State House Again
My last visit to State House was not one I care to remember. The then minister of Information and Communication, himself a former journalist, and the erstwhile President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Alhajie Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, had unilaterally and unjustifiably closed down the SLPP Unity Radio station.
The honourable Vice President Alhajie Sam Sumana had invited the leadership of the opposition for a round table discussion in order to find an amicable solution. And so it was that we were there, led by the national chairman John Oponjo Benjamin. The matter as was expected was sorted out and our station was to be operational again.It was while we were on our way out that it happened. Invectives and abuses were thrown at us by what I can only describe as the thugs of the APC party. Not satisfied with that, urine was sprayed on us as we stepped outside the building.
It was a different ball game altogether last Thursday. I had gone at my own request to see my distinguished nephew President Ernest Bai Koroma. The reception was cordial from the entrance gate all the way to my nephew’s ornate office which had the same shape as the on other occasions long ago; the furniture was sensible and not luxurious. I put my case to a very receptive and as usual polite nephew who had pushed protocol aside and stood up to give me a warm handshake. Presidents are extremely busy people (I should k now it as I was close to the highest office of the land for many years). We were not long on the pleasantries and I stated my case to an attentive nephew. Incidentally I have already begun to notice the beginning of action. FOOTNOTE! I had entered the President’s office with a smile and now as I left I had a broad grin on my face that stretched from jaw to jaw. I had indeed visited my nephew. As another footnote “she” was not around and so this story is coming in its original form because “Azonta Kamara” has had nothing to do with it. It was also interesting but not remarkable that neither APC nor SLPP had entered our conversation although I tickled my nephew with wanting to snatch the ‘Puawui’ title from me. I wish my nephew good health and a restful well deserved retirement in 2017 or 18 as the case may be.
I have had a number calls relating to my lamentation on the sad state of the Western Area Peninsular Rain Forests by people who wanted more information on them as well as on others of importance. I have written about the forest and the mountain range on a previous occasions. Readers may recall that it was his first sight of the range of mountains with their thick forest cover and misty lion that inspired Portuguese explorer to give the name Sierra Leone’ which means LION MOUNTAINS to the settlement in 1462. I have not read anywhere that there had ever been lions in these or even in our Gola Forest in the southeast of the country part of which has been named a Peace Park by the Presidents of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Both the governments and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds RSPB through its partner in Sierra Leone the Conservation Society, as well as the Forestry division of the ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security were prominent in the preparatory project.
In recent years numerous attempts have been made to enter the Gola Forest with its unique collection of biodiversity in order to prospect for diamonds and other minerals but the President has frowned on any such attempt and put his put down firmly. A minister is reputed to have lost his portfolio as a result of granting exploratory licenses to people. We must not be lulled by the desire for quick reward to destroy our heritage for the future. Two other reserves which deserve visiting and I strongly recommend them are Tiwai Isaland in the southeast and the Otamba Kilimi National Park OKNP in the Bombali district in northern Sierra Leone.
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