Welcoming Your Excellency from the UN summit

I must start off by commending you Mr. President for your recent speech at the UN Summit regarding developments at home. I need not overemphasized that you have made some progress in your tenure as President and you still stand to do more. Your speech was one of great hopes for not just Sierra Leone but the rest of Africa.  It indicates that there is a brighter future for us as a people, especially for us the younger folks. (Photo: Pa John Baimba Sesay)

We have been working assiduously as a nation to ensure we reach the apex of national development. In this direction, you have been also working literally with little sleep to ensure we get what we want from the viewpoint of development. I cannot deny the fact that you are a great leader, just like some of our past leaders, and this is what we expect of you. Once again, I want to welcome you home after a week long stay in the US.

At the same time, may I give my opinion on your decision to appoint IB Kargbo as the spokesperson for your government., I generally want to believe that Kothor IB Kargbo has demonstrated that he can market the image of a country well; he has demonstrated that he is a hardworking Minister. I came to realize this when you were in the States and he was interviewed by the BBC on recent report given by Amnesty International on our health situation. I was a difficult task from the perspective of spinning but IB did his utmost to ensure people are informed and in putting up a defense for your government. I most humbly submit that IB has lived up to expectations.

Your stance on issues

However Your Excellency Sir, I have a complaint against one of my fellow citizens of this country. He is a man that has done his best in moving the country forward; he has contributed in his own way in taking Sierra Leone to its current status. That notwithstanding, I am not impressed with him in recent times for reasons I shall state later. And this man is Phillip Lakulay, who is the Director for the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration.

Your Excellency Sir, I know you personally and prior to your election as President I had at least four interviews with you. I traveled with you on few occasions when you were moving the length and breathe of the country in canvassing the people. I know what you were telling people, especially regarding your stance on corruption, on the need not to politicize every little aspect of our country’s development process and on your plans for even the country’s development. You were/are a resolute person when it comes to looking at issues from a nationalistic perspective, and I quite recall, us together with you, visiting Bo Kakua and the PC not wanting to allow you use a particular venue to address your supporters in Bo.

Despite those difficulties, you went ahead successfully to get your campaign process on, and you even lashed at the SLPP in their stronghold Bo during that event, much to the pleasure of all those who were present. Abdul Karim Koroma, now Press Attaché in the AU can attest to this, together with Umar S. Jah now in Germany, all two of them being journalists.  You have always been a man of your words and I appreciate that.  But it would appear Your Excellency that whilst you are trying to bring people together irrespective of their political beliefs, some people are bent on dividing us further, and Phillip Lakulay is one of them and I man now complaining.

On Phillip Lukulay

Your Excellency you could recall prior to your trip to the UN that there was a sea disaster in the country that left over 70 people dead, including women and children. And as people were mourning their dead, this gentleman, Phillip Lukulay went on to politicize the death of those people, casting blame on the SLPP that they failed to put preventive measures in place when they were in power, thus leading to the recent disaster, and I am practically not impressed with that, Your Excellency.

There are questions which Mr. Lukulay should help with answers to; It is no secret that he is (but only want to change now)  real SLPP, and so he wants to use the political card to secure his job; that since Your Excellency came to power, what advice has Mr. Lukulay given to your administration that would have prevented the disaster; or that if he had presented a document to Prince Harding when he was Minister of Transport under SLPP but was never acted upon, why did he not present it to your administration or why did he not resign at the time, thus  giving credit to him that he is a patriotic citizen, but only wants to use the APC party card now to divert the attention of people. Your Excellency Sir, if Lukulay is to go free because he is now posturing to be more APC than Victor Foh, or Mr. Edward Turay or your humble self sir, then this will be the same way he is going to say bad things about your party (APC) when you shall have left office. 

In fact, Your Excellency, I have investigated and I learnt that Mr. Lukulay was only given the job to help him, since he is has a Bachelor of Arts (General) Degree in History and heading a Maritime Administrations calls for the requisite qualification. Yes, he may have achieved a lot whilst in office, but that is not the way he should ensure his longevity in office.  If he is today ‘bastardizing’ the SLPP which  as a matter of fact is the real party he belongs to , what can’t he do to even undermine the chances of Your Excellency when he ;later would realize that the going is getting tough for him. So act Sir. 

On Mohamed Koroma, Deputy Health Minister

Your Excellency Sir, when you were able to announce your cabinet some 24 months ago, some of us thought you were completely going to get ‘bookman dem’ into the running of the state. The reason being, we have seen how those ‘bookman dem’ failed us especially during the Momoh era. And so we were afraid of not reverting to that scenario.

Your cabinet is a mixture of both intellectuals and ‘down- to -earth’ politicians and I think in politics, the ‘down-to-earth’ politician is of greater essence. Now Mohamed Koroma, deputy Health Minister is, in my opinion a ‘down-to-earth’ politician. And he has been making successes stories. He has continued to expose the ills that were happening at the Health Ministry. In the event you want to know some of the good things, then let me list just few; when he was assigned to the Ministry, he discovered that over 100 million Leones had been chopped at the Cottage Hospital Dispensary. That amount was money that came out of the sale of cost recovery drugs. It was a good move by the deputy Minister. However, since the ACC intervened to investigate the issue, nothing has been said of it over seven months now.

Also, he has made the public to know that there are several fake doctors in the country, when he embarked upon the closure of fake clinics and hospitals. And so this is the type of politician needed; a result oriented people; that is very proactive in nature. Mohamed Koroma may not be a PHD holder but he is making inroads in his ministry, and mark you, as a Deputy Minister!!!!! So I wonder when he shall be elevated to the position of full Minister.

Now Your Excellency I know you will one day reshuffle your cabinet of Ministers but I am concern about one thing. And that has to do with removing people from one ministry to another when they have not settled down in one particular ministry. Take for instance; Mohamed Koroma; he has worked at the Information Ministry where he also performed exemplary well, and was later move to Health. Now you will realize that moving him from Health to another Ministry may disturb his chances of making the greatest stride, because one should be allowed to fully understand and settle in one ministry and see the workings of that Ministry. As you consider doing a reshuffle, if at all that is in the near future, take this issue into consideration.

Your Excellency Sir, on Soccoh Kabia 

Your Excellency Sir, the other issue I want to look at is the decision to appoint Soccoh Kabia as Minister of Social Welfare, when you removed him from the Health Ministry. In my opinion, Soccoh did his utmost in transforming the Health Ministry to its current status, and so I saw in him the potentials to also bring those changes in the Social Welfare Ministry.  I need not mention some of the good things which occurred at the Health Ministry under the leadership of Soccoh but I humbly submit that the records are all there to see.

Generally, it was also under his tenure at the Health Ministry that the country experienced a reduction in maternal mortality rate, which reduced from 1,300 in 2005 to 857 in 2008, accounting for a 34% decline, also under five mortality dropped from 265 in 2005 to 140 in 2008, accounting for a 47% decline, infant mortality dropped from 158 in 2005 to 89 in 2008, accounting for a 43% decline. But it would appear, despite the strides of Soccoh to bring the Social Welfare Ministry to its rightful position, there has not been the complete support especially in terms of human resource and the rest.

I once had talks with him to explain what his plans were/are for the Welfare Ministry. He spoke of wanting to get five new directorates including one for Social Welfare, one for Children’s; another for Gender, and the remaining two for Human Resource ands Finance. These structures from my recent investigations are now there and this is a big success, for at least the Ministry

Soccoh and team would want to develop a strategic plan, would want to create a community welfare wellness initiative, thus, supporting the decentralization process.  The minister particularly wants to get people involved in getting solutions to key problems facing the ministry. He accepts that the ministry was in a state of neglect and this has been the case for years, but was certain ‘with the support of the president and the government, and team at the ministry, we are sure of making changes’. So Your Excellency Sir, the support should be given to the Social Welfare Minister for Soccoh to make more impact.

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!

© 2009, https:. All rights reserved.