There seems to be an unbreakable covenant between Sierra Leone and failure. Sixty-five years after independence, the country still wrestles with darkness, poverty, unemployment, weak institutions and broken public services. What should have been a story of national progress has too often become a cycle of wasted decades under the alternating rule of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the All People’s Congress (APC).
Every independence anniversary brings speeches, flags and patriotic songs. But for millions of Sierra Leoneans, the daily reality is blackouts, bad roads, unsafe water, poor healthcare, youth joblessness and rising living costs. The question many citizens now ask is simple: what exactly have decades of APC and SLPP rule delivered?
Electricity remains one of the clearest symbols of state failure. In 65 years, successive governments have still not guaranteed reliable power to the population. Entire communities remain in darkness. Businesses spend fortunes on generators. Hospitals struggle during outages. Yet both parties, when in office, have repeatedly promised energy transformation and repeatedly fallen short.
The same story can be told about water supply. In the capital and provincial towns, access to clean running water remains inconsistent. In healthcare, hospitals and clinics remain under-equipped, underfunded and overcrowded. In education, classrooms are congested, teachers underpaid and standards uneven. In agriculture, a country blessed with fertile land still imports food it could produce.
Successive governments have blamed war, Ebola, COVID-19, global inflation or the failures of previous administrations. While those factors matter, they cannot fully explain six and a half decades of underperformance. At some point, responsibility belongs to those who governed.
The APC and SLPP have each had multiple chances to reset the nation. Instead, politics has too often revolved around patronage rather than policy, tribe rather than talent, slogans rather than substance. Public offices are frequently seen as rewards for loyalty, not competence. Meritocracy has been weakened by regional balancing, party favoritism and entrenched networks.
Corruption has been another constant. Scandals emerge under one administration, outrage follows, then another government takes power promising accountability only for accusations to resurface again. Institutions meant to check abuse are often strongest against opponents and weakest against allies. The result is public cynicism and a state that struggles to earn trust.
Tribal and regional politics have also poisoned national development. Instead of building one Sierra Leone, both major parties have often been accused of treating elections as ethnic censuses and governance as winner-takes-all. This deepens division, sidelines qualified citizens and distracts from real issues like jobs, energy, education and healthcare.
Meanwhile, the youth population grows restless. Many young Sierra Leoneans face unemployment, underemployment or migration pressures. Some risk dangerous journeys abroad. Others turn to informal survival economies. A nation cannot sustainably develop while its most energetic generation sees limited opportunity at home.
This is not to say nothing has been achieved. Roads have been built, schools expanded, health initiatives launched and some reforms introduced under different governments. But these gains are often piecemeal, politicised or unsustained. They do not match the scale of the country’s potential or the promises repeatedly made.
At 65, Sierra Leone should be debating innovation, industrial growth and export competitiveness. Instead, it still debates constant electricity, basic sanitation and whether institutions can function impartially.
The harsh truth is that both APC and SLPP have, in different eras, failed to transform the nation in proportion to the time and trust they were given. Sierra Leone’s crisis is not just about one party or one president. It is about a political culture that has too often placed power above progress.
Independence was won in 1961. Real development remains unfinished. Until leadership is judged by delivery rather than party colours, Sierra Leone risks celebrating freedom each year while remaining captive to dysfunction.
