President Ernest Bai Koroma yesterday met with representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) and media activists at State House as part of his \u201cnew approach\u201d to governance \u2013 wider engagement for collective action. \u00a0The President said he has been listening to the \u201cpositive noises\u201d in the country, and thought it was time to meet and discuss as people committed to achieving a common goal. \u00a0He described CSOs and the media as partners in development, saying, \u201cWithout you, we cannot continue to function\u201d. He urged everyone to \u201cput the past behind us\u201d and focus on the critical issues that continue to derail our development aspirations, insisting, \u201cIt is no more about me (as my name will not be the ballot paper in 2018), it is no more about APC, but it is about laying the foundation of a country that we will all be proud of\u201d.<\/p>\n
He did recognize the progress that has been made since the end of the conflict, and in particular, by his administration, but was quick to admit that serious challenges persist. These challenges, he said, include lawlessness, corruption, lack of effective monitoring of government programmes, among others.<\/p>\n
Addressing many of these challenges, he emphasized, would require effective collaboration between CSOs, media practitioners, and law enforcement agencies<\/p>\n
On the issue of lawlessness and the infamous \u201corder from above\u201d excuse used by public officials or private interests, the President said, \u201cany order from above that is inconsistent with the law should be challenged\u201d. The President said it was important to bring everyone onboard, declaring, \u201cNobody is an enemy, nobody is under attack, and no one will be excluded\u201d. He said in spite of the tremendous challenges, it is important that Sierra Leoneans begin to disseminate the positive things that are happening in the country.<\/p>\n
During the Q&A session, the participants urged the President to do a lot more about addressing lawlessness, impunity, politicization of state policies and institutions, strengthening the justice and security sectors, among others.<\/p>\n
Messrs Charles Mambu, Soko, Koroma and Mrs. Marcela Samba-Sesay spoke on a number of critical issues. \u00a0Emmanuel Abdulai ESQ of SDI urged the President to do something about the ongoing harassment of journalists, the apparent implementation gap in the Local Government Act, and the need to pass a civil libel law.<\/p>\n
CARL\u2019s Executive Director Ibrahim Tommy welcomed the President\u2019s idea of promoting regular engagement with various stakeholders, stating that it would help promote trust between non-state actors and the state. On the issue of the recent constitutional amendment, Mr. Tommy told the President that he would have expected such a session between the President and civil society before giving his assent. \u00a0He said such engagements would help deepen trust between CSOs and the state.<\/p>\n
In his response, the President said could have probably done nothing about it, as even without his signature, Parliament would have still passed the bill into law. He did urge CSOs to be more proactive on some of the issues, saying, it is better to address some issues at the embryonic stage.<\/p>\n
The President concluded by urging everyone to \u201cPut Salone above all political, ethnic and personal issues\u201d. \u00a0He promised to continue engaging because as he put it, \u201cWhen we fail we fail as a nation\u201d.<\/p>\n
For the record, no transportation reimbursement was provided.<\/p>\n
My comment:<\/p>\n
On the whole, it was a good meeting. \u00a0The President sounded very frank and appeared determined to address the challenges still facing the country. \u00a0I genuinely hope that he will back up his stated commitment to combating lawlessness, addressing impunity, and strengthening state institutions, particularly the judiciary, with action. \u00a0Until he can translate his words into action, the jury will be out on him. I am certainly the first juror in that respect.<\/em><\/p>\n Ibrahim Tommy, CARL-SL<\/i><\/p>\n Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n President Ernest Bai Koroma yesterday met with representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) and media activists at State House as part of his \u201cnew approach\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":64598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,673,692],"tags":[6873,17845,1055],"class_list":["post-64597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national-news","category-politics","tag-civil-society","tag-ibrahim-tomy","tag-president-ernest-bai-koroma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64597","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=64597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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