is why activists must take a break to refuel those convictions not when they can but when they should. This is because even though misgovernance and injustice do not ever take a break, activists should lest they be consumed by the forces they contend with.