By Dadson A. Musa
Over centralization of power in Sierra Leone is British colonial legacy and government after government have not made any clean break from it. People in the interior get less of government attention and therefore less or haphazard service or sometimes nothing at all. It is a serious that the majority of Sierra Leoneans are facing and government has not seemed to care. It is the reason why rural – urban migration in Sierra Leone is so rife even if it means people squatting or sleeping rough in the city. Most government offices operate only in Freetown with their regional or district offices existing only in name and starved of financial and material support. And government needs to look into this seriously as Freetown alone is not Sierra Leone.
Produce Monitoring Board under the new leadership of Raymond Katta has decided to break clean from this age – old problem of over centralization of governance in Sierra Leone. It is an agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and so has a lot of its activities carried out in the rural areas. So, it makes a lot of sense for the decentralization. First off, Raymond Katta has opened the office of his deputy in Bo district. It is a well-furnished office. Mohamed Jalloh who heads the district in Bo seems very satisfied with the support his office is getting now. “My office used to be starved of human, material and financial support but that is no longer the case. I am now getting prompt supply of office materials to carry out my work.” Staff strength as I observed has been boosted. And duties are now being assigned to the district offices. The only problem that has remained has been the collection of royalties from agri-businesses which is still been done by the office in Freetown instead of the regional offices doing it. Produce Monitoring Board targets cash crops like coffee, cacao and oil palm and they ensure value addition so that the farmers in Sierra Leone get value for money especially at the international stage. Their job also is to regulate the system to ensure fairness. And according to the Bo district office manager “the quality of some of our cash crops in the West African sub region has improved drastically.” With Raymond Katta at the helm of affairs things are set to improve as Sierra Leone embarks on the food security drive. The input in the food security is going to empower farmers in the trade and improve our foreign reserve.