Repressive Media on National Development: A Case for African Minerals
Time and again, the media in Sierra Leone has been used albeit ironically as a repressive and despotic tool against the development of the country either in the pursuit of individualistic gains or for the suppression of certain ventures that may not fall in favor of certain members of society or interest groups as the case may be. This terrible aspect of the practice of journalism in the country cannot be aided as the least contributing factors to many failed development ventures, campaigns and undertakings that could have otherwise served the country in every sense of growth and national development.
Whilst those media that are engaged in such retrogressive ventures would sometimes have their way; the true story is that the nation always ends up taking the ugly toll in the midst of the somewhat perennial and unbreakable spell of hardship we have always found ourselves in for similar factors.
One such issue that was rocking my media and development trained conscience was the attack on African Minerals Ltd, (the multi-billion dollar iron ore and magnetite mining company that has been recently unveiled as the biggest such ventures in the whole of Africa and the third largest in the world) for reasons that are not too clear to me but at the same time possess the potential to wreck untold damages on not just the development of the state, but the survival, well-being and sustenance of hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leoneans who are presently counting on this one of its kind investment for their every livelihood.
Throughout the whole of last week when African Minerals was under this media assault, the journalism in me and the fact that I know better than what was been portrayed in the vilifying media sermons; the urge in me burnt like hell to make contrary representation on the issues raised as per the facts of the matter, but laid in wait to see what the company’s response would be on the matter but since that is not forth coming I am of the opinion that the facts must be set straight in the interest of the nation.
Those who did what they did on the company’s name were daring enough to first of all attack President Ernest Koroma’s projection made in a BBC interview after the launch of the project in Ferengbeya a couple of weeks back that the country will at least be expecting a billion dollar from revenues, royalties and other peripheral benefits from the operations of the company per fiscal year.
Whilst it wasn’t clear as to whether there was doubt that such money could come from the mining and exportation of hundreds and hundreds of millions of tons of iron ore; it was apparent that the attack centered on the fact that the president’s announcement of money of such monumental quantum has the potential to discourage donor interest in the support of the country; further claiming that the president is being misled by the company which (the Company) according the insinuations is only doing all this to boost its holdings in the international stock market.
Now the question is; what actually was wrong with the fact that President Koroma having considered everything to have projected that the country will be earning $1 billion dollars per year from the African Minerals Project? What has that got to do with donor fatigue or any such thing as donor disinterest? If for any reason such attacks were by any measure well-meant, it could have been established that the President was not being in anyway misled but was only doing justice to his now very popular Agenda For Change; his idea of transforming the country from donor dependency to a self-sustained economy which what he has always meant by running the country as a business.
Two weeks ago at the launch of the African Minerals Investment package at Ferengbeya; the President who himself is a renowned businessman and an economist did not stop at anything to register his conviction: “I have studied the African Minerals proposals and noted that it is very good in every sense of it, good for my people and my country, I am satisfied with it; I give it the go aheadâ€. It is only when this fact is circumvented and to also question the credentials of the President and his conviction as to the good in the African Minerals project that one could by any means claim that the President and the people of this country are being misled. Â
If by any means the media’s interest is to preserve donor interest in our country as against those of independent companies and investments that will buy us our independence from donor spell, then we should be asking how much impact donor money with all its pomp and pageantry has made on the development of the country. Could any of the thousands of donor interventions since the end of the war employ a gross of 20,000 (twenty thousand Sierra Leoneans); where was the negative media when after the war the vast many of our youths roamed the face of the country unemployed and vulnerable to any abuse and temptations. Has the over 150 million dollars spent of the exploration by the company done to boost the company’s holding in the stock market? Certainly any fear reasoning would take one far above such myopic thinking.
The other question that begs for answer; show of sincerity and patriotism is that why must all this attack be only coming now that the economy of the country is getting a three billion United States Dollar strong revamp, over 20,000 youths will gain employment in due course, the state (government) will collect its tax, roads, railway and ports to be created and the ordinary man will live to enjoy the best corporate social gesture-all courtesy of the largest Iron Ore and Magnetite Mining company in the Africa which has already begun showing it in very strong and distinct terms.
The other area where a show of rationale was lacking in the series of attacks heaped on the company is the fact that Frank Timis, the Chief Executive Officer of African Minerals Ltd. who many have expressed that he has shown extraordinary interest in the country’s welfare and development is being childishly attacked for his childhood involvement with drugs incurring the questions as to what has the man’s childhood drug life got to do with his now record investment in Sierra Leone if not pettiness and the incurable gin in the typical Sierra Leonean of the popular Pull Him Down-PHD syndrome. Â
Besides, could those who took up such issue wanted to tell us and the whole world that Frank is a convicted drug lord? That is entirely where the whole point is missed; for there is no way a convicted drug lord that rich could be left to roam about the surface of the earth. It is good that such issues are investigated properly by us media practitioners and even weigh them in the balance for national and public good before venturing into them.
Note: Look for a supplement on this issue and its implications to national good in subsequent editions of this tabloid.
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