The real Zainab Bangura?
A woman you either love or hate-Zainab Bangura, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs satisfies her boss, President Ernest Bai Koroma in his Agenda for Change signature and flagship. Like the President always reiterates, when he appoints someone for a position, as long as he/she gets the job done and does not follow the path of corruption and unlawful behavior that will terminate their position, they are good to go and he will stand behind them and let the public serve as watchdogs on negative and corrupt activity. Anyone found guilty of abusing their position of power through dishonesty, corruption, and other lawless activities etc., will be dealt with according to the laws of the land. As we all know President Koroma’s recent actions can testify that he is a man of his word.
From my perspective, I find Zainab Bangura to be one of the most honest people you will come across in Koroma’s administration. She is honest, hardworking, competent, eloquent, a social activist, and she is respected globally for her stance on democracy, and women’s and human rights.  She had been voicing her opposition to corruption long before her appointment as Foreign Minister in Koroma’s administration; this human rights activist has formed many organizations (Campaign for Good Governance [CGG], Movement for Progress, National Accountability Group [NAG], etc. and participated tirelessly in the campaign for the holding of a peaceful national election that finally ousted the NPRC junta from power in 1996 and restored a democratic government.
Zainab continued to express her opinion against corruption in and during the Kabbah government. The “Iron Lady†as she is commonly known, in 2002 ran for the position of president but alleged rigged voting garnered her only 1% of the total national votes.
In 2006 she left Sierra Leone for neighboring Liberia where she was appointed Director of the Civil Affairs Office in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and given the responsibility for the reconstruction of 16 Liberian Ministries and 30 other government agencies following the country’s devastating civil war.
Her belief in democracy, transparency and accountability, has bagged Madam Bangura several international awards for her promotion of democracy and human rights in Africa, to name but a few, the African International Award of Merit for Leadership (Nigeria, 1999); the Human Rights Award given by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (New York, 2000); the Bayard Rustin Humanitarian Award given by the A. Philip Randolph Institute (Washington, DC, 2002); and the Democracy Award given by the National Endowment for Democracy (Washington, DC, 2006).
Zainab Bangura is an inspiration to women, and Sierra Leoneans as a whole at home and in the Diaspora, she always puts her country first. Although I have never spoken or met with this phenomenal icon before, I give her credit for her relentless battle against the disease of corruption in Sierra Leone and Africa as a whole, and her campaign for good governance and human rights activities.
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2010, https:. All rights reserved.
