President Koroma urges closer ties with Nigeria

Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma on Tuesday urged his new High Commissioner to Nigeria to ensure mutual economic benefits in the relationship between the two countries.
Nigeria’s status as the largest economy in Africa and the most powerful in West Africa makes it a strategic partner, said President Koroma at a special sending off ceremony for Haja Afsatu Olayinka Kabba who was recently appointed to the position.

She replaces the current Energy Minister Henry Macaulay who was appointed to his position in July 2014.

Ms Kabba, a former minister, will be accredited to seven other countries in addition to Nigeria, including the Central African Republic.

Koroma said the instability in some of these countries requires proactive diplomacy to address them. He said as an envoy to the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), Ms Kabba must also work in light of the transformational agenda of the sub-regional bloc.

Ecowas is going through a transformation and Sierra Leone should be apart of that, the President said. He added: “I know the responsibility is great but I also know you have the capability to do it.”

Sierra Leonean Condemns President Koroma's New Year Message

For the first time in the history of post independence Sierra Leone, the head of state has delivered what can only be described as the shortest and most lacklustre of New Year’s address to the nation – four hundred and ninety-six words to be precise.

 

What has happened to president Koroma?

 

Has he run out of his usual propaganda stunts? Is he losing his appetite for verbosity, or has he suddenly realised that brevity makes for better communication? Supporters looking forward to the president’s usual dozen or more pages of New Year’s drivel, would be more than disappointed to see this year’s message reduced by ‘His Excellency’ to a mere half a page essay, on how Sierra Leone won the Ebola war.

 

The Ebola crisis is over Mr. President, and its time for you to lead from the front with action – if you can.

Citizens now need to know where the jobs are that you promised in the last eight years of being in power, so they can put food on the table, pay for medicines, clothe their families, provide safe clean drinking water, and go about their lawful business without the violation of their human rights by those in power.

 

Most of the president’s twaddle is nothing, but repeats from previous statements on the Ebola crisis. There is nothing new and promising from the president for 2016 – not even a message of HOPE for the poverty stricken people of Sierra Leone.

 

Political analysts hoping that president Koroma would shed light on last week’s decision to shuffle his cabinet and get rid of a couple of dead weights too, are disappointed at the president’s New Year’s chinwag.

 

But for those ministers that are today facing serious uncertainties about their future, not sure where the president’s axe is going to fall next time another coconut falls on his head, yesterday’s speech only serves to prolong the agony of waiting.

 

And for the millions of Sierra Leoneans that are today anxious about the fate and poor health of opposition politician Mr. Alie Kabba, who is spending the New Year behind bars in Pademba Road prison, after his arrest on a trumped up charge of bigamy, there was no word from the president who ‘signed’ his warrant of arrest and threw him in jail. No one in Sierra Leone should be sent to jail for alleged bigamy. He was charged to court, and the magistrate decided to adjourn the case. He is innocent until proven guilty, and must remain a free man whiles awaiting the court’s decision about his innocence or otherwise. So why take away his civil liberty, if not for the sheer sake of vindictiveness, impunity and revenge by those in power? But we must remember that, tomorrow’s rebels are usually created today.

 

So let us stop destroying the lives of those with whom we disagree. We can have our political debates and agree to disagree. But let us not use the powers granted us through the ballot box to suppress and oppress our political opponents. It is wrong and dangerous, and does not auger well for sustaining the peace in Sierra Leone, after ten years of brutal civil war.

Alie Kabba’s incarceration is nothing other than the abuse of power by those elected to protect the rights of their fellow citizens. And this has cast another indelible stain on the poor governance record of the Koroma government. One that will be remembered by all those who believe in the protection of civil liberty and the rule of law in Sierra Leone.

 

President Koroma’s 2016 New Year’s message to the people of Sierra Leone, will be remembered also for its several omissions, such as the words: ‘Agenda for Prosperity’ – the president’s failed programme for improving the lives of Sierra Leoneans; ‘zero tolerance for corruption and Attitudinal Change’ – the president’s failed mantra and rhetoric that brought him to office in 2007.

 

What has happened to our president?

 

One thing is clear though, as we look to the start of the New Year, president Koroma is yet to make good on his promise of further announcement of changes to his moribund cabinet.

 

The Sierra Leone Telegraph has reliably learnt from ruling APC party sources that there was mutiny in the party, after president Koroma’s surprised announcement of changes to his cabinet last week. Frank-kargbo Many senior ministers who are also grand patrons of the APC party, are said to have been annoyed at the president’s unilateral decision to sack the attorney general without consultation. It is understood that apart from his vice president Foh and party secretary general Yassaneh, ministers were kept in the dark about the ministerial changes, which shocked many in the party and the government.

 

With president Koroma promising more ministerial changes soon, 2016 is set to throw up many more surprises from State House.

 

But will these changes bring an end to poverty, corruption, impunity, abuse of human rights and the curtailing of civil liberty in Sierra Leone?

 

President Koroma’s New Year’s message to the people of Sierra Leone

“The New Year is a moment for moving forward with hope, faith and fortitude. But even as we move forward, we must not forget that our nation was severely tested in the past 18 months by a vicious enemy. The test brought about great tragedy in our nation, but it also showed the best in many Sierra Leoneans.

“It showed the best in many of our doctors, nurses and other workers, it showed the best in many of our security agencies, and it showed the best amongst many chiefs and thousands of youths, market women, musicians and ordinary citizens in every district and region of our beloved country.

“Let our New Year resolution be to move on with the best in us, let us carry on with the better actions that allowed our country to defeat an Ebola virus which ferocity was unlike any the world had seen before.

“The better actions are the new habits of hygiene and sanitation we inculcated, the new attention to details that we ensured in our labs and treatment centers, and the newer commitments to Sierra Leoneans leading the way and comprising over 90% of the people at the frontlines and command centers of the fight against Ebola.

“We must build upon this greater confidence in ourselves, we must face the future with belief that we can overcome our limitations and build a future that entrenches our best values and actions.

“My Government’s Post Ebola Recovery Plan draws from this belief that we are capable of achieving the goals we have set forth for ourselves.

“My New Year resolution is to continue to work tirelessly to achieve these goals, to ensure the implementation of our plans we have designed for the priority sectors of health, education, social protection, including Ebola survivors, the private sector, energy and water.

“We salute our international partners for their continued support to our country, but it belongs to us to utilize that support to build a more resilient society.

“That is why all of us must make resolutions that should bring out the good in us for our country, our community and our families. The threats of future outbreak is still with us, but if we resolve to continue to bring out the best in us, we can stop any future outbreak in its tracks.

“The globalized world has great threats, from extreme weather events to terrorism and diseases that are no respecters of boundaries.

“But we can prevent the threats from overwhelming us by utilizing our better actions to grab the great opportunities that beckon to all of us.

“The good in us is greater than some of the ugly events that we face. Let us utilize the good in us to build a better country.

“Happy New Year and God Bless Sierra Leone.”

Fish processing is our business- Tombo Women

On a recent field visit by Government, the World Bank and the media to the heart land of fishing in the Western Area Peninsula, the women of Tombo vowed to take fishing and fish processing to a different level.

Speaking to this medium, most of the women fish traders called on government to see reason and invest in fishing, which will earn more revenue for the country, compared to the huge loss in tax exemption giving to the various mining companies which they say do not make much impact on citizens’ lives through the tax paid to government.

Isatu Bankole stated that she and other colleagues have been in the fish business for close to three decades, but was disappointed that facilities remain the same, making the business an uphill task.

She commended government for its intervention through the Rural Private Sector Development Programme (RPSDP) for providing a market place as well as two fish processing centres to reduce some of the many challenges they are faced with for preservation and storage at an optimal temperature.
The Chairlady furthered that Pepper Wharf at Tombo community receives hundreds of boats almost on a daily basis from around the country, including Guinea, Liberia and other West African states that use the wharf to land their catch for sale to the women.

According to her the number of boats is high and despite RPSDP’s intervention there is need to expand and increase in order to make room for growth in the business.

Madam Bankole together with the community head, Mohamed Mansaray revealed that when boats land at night the two fish centres with no electricity and proper storage they are overwhelmed with the challenge to smoke the huge amount of catch brought in, and also after smoking over dozens of various species of fish, the problem of a cold room to do proper storage remains a dream, and as a result efforts made to smoke large amount of fish becomes a huge loss to traders due to lack of proper storage.

The women appealed to government through the RPSDP to seek for more support from its partners to further invest and expand on fishing in Tombo community to match International standards, meaning increased revenue in foreign exchange for government and benefit to the nation from its natural resources.

Meanwhile, traders mostly women in non-food items also expressed concern and appealed that the present market space be extended in order that they will also be accommodated and not left out in the open as it is presently.

Margaret Kamara, a trader in second hand clothing stated that during week days when the crowd is huge to do fish business, traders in non-food items hardly have space to sell and this, she noted, affects their livelihood, forcing them to hawk their wares in prohibited parts of the community, causing them financial loss when they do get in conflict with the law.

By Ade Campbell