By: Joel Abdulai Kallon
Freetown, 24th November 2025- Sierra Leoneโs renewed civic education push is, on paper, one of the most ambitious in West Africa. In 2025 the National Council for Civic Education and Democracy (NaCCED) was fully integrated into the Ministry of Information and Civic Education (MOICE), giving the government a single, powerful platform to shape how citizens understand rights, duties, elections, and national identity.
The scale is impressive. Compulsory civic modules in every secondary school, more than 10,000 trained facilitators, weekly government press briefings broadcast nationwide, and a digital outreach campaign that has reportedly already touched millions.
The crown jewel is perhaps the annual Salone Civic Festival. The inaugural edition in 2024 was modest; the second, scheduled for 11โ13 December 2025 at the Miatta Conference Centre in Freetown, promises to be bigger with film competitions, youth debates, music, and a presidential address all under the banner โOne Country, One Peopleโ.
Donor agencies applaud the professionalism. Many Sierra Leoneans like the festivities. Yet something vital is still missing, and no festival, no textbook, and no ministerial directive can manufacture it: the deep, organic patriotism that is born when citizens believe, in their bones, that the state genuinely cares for them.
The kind of patriotism and national pride that would inspire men to go to war for their nation while their wives and children cheer them on, even to their deaths.
๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฌ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ข๐๐ซ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ฌ๐ญ- History here is brutally honest. After the war ended in 2002, Sierra Leoneans did not suddenly love their country because of civic education classes. They loved it because rebels stopped burning villages, refugees came home, and the first free vote in decades actually counted.
During the 2014โ2016 Ebola crisis, young people risked their lives burying the dead and tracing contacts, not because a ministry told them to be patriotic, but because they saw doctors, nurses, chiefs, and even the President on the front line with them. I even joined a door-to-door campaign teaching handwashing to kids in my community without asking anyone for anything.
In both moments the state (however imperfectly) put citizens first. Patriotism followed naturally, without a single slogan. A similar sentiment was seen around the country in 2022 when the menโs football team qualified for the African Cup of Nations after a long absence.
๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ๐๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ซ๐– ๐ถฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ขฬฒ ฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒ ฬฒ๐ทฬฒฬฒ๐ฟฬฒฬฒ๐บฬฒฬฒ๐ปฬฒ
Defeated, bombed flat, and morally disgraced, Germany did not start with patriotism lessons. The Allies and the new German leadership started with bread, jobs, and the promise that never again would the state treat its people as cannon fodder.
Denazification was important, but the real emotional glue was the Wirtschaftswunder, the economic miracle that let ordinary Germans feel, by the late 1950s, that their country was finally working for them. Only then did a healthy, critical patriotism take root.
ฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒ ฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒ ฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒ- American civic education is famous for flags in every classroom and the Pledge of Allegiance, but that is theatre. The deeper glue has always been the widespread (though imperfect) belief that hard work can still change your life, that the state will at least try to rescue you in a hurricane, and that you can kick out those politicians that no longer served your interest every four years and the system will still stand.
When large groups stop believing those things (as large sections of Sierra Leoneans do today) civic pride erodes faster than any school programme can rebuild it.
ฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒ ฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒฬฒ๐ฬฒ ฬฒ๐ทฬฒฬฒ๐ฟฬฒฬฒ๐ฟฬฒฬฒ๐บฬฒ- Often cited as a success story, Rwandaโs civic re-education (Ingando camps, umuganda community work, history lessons) is intense and centrally directed. But the emotional buy-in did not come primarily from the lessons. It came because millions of ordinary Rwandans saw villages electrified, maternal mortality plummet, and genocide survivors receive monthly pensions while perpetrators rebuilt their neighboursโ houses. The state delivered safety and dignity first; the patriotism followed.
๐๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐ข๐๐ซ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ
Today a 20-year-old in Bombali, Kenema or Kono might recite the three branches of government and quote the โOne Country, One Peopleโ slogan perfectly. But he still sits in darkness most nights, pays Le 500,000 to a teacher to get the exam results he earned, watches politiciansโ children fly to London for medical care while his sister dies in childbirth, and knows that the police will probably ask him for โtransport moneyโ before they grant his innocent brother bail.
Until those daily experiences change, civic festivals and school modules will remain background noise.
No amount of top-down messaging can substitute for:
๐๐ฝElectricity that stays on after 10 p.m.
๐๐ฝA police officer or judge who salutes justice more than he salutes the ruling party.
๐๐ฝA hospital that has paracetamol and a doctor who shows up.
๐๐ฝThe realistic hope that your vote can change the people in power without changing the peace of the country.
When those things start happening evenly across chiefdoms and constituencies (when the state begins, visibly and consistently, to put citizens ahead of political party) Sierra Leone will not need a Ministry of Information to teach patriotism.
Young men and women will queue for hours to register to vote, defend polling stations with their bodies if necessary, and sing the national anthem with tears in their eyes, the way they did in 2002 and in 2022 when Musa Tombo scored that beauty of a goal against Ivory Coast in the AfCON.
Until then, the Salone Civic Festival will be a colourful event, the textbooks will gather dust in corners, and the missing ingredient will remain exactly what it has always been: ๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ฌ, ๐ข๐ง ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ง ๐ข๐ง ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ฌ, ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ฌ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐๐๐ค.
