{"id":51918,"date":"2013-01-17T01:52:26","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T01:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=51918"},"modified":"2013-01-17T01:52:26","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T01:52:26","slug":"under-the-agi-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=51918","title":{"rendered":"Under the AGI shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Vox populi in pace!\u00a0 Our General Elections held on 17th<\/sup> November 2012 were, once again, to the credit of our people in Sierra Leone.\u00a0 President Koroma was re-elected to serve as President until 2017, and promptly adopted a new \u201cAgenda for Prosperity\u201d slogan, which is yet to be clearly defined.\u00a0 (Photo: Sqn Ldr Winston L T Forde\u00a0 RAF Ret’d, author)<\/em><\/p>\n

After a prolonged period of silence extending over Christmas and the New Year that tested the principle of continued governance to its limits, an official Press Release issued on Friday 4th<\/sup> January 2013 announced the appointment of 16 Mministers, 2 Ministers of state, 21 Deputy Ministers,\u00a0 3 Resident Ministers and 2 officers in the President’s Office viz\u00a0 Secretary to the President and his Chief of Staff.\u00a0 Noteworthy amongst ministers still to be appointed was a Minister of Tourism whom we now know to be Mrs V Saidu-Kamara.\u00a0 A formidable Team to run a small country.<\/p>\n

Following from my earlier comments in my article in October 2012 about our \u201cElsewhere Society\u201d\u00a0 l note with not much surprise that our new Ministers have not been rushing to tell us, and the World about their plans and aspirations, neither is there a post on the State House website under ‘National Agenda.’\u00a0 That section is still blank despite the pronouncements about an Agenda for Prosperity.<\/p>\n

However, the website proudly displays details about the visit on Tuesday 15th<\/sup> January 2013 of Mr Tony Blair, Head of the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), a private NGO.\u00a0 This must be seen as being of less impact than if other Leaders, say the current British Prime Minister were rushing to associate with our newly elected President.\u00a0 In true form Tony Blair wasted no time in publishing his visit in the AGI website, did not speak to local newspapers or journalists, but with the BBC World Service, typically omitting any substantive detail.\u00a0 Of significance, though, he stated that \u201cSierra Leone has natural resources, it’s culture, and great potential in the area of tourism, and the development of the private sector.\u201d\u00a0 During the visit he had discussed details of Sierra Leone’s ambitious aim to become a Middle Income Country by 2035 with government officials\u00a0 as well as the need for the country to diversify away from a reliance on natural resources by growing a strong private sector especially in manufacturing.\u00a0 What we need to be growing now is enough rice for consumption and not fuel, and other economic crops , and to ask where our trained if qualified citizens are that would engage in manufacturing.\u00a0 One is tempted to inquire who these government officials to whom he spoke were; does he mean Ministers as well?\u00a0 More importantly where is the stated ambition on our income levels contained?\u00a0 Why do we allow a private unelected individual to govern us?<\/p>\n

It is interesting that the AGI website makes it quite clear that the ‘Africa’ in AGI is only Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan, which is a far cry from the original dream.\u00a0 He explains that a Team of 8 \u2013 10 AGI staff has been on the ground in Sierra Leone since October 2008 providing support in key government institutions including the office of the President, Sierra Leone’s Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA), and the Ministries of Agriculture and Health.\u00a0 He continues to take full credit for the development and introduction of the Healthcare Initiative.\u00a0 One could be forgiven for being confused about the true effectiveness of our Ministers, and indeed our President.\u00a0 Especially as the AGI News report on the recent visit states \u201cMy Government, and I have agreed that the services provided by the AGI have been useful, and will continue with these services, and possibly expand areas of intervention.\u201d\u00a0 Indeed, this looks like ‘intervention’ from outside!\u00a0 We must ask, who pays the AGI staff, and at what salary levels, and what is the true Bill to the country for their services?\u00a0\u00a0 Before the elections I suggested we should be told about their work, and given details of their secret activities in our country.\u00a0 If they play such a pivotal roll, there should be some national debate about their position in Government if a charge of corruption, in the normal way, is to be avoided.<\/p>\n

Finally, the AGI maintain a stony silence on Education and Training, which is arguably our main obstacle to any local prosperity of our people as opposed to the prosperity of those who come from outside to exploit our resources whilst we continue to remain blind to their self seeking true aims.<\/p>\n

If we are saying that without Tony Blair Sierra Leone is doomed, and could not prosper, then the conclusion must be that he’s got us by the proverbial.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sqn Ldr Winston L T Forde\u00a0 RAF Ret’d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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‘Vox populi in pace!\u00a0 Our General Elections held on 17th November 2012 were, once again, to the credit of our people in Sierra Leone.\u00a0 President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":37178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671],"tags":[2833,1022],"class_list":["post-51918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-africa-governance-initiative","tag-tony-blair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}