Maada Bio to hold town hall meeting in UK
The Former Head of State and 2012 Presidential Candidate of the SLPP, Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio will be engaging Sierra Leoneans in the United Kingdom in a town hall meeting scheduled for Saturday 27th June 2015 at the Pentagon Hall, Global Venue, Harper Road, Southwark, SE1 6AG.
This Town Hall meeting is expected to focus on a critical insight into the journey of Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio so far in his own words – where we have come from,where we are and where we are going.
According to the Chairman of the Julius Maada Bio Support Group United Kingdom, Mr. Tamba Lamina who hails from Kono “In the past, we have all witnessed many SLPP Flagbearer aspirants holding Town Hall meetings in the United Kingdom telling people about their intentions to run for the flagbearership of the party. This meeting is not a declaration for SLPP flagbearership by Julius because this is not the time.But as a man who has held the highest office in our country and whom majority of Sierra Leoneans now regard as the potential next President it is important that from time-to-time he engages Sierra Leoneans in the UK on national issues and most importantly what is his vision for Sierra Leone. We expect that such a town hall meeting will also create the opportunity for many Sierra Leoneans to ask questions of national importance or about any issue relating to Julius they may need clarification or more information.”
The Secretary General of the Julius Maada Bio Support Group, United Kingdom, Dr. Abu Karim, adding his voice said “As a national politician and senior statesman the vision of Julius Maada Bio has always been ‘A united, peaceful, progressive and happy nation where the people have access to jobs, food, education and health services, and where there is justice and equal opportunity for all’. We believe every Sierra Leonean will want to associate with such a powerful vision for our country from a politician who has had the benefit of hindsight as a former Head of State. The meeting will create a platform to engage Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora on his vision and how everyone can be part of such a vision. Therefore i encourage every Sierra Leonean in the UK to attend.”
It is also important to note that since the meeting will be held during the Holy Month of Ramadan adequate provisions have been made for Muslims to break their fast. The time for the meeting has been scheduled for 7pm – 11pm.
In a separate development over the weekend, the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio in an interview on Saturday 13th 2015 on Monologue has called for a credible Flagbearer election in SLPP which will help to unite the party. Responding to a question on when will the SLPP infighting end, Maada Bio opined that such infighting will end when the party holds a credible flagbearership election in which every contestant who is a genuine SLPP member will respect the outcome of the election process.
During the interview, Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio also expressed his optimism that the infighting will come to an end as it is a characteristic of many opposition parties in Africa wherein there is struggle for power. He admonished all SLPP members to respect the internal democratic process and called on the national executive to ensure that the process to elect a Flagbearer is credible and democratic.
The call from Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio is also very similar to what happened in the APC in the run up to the 2007 elections where the APC party was marred with a major infighting between the Ernest Koroma Faction and the Eddie Turay and Co Faction. But the then national executive of the APC conducted a flagbearership election after which the infighting in APC was finally resolved in April 2007. Many political commentators believe that a credible flagbearership election which gives every legally registered SLPP member the opportunity to contest and the outcome of which is respected will help resolve the infighting because even with the many peace processes the fact that people have their political ambitions to lead the party their supporters will always attack one another.
The Monologue interview of Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio also largely focused on his recent presentation at the International Conference on Mediation at the University of Pretoria on the Role of Local Mediators in the Sierra Leone Civil War Peace Settlement.
By: Julius Maada Bio Media and Communications Team
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