By Alusine A. Sesay
Mohamed Ormodu Kamara, better known by his moniker Jagaban, has on two separate occasions attempted to launch a motorbike-assembly factory in Sierra Leone.
And on both occasions, the Sierra Leone police intervened — not because of any breach of peace, but allegedly because “orders from above” had been issued to halt the event.
Why, one must ask, would a government “desperate” for job creation and industrial growth obstruct a citizen’s venture? What is really at play here?
Rumour has it that the current administration, has thrown its weight firmly behind a foreigner who has already launched a similar bike-assembly plant.
In essence, a Sierra Leonean entrepreneur with ambition is being stifled, while a foreign company is courted and indulged.
The excuses offered for blocking Jagaban’s project are laughable. Some claim he was required to first liaise with the Ministry of Labour —even though he had not yet commenced full-scale operations.
The man was simply attempting a launch , a symbolic beginning, not a mass employment drive on day one. Bureaucratic nit-picking at such a premature stage smacks less of governance and more of SABOTAGE.
What makes this episode even more galling is its irony. Only a few months ago, Jagaban was publicly advised to stop “dishing out money” to communities and instead focus on building sustainable businesses that could employ thousands of unemployed Sierra Leoneans.
He listened. He pivoted. He invested.
And yet, when he attempted to do precisely that—launch a factory that could employ thousands, regardless of their political loyalties, he was obstructed at every turn.
This begs the question: Why does Sierra Leone appear determined to frustrate its own citizens while bending over backwards for shady foreign companies?
Must every attempt at progress be politicised?
The consequences of this policy orientation are devastating.When governments sideline their own entrepreneurs in favour of foreign companies, they are not promoting development. —they are committing economic suicide.
Citizens become mere spectators in their own economy. We have seen key industries like mining, agriculture, construction, telecommunications, etc —slip into foreign hands, and decisions are made abroad, not in Freetown.
Worse still, these foreign firms rarely reinvest in Sierra Leone. They extract resources, pocket the profits, and repatriate the wealth. For every dollar earned in Sierra Leone, only a few cents linger within our borders. The rest drains out, weakening the Leone, driving up inflation, and deepening dependency
Meanwhile, local entrepreneurs, —full of ideas, energy, and patriotism, are squeezed out of the market by discriminatory practices. Young Sierra Leoneans are denied the opportunity to innovate, create, and employ others. Instead, they inherit an economy beholden to and vulnerable to exploitation
Even the environmental consequences are equally dire. We see unscrupulous foreign companies that are notorious for plundering with little regard for sustainability. Forests are stripped, our rivers polluted, and our fertile lands degraded, leaving behind nothing but scars. Sierra Leone risks becoming an exhausted wasteland while foreigners walk away with the riches.
History offers a clear lesson I must say:
NO NATION, let me repeat this, NO NATION has ever prospered by sidelining its own people in favour of outsiders- never never never..
Here is the thing: China rose to global prominence by empowering its local entrepreneurs. Rwanda is rapidly transforming by protecting and nurturing domestic businesses. Even Western powers (UK, USA, Canada et al), champions of free trade in theory, FIERCELY defend THEIR OWN INDUSTRIES while investing heavily in home-grown talent.
Sierra Leone, however, appears to be writing its own tragic exception, discouraging its own citizens while rolling out the red carpet for shady outsiders.
THIS IS NOT DEVELOPMENT. This is betrayal. It entrenches dependency, deepens poverty, and gnaws away at national sovereignty if you ask me.
Let me say this loud and clear: if Sierra Leone continues to frustrate its Jagabans while indulging foreign opportunists, then the dream of prosperity will remain exactly that —a dream, forever deferred.
