Ernest Koroma is a dictator!

Civil society in the country has described the recent pronouncement by the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma on the sudden deactivation of SIM-packs as a show of dictatorial tendency, a situation that could have been handled otherwise, Emmanuel Chow Senesie, Editor of the Punch Newspaper said in a reaction to the orders of the President.

Rather than go through the normal channel of making the announcement, President Koroma single handedly ordered that mobile phone SIM packs be de-activated forthwith; a decision that came after a two month extension of the SIM pack registration period by the telecommunications regulatory agency in the country-National Telecommunication Commission (NATCOM).

The public was taken aback last Friday when the announcement from the President himself through his spokesman, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, made its way into the media, asking all mobile phone companies to deactivate unregistered SIM-cards without giving any plausible reason for his action.

SIM pack registration was initiated by NATCOM one month ago, asking mobile phone holders to make compulsory registration of their SIM-packs for what the agency referred to as security reasons.

According to popular views, one month though was inadequate, a situation that has even helped to render the decision of the president as inappropriate.  

“Whatever reason the president has for the deactivation of SIM-packs certainly does not border on national security and as such should not make it an issue of national emergency as was depicted by his intervention, calling for the deactivation of all registered SIM cards,” Chow Senesie said in a live popular TV programme.

Others have registered their concerns over the many unregistered SIM card holders in the provinces, saying “time was not even sufficient for those in Freetown and other cities in the country, let alone farmers and business people in far-flung areas in the provinces”. President Koroma has been bashed for being inconsiderate to the vast majority of people in the SIM-card registration process in the country with opinions that “Koroma can’t possibly tell us he doesn’t know that the time that was allotted for the registration process was insufficient,” Edward Kelly, a member of civil society in the country commented on the issue to Sierra Express Media.

Telecommunication companies in the country have equally expressed concern over losing customers if the president’s orders are carried out to the letter.

A popular view holds it that the president has got another motive other than the one presented to the public by the telecommunications regulatory agency-NATCOM but is yet to make it known to the public. 

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