Let Us Support President Koroma,” Saudi student appeals
I would first of all like to register my profound gratitude and thanks to the entire staff of the Sierra Leone Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia under the leadership of His Excellency, Wusu B. Munu for the excellent job they are doing for Sierra Leoneans living in this Kingdom, especially students, by seeking the interest of our welfare and providing us with educative an informative updates pertaining to our beloved Sierra Leone. (photo: Abdul Rahman Sesay, author)
I have travelled extensively before enrolling at the Islamic University of Madinah as a student; it is very hard to see African embassies seeking the welfare of their nationals, particularly students. But in the case of our embassy here, I must admit that the embassy is very much concerned about our welfare.
Couple of months ago before we went on vacation, the Minister Counsellor/ Head of Chancery and the Information Attaché, Messer’s Yilla and Jalloh respectively left their busy schedules to witness the graduation ceremony of one of our senior colleagues, Dr. Ahmed Ramadan Jalloh. They spent over 48 hours dining and drinking with us. This is a clear manifestation that the embassy is here to seek the interest of its nationals. We were very proud to receive them in the midst of some of our colleagues from different parts of the West African sub-region, who confessed that, that has never happened to them since they came here.
The good thing about their visit, they also informed us on behalf of the Ambassador about President Koroma’s “Agenda for Change.” They did not stop there; they went on to explain most of the developments going on in the country – Agriculture, Infrastructure, Tourism, Mining and Health. Before their visit, we were poorly informed about most of these developments.
They also advocated to the University authorities to consider increasing the number of scholarships for Sierra Leonean students intending to further their studies here. I think these are all indications that the embassy is here for a complete change.
Mr. Editor, the embassy’s supervision of the recently conducted election of the Sierra Leone Nationals Union (SLNU) which saw Mr. Uthman M. Kargbo as the new President is also an indication that the embassy is here to unite its nationals.
Sir, before I conclude, let me also express on behalf of the leadership and entire membership of our Students’ Union in Madinah, special appreciation to the embassy for its frantic and tireless efforts in disseminating latest updates to us via email about the socio-economic and political events back home and activities of our government functionaries in most parts of the Diaspora, including the recent programmes of His Excellency, the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma at the U.N General Assembly meeting in New York and the well attended Open Government Initiative (OGI) meeting. All the updates sent to the embassy by Kabbs Kanu, the Minister Plenipotentiary at our UN Mission in New York were forwarded to us by the Press Attaché as they unfolded.
Mr. Editor, let me make it very clear that I wrote this article as a concerned Sierra Leonean and not a supporter of a particular political party. And I must confess that most of us Sierra Leoneans in the University, irrespective of our political allegiance, do appreciate the government and its representatives here in Saudi Arabia. Fellow Sierra Leoneans, please, let us be united and God-fearing so that Allah would always be on our side. Let us give unflinching support to our determined President, our embassy and whosoever is determined to work in the interest of our beloved country.
Long live His Excellency President Ernest Bai Koroma ! Long Live the Embassy!
Abdul Rahman M. Sesay, Second Year Student, Islamic University of Madinah
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2010, https:. All rights reserved.
Angthorf
/
The article is in place. I thank our young brother for his outspokenness on the interest shown by the Sierra Leone Ambassador and his members of staff, for students seeking knowledge in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is a move welcomed by all.
The only point I would like to add to the brother’s statement is that the hundreds of Sierra Leonean students studying in the Arab World have never been supervised by our Ministry of Education. The point is, in all our Embassies, we don’t see any Education Attaché offices in either Riyadh or Tripoli, to name only few. Why is this?
I wish to inform that there are highly qualified Sierra Leoneans with Masters or PHD degrees from the Arab World, who are capable, to supervise and monitor the type of education our students seek in this part of the world. This could be done in our Embassies, with the full authority to surveillance the intake of students annually into the various universities in the Arab World.
Being a graduate from the Arab world universities, I hereby call on our current leadership and government to pay attention to this important matter of our national development. Countries, such as Guinea -Conakry, Senegal, The Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali etc have Education Attaches Offices in their Embassies, whch in turn, report accurately on the number of students and kind of education acquired by their national in the Middle East.
To the concern authority, we need a change on the way we look at students studying in the Arab World as “MARABOO SCHOLARS”, who are only good only at being IMMAS in Mosques and marry plenty of wives. Lets have a way to tap their talented resources for the benefit of our Sierra Leone.
3rd October 2010