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Council of Legal Education Rubbishes Sierra Leone Chief Justice’s Letter

Yada William Esq.

By Amin Kef Sesay

In a strong worded response to a letter cum notice dated 2nd October 2019  by the Chief Justice of the Sierra Leone Judiciary, Babatunde Edwards, which has gone viral on social media, the Council of Legal Education, Yada Williams Esq. in a letter dated 3rd October 2019 reacted by raised what it termed as salient issues.

On its part, the Council referred to the contents contained in the said letter of 2nd October as subterfuge maintaining that it is plainly unlawful and a flagrant attempt at undermining the authority of the Council of Legal Education. It pointed out that the Council of Legal Education Act 1989 makes Council the governing authority of the Law School.

The letter highlighted that notwithstanding the fact that the Chief Justice is Chairman of Council he is just one member of the Council who is entitled to one vote just like any other member.

Chief Justice Babatunde was further reminded not to subvert the authority of Council by giving directives which run contrary to the decisions of Council. The caution went further: “You are cognisant that Council at its meeting of the 24th September and 30th September unanimously and unequivocally resolved that clauses 14.8 & 14.9 of the published “Regulations for the Conduct of Examinations” be respected i. e. that students who have exhausted three chances shouldn’t be allowed to take the September exams.

Your directives of the 2nd are therefore a very brazen attempt at subverting that decision. It is only Council that can overturn its own previous decisions.”

The Council said what bothers them also is the very wrong impression conveyed in the letter that  a decision of Council on the matter is pending adding that the admonition is that persons in positions of authority must be circumspect in what they do whilst in office.

It states: “Wrongful conduct today that are not held accountable could be looked at differently in the future. As Chairman of Council you ought to be the Chief respecter of its decisions and not the one who singlehandedly seeks to subvert its authority.”

 

Former Sierra Leone Ambassador’s Compound Searched

Madam Mabinty Daramy and former President Koroma

By Brima Sannoh

In its quest to successfully combat graft on the 4th October 2019 the ACC Scorpion Squad raided the premises of Madam Mabinty Daramy, former Ambassador to Guinea under the APC administration, and extracted what are suspected to be Diplomatic vehicles once assigned to the former Ambassador.

The vehicles with Guinean diplomatic license plates were found parked in her compound at Hill Cut Road, Freetown. She is currently out of the country. The house is occupied by a caretaker.

A very reliable source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has confirmed that both license plates are diplomatic registrations assigned to the Sierra Leone Embassy in Guinea; and ought to have been handed over after she was replaced.

However, verification is ongoing by the ACC to ascertain whether they are merely private cars with the wrong license plates, or indeed embassy vehicles as suspected. Whatever belonging to the Embassy of Sierra Leone in Guinea will be returned to the Embassy, the ACC maintained.

 

WAEC Sierra Leone Faces Razor-Sharp Investigation

By Brima Sannoh

As examination malpractice has become the latest topical issue in the country with suggestions coming from different individuals as to how to squarely deal with this cankerworm on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019,  officials of the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) were alerted that certain individuals were re-taking the just-concluded private WASSCE examinations in someone’s home around the Agape Primary School in the Goderich Section of Freetown.

The Ministry’s WASSCE examination monitors, accompanied by police officers raided the reported home and arrested individuals who were retaking the exams. Police also seized completed answer sheets from the just-concluded private WASSCE examinations. The suspects and the examination papers were taken to Lumley Police Station for further investigation.

MBSSE officials led by the Deputy Minister, Mrs. Emily Kadiatu Gogra were accompanied by police to the headquarters of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for further investigation – precisely to compare the seized WAEC documents with those that are officially in the custody of WAEC; and to also ascertain as to how those examination documents left the WAEC headquarters. However, up to going to Press it was inconclusive.

In an effort to find a lasting solution to the endemic and nationally embarrassing problem of examination malpractices in Sierra Leone, the MBSSE has registered that it will stop at nothing to stringently monitor those exams, and bring academic crime rings to face the full penalty of the law.

The case is now in the hands of the Police and the entire WAEC is being investigated.

 

On National Day Celebration in China… Ambassador Ndomahina Showcases Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of China, Ernest Mbaimba Ndomahina

By Samuel Koroma in Beijing, China

Sierra Leone’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of China, Ernest Mbaimba Ndomahina has on the occasion of the National Day Celebration for Sierra Leone in China vouch to strengthen Sierra Leone’s bilateral relationship with China, and make that relationship a win-win one. The celebration held at the Beijing 2019 International Horticultural Expo was characterized by traditional pomp and pageantry, as the audience was wowed with pristine Sierra Leonean cultural performances.

The theme of the Beijing 2019 International Horticultural Expo centers on “Live green”, and “Live better”. It’s a platform that aims to enhance advocacy for efforts to tackle global environmental issues of climate change and disappearing ecological systems.

Ambassador Ernest Mbaimba Ndomahina delivered an impressive speech, noting among other things ,the preparedness of Sierra Leone to showcase its rich culture and horticultural beauties . He commended Beijing Expo 2019 for the occasion, while noting with delight that it was positively rewarding to see the two countries share the significance of the occasion.

He commended President Julius Maada Bio’s commitment to the global concerns of biodiversity conservation and climate change, and ensuring the participation of the Republic of Sierra Leone at the Expo through the country’s abled Commissioner General, Philip Conteh. He said the Republic of Sierra Leone has had 48 years of fruitful friendly diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Both countries have held years of successful cooperation and partnership, Ambassador Ndomahina said, noting that their bilateral ties have been to a comprehensive strategic status.

He furthered that Sierra Leone accepts and upholds the one China policy with the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate Government of China. The Government and the People of Sierra Leone continue to be thankful to the People’s Republic of China for the cooperation and support that they enjoy from their bilateral relations. He assured the People’s Republic of China of Sierra Leone’s firm commitment to strengthening the brotherly ties that have held both countries together.

Though frantic efforts have been made through speeches, awakening of the minds’ eye through exhibitions, the drums meeting the rhythms of ones hearts and echo in the air, the Great Amazon Forest Ambassador Ndomahina said is on fire and burning, hurricanes and typhoons are raging with devastating effects, and instability and wildlife poaching are taking their toll on ecological systems in different parts of the globe. Yet, he noted there are communities that are pushing to derail the efforts of others in the fight against climate change with its attendant effects of disruption of the global ecological systems.

He urged communities of every nation to work and ensure they deliver a safe and healthy environment to the generations that would succeed it, if each community must survive the decades and centuries that lie ahead. The constant obstruction of our global ecological systems by the way of life of man has proven to be nothing but disastrous to our world, the only home we know, Ambassador Ndomahina added.

He concluded by reechoing Sierra Leone’s effort to deliver a healthy biodiversity-rich environment to explore nature at its best, citing the numerous and wide white and gold sandy beaches, shallow coastal wet lands and mangrove swamps, it wildlife sanctuaries at Tiwai Island in the South and Taca-Guma on the Freetown Peninsular in the West. Forest reserves and mountains, he added provide homes to different species of primates and aquatic bionetworks, and the various vegetation distinguished according to land forms, which remains the untapped treasure that Sierra Leone, the most peaceful and tolerant nation on planet earth, could offer to the world.He  called on all to visit Sierra Leone for a fresh breath of the gifts of nature.

Delivering a statement during the ceremony, Head of Infrastructure, Beijing Expo 2019, Zhang Lannian said China respects the autonomous choice of the people of Sierra Leone, and is willing to engage in close and high-level contacts with Sierra Leone to strengthen the exchange of experience in the rule of law and administration, to expand on cooperation in the fields of infrastructure construction, agriculture, fisheries, health, education, and capacity- building, and to continue to support each other in the multilateral sphere.

The two countries, he affirmed, has made tremendous efforts to promote bilateral relations.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have always been realizing the common interest and having a good friendship, Mr. Lannian noted.

Every community of every nation must work to ensure it delivers a safe and healthy environment to the generations that would succeed it, if each community must survive the decades and centuries that lie ahead.

 

 

 

Sierra Leone Civil Servants Appeal for Five Months Backlog Salaries

His Excellency Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio

By Penpusher Sesay

Life has become unbearable, frustrating, disappointing, hopeless for certain civil servants whom have waited patiently for five months now without receiving salaries from the Government. It all started during a last year verification exercise of all government workers conducted by the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) geared towards weeding out ghost workers and put a stop to those that are receiving salaries from two or more sides from the same Consolidated Revenue Fund.

During the exercise they discovered that there was a mismatch of names. That is to say the information which is on a person’s voter ID is quite different from what is mentioned in the Government voucher or Accountant General’s office. For instance in the voter ID a person’s name could be Saidu Conteh but in the payroll he is answering to the name Mohamed Kamara.

This situation is becoming appalling for these affected civil servants who are still working and serving the government zealously and genuinely with broken and stressful minds.

Since May 2019, these affected Government workers cut across the teaching profession, the Army, the Sierra Leone Police, Prisons  also affecting medical practitioners, and host of others who are eagerly waiting and anticipating for grace to befall them. But it seems as if their hopes and anticipations are hinged on mosquito’s legs.
The suffering of these affected workers keep on piling and becomes worsen as the day passes by.

According to one affected soldier who pleaded for anonymity he said t they are planning to meet the Father of the Nation, His Excellency Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, to appeal to him to put smile to their wrinkled faces.

Still and all, they’re appealing for their plight to be addressed and paid without fail by the end of October 2019 as they are perishing in silence.

To The Sierra Leone Police and The Judiciary… More Needs To Be Done To Decongest Prisons

COMMENTARY

By Amin Kef Sesay

We should sympathize with our hard working judges and magistrates. They have a very tough job trying many cases that should have been settled by the police in police stations instead of wasting a lot of resources to bring minor cases of felony and civil infractions to court.

Resolving most issues of crime and violence is the responsibility of a sick and corrupt police investigation and prosecution system. Overworking magistrates and judges leave the door wide open to allegations of corruption against them as those with money seek to get justice through the back door.

To reduce over-crowding in our prisons which are mostly filled with remands prisoners that cannot secure bail, one wants to advocate more nuanced approaches to prosecution and arrests.

For example, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution where it believes there is a genuine case to answer should not delay in serving indictments. Imagine a suspect being in remand for up to one year and more because he/she has no indictment. That surely is injustice, as justice delayed is justice denied.

Prosecutors don’t convict. Judicial officers do. The role of prosecutors is to present cases and even support an acquittal where the interests of justice would be served by doing so. Not to pursue a conviction at all costs.

Thus, in decongesting our prisons, we recommend that the police consider arrest and detention only when it is essential to do so as a way to free up magistrates and courts to finalize trials.

Obviously, there is the need for specially trained individuals to manage every part of the process, from investigating officers and prosecutors to judges and interpreters. Training these officials specifically on recurrent crimes will allow them to handle these cases with the expertise, sensitivity, professionalism and special competence they deserve.

The criminal justice system seems to deal only with the symptoms or offshoots of what really lies at the heart of a deeply troubled society. Many times, by the time police and courts take on these cases, society has already failed their victims.

On the issue of gender based violence, whose perpetrators correctional center officials now say top the list of life in prison convicts, imposing firm sentences does not seem to be a major deterrent. There are a suite of measures designed to improve the judicial system’s handling of such cases. These include massive public awareness campaign to discourage committing of it.

The stress on judicial officers from hearing traumatizing cases like rape, murder, difficult divorce matters by aggrieved litigants requires the introduction of a judicial wellness or stress-management program.

When it comes to the composition of the bench, there are still too few female magistrates and judges, particularly at senior levels in the higher courts.

There is also the need to introduce Labour and Land Claims courts.

Not all the delays in finalizing cases are due to magistrates and judges. We simply need more magistrates and judges in all the jurisdictions across the country, the main cause of suspects spending long time in remand custody.

Court premises need urgent repairs. Some of them do not even have toilets and rest rooms for officials and the public.

There is also the crying need for digital upgrading of the judicial system.  Smart-phones and iPads would then be the tools we use to check on the performance of any of our courts anytime.

 

As Albert Academy Sierra Leone Celebrates 115 Anniversary… JFK Inspires Pupils

Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara

By Foday Moriba Conteh

On Friday 4th October, 2019, as part of the Albert Academy 115 year’s anniversary celebrations, the renowned legal luminary, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, succinctly delivered a very motivational speech on the Theme: “Moving from the Brink to the Brim of Academic Excellence” at the School compound on Berry Street in Freetown.

JFK, as he is popularly called, maintained that the theme: “Moving from the Brink to the Brim of Academic Excellence” is timely and interesting saying it is self-evident that the ‘brink’ is present and the ‘brim’ is just an aspiration, adding that the brim of academic excellence is the state of being exceptional.

“We live in a society obsessed with being exceptional. Whether it is as workers, parents, students, lovers, cooks, we are expected to be outstanding. We must strive to be the best employees, craft out an outstanding body, have amazing relationships, all while being exceptionally happy. Even the most ordinary institutions also are expected to be nothing less than excellent. Companies want to be “world class”; schools have become “academies of excellence”. Being good enough is seen as simply not good enough,” he philosophized.

He said that at a moment like this when education faces attacks from multiple fronts, it can be helpful to step back and address a central question: where did we go wrong? He stated that back in the days, when Sierra Leone was known as the ‘Athens of West Africa’, education was fit for purpose.

“The structure of the curricular then could get you a job even with a secondary school leaving certificate,” he said adding that his father who happened to be a student of the class of 1948 at the Albert Academy was able to secure a job as Station Manager in Moyamba District, with just a leaving certificate, “The quality and value of the certificate then, is my reference point and not the availability of a job,” he underscored.

He disclosed that in today’s education, a university degree cannot even guarantee a secured job, again, not necessarily because of availability, but rather, the inability to perform at an expected level.

“Our educational system could be likened to a chariot on two wheels, academic excellence and social purpose. It seems to me, we have lost one of the wheels, the social purpose level. Education should have a social purpose in addition to striving for academic excellence. The current obsession with academic excellence, one can argue, has altered our idea of higher education, and the current focus on status has perpetual inequality and limited social mobility,” he underscored.

He stressed that for far too long, successive Governments have invested in education, under the unquestioned assumption that improved test scores were clear evidence that their investments have paid off.

JFK argued that mastery of the basic primary or secondary school curriculum is not the best means for improving life chances and alleviating poverty in the country. He furthered that the model is broken, investing interventions that produce the highest test scores is no longer a valid approach for allocating scarce educational Leones or the scarce time available for the development of young minds.

Convincingly, he suggested that it time to seek out the interventions that lead to the greatest social and economic impact for the poor.

He ended by saying that to attain the brim of excellence; our approach ought to include three elements essential to high-quality education:

  1. Entrepreneurship should include financial and marketplace literacy and it should focus on helping children learn to manage money and market transactions that will enable them to identify and pursue market opportunities, teaching them workplace skills to improve productivity and effectiveness.
  2. Health Education should also include essential health behaviors, the importance and consequences of healthy behaviors, and the strategies for employing them for children can share with their families and incorporate into everyday life.
  3. Empowerment: to be a student-driven approach that provides practical learning in a supportive environment and includes helping children develop critical thinking skills and the self-efficacy necessary to put them into action.

He said that content and activities such as those that enable students to learn and practice workplace skills and attitudes like delegation, negotiation, collaboration, and planning- opportunities that are rarely available to them outside of their families must be stressed. He added that perhaps more importantly, those activities will enable them to see themselves in idea-generation, problem-solving, decision-making and leadership roles.

 

New Sierra Leonean High Commissioner to UK bade farewell to President Bio

Dr. Morie Komba Manyeh, Sierra Leone’s new High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and President Dr. Julius Maada Bio

By Alim Jalloh

Dr. Morie Komba Manyeh, Sierra Leone’s new High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland on Friday October 4 2019 bade farewell to His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio at State House.

He thanked the President for the opportunity to serve the Government and people of Sierra Leone as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland and promised to faithfully serve the nation. He said he was particularly aware of the challenges ahead but assured he is ready for the task to move the New Direction forward.

In his response, President Bio said that the new High Commissioner was taking up a very difficult task at a time when the country is going through a lot of image cleansing at the international scene and trying to woo investors to return to the country. He said that his Government is looking at economic diplomacy to attract the best and credible investors to come to the country and also assured of his support at all times. He wished him well in his new assignment.

The new High Commissioner is a retired academic from the University of Sierra Leone with years of service as teacher, researcher and administrator. Before his recent appointment, Dr. Manyeh was also Sierra Leone’s Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources.

 

 

Big Sister Sierra Leone Season 2 Gains Momentum

By Foday Moriba Conteh

It has been reliably learnt that ZedZee Multi Media Consult and Orange SL will be presenting Big Sister Season 2 with the theme “No Woman, No Cry”.  Based on feedbacks we received, the last all-female show in 2018 registered a huge success with a viewership of over 7 million in and out of the country.

Furthermore, the participants in that show got endorsement from celebrities from different parts of the world and brought out typically Sierra Leonean behavior patterns and the show offered the opportunity for indigenes and outsiders to take stock of those patterns.

This medium understood that “Big Sister Season 2 is taking the race farther afield, with seven countries, namely Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone providing scouting platforms. 25 women from any part of the globe will be selected in these scouting countries to compete for the cash prize, $50,000.

“This forthcoming show will last for seven weeks, during which every week will see the crowning of a new Mammy Na Power after a leadership struggle called the Madam Yoko Drama,” one of the organizers intimated this medium furthering how the setting will depict an African ambience, in a way that glosses the continent’s rich heritage.

She disclosed that women of all nationalities may apply only they would have to audition in person in one of the scouting countries maintaining how applications and auditions can also be made online and on our Mobile App, especially for applicants from outside the scouting countries.

In an exclusive interview with Zainab Sheriff, who heads ZedZee Multi-Media, she revealed how local and international partners have joined ZedZee and Orange to bring the show to home screens, radios as well as computers and phones through the Big Sister website and Mobile App. She informed that forms will be sold at Le100,000 or $10 at various locations across the country.

The charming and ideas-packed Zainab Sheriff succinctly stated:

“Empowering young women for self-advancement is the impulse behind the Big Sister empowerment show, and Season 2 is meant to propel that energy a little further. The show gives the aspiring women the platform to be seen and be heard, in a way that entertains and educate as much as it empowers.

It inspires the notion that women should stay in the loop despite their material circumstances. No woman should remain condemned to the oppressive conditions of modern day society, hence the theme: No Woman! No Cry.”

She ended up saying Big Sister Season 2 will be launched at the Bintumani Conference Centre on 25th October, 2019.

NP-SL is the Power House of the Nation

National Petroleum (NP) SL Limited

By Amin Kef Sesay

One can really imagine what life on earth would look like without petroleum products. Understandably, scientific and technological means should have been devised to find alternative ways of fitting into what products like petrol, diesel, kerosene, gas and other lubricants are capable of doing, maybe within the realm of renewable energy.

Fortunately, mankind is blessed with the availability of crude oil, in some parts of the world, which can be refined to produce various end products that are collectively considered as fuel.

These are what we use to power our thermal engines to generate electricity as we do the same with generators that are used in homes, offices and business entities.

Fuel is utilized in our cars, vans, Lorries, trucks to convey people and goods from one locality to another. We use kerosene for various domestic purposes as well as utilize other petroleum products for their intended purposes. The significance of the availability of petroleum products cannot be overemphasized as they are inextricably linked to continued human existence.

One important entity in this country that is not only importing petroleum products but also marketing them is the National Petroleum Sierra Leone Limited (NP-SL-Ltd) which has been doing such transactions remarkably well to such an extent that there have been rare cases when shortages had occurred but that in itself could not lie squarely on the shoulders of the company but rather as a result of external forces that may be beyond the control of NP-SL-Ltd.

Towards maintaining that goal, the National Petroleum Sierra Leone Limited, NP (SL-Ltd) is tirelessly working round the clock, engaging oil producing companies in business discussions, to always ensure that supply flows in timely.

Through concerted efforts the company has been making it quite possible for stocks to last over periods of time in order to avert the occurrence of shortages. Interestingly, NP-SL is not a Government entity or appendage; no politician has a share in it as its shareholders are mere ordinary Sierra Leoneans, starting with 35 of them who some time ago bought shares from the Government out of their end of service benefits to establish what today has become a towering entity (NP-SL) to reckon with in the business landscape.

As had been fallaciously propagated by certain ill-motivated persons, who do not mean well for this country, that there are certain politicians that have vested interests in the company, our investigations have proven otherwise.

NP-SL is a 100% indigenous company to the letter and it has weathered various storms that could have dwarfed it or left it to extinct save therapeutic intermittent Managerial injections that keep it upright and on the right course.

Demonstrating its dogged commitment to the socio-economic development of the country the company is maintaining a policy of strictly adhering to the Local Content Policy ensuring that it has a maximum of indigenous staff in its employ. What this actually means is empowering our brothers and sisters to access employment opportunities and reduce poverty.

As a matter of fact some members of staff continue to benefit from various trainings that have afforded them the conduit to imbibe useful skills to efficiently carry out certain tasks.

If we are counting the number of companies that have upheld the Local Content Policy, without any iota of doubt, NP-SL could be seen at the top. This intrinsic nationalistic posture of the company runs through and it is a sine qua non for overall national development.

If such a compliance rate should have been followed by other local companies, willingly, without any pressure from the relevant authorities then indisputably this country should have been miles away in its development trajectory.

It has been made abundantly clear that the way and manner in which customers are cared for in terms of talking to them, making them feel at ease go a long way in attracting them or gaining their attention. Such should be done sincerely in order to make them more important. NP-SL for a very long period now has mastered that art and executing it so well which definitely is paying dividends.

1st for Customer Care was earned by the company because it has been widely acclaimed by many for solidly executing such. In its drive to optimize customer satisfaction the company went the extra mile to install calibrated pumping machines which are not only modern but trustworthy, as opposed to old pumping machines which certain unscrupulous individuals used to cheat unassuming customers.

This is helping in holding customers’ confidence high assuring them that they are dealing with a very transparent entity. The friendliness of NP’s pump attendants is very impressive and they are always there to timely respond to various concerns.

Still within the purview of 1st for Customer Care, the company is always in position to enter into payment plans with its reliable and dependable customers including Ministries, Departments and Agencies for supplied fuel and lubricants as long as all the necessary modalities have been put in place.

When cognizance is taken of the fact that some of these institutions receive intermittent budgetary allocations then such an arrangement is very significant. Its significance in real terms borders on functional continuity of those institutions as they will be assured of supplies of petroleum products in as much as they keep honoring their obligations.

For those who have not tried NP Gas for the first time it is now time to give it a try. Designed in sizable varying cylinders and sold at various NP Filling Stations, this cooking device has been rated as one of the best that is on offer for sale. NP Gas is safe, user friendly and portable. Trying it will spur you to recommend it to others.

NP Smart Card is now in vogue and is one of the latest technological devices used to purchase petroleum products. Using it has attendant advantages as evident in procuring fuel at any time of the day even during times when monies could not be accessed from banks. It is secured, easy to use and very quick. It is now trending.

To crystallize proposed projects into tangible realities on the ground, Government needs the required financial resources to effectively do so and one sure way is from collection of taxes which is the mandate of the National Revenue Authority (NRA).  NP is one big tax payer to Government and it has been doing so timely.

The company’s presence in Guinea, Liberia, The Gambia and Ivory Coast shows that it is around for serious business. It is an embodiment of serious mindedness on the part of Sierra Leoneans who believe that what man can do then man can still do. It has been proven beyond all reasonable doubts that NP-SL is the power-house that powers power. It is the incontestable power house of the nation.

Our cars are moving, our NP Gas keeps serving us, lives are being changed in communities, employment opportunities are offered and above all the nation is benefitting all becoming possible simply because NP is vibrantly operating. The company is indeed seriously contributing to the socio-economic growth of the country and many are appreciative of all what it is doing in effecting positive changes.

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