Phronesis and Resource Curse Hypothesis in Post-Independent Sierra Leone
Publisher: Ilorin Journal of Economic Policy
Author(s): Emerson Abraham Jackson
Date: 2016
Topics: Conflict Causes, Conflict Prevention, Extractive Resources, Governance
Countries: Sierra Leone
This study was undertaken with a view of presenting a balanced critical discourse on the concept of Phronesis as applied in the political economy of Sierra Leone. The country is renowned for being endowed with the abundance of non(renewable) natural resources, while at the same time for poor management of resources which has given rise to its classification under the brand name of ‘resource curse or Dutch disease’. Based on critical phenomenological discourses of scholarly literature and the analytical hermeneutics of secondary data collected, evidence to some extent have pointed to the fact that both colonial and post-independence governance contributed immensely to the resource curse syndrome in Sierra Leone; a situation where poor management of natural resources has been a disaster, rather than a blessing in the country's sustained pathway of development. The paper thus conclude that Sierra Leone, is capable of recovering from the alleged symptom of ‘resource curse/Dutch disease’, but only in a situation where the rule of law is effectively applied with perpetrators of unethical acts leading to the exploitation of natural (non) renewable resources are (severely) punished to deter future cases of unethical practices.