By Albert David
Sierra Leone is a young nation, not by age, but by demographics. More than two‑thirds of its population is under 35. This should be a national advantage, a demographic blessing, a foundation for innovation, productivity, and economic transformation. Instead, it has become one of the country’s most dangerous vulnerabilities. Youth unemployment is no longer a statistic. It is a national emergency, a silent instability, and a governance failure with consequences that stretch far beyond economics. At the same time, economic reforms, loudly announced, beautifully packaged, and politically celebrated, continue to die before reaching the grassroots, leaving communities trapped in poverty and young people stranded without opportunities. This is not just worrying. It is disturbing, destabilizing, and ethically unacceptable for any nation that claims to value its citizens.
A country cannot be stable when its youth are jobless, hopeless, and excluded, underutilized, and Silenced. Unemployment is not simply an economic inconvenience. It is a breeding ground for frustration, a magnet for manipulation, and a trigger for social unrest, a threat to national unity, and a barrier to development. When young people feel abandoned, ignored, or deceived by systems that promise opportunity but deliver nothing, instability becomes inevitable. A nation that fails to empower its youth is a nation preparing its own crisis.
Sierra Leone has never lacked reforms, but It has lacked results. Every year, new programs are launched. Agricultural transformation initiatives, SME empowerment schemes, and Youth employment projects, Financial inclusion strategies, and Local economic development plans and so on.. Yet the communities these reforms are meant to uplift remain unchanged.
Why?. Because the system is structured in a way that allows reforms to collapse before they reach the people. Reforms fail because funds are mismanaged or diverted, bureaucracy suffocates implementation, corruption distorts distribution, and political favouritism replaces merit, monitoring is weak or nonexistent, information is hidden from the public, and communities are excluded from decision‑making. This is not just inefficient. It is oppressive, manipulative, and legally dismissive of citizens’ rights to development. A reform that never reaches the grassroots is not a reform, it is a cover‑up of failure.
One of the most devastating governance failures in Sierra Leone is the lack of transparency. Citizens cannot hold institutions accountable when they cannot access budget details, procurement records, audit reports, and contract agreements, local council financial statements, and youth program allocations…..
This secrecy is unethical, because it hides how public funds are used. Shameful, because it violates public trust. Undemocratic, because it weakens civic participation. Economically destructive, because investors flee environments where information is hidden. Transparency is not a threat to governance. It is the foundation of good governance. Without transparency reforms fail, corruption thrives, and youth unemployment worsens, and instability grows. A nation cannot develop in darkness.
When young people are unemployed, and reforms never reach their communities, the result is a dangerous national equation. The consequences are real. Rising crime, social tension, political manipulation, loss of trust in institutions, and community frustration, weak investor confidence, and erosion of national unity. A country cannot build peace on a foundation of economic exclusion.
A nation cannot maintain stability when its youth feel abandoned.
The combined effect of youth unemployment and failed reforms is devastating, it undermines investors.
No investor trusts a system where information is hidden and reforms collapse.
It destroys economic growth. A jobless youth population means low productivity and low innovation. It weakens international partnerships. Development partners lose confidence when transparency is weak. It deepens poverty, and communities will remain trapped in cycles of deprivation. It threatens national stability, and frustration becomes a political weapon. This is not just a governance problem. It is a national survival problem.
Sierra Leone does not need more slogans.
It needs systems that work, institutions that obey the law, and leaders who respect the people. A new national direction must include mandatory publication of all public financial documents, Independent oversight institutions free from political influence, Youth‑centered economic policies with real implementation, Community‑level monitoring of development funds, Digital access to public information, Job‑creation strategies tied to agriculture, technology, and entrepreneurship, and A governance culture that rewards integrity, not connections. Good governance is not a speech. It is a discipline, a commitment, and a national identity.
Despite the challenges, Sierra Leone’s youth remain the nation’s greatest asset. You are not a burden. You are not a statistic. You are not a problem to be managed. You are the engine of national transformation. Your voice matters. Your participation matters.
Your demand for transparency matters.
Your insistence on accountability matters.
A nation rises when its youth rise. A democracy strengthens when its youth engage, and A future becomes possible when its youth refuse to give up.
A country cannot develop while its youth are unemployed, cannot progress while reforms fail to reach the people, and a country cannot be stable while information is hidden from citizens. Sierra Leone deserves a governance system that is transparent, accountable, and committed to the people, not to secrecy, not to favouritism, not to self‑preservation. The nation’s future depends on the courage to confront these truths and the determination to build a system where every citizen, especially the youth, can thrive.
