Africa’s richest regions is said to host some of the most undemocratic governments in the continent where presidential palaces seem to have become private properties over which blood must be spilt if some strangers show signs of trespassing the perimeters. Is there any hope for this situation to change?

After the recent fiercely contested presidential election in Liberia, world attention has now turned to neighbouring Sierra Leone, which has its own crucial vote on 7 March 2018. Both countries share so much in common, not just political histories, but devastations of symbiotic civil wars. Can the “Lion Mountain” ever roar again after the withdrawal of United Nations troops in 2014?

African leaders who fought for independence soon departed from their initial objectives before African people could see the benefits of independence. Even though leaders who came after independence were also far from what African people needed, there is hope that current changes in southern Africa can inspire the entire continent.