Both Principal, Headteacher and pupils gracing the donation excitement mood
By: Amara Kargbo
The SAMA Foundation, a charitable organization that offers support to the needy, especially in soccer has on the 31st January 2022 donated football jerseys, football and sockets to the Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood (SLMB) Junior Secondary and Primary Schools at Congo-Water, Wellington, Freetown.
Sahid Turay, Principal of above the school upon receiving the donation expressed admiration and appreciation for such timely donation in the school.
He explained that the school has been facing constraints in terms of soccer, including lack of Jerseys, football, and others but with such donation; it will ameliorate and motivate the kids to play soccer. The principal continued that soccer has been yielding numerous dividend benefits to young Sierra Leoneans playing football in the country. “The school children are yearning to play football, the foundation should not stop to give it unflinching supports in the future donation,” Principal requested.
The principal gave a background that one of the Executive Members of the SAMA Foundation was once a pupil of the above-mentioned school, and giving back to society what society has given to him was a good gesture.
Shaid Turay also appealed to the organization to come to their aid in improving the infrastructure aspect because they have been seeking assistance from numerous organizations to assist them, currently, the school has over 500 pupils in attendance but the infrastructure is a major setback, and the school needs a storey building to accommodate the majority of the children in the community.
Former School Pupil, Kadiatu Hayes who lives in America, decided to ensure that her father’s vision to help the needy through the SAMA Foundation should continue to thrive in the limelight to assist the school with two sets of jerseys, football and socket for both the primary and secondary schools, Country Director of SAMA Foundation, Sheku Saccoh Turay, said.
A female pupil, Fatmata Sesay, Assistant Head Girl of SLMB school thanked the KLEIN Foundation for donating their such precious soccer kits and also asked for other support for the school.
Osmond Hanciles: Fellow Sierra Leoneans, if this interesting diagnosis of the plight of the common man and woman by my thoroughly intelligent and soundly educated class mate and friend at the Albert Academy( 1972/73- 1973/74) who was also Deputy Head Boy while I was Senior Prefect( 1973/74), Dr. Dennis Bright whom we fondly and respectfully called, ‘ Dennis Bright is always bright’ , is not seen and accepted as a glaring manifestation of the problems the Political Class have been causing our unfortunate and ill-treated and misused and abused people for the longest time, I wonder what else can do it.
The fact is, since my friend has himself been involved in the governing of the State as a Hon Minister of Youths and Sports in the SLPP Government (2002-2007), would he want to be so bold to distance himself from the problems he is articulating so well and so clearly when incontestable official data show that even as recent as 1989 to date poverty has been as high as over 90% plus in the country⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️.
This begs the question:
IS IT ONLY NOW THAT THE POLITICAL OPPOSITION, THE NGC IN THIS INSTANCE, REALISING ‘ HOW BAD THINGS ARE FOR THE COMMON MAN OR WOMAN’?.
Hmmm, common man or woman, you are the POLITICAL LANDLORDS whose support and votes all of these political gimmicks are directed at. The question for you now therefore is: FOR HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO BE TAKEN ON THESE POLITICAL JOYRIDES, ALLOWING THE PIED PIPERS TO DANCE YOU TO DAMNATION, SQUALOR AND DEPRIVATION????
In my usual crisp and punchy style, let me end with the final sentence of this intriguing, to put it very mildly, write up by my well educated bi-lingual Academic, Development Practioner, Politician friend and class mate:
“Sadly, some people are more interested in flying up in the air….than rescuing the poor people of this country that are gradually sinking into disgraceful poverty and marrasmus”. Hmmmm, my dear learned Doctor would want the common man and woman to believe him and the entire POLITICAL OPPOSITION that it is only in the last few years that “…POOR PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY…ARE GRADUALLY SINKING INTO DISGRACEFUL POVERTY AND MARRASMUS”. People of Sierra Leone, even the choice of word, ‘..gradually..’ is not anywhere near the reality of the grave situation because the plunge started long ago and to give the impression that its happening only, ‘…gradually …’ in the recent past is most insincere in the manner of the Political Class for the longest time.
For me not to fall into the intellectual trap of being very adept at diagnosing the problems of the common man and woman without offering ‘Talk n Do’ solutions as well as to show the way forward to the efforts outlined here as follows: ” Although Sierra Leoneans complain everywhere that living conditions are worsening every day, it is not easy for them to measure to what extent their condition id deteriorating”, let me once again throw the challenge to the NGC and the Political Opposition that constitute the Government of Sierra Leone having Members of Parliament in one of the three arms of Government that since 2014 a game changer that will genuinely and sincerely all address all of the heart wrenching woes stated herein, has been prepared called SONIGA and provided they are truly concerned about the welfare of the people and country, they should have established contacts with the SONIGA Technical Team to find out how SONIGA will be transformative but oyah, dem day wait fors tay dem cam na power way even dat norto proof for say dem go IMPLEMENT the innovative POVERTY ALLEVIATION Plan which even the almighty World Bank and UN Agencies have adopted as the way to go, Nothing more, Nothing Less known as SHARED PROSPERITY. How can the lives and living conditions of the common man and woman including the damned country be ever better when the PEOPLE are still not PARTICIPANTS AND BENEFICIARIES of growing their very own economy and those who claim to have been doing so for the longest time have nothing to show in the lives of 98% poverty rate and a near empty National Treasury that is forever chasing every grants and loans and glorying in EVERY Forex received.
Diaspora campaigners worry over Citizens protection in Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Diaspora Unity Campaign (SLDUC) worries over several events or activities the government of Sierra Leone embarks on over the previous years.
SLDUC constitutes a Global Union of Concerned Sierra Leoneans and Friends of Sierra Leone both at home and around the world. SLDUC is worried over several events and decisions taken by the government of Sierra Leone on issues of serious concern ranging from National Security, police brutality, polarized justice system, suppression of freedom of expression, the absence of peace and national cohesion.
SLDUC observes escalating tension since after the elections of 2018 that ushered in the current Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) led administration of President Julius Maada Bio. The highlighted issues above continue to affect the peaceful management of national cohesion and security of our fellow citizens in the country. As a result, they have drawn the attention of friends of Sierra Leone, development partners as well as diplomatic community in order to be aware of the unbearable happenings thereby requesting your support in treating this matter with all seriousness it deserves.
They further noted that as the nation recently witnessed the event of a government Whitepaper based on recommendations of a Presidential handpicked committee which vows to push these recommendations without consultation with other political parties and stakeholders in the country adding that this is inconsistent with our political culture and the political history of our country more especially the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Sierra Leone.
They expressed grave concern that if the current administration is suggesting that the crucial parliamentary and presidential elections which will be held in 2023 would be conducted based on a 50+1 vote that tends to possibly favour the current President and his party, then it will be unacceptable and would therefore serve as a recipe for serious chaos before, during and after such process.
Therefore, SLDUC calls on the moral guarantors such as the European Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Kingdom, the United States as well as the United Nations to intervene or else, such thought would be met with the toughest resistance by the citizens of Sierra Leone.
Furthermore, SLDUC believes that the proportional representation system suggested by this administration is inconsistent with our legal framework, political tradition, and history of our body politic.
SLDUC express hope that Proportional Representative System functions well when there are electorates that have a unitary social thinking which manifest a socio-tropic, rather than egoistic voting mentality thereby noting that in a system where voters vote for reasons of national and structural transformation, such will ensure the entrance legitimacy of the candidate or political party and not necessarily based on what individual voters stand to gain.
For a society like Sierra Leone where voting is more of partisan and ethnic belief, such a system can become a recipe for national confusion, incoherence and disaster at every level of the electoral process. These overlaps of authority from several candidates asserting their legislative power and legitimacy, limits participation as well as strengthen & centralize power to political parties and not individual voters.
Therefore, our organization believes that the present mentality of political party polarization will give more powers to political parties thereby promoting conflict.
Given the above, SLDUC is calling on all citizens of Sierra Leone, including Members of Parliament to wholeheartedly reject the January 2022 recommendations by the “Government Whitepaper” and instead insist on full adherence of recommendations in the Justice Cowan led Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) document tabled in parliament for discussion.
Executive members include Alfred Sesay, Theophilus Morrison, Raffick B. Koroma, Mohamed B. Jamboria, Mohamed A Warisay, Aiah A. Tab Barbah, Gombie Musa-Tonyayia, Ibrahim S. Koroma, Patrick Foyoh.
In conclusion, SLDUC is calling on our development partners to closely monitor and take steps in ensuring the peace processes they spent so much time and resources to rebuild is sustained.
Bio Graces Police
Thanksgiving Service
The President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio, joined the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) in celebrating their first annual thanksgiving service at the St. Paul II Quasi-Parish, Regent Road Grafton.
In his statement, the Inspector General of SLP, Dr Ambrose Sovula, said since the establishment of the force in 1808, that was the first time they were having a thanksgiving service as an institution and that they intended on doing so annually.
He referred to the day as historic adding that they were blessed to have had the President of the nation join them in their maiden thanksgiving service.
Minister of Internal Affairs, David Maurice Panda-Noah, in a short statement said the presence of the President was a show of support for the SLP and his commitment to supporting human capital development adding that the President was the first to appoint a female as Deputy Inspector General of Police and the first to increase their budget by 75%.
In his sermon, the clergy Reverend Father Ambrose Michael said they were gathered as people of God to give thanks to God for the many blessings adding that they should count themselves lucky to be alive as there were many others who could not see that day because they had been called by God.
He further stated that as Christians, by their baptism, they were made prophets and sent by God to do His work and to admonish all especially the SLP in order to act like the prophets God had sent to be. He ended by encouraging the congregation to pray at all times.
Addressing the congregation, His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio, said he was honoured to be at the thanksgiving service.
He said they should be grateful to God as His grace had kept them to see that day adding that many did not see and some saw it but with many woes.
He applauded the Inspector General of Sierra Leone Police for the initiative of bringing the SLP together for a show of gratitude to God.
He went on to state that a nation cannot function effectively without the police because their service was needed to instill law and order and that the safety of lives and property were in the hands of the police.
He said notwithstanding the challenges they faced, he would encourage them to continue doing their work diligently.
