Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698082879779.pdf (Sierra Leone)
PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE P A R L I A M E N T A R Y D E B A T E S ON THE: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, DELIVERED BY THE PRESIDENT, DR ERNEST BAI KOROMA, ON THE OCCASION OF STATE OPENING OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE FOURTH PARLIAMENT OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE, IN THE CHAMBER OF PARLIAMENT, ON FRIDAY, 14TH DECEMBER, 2012.
___ SECOND ALLOTTED DAY____ OFFICIAL HANSARD REPORT FIRST SESSION-FIRST MEETING TUESDAY, 5th FEBRUARY, 2013 SESSION – 2012/2013 1 PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE P A R L I A M E N T A R Y D E B A T E S ON THE: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, DELIVERED BY THE PRESIDENT, DR ERNEST BAI KOROMA, ON THE OCCASION OF STATE OPENING OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE FOURTH PARLIAMENT OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE, IN THE CHAMBER OF PARLIAMENT, ON FRIDAY, 14TH DECEMBER, 2012.
____ SECOND ALLOTTED DAY______ OFFICIAL HANSARD REPORT VOLUME: I 11TH SITTING OF PARLIAMENT First Meeting of the First Session of the Fourth Parliament Of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.

Proceedings of the Sitting of the House Held on Tuesday, 5th February, 2013.

________ _________ _________________________ 2 C O N T E N T S I. PRAYERS II.

CORRECTION OF VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS FOR MONDAY 4th February, 2013.

III.

MOTION OF THANKS TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT DR ERNEST BAI KOROMA PROPOSER: HON.
IBRAHIM BUNDU SECONDER: HON.
ISATTA KABIA BE IT RESOLVED: “That we the Members of Parliament here assembled wish to thank His Excellency the President for the address he so graciously delivered on the occasion of the State Opening of the First Session of the Fourth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone in the Chamber of Parliament on Friday, 14th December, 2012.” 3 THE CHAMBER OF PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE OFFICIAL HANSARD REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE HOUSE _____________________________________________________________ FIRST SESSION-FIRST MEETING OF THE FOURTH PARLIAMENT OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC _____________________________ Tuesday, 5th February, 2013.
The House met at 10:00 a.m. in Parliament Building, Tower Hill, Freetown.

I. PRAYERS [The Clerk of Parliament, Hon.

Ibrahim Sulaiman Sesay, Read the Prayers].

[The Speaker, Hon.

Justice Abel Nathaniel Bankole Stronge, in the Chair].

The House was called to Order.

4 II.

CORRECTION OF VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS FOR MONDAY, 4TH JANUARY, 2013.

COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIR THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, we go through the record of Votes and Proceedings for Monday, 4th February, 2013.
As usual, we go through page by page.

Page 1?

Page2?

Page3?

Page 4?

Page5?

Page 6?

Honourable Members, can somebody move that the record of Votes and Proceedings for Monday, 4th February, 2013 be adopted as presented?

HON.

ABU JAJUA: I so move Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Any seconder?

HON.

CLAUDE KAMANDA.

I so second Sir.

THE SPEAKER: Any Counter Motion?

(Question Proposed, Put and Agreed to) III.

MOTION OF THANKS TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT, DR ERNEST BAI KOROMA.

PROPOSER: HON.
PROPOSER: HON.

IBRAHIM BUNDU SECONDER: HON.

ISATA KABIA (SECOND ALLOTTED DAY) THE SPEAKER: I have spoken to both the Majority and Minority Whips.

They know what I told them; and if you intend to make contribution you should have known by now what to do.

If you do not stand up, I will not see you, let alone catch my eyes.

Honourable Members, let us keep to this procedure if we want progress.

5 HON.

DR BERNADETTE LAHAI (Minority Leader of the House): Mr Speaker, I want to make an observation Sir.
THE SPEAKER: Carry on Honourable Member.

HON.

DR BERNADETTE LAHAI: Mr Speaker, before the commencement of this Presidential debate yesterday, I was reliably informed that invitations were sent out on the electronic media for all MDAs to be present here so that they can listen to the various concerns and submissions of the Members of Parliament, particularly as it relates to the areas of their work.

I am surprised that yesterday and even this morning we are yet to see any representation from these MDAs.
I think their presence is very important otherwise, we would not have invited them.

So this is a concern I have and I don‟t know what we as a Parliament can do.

Thank you Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: I share your concern Honourable Member.

I also heard the announcement over the Radio.

Yesterday I noticed only the Human Resource Director was present.

Nobody said anything about it, not even the Whip or the Leader said anything.

I decided to keep quiet.

Let us proceed.

HON.

S. B.


B. DUMBUYA (Majority Leader of the House): Mr Speaker, I do share the concern of the Minority Leader.

I have to talk to her.

Perhaps the Committee on Appointment and the Public Service would know what to do in that regard.

HON.

DR THOMAS M. TURAY: Thank you Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, let me thank God for giving me this opportunity to make my maiden speech in the Well of Parliament today.
On that note Mr Speaker, with your leave, let me wish you a Happy New Year since I have not wished you a Happy New Year.

(Laughter) THE SPEAKER: Is it just an empty wish for a Happy New Year?

HON.

DR THOMAS M. TURAY: Other wishes will come later Sir.

THE SPEAKER: Alright, proceed.

6 HON.

THOMAS M. TURAY: Mr Speaker, my name is Honourable Dr Thomas Mark Turay.

I represent Constituency 30, comprising of the Bakimasbo Chiefdom and part of the Bombali, Sebora Chiefdom in the Bombali District.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I would like to join my colleagues, both on this side and the other side in thanking His Excellency for a very brilliant and well informed speech.

My contribution will focus on the contributions made by Members on the other side yesterday.

Some Honourable Members on the other side described the President‟s Speech as theoretical; and that, a lot of the accomplishments that he had highlighted are cosmetics.
I want to congratulate Members on the other side that made these contributions.

This is because I look at them from a very positive point of view.

I am talking about the concept of cosmetism here.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member!

HON.

DR THOMAS M. TURAY: Yes Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: If I remember correctly, I did not hear the word cosmetic here yesterday.

I fully know of a former Member of Parliament who was here yesterday.

He is not here presently.

He often used the word cosmetics.


You can proceed Honourable Member.

HON.

DR THOMAS M. TURAY: Thank you Mr Speaker.

I actually took very copious notes yesterday and I can engage these Honourable colleagues on the other side.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, can you stand up please?

I would advise you strongly to desist from making loud interventions.

I glossed over it yesterday.

HON.

DR MARK TURAY: Thank you Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker with your leave let me focus on the concepts of theory.
On a positive note and with your leave, I did some research in terms of finding out what we meant when we talk about theory.

With your leave Sir, I want to read a little quotation from my findings.

May I go ahead Mr Speaker?

7 THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, please proceed.

HON.

DR THOMAS M. TURAY: Thank you Mr Speaker.

A theory is a well substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world.
It is an organised system of accepted knowledge that applies in the variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena and a belief that can guide behaviour.

It is on this ground that I commended my colleagues on the other side.

Indeed Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, this document provides a theoretical framework that we can use to critically use as Honourable Members to guide our actions in our different constituencies and even when legislating laws for our people.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, when I browsed through the Speech of His Excellency, he provided us with various conceptual framework, theories that I want to highlight here.

I am constrained because of time to talk about all of them.

But I will highlight few.

Key concept that he has helped us with is the concept of transformation.

Page 5, paragraph 21 of this document highlights some of them.

He talks about the empowerment of women and the vulnerable groups in pages 17-21 of this document.
He also talks about inclusion and infrastructure for sustainable growth.

Mr Speaker, these are the areas where I want to focus my own interventions on.

But let me also mention some key concepts he mentioned in this Document.

He mentioned the concept of dialogue, sustainability, diversity and gender equity.

I really commend him for bringing in the concept of equity not just equality when we talk about gender.

My Honourable Minority Leader is an expert in that area and I have great respect for her.
I hope in her presentation she will be focusing perhaps on that area to give more light on that concept.

I will briefly talk about that in my intervention.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the concepts of Infrastructure and Inclusive Growth touched my heart.

They support the effort of the President to have rural road network that will connect communities, villages, districts, families and communities with urban areas.
Mr Speaker, I have here a document that can help to substantiate what the President had said when he talks about the need for creating an effective sustainable 8 road network.

The President did not only provide us with theoretical concepts, but he was very pragmatic.

I am going to focus on that because I am not going to provide academic lectures here.

He is a very pragmatic leader.


When he talks about enhancing inclusive infrastructural developmental approach Mr Speaker, let me highlight some very concrete examples when I said the President is being pragmatic when he talks about Infrastructure for Inclusive Growth.

A total of 2,270 kilometres of roads have been constructed all over the country.

This means that between 5%-85% or 1,040 kilometres of roads have been constructed or are under construction.
About 215 kilometers of roads are either at their award state or at mobilizing contracts.

I just want to highlight here a couple of examples to support these figures that I have highlighted.

This is a report I got from the Ministry of Works.


I want to support some of the contributions made yesterday that the President has done extremely well, particularly in the area of infrastructure, and to encourage my colleagues on the other side who have fears or who have concerns that the „President‟s Agenda for Prosperity‟ has not touched them yet and to give them hope that development is coming.

It has already started (Laughter).


Mr Speaker, I want to highlight few examples of the roads that have been completed.

They are: the Masiaka/Bo Road, the Makeni/Matotoka Road, the Bo/Kenema Road, the Rogbere/Pamlap/Guinea Road, and the Wilkinson Road.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the President has also in the Agenda for Prosperity emphasized on road network.

Progress has also been made on the Lungi/Port Loko Road which is 50% completed.

The Hillside Bye Pass Road is 40% completed.


I want to mention here (for the benefit of my colleagues on the other side) that the Bandajuma/Pujehun road, which is about 25.6 kilometres, a contractor is being mobilized by the Government.

Please Honourable Members on the other side, be patient.

I have other examples here, including the rehabilitation of roads in Moyamba, Pujehun, Matru Jong and Bonthe which give a total of 23kilometres.The rehabilitation of the Kono and Kabala townships is completed.
And Mr Speaker, 10% of the rehabilitation of feeder roads and associated structures in Bonthe and Kono Districts are in progress.

9 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, with those comments, I want to take this opportunity to thank His Excellency for what he has done for this country.

HON.
HON.

Alhaji S. Dumbuya: Mr Speaker, Honorable Members, the Presidential Address on the State Opening of Parliament on Friday, 14 December, 2012 has allowed latitudes for every industrious Sierra Leonean to be engaged in business, either for his or her own development or for the development of the country.

Dr Ernest Bai Koroma has tailor-made his Agenda for Prosperity to suit every sector of this country.
He has gone beyond conventional protocols by focusing on the overall development of this country, taking into account our socio-economic and political circumstance.

As a Member of Parliament, I am pleased or encouraged by the President‟s renewed focus of transforming this country from one of the poorest and most dangerous on the face of the earth to a more comfortable and democratic one.
I and many others from both parties were encouraged by the President‟s words and I am quoting from page 19, Paragraph 82:“We will continue to observe Universal Human Values such as Justice, Human Rights and Human Dignity, bring Government closer to the people through Innovative platforms, scale up the prominence of women in elective and appointive positions, deepen the decentralisation process, nurture the culture of separation of powers, encourage a regionally representative Government, an even spread of national development, and encourage collaboration with the opposition, our development partners and Civil Society in resolving problems through dialogue”.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, because of our political, economic and human rights records, a reliable source from Norway has informed me that our President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma (World Best), has been nominated to receive this year‟s Noble Peace Award.

He will be the second African President to receive this award.

This is a world prestigious award for Peace.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, let me caution you.

These are matters which are not discussed in public domain until they are announced.

HON.
HON.

Alhaji S. Dumbuya: Thank you Mr Speaker.

10 THE SPEAKER: It is inappropriate at this stage to say something about that.

HON.

Alhaji S. Dumbuya: Thank you Sir.

Mr Speaker, he has been nominated Sir.

He has not been awarded yet.

THE SPEAKER: Alright, you can continue.

But let me tell you that it might be interpreted as reckless behavior in certain quarters.

You can continue.

HON.

Alhaji S. Dumbuya: Thank you Mr Speaker.


If he has been nominated and accepted, he will be the second African President to have won this award.

HON.

S. B.

B. Dumbuya: Mr Speaker, I rise to say here that where a Member had been advised by the Honourable Speaker to desist from giving out information that has not yet been confirmed he/she must adhere to that advise.

As Leader of the House and Leader of Government Business, I direct the Honourable Member adheres to what the Speaker has said.

HON.
HON.

Alhaji S. Dumbuya: Thank you Mr Leader.

THE SPEAKER: In fact, I should have asked you not to continue; but out of charity you can proceed (Laughter).

HON.

Alhaji S. Dumbuya: Thank you Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, it must be noted here that throughout the history of this country, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma is the only President that has not arbitrary arrested any citizen or jail any citizen in this country, especially journalists.
Throughout the history of this country, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma is the only President who has not executed any citizen in this country.

Because of his corrupt-free governance system, he has been awarded Peace Governance of the year by the American Government.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, this shows that our President is doing things straight.

His success has resulted to massive infrastructural development of our country.

That is the way forward for a prosperous future.

I thank you (Applause).

11 HON.


FRANK KPOSOWA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I stand here to thank His Excellency not for what he said on the 14th December, 2012, but for what he caringly set aside.

I will look at four of the most pressing issues, even if they are not very evident to a number of us in this House.

One such thing is the pledge His Excellency made in Paragraph 12 to undertake Constitutional Review Process.

Another is the issue of Electoral Process.


It is the Electoral Process that has brought all of us in this House.

Mr Speaker, I would have loved to be among the people congratulating this country for the Electoral Process just concluded; but I will not congratulate our people for an election that has divided this country.

Mr Speaker, for those of us looking forward to National Unity and National cohesion, we have a sense of purpose and Mr Speaker it cannot be achieved now.
We have come to see that we cannot achieve this through the constituency type of election.

In pursuit of this therefore, Mr Speaker, honourable members, I will suggest that we go back to Proportional representation (Uproar).

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, if it was a proportional type of representation we have adopted, electoral mapping would not have been the same.

For example, the APC would have had six (6) representations in Bo by the number of votes they got.
We would have had six (6) representations in Freetown for the number of votes we got.

It would never have been this way because it would never have been the case where for example the impression would be wrongly created that this party is not accepted in that area.

It is not because we are dealing with an electorate that is not very well informed.

We are dealing with electorate that are not voting on issues.

We are dealing with politicians that are constantly misinforming the people.
THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, by „people‟ you mean everybody in this country?

HON.

FRANK KPOSOWA: I am saying some people (Laughter).

So, it is in this vein Mr Speaker that when it comes to undertaking this review, I would like us to revisit the Electoral System again.

The argument some people are bound to is that in the proportional representation, the leadership of the political party only fills in their friends 12 and families, but that is not it.
If that is what they have against it, we will change that perception.

Instead of adjusting that type of ranking, we can rank areas.

For example, let us say, we can still do the primaries.

If possible and if for example at the end of the election, a Party got more votes from the Circular Road end, then the man who was put forward by the Circular Road Community would be the one to get the seat in Parliament.

You are not going to get the seat because your name appeared first.

These are some of the things.


I have had discussion with some of my colleagues like the Deputy Majority Whip on this matter and he is totally adverse to it.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, so much has been said here about education.

I have been informed even if not reliably that Mr Speaker was once a teacher (Laughter).

Mr Speaker I will like you to recall.

THE SPEAKER: Will you like to know some of my pupils by then?

I will tell you privately.

Please carry on.

HON.


FRANK KPOSOWA: This is very important.

Your experience in this area as a teacher is very important.

Mr Speaker, if you recall your teaching days, the pupil/teacher ratio was about 25 to a teacher…- (Interrupted).

THE SPEAKER: Not more than 30 Honourable Member.

HON.

FRANK KPOSOWA: Mr Speaker, I am not talking on principles or methods of teaching here.
But if Mr Speaker and the majority Leader will recall, both of you can join me because you too are experienced in that domain.

The periods have not changed.

They still have 35 minutes per subject.

In teaching, you go from the known to the unknown.

This means that you start with what you have taught your children in the previous lesson before coming to introduce the new topic.

After which, you will test comprehension by giving class work.

This was very possible Mr Speaker during your days.
But this is no longer possible nowadays.

Away Mr Speaker, from 25, which was a convenient teacher/pupil ratio, nowadays every class most times has about 100 or 120 pupils.

In fact, Mr Speaker, I have paid a visit to some of these schools.

you have to 13 walk on the desks to go to the back seats.

What are the implications of this kind of scenario?

The implications of this kind of scenario are that the teacher cannot give the class work.
So, how are you going to set comprehension if you cannot give class work?

At times you give class work but you cannot move from one end to another.

Nothing is going on.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we have just talked about the falling standards of education in our country.

Looking at a number of factors that actually hinder the progress of education are really plenty.

Each time I want to talk about Philosophy I always think of the Majority Leader.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Government says everybody should send his/her child to school.

At once, children started going to school.

Now, how prepared are you to receive these additional input?

Do you have enough classrooms to accommodate them?

The answer is no.

Do you have enough trained teachers to handle this massive inflow?

The answer again is no.

Do you have learning materials?

The answer is no.

Therefore, without learning materials you are creating an Ambit of indiscipline.
I am a trained and qualified teacher.

For every profession I have passed through, I am trained and qualified for such.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I saw a poster and this has to do with over- crowding.

In the poster, there was a poor teacher who held a loudspeaker in the classroom and some children were looking this way and the others were looking that way.

The place was chaotic.


At the bottom of that poster there was this very passionate plea which says: ‟please don‟t let education fail for this waste of progressive mismanagement by Government.‟ Don‟t let Education pay the price for the crises.

What I am saying here is that we have to be sincere with ourselves.

This problem has not just started with the APC at all (Applause).
Perhaps, why I mentioned it is that it is the Party that came with the commitment to change; but the situation has worsened rather than improving.

What are we going to do now?

I am talking about balance here.

I always make reference to philosophy.

The Philosophers are very much concerned with balance 14 in planning.

For example, in the case of constant dialogue, if you read medical passages, emphasis laid is on the concept of planning and balance.
It says: ‟”if a man has legs that are long and disproportionate to other parts of his body, that man is not only ugly, but he finds all activities requiring coordinated effort giving him problems”.

This is very true Mr Speaker.

We have to do some bit of balancing in this country.

Mr Speaker, honourable members, this is also the question when undertaking projects.

They say you take something you can carry conveniently, not that which when you carry bends your neck.
The World Bank has a story and it says: “the Ants wanted to build a palace for their queen, they moved to a nearby hill but found the ground very hard to break.

All of a sudden, they saw an elephant approaching.

They begged this elephant to soften the ground to provide some water.

The elephant went to a nearby stream very callously and collected a lot of water in its trunk.

It came and splashed it on the hill and all the ants got drowned.” Why was that?
You undertake something that which you can handle with some amount of convenience.

If you do it that way as the ants did with the elephant, you will crash.

This is why with the developmental projects, we have not seen balance in the policy implementation by both the past and present Governments in this country.

This is why we are having problems.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let us go back to the school system.

There is no discipline in the schools.


Mr Speaker, if you go to some of these schools you will find out that a teacher spends about ten minutes speaking in the mobile phone.

He/she will just leave the children in the class and go outside where he/she spends about ten minutes talking on phone.

Can we please put in place rules to guide such anomaly?

Can we bring some legislation to enforce this kind of behaviour in schools?

We are here to fight evil.

We are not here to take evil to a glorious level.


Please let us not condone evil by indifference.

THE SPEAKER: Are you appealing to me personally Honourable Member?

HON.

FRANK KPOSOWA: No Mr Speaker.

But what I want to say here is that you and I have something in common (Laughter).

15 THE SPEAKER: Well, say it now.

HON.

FRANK KPOSOWA: We came to this Parliament together and I am not going to leave you here (Laughter).
THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, on a more serious note, you are talking about indiscipline.

I want you to name three strategic places of our society where there is discipline.

HON.

FRANK KPOSOWA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in fact, this is what I was also going to talk about.

Talking about discipline brings me to the President Agenda for Indiscipline.

This also brings me to the recent invitation by His Excellency to launch a programme on indiscipline.

The President has been blackmailed for long.


We have a group of people who from time to time invoke political patronage to invest indiscipline in this country.

We saw that Mr Speaker, Honourable Members.

But now the President has seen it fit to take the action that he should have taken a long time ago.

When we talk about cleanliness, Bo City is the cleanest city in this country.

It did not happen by incident, but you want to see what discipline can do to people.
The kind of stink that confronts you when you walk on the streets of Freetown is not good at all.

„Operation WID‟ is going to work because there is a time-frame.

And if this time frame is respected, Mayor Gibson and His Excellency would have gone on record as doing that which was a pressing issue for a long time.

Their names will go into the record.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, that much having been said about discipline.

I will also go to the Police and other law enforcement agencies.
I will not pass a blanket judgment.

We have some good and dedicated policemen.

But majority have their own orientations that bear no relationship.

Mr Speaker, you are not a politician.

You don‟t live in the country side.

But the way the police handle certain conflict situations leaves much to be desired.

Today the way some people are innocently rounded up and later incarcerated is not good for the sake of peace in this country.
Mr Speaker, you used to talk about Bahamian seat and miscarriage of Justice.

Evidence of that is everywhere in the country.

In fact, each time I think about the way the police behave, it reminds me 16 of Professor Abdul Rahman Kargbo on what he said about Police Officers.

He said: “when I was young, I use to see men in uniform chasing criminals; now that I am old, I am seeing criminals in uniform harassing decent people.” Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Police should be for everybody.
The Police should not be partisan but should be seen neutral.

But as I have said, it is not every Police Officer that is partisan.

So, with some of these things mentioned in places like this, we hope that the necessary changes will be considered so that people will continue to have confidence in some of these state institutions.

This is because they are very important in any society.

With confidence, the people will cooperate with them and with that we will have a peaceful atmosphere.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, before I round up, sometime in the last session, I indicted Parliament to get this House to pass the „Freedom of Information Bill‟ into law.

A good number of those Honourable Members who could not adhere to the passage of that Bill into law did not come back to Parliament.

Honourable Ibrahim Bundu is lucky.

Mr Speaker, all those that spoke against that Bill did not come back (Laughter).

I am warning that when this Bill comes up again we handle it with great respect.
We should be very careful and do our best to pass it into law.

The Davies, Colesons and plenty others that spoke against that Bill did not come back.

The Speaker supported it that‟s why he is back with us (Laughter).

This Bill will definitely come in again.

I am now pleading with those who want to come back in 2017 to support and not to criticize it.

If you criticize that Bill, you will not come back.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let me end with Agriculture.
It is sad at this point that my Minority Leader is not here because this is her area.

Now, when we talk about food security, we are talking about productivity.

It is not an issue of expanding the area of cultivation.

That is not the answer at all.

Rather, it is the intensification of production systems.

This is what we have to undertake.

The Intensification of Production System is not just about taking tractors to Gbinti.

The owners are asking for Le 150,000 per acre.


Given the income generating capacity of our people, that amount is prohibitive.

Some 17 people will just ignore you by giving very polite reason, which is to say, it is going to be the same acreage.

They will have to go back to subsistence farming.

As of now, farming in this country is still 80% at subsistence level.

Agricultural production is time- based and therefore it should be time cured.
If you decide to take rice seedlings to your farmers in August, they are just going to chop them.

Nobody is going to plant those seed rice.

Maybe, we should revamp our policy to make it meaningful.

What you see on paper should not be adopted.

Don‟t go by it.

If you do, you will be misled.

It is dangerous to be accepted as a working document.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we are seeing where the Ministry is buying seed-rice for storage.

Why is the Ministry doing this?


It is doing this because they want to ensure that you have rice seedlings against the next farming season.

But is that what the farmers need?

The answer is no.

That is not what they need.

They need to improve on those seedlings to be improved.

We are talking about improved variety because it is the same seedling that they supply them and that is not going to change their yield level.
What they should do apart from bringing large area under cultivation or intensification project is to ensure that we have a good variety, so that if we plant a bushel of rice today, you will harvest not just 17 or 18 bushels, but perhaps 25 bushels.

Now, most of the agricultural activities are only producing about 3 or 4 bushels.

What happens is that the people only have food to eat for three months in a year.

A good number of Honourable Members of Parliament from the Rural Areas are scared.
For them, the hunger-season has started.

People have started asking for food.

So, it makes no sense to say we have achieved food sufficiency.

Why is this happening Mr Speaker?

It is happening because I take leave of you in this particular respect.

This country refuses to develop its own programmes.

Sierra Leone likes to swallow hook line and sinker.

We like donor-driven programmes.

Years back, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture developed a programme during the SLPP Government.
That thing went to Cabinet; it was approved and after that it was put on the shelf.

It never took off.

These were our own people.

But the situation has not been helpful further.

We are also falling for IFAD Development Programmes.

Mr Speaker, you have to revamp some of these 18 things, otherwise people are going to remain hungry in this country.

A hungry man is an angry man, and he is a violent man.

Finally Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we talk about the economy.
People have been saying that our economy is fast developing.

The National Revenue Authority (NRA) keeps putting up notices that they have exceeded revenue targets.

But we do not have money to run our various ministries?

They have been displaying such information on news papers headlines.

They have exceeded revenue targets.

Who is chopping the money that they are making?


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Oversight Committees in this Honourable House are not functioning properly because of short-fall in money.

NRA is the revenue- generating capacity wing of Government and they keep telling us that they have exceeded target.

Where is the money going?

These are very serious indictment Mr Speaker.

We will handle that when we come to the Budget.


I thank you very much for giving me an opportunity Mr Speaker; and as I said in the beginning, I maintain my stance in thanking His Excellency not for what he said in Parliament, but for those issues he set aside to do.

Thank you very much.

HON.PATRICIA BROWNE: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the area that is very prominent in this Government‟s achievement is that of the Free Health Care for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five.
This has brought lots of blessings to the women of this country.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, like I said, we owe a big gratitude and thanks to our President for the women of the APC on this side.

I said so because during the previous Parliament, the women on opposition outnumbered women on the ruling party.

But this time around the women on this side have doubled from four to eight.

In that regard therefore, we owe thanks and gratitude to our President.
In fact, some of our colleagues on the other side are disappointed at the number of women already appointed to ministerial positions.

We understand their points.

However, the appointments are more than we have had in the past and this number will hopefully continue to increase.

We need to be patient.

We need to 19 understand that Rome was not built in a day.

There are women in every level of our society; and this number is going to increase steadily.
We are not going to talk about deputies because they are many.

The Directors are as well many.

We owe big thanks to President Koroma for giving us the necessary support to have more women on this side of the House than any other time and this is an achievement.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the President said this in paragraph 95:“In our Agenda for Prosperity, we commit ourselves to the delivery of more initiatives with a view to further narrowing the gender inequality and hence facilitate growth.
We will scale up all our interventions with a view to facilitating the participation of women in the economy and politics.

We will enact legislation on the 30% quota for women in politics; we will encourage women to enter into sectors hitherto traditionally and exclusively reserved for men”.

This is what all women of this country want to hear, this 30% quota (Laughter from the women across the floor).

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I know our President is a man of his words.
I know he is a God-fearing-man.

I know he has delivered already on the Agenda for Change.

He is indeed going to deliver on the Agenda for Prosperity.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to say a little bit about improving water and sanitation sector.

I am going to narrow it down to my area, my Constituency in Kambia District, Mogbema Chiefdom.
I am happy to report in this noble House that Kambia is benefitting from clean pipe-borne water under the leadership of our President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma (Applause).

For so long we have not had the opportunity of good drinking water in my Constituency for the last 35 years, it is happening now.

For that Mr Speaker, we owe a multitude of gratitude and thanks to our President.

Now the people who packaged water for sale are not coming to Kambia at all.
They are going somewhere else because the water is so clean and purified from the River Kolenten into the homes of our people in Kambia.

I am conveying a big thank to the President.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, it is quite obvious that this country‟s landscape is changing.

This is due to the massive infrastructural changes that we are seeing around 20 this country today.

I will like to call a spade a spade.

If we see white, let us call it white.

Let us don‟t try to cover it up.


There are people who know something good has happened in their areas, but they fail to acknowledge that goodness.

They are only criticizing Mr Speaker.

I rest my case Sir.

HON.

SIDI TUNIS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we know very well that the resources needed to do this kind of road rehabilitation everywhere in the country are not available.

This means with common knowledge we are deceiving the people of this country.
Mr Speaker Honourable Members, if we want to improve some of our roads, the areas have to be prioritized and implemented in phases.

That brings me to encouraging Public/Private Partnership Initiative in the road sector.

On this note, I am appealing to those concerned to give due consideration and prioritize roads leading to Liberia Border areas, namely: the Zimmi/Kenema Road, Zimmi/Gendenma Road up to Sulima and the Bandajuma/Zimmi Roads.
These roads form part of the Trans- African Highways and it will definitely improve and enhance the economic activities and promote trade between the two countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in the last four years, Government has substantially increased its expenditure on Infrastructure.

I thank His Excellency Dr Ernest Bai Koroma profusely for taking such a capital investment projects (Applause).
I humbly implore him to personally intervene and strengthen the relationship between the Road Maintenance Administration and the Sierra Leone Roads Authority for effective service delivery.

These two Institutions are partners.

They are mandated by law to maintain standards of our roads across the country.

It is through coordination and a sustained maintenance programmes that will increase the life-span of the daily rehabilitated and newly constructed roads.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, His Excellency the President has made it very clear that his intention is to encourage greater external investment into our national resources.

The diversification of the Mining Sector to include other minerals and 21 processing facilities is a welcome initiative.

The most talked about Oil Discovery and its potential benefits is also of interest to all Sierra Leoneans.
In all of this, we expect a maximum benefit and also to learn from the mistakes of other countries to avoid disintegration, destruction and marginalization (Applause).

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the oil discovery around the Sulima Axis in my Constituency has attracted a lot of interest.

This discovery is a blessing as it will eventually open up a barrage of opportunities for the area and the country as a whole.
As we welcome this, we also have to take precaution to ensure that it does not become counter-productive.

I therefore call on the Government to legislate laws that will effectively protect the rights of all Sierra Leoneans, now that we are intending to go into this mining in future.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we will definitely not want a recurrent of the ugly situations like those that happened in Kono largely due to poor relationship between the companies and the people.
We will prefer companies that are willing and bound by their obligations to honour their corporate social responsibilities.

We will also recommend environmental impact assessment studies made before the start of the work.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Government of Dr Ernest Bai Koroma has scored some high marks in the area of health service delivery.
The introduction of a free health care initiative which removed user fees for Health Service Delivery for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five years saw an increase in the population, especially poor people accessing health facilities across the country for medical care thereby reducing the death rate amongst those vulnerable groups.

A huge investment is made in the health sector.

A maternity centre, one of the best in the country was constructed and equipped in Pujehun District.
We have one ambulance and one utility vehicle for free health care and service delivery.

We also have in the Pujehun District five basic obstetrics and new neo-natal centres commonly known as „Neo‟ in five chiefdoms in the District.

22 However Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, it is sad to note that up to this moment, these centres do not meet the standard requirements to become a certified neo centres.
Today, the seven signal functions we are talking about are: electricity, water, staffing, laboratory, blood services, drugs and medical equipment and instrument for medical procedures.

These are not available in all the five demo centres.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I must however draw your attention to my Constituency, Constituency 91 in Makpele and Soro-Gbema Chiefdoms.
Constituency 91 is far removed from the other four constituencies and you can only access it from Pujehun Town by crossing the Moa River by local ferry or you go through Kenema, driving a fifty three miles dilapidated road.

Mr Speaker, the highest medical service delivery in my Constituency is the Community Health Centre which is normally equipped to handle basic surgical interventions.

These are manned by Community Health Officers who by law cannot handle any major surgical interventions.
This means that almost all of the major surgical cases are referred to Pujehun Town or Kenema.

Mr Speaker Honourable Members, the people in Soregbema Chiefdom use to go to the border into Liberia.

Mr Speaker, the only functional ambulance that we have in Pujehun Town is permanently stationed in Pujehun.

The travel period between Pujehun and Zimmi, my Constituency Headquarter town is two and half hours in the dry season and quite impossible in the rainy season because the ferry stops running.
Between Kenema and Zimmi is around 3 hours drive.

So you can just imagine that it will take minimum of 6 hours to call for an ambulance to take a sick patient who needs an emergency attention to Kenema and of course, it may just be too late to spend three hours to drive a pregnant woman who needs blood under emergency surgery to Kenema.

It may just be too late (Undertone).

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have lost too many pregnant women in my Constituency because of this situation.
I am therefore pleading with this Government, through this Honourable House and through the support of every one of us to have a hospital constructed in my Constituency.

23 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the President has thrown a challenge to all of us to live up to the expectations of our people.

For any development to take place and be sustained, we must maintain relationships across both sides of this Honourable House.

We must communicate more to know each other.


Mr President, as you serve your Second Term, I want to thank you for the Speech and wish you the very best that you wish yourself.

Thank you very much.

HON.

DAUDA KALLON: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, my constituents asked me to say thanks to His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma.
Mr Speaker, leaders all over the world think but the unique thing about His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma is that he does not only think, but feels for his people and that makes him unique and that is why the issues of this country are very close to his heart.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I see this document as the words of His Excellency the President.

His words are enshrined in this document.

Therefore, this document is a very important document.
With your leave, allow me to embrace and kiss this document (He kissed the Speech).

This document contains the words of my President, your President and the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone.

Mr Speaker, before I got in the canteen a number of colleagues from the other side asked me; S.O.2 “If me nar small bobor?” That is, if I am a small boy, I said to them that this House is not meant for small boys.

This House is meant for responsible and dedicated young men and women.
It is meant for responsible and committed Parliamentarians; people who can articulate and deliver the concerns of their communities to the Government and from the Government to the people.

This is why “small borbor nor de cam naya” (Small boy don‟t come here) because this place is far above the knowledge of a small boy.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, His Excellency is a father of democracy and he is an original democrat not a changed coat democrat.
That is the reason why almost all Sierra Leoneans respected him.

This is the President that is being respected and honoured by people on the other side.

It is difficult for him to be criticized except 24 people want to fulfill their party obligations.

My people are heartened by the fact that I am here to say a very big thank to a man like His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, “the World Best‟” for this moment and for this nation and for all what he is doing.

Thank you very much.


May he live long (applause).

THE SPEAKER: Order!

Honourable Member, who was speaking?

Don‟t be cajoled Honourable Member.

Carry on please.

HON.

DAUDA KALLON: Thank you Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I thank the Almighty God for this great and wonderful golden opportunity for me to be here this morning.
I stand to support the Motion of Thanks to His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, on the Speech he delivered on the occasion of the State Opening of the Fourth Session of the Fourth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.

It is indeed a privilege for me to discuss the statement delivered by no lesser person than His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma.
I represent Constituency 93, consisting of Goderich, Gbendembu, Adonkia, Lakka, Hamilton, Ogu Farm, Tokeh, Kent, York and Mamah Beach.

I am proud to say that this is a „must-go Community‟ for most people, if not all Parliamentarians here.

It is a must-go community because we are endowed with natural gifts and as a result, most of you want to be there.

I welcome all those who want to be in my communities.

You can come peacefully (Laughter).


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, allow me to give you a background about the man whose Speech I want to discuss this morning.

An Honourable man born in the North, Makeni to be precise, but by his volition decided to settle down in Goderich, in my Consistency.

He has been there peacefully, courageously and dedicatedly for many years; and we have been together.

I must confess that I have been in apprenticeship to this Honourable man.

We have certain things in common.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, His Excellency is a man with a wealth of knowledge in the field of Insurance.

To us, this is not just a Presidential Address, but a Presidential Address delivered by a man that I have so much respect for; a man that I know very 25 well that he is a man committed to his words.

He has been our friend, grateful and kind hearted.

He has been a trust worthy brother.

He has been our Leader and is still our Leader.

He is a visionary leader.


He is the President of this country, a unifier, a nation builder, a man who knows no tribe.

I listened to the other side of this Honourable House when somebody was talking about offices occupied with traditional names.

If you go to some offices, you will not be given the right information and I want to say to you that I am in a better position to dispel that false rumour.

Those are false information.

I was born in South-East, proudly Mende, Seri Peri in the Pujehun District.
I started my early schooling in that community.

I was fortunate to meet the light.

I was fortunate to be captured by the right eye and today, I am here groomed to understand and to talk about the importance of what His Excellency has done in this country.

My name is Dauda John Benson Kallon.

That alone speaks volumes.

Back home Mr Speaker, they call me Joe Bosoko, but after orientation, I am now called Honourable Dauda John Benson Kallon, representing this side of the House.
THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, are you replacing another Dauda?

HON.

DAUDA KALLON: You are right Sir.

Mr Speaker, when I was privileged to lay hands on this Document, I took it to my Constituents.

We read through it, we discussed it and my people asked me to come and say to this House that we must give a very big thank to His Excellency the President for all the good things he has done in this country, particularly for what he has done in my Constituency.
Mr Speaker, our tradition demands that we give thanks to people and in so doing we have every reason to pray for them and if you ask my uncle from Pujehun, he will tell you that.

Mr Speaker, allow me to ask God Almighty to bless abundantly the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma.

May he live long and do more for this country.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let me now take you to page 8 of His Excellency‟s Speech, paragraph 34.

I want to read just an extract from it.


It reads: “Mr Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, I hereby pledge the greatest amount of attention of my second term to the Youths of this country.” 26 Mr Speaker, I need not to hold you long on this.

This sentence in itself has given the youths of this Nation abundant hope.

If you go through this document, (I suppose all of us have gone through it), he told the Youths, he appreciated us because of what we did for him throughout his campaign.
We gave him unconditional support; and he is going to dedicate his Second Term to the youths of this country.

And I think I am indeed sure that Honourable Rado Yokie is also a youth (Laughter).

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, for you to know how much this message has impacted the lives of young people in this country, listen to radios and watch television programmes; you will hear youths organisations from every angle craving to be part of the Agenda for prosperity.
This is the President that is true to himself.

This is the President that knows what he says.

This is the President that does the things for the good of this country.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, charity begins at home they say.

Let me bring your attention to some of the achievements the youths of this Nation have got.
Mr Speaker with your leave, this is the very first time in the history of the Republic of Sierra Leone (and I know the other side will accept that) we have a dynamic young man to be the Deputy Speaker of this House.

Honourable Rado Yokie cannot dispute that.

This is the first time in the history of this Parliament under the leadership of His Excellency Dr Ernest Bai Koroma that we are having youth in the person of Honourable Mabinty Fornah in the ECOWAS Parliament.
This is the first time in the history of this country that we are having somebody like Honourable Alimamy Kamara, a very young man in this House to represent us as Youth Minister.

Mr Speaker, the list is exhaustive.

Let me again mention the Honourable Claude Kamanda as Deputy Chief Whip (Applause).
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the composition of this House speaks good about His Excellency „s call on the youths to service and that is why we have over 60 or more percent of youths in this House today on both sides.

Honourable Silikie is over there, Honourable Paran etc.

We thank you very much Sir.

This is a demonstration of His Excellency‟s call on the youths to perform.

There are many more in other offices.

The 27 Minister of Water Resources, Momodu Maligi is a very young man.
Wherever he is coming from, he is a youth and he belongs to Sierra Leone.

The President was referring to the youths of this country, regardless of region, tribe and this is the most important thing we must reckon with.

We have every responsibility to thank Mr President, your President, my President, our President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, “the World Best”.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, there was this motion of 30% quota for the women and sometimes when we ask for 30%, we fail to understand the quality of the 30% Dr Ernest Bai Koroma is looking out for.

His Excellency has always referred to the quota 30%.

That is why we have a prominent woman as earlier mentioned from this side, the Honourable Chief Justice, Umu Tejan-Jalloh.

I don‟t want to go through their names because of repetition.
But the point is that, we have a good number of them in prominent offices in this country and they are now serving the interest of the women of this country.

We must praise His Excellency the President for such a wonderful job.

He respects women.

There has never been a better debate on the issue of 30% quota for women as it is now under the leadership of His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma.

Therefore, we must praise him for that.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in Constituency 93, we are very grateful to His Excellency the President for so many things.

I want to say that His Excellency is next to none in the area of kind-heartedness and philanthropism.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let me speedily touch on the Free-Health Care initiative.

Mr Speaker, the Free-Health Care has been extended un-officially.
Formerly, it covers three categories: lactating mothers, children under five years and pregnant women.

But by extension this Honourable House will agree with me that there have been elderly State men who have been given free medical facility by courtesy of His Excellency the President, and from that time you can testify that….- (Interrupted).

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, you can go on.

Carry on.

28 HON.
Carry on.

28 HON.

DAUDA KALLON: Mr Speaker, I want to repeat that the Free Health Care has been extended unofficially.

There are people who have benefited from that and the other side can attest to that.

People have been given medical facilities to travel to India and other places be it their entitlement or not.

This shows how magnanimous the President is.

This is the President of the people.


And this is the only President that can move to all the areas of this country with the notion of developing this country.

This is the President that is needed at this time.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for this opportunity.

(The House was adjourned for lunch at 12:00 p.m. and resumed at 1:00 p. m.) HON.
MUSTAPHA BRIMA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to add my voice to His Excellency the President‟s Address he so graciously delivered on the occasion of the State Opening of the First Session of the Fourth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone in the Chamber of Parliament, on Friday, 14th December, 2012.
Mr Speaker, as a champion of Pentecostal Theology, I want to start my thanks by expressing gratitude to His Excellency because according to Proverbs 1:7, it says that the beginning of fear in God is the start of wisdom.

And for this purpose, I want to especially thank His Excellency for this purpose.

This is because he had noted very seriously that there is a super natural power that commands and directs the affairs of men.
Therefore, I was encouraged by the Opening Speech on Page 1, where he mentioned „God‟ in the first and second paragraphs.

He said “I once again with faith in God, loyalty to the Constitution….” In the second paragraph, he said: “I am here to reiterate my campaign promises before God”.

I am satisfied that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Therefore, I thank him for that.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, one of the attributes of the Romans was that, flattery was the order of the day.
Therefore, during those times in the Roman History, very decent and sober-minded people rejected flattery because when you are extremely flattered, you always have a loss of direction and we don‟t want that to happen to our President.

29 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, when I listened to my Deputy Leader yesterday, I was encouraged by his prefix of the debate.
He said: “Because of the richness of this Document, you can just hold it and say thank you.” I was also encouraged by the Honourable on the other side, Constituency 95, who spoke about „Commitment.‟ But I said to myself, am I coming here to hold this document and say thank you and sit down?

No.

If I do, it will be a first step by default in failing the people of Constituency 002, Kailahun District.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I regard the Speech as encouraging.
But Mr Speaker, my President, your President, and our President would not go un-accompanied with the rules to utopia of prosperity.

Therefore, I have to make critical assessment and to objectively and genuinely scrutinise the proclamations; the policies he has put in place in this document.

The Honourable Member from Constituency 95 spoke about commitment.

I want to assure Mr Speaker that my being here is in tandem with the commitment to my people.

You have to be committed to your own people.


Therefore, we want to help His Excellency the President and not to flatter him.

This will help to direct the actions taken towards prosperity and for progress.

We have to decide here.

We need to accompany him.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the reason why flattery is dangerous, as a sociologist, Max Zimmerman maintained during the turbulent times in Germany:“a man should be left to make unavoidably fatal mistakes, so that the most stupid will be eliminated and thus human species would be improved”.

That is not encouraging.

You cannot leave somebody to make unavoidably fatal mistake in the 21st Century.

This country is in a hurry for development.


I cannot see myself flattering and not pointing out what is to be done as suggested by Max Zimmerman.

I see the Speech of His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma as statements of „intent‟.

Let me refer you to Page 5.

I am looking at the entire page Mr Speaker, from paragraph 1 to 21.

There the President made mention of the phrase „We will‟ fifteen times.

The phrase: “we will” is stated in this document for fifteen times.
I see that as a statement of intent, because it borders on always „we will.‟ If you go above that page, you will find many 30 more „we will‟ in this document.

I want to get into this debate by starting to say, if you want to go to other places, start from where you are.

I have always been at the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation and I want to start my intervention right from there.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the activities leading to the enactment of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation Act of 2010, and a lot of work has been done in this country towards achieving that.

It started for too long.

I am gratified today to say thank you to Mr President for actualising the intention of those who grew up in that noble institution to actualise the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation to be a State Broadcaster.
The Honourable colleague from Constituency 98, Wellington, made repetitive references to Honourable Mustapha Brima of Constituency 002 in the Kailahun District by that Honourable Member.

Repeatedly, he made references to me.

I was not perturbed by those references.

I was encouraged by them because he manifested that there was a senior colleague here.

I will not bother myself to react to some of those things he said.

I will later react to the salary scale he presented to this House.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I would want to start with the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation or what used to be SLBS/TV.

Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation as I re-affirm my gratitude to His Excellency for actualising it through the support of the United Nations.

That Broadcasting Corporation, which is supposed to be an Independent Institution, is supposed to be generating its own funds to take care of the staff and general operations is far from achieving that today.

It is very unfortunate.


I am not talking politics in my assessment of that situation, but I think a whole time of my life has been in that Institution, so I shall therefore look at it as part of my life.

Therefore, I would not want to see effort for the actualisation of what we have fought for decades to go in vain as it is now happening.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in that Broadcasting Corporation, the primary concern that I have among other things is the leadership of that institution.
Broadcasting is a profession.

It is not like Sani Abacha Street where somebody with the 31 loudest voice is made the leader.

It is not like the University of Sierra Leone where the student that causes a lot of noise or speaks good English is made the President.

No!

This is a professional job.

Key players who decided to set up the Corporation send out Adverts that anybody who becomes the Director-General should be a person who has had Broadcasting Management for ten (10) years.
That is the start of the problem.

It did not happen.

I would also like to see Honourable Members investigate some of the appointments that are made in that institution.

Where is the 10 years broadcasting Management Experience in the advert?

Or is it because you were teaching in a University as a lecturer or coming from the Diaspora or you are coming from Bo or Makeni?

No.
No.

I encourage this Parliament not to talk about politics if at all we want to achieve the principles of „Agenda for Prosperity,‟ prescribed by His Excellency the President.

For us to achieve that, we have to be sincere to what we are doing.

It did not happen for the leadership of that institution.

Somebody was removed from somewhere whom I think read Peace and Conflict and made Head of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation.
As if that was not enough Mr Speaker, somebody collected an old Primary school teacher to be the Deputy.

Who is going to design the programmes?

Who is going to provide information to the leadership?

That is why it is called a Broadcasting Management.

It is not for everybody.

Mr Speaker, I need your protection Sir.

I need…-(Interrupted).

THE SPEAKER: Courtesy required that you listen to contributions made by your colleagues.
I hope you would not give me the opportunity or cause to call your attention again.

Carry on Honourable Member.

HON.

MUSTAPHA BRAIMA: This report was commissioned in December, 2011.

There were some problems with the leadership.

Here, when you are the Director-General or in the higher cadre of leadership at the broadcasting house, you do even the simplest jobs staying by your side to monitor the programmes.

You have to listen to the radios.


An announcer is not just an administrator, but a professional.

The announcer should be a person who would look at the synopsis of the programmes, their contents, and the management of time line in the production.

Every production activity in the station is 32 grossly lacking today.

We are now depending on virtual reality, an indication to show how we have been reduced.
That is why we have been reduced to the level of not working as professionals, but we are working as political reporters for the other side.

That brought about the damning report by the European Union in the conclusion of the last general and presidential elections.

The European Union stated that about 64% of air time was given to the ruling party.

This was not a hidden secret at all.

The report was on air on all the radio stations and even the British Broadcasting Corporation.
We want to see broadcasters who can stay at the middle to do their professional work.

We don‟t want them to be influenced.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to really thank the lower cadre of our colleagues.

They are working relentlessly to catch up the professionally unsupervised work.

They are to catch up with the challenges of the moment.

I sympathise with them.

I congratulate all of them.


They are moving with wires as old as the age of Methuselah in the Bible; but they still manage to work unsupervised.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to encourage His Excellency because he had laid premium on probity and accountability.

If you go through the report, you will find out that there is a big disagreement between the Board and the Management.
Management is the higher cadre of that institution which is not really producing the kind of zeal Mr President would have loved to see.

I know because of the flagship tendency.

People are failing to tell him.

I want to take this opportunity to tell Mr President that he has to look at the SLBC critically, so that it will serve the nation and not to serve one person or a group of people.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, there is a problem in this report, talking about the procurement of a satellite that has created and engendered animosity within the broadcasting institution.

I want to encourage for the sake of accountability that the Anti-Corruption Commission examines the procurement of that satellite.

This is because the centre can no longer hold.

They are all falling apart.

The Directors are going one side whilst the deputy directors are going the other way.
Therefore, they should be 33 investigated.

Let them probe into the purchase of that satellite.

Fortunately, I am a member of the Information and Communications Committee.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am grateful to my junior colleagues who are working hard in that institution.

They are really trying.

But there is problem with the spirit of cohesion and unity.

To produce one programme on radio, you need about at least minimum of 10 people to be involved in the production of just one news item.
The production line should have a minimum of 10 people.

These are the foot soldiers that are doing the work.

You have people that report on the spot.

They are not catered well for.

Some people are staying there because of job employment problem.‟ This is derailing the development of this country.

We should be competing with broadcasting stations like the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.

The structural arrangement of our station is poor.


It is not catering for the junior cadre to do their work effectively.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the other thing that is so annoying for the development of a media project like that…- (Interrupted).

THE SPEAKER: I will not take kindly to any unnecessary disruption coming from MP‟s on my right hand.

Please, normal ordinary elementary courtesy requires that you listen to contributions made by your colleague.
I hope you do not give me opportunity or cause to call your attention again.

Carry on please.

HON.

MUSTAPHA BRAIMA: Thank you Mr Speaker.

They are doing quite a very good work.

They go on the spot and report those things that are not easily done.

It needs support and funds.

But where are the funds?

The president chipped in just to get the station running.

It is a shame for a corporation.

It would have been better for an SLBS TV and not SLBC.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, instead of looking at ways and means of building the capacity of our young broadcasters, the attention is focused on rankling between the Directors and the leadership of the corporation, whilst some of us had enjoyed trainings from Radio programmes such as the Netherlands Training Centre in Holland.

Some have 34 benefitted from the One World Broadcasting Trust in England, while other people have also benefitted immensely from the Radio Dutchavella.
These were all connections the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation should be maintaining.

Instead of looking at those facilities that would expose our young people to go out to arm themselves to be very good broadcasters yet, there are internal rankling over finance.

And worst of it all, if you look at broadcasting corporations in Ghana or Kenya or South Africa, the Director-General is never the secretary to that board.

That is another problem been created.


The Director-General is never a secretary to that board.

What happened is that the report came out to state that even when there are Board meetings they spend at least one or two hours quarrelling over minutes.

Mr Speaker, S. O.

2 “bo nↄ to dat wi ryt,” (That was not what we wrote).

So, if you allow the Director-General to take minutes of a Board meeting and he is the Director-General you can imagine the rest.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, other broadcasting corporations have Company Secretary.

I am also suggesting that we have a company secretary that is legally minded to take the minutes.

The Company Secretary will be very neutral between the Board and the management.

I know the Board and Management relationship is not always cordial.

But it could be maintained to some level.


I am encouraging His Excellency the President with all the good ideas of the UN Secretary-General in establishing the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation.

Let Sierra Leoneans, including my people in Constituency 2, Pendembu and parts of Luawa Chiefdom to enjoy the facilities of a corporation.

If you look at the moribund SLBC radio station in Kailahun, you will never hear anything from that except community radio station, Radio Moa.
People are suffering and that is supposed to be the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Station with good intention from Mr President.

Our people are not benefiting at all.

Somebody called me on phone from my Constituency to ask whether we have started the debate.

They complained of not enjoying the debates.

When the centre cannot hold there is disintegration and deterioration of facilities and programmes.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have spent a lot of time with the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC).

The junior staff are doing quite a good job.

They 35 need to be encouraged.

Somebody needs to take the leadership.

Let us examine the prescriptions of being a broadcaster.

It is not somebody who makes the loudest noise should become a broadcaster.

You have to go through trainings.

The advertisement was for 10 years experience in Broadcast Management.
Let the President look at that critically and examine the leadership of that institution.

On that note Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I congratulate my colleagues.

They are doing a fine job.

Our worries are being relayed amidst all the problems we are facing.

There is what we call coping mechanism.

That is what the junior ones are applying whilst the others are looking the other side.

The only thing under broadcasting I want to comment on is the proliferation of radio stations in the country.
I don‟t have problems with how many radio stations are established in this country.

But what I would love to see is for the Ministry of Information and Communications to be supervising and monitoring those radio stations.

Let them know if these radio stations are working in line with the principles of broadcasting.

We have various categories of radio stations.

For examples, it would be a public, private or community radio stations.
We are now seeing community radio stations going beyond their communities to enter into very crude politics.

It is unfortunate in this country.

We have FM stations in other countries.

In Ghana for example, the Joy FM is a critical radio station.

It looks at every aspect of humanity in Ghana.

Let us have radio stations.


But I want to encourage those editors and proprietors/proprietresses of those stations to look at the rationale for establishing those stations, so that they will follow it to the latter and not to deviate from its aims and objectives.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I would like to encourage the Ministry of Information and Communications to supervise and monitor the operations of some of these stations to the extent that the frequencies would no longer intercept one another.
In place like Kenema, when you want to listen to BBC, it is difficult.

There is another radio station they call Radio Boda.

This radio Boda and the SLBC are all mixed up because there is no monitoring and effective supervision.

The advice I am giving them also is that they should not give license without following-up.

It may not be Mr Speaker or Honourable 36 Members, but for the interest of us all.

Remove politics out of it.


Let them be monitored to see what was in their project proposal document is maintained.

Let the Ministry of Information monitors these radio stations strictly.

These are some of the issues I want to take with my Chairman on Information and Communications, probably to pursue some of these issues.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, it is so sweet when you are treading in a very comfortable terrain.

You enjoy yourself as I am enjoying myself.


I have lived long in engagement of that.

I want to see it bear fruits in this country.

Mr Speaker, in the last two to three decades in this country, the history of that station will never be completed if Mustapha Braima is not mentioned.

I want to see it forge ahead.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the other thing is the monitoring mechanism we have in this country; the Independent Media Commission (IMC).
Let some efforts be made to build their capacity and let us allow their independence in the judgments and investigations they do.

Let us have an Independent Media Commission; let us allow them to be independent, which is an indictment to some of us here.

The politicians are the ones that normally infiltrate into the rank and file of the IMC simply because they have interest in some of the cases in that institution.
Therefore, you set a journalist against another journalist whilst you sit down to enjoy the drama.

Please, let us leave the IMC to do its work.

Let us encourage the Government of this country with the good prescription laid before us in this Speech.

There is good intention of prosperity.

But there is no prosperity if your people are not well informed.

Information is power.

When a government wants to impoverish its people, the first area the Government shuts down is the information.
Mr Speaker, we are now in the 21st century.

Let us be ourselves.

Let us give power to our people in this age.

The social media is now working.

That is why Mokowa, in the Kailahun District give praises to the President as my colleagues on the other side have been doing for the past two days because of social media.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have a technical area which I do not want to talk about.

My colleague on the other side has made one or two statements and making 37 reference to me.
I want to take this opportunity to tell my Honourable colleague on the other side that I was paid Le 150, 000 at that time.

Mr Speaker, with such amount at that time, I was able to buy a Blue Bird Nissan Salone Car (Interruption).

THE SPEAKER: Don‟t be surprised that quite a number of us in this room would not believe you, but I believe you because I know (Laughter).

HON.

MUSTAPHA BRAIMA: I will explain that Mr Speaker.

This is because these were monies saved within a couple of years.
You would be able to buy a car.

For how long at this moment would you be able to save and buy a car?

It would take you years to do that.

It will take you endlessly Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Let us have it in English then.

HON.

MUSTAPHA BRAIMA: Endlessly means „without end.‟ You would go home and would not be able to buy a Salone car, not even an Okada, or a wheelbarrow.

Mr Speaker, I was able to purchase a car with that meager salary.
Today, most of them are receiving something like Le 1,000,000 or Le 600,000.

With that money they are receiving now cannot even buy them an Okada.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am gratified that my conscience and my commitment to my people in constituency 2, who know me and the people of Freetown as a broadcasting celebrity.

I would have done injustice to them, especially those who have not got the power to speak on the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let me leave that and continue with other things.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have an opportunity to be in the International Fund for Agricultural Development Mission in Sierra Leone, headed by the Country Portfolio Manager Bolhard Hubord.

We went to Kailahun and somebody was asked what was his problem.

Somebody came out to explain the problem of Kailahun.

He said, if there is anything we need in Kailahun is 1, road; 2, road; 3, road; 4, road; and 5, good roads.
This means that Kailahun District is really behind in terms of road rehabilitation and construction.

I remembered during the campaign, I was fortunate to have been in 38 Giehun and a large fleet of vehicles went to Kailahun.

That was the time I saw highly placed people in that community.

They came down from their vehicles to turn up their trousers and to walk half a mile to Kailahun.

Mr Speaker, that shows the deplorable conditions of those roads.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, as if that is not enough, there is a border town called Bomaru.

Bomaru is not a strange town to all Sierra Leoneans.

It was at Bomaru the rebel war started.

In Bomaru, for the sake of security, that‟s a border town with Liberia.

The contiguity between Sierra Leone and Liberia is in the hands of Bomaru.

Therefore, there is a bridge linking the headquarter town of Pendembu to that village.

Somebody was given the contract to build a bridge of few metres.
Mr Speaker, it will surprise you to note that I have never seen that kind of engineering before, where six pillars were put up and since then, nothing has been done to continue that work.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, by the time the rains started, two pillars out of the six pillars that were erected were down.

Therefore, I am now imagining if they have floated that bridge, it would have been a disaster.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the name is clear.

I have engaged him on several occasions.


My interview with him is not going to be enough.

But I would present the case to Parliament.

With your leave Mr Speaker, this is the situation that those people have been suffering from for the past two years.

Two of the pillars are now in the water.

I want to plead with the President, since he is talking about everybody enjoying the fruits of the good things of Sierra Leone.
I want the people of Constituency 2 and the people of Bomaru, which is a strategic town benefit from the fruits of this Nation.

I remember when His Excellency made a visit to Pendembu.

That issue came up and he asked somebody to note that down.

For him, there was a follow-up on those issues and there was a promise of additional funding.

But when the additional funding was given, it did not go to a new contractor.

The funds went to the same contractor that has got the pillars on the water.
Therefore, we are still struggling with the same problem.

I want the President, through his minister to examine those situations.

39 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Kenema-Pendembu road has been a trumpeted road in that region.

The road has been praised to be a very good road.

But with your leave Mr Speaker I want to read Paragraph 69.
It reads: “as we aspire towards diversified economic growth and a more prosperous society, we commit ourselves to providing improved transport, communication and information services to our people”.

Our people are suffering greatly.

If you go to Kenema to get transportation to Pendembu, it is indeed a herculean task.

The Road Transport Corporation Bus only manages to send a bus on the peripheral part of the district and that is Segbwema.
I want to kindly ask His Excellency to think about the people of constituency 2.

Mr Speaker, I am also making this appeal to His Excellency to ease the transportation problem for the Luawa people.

They usually come down to Pendembu to join the Road Transport Bus to Freetown.

We are asking that a consideration be made for a bus service from Freetown to Pendembu.

This is to ensure that the people of Kailahun and Luawa Chiefdom have access to good transportation.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to round up with Agriculture.

I spent at least a couple of my life in agriculture as a coordinator for the International Monetary Fund and International Development Association (IDA) in Kono and Kailahun.

It is a very good programme if is well managed in this country.

One of the most attractive ventures they took and which is benefitting our communities is the creation of Financial Services Association (FSA) or village banks.
The Okada riders and market women are now getting funds to do their petty trading.

That is perfect.

But I am not comfortable with the other side of the agriculture.

That is, the establishment of the ABCs.

Mr Speaker, their establishment is a hub centre for commercial activities.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, one day, I went to Siama in my Constituency.

When I went there, the people cannot even tell me why a structure like that was put up in their village.
When I asked them they told me that they didn‟t know anything concerning that structure.

And that they only saw a group of people putting up structures.

Therefore, I want to encourage the communication components of that ministry engage the people to sensitise them about the worthiness of those ventures.

40 But Mr Speaker, the structures are so small that by the time you put 20 bushels, you have no place for the other commodities.

Let them consider that also.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to appreciate and I want to thank you and the leadership and all the Members of this House for giving me this golden opportunity to address this noble House.

I will go home today with my head high and I will sleep because I have spoken on those issues that are bordering the citizens of this country and the people of Kailahun District in particular.

I thank you very much as I rest my case (Applause).

HON.
HON.

BLISS OSHO-WILLIAMS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I rise to lend my support to the Speech given by His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma on the 14th December, 2012.

In his words, deeds, expressions and deliberations, this Speech is second to none.

The Speech is excellent in its entirety.

Permit me to say this that the duty of the opposition is to oppose constructively.

The people in governance only praise the Government.

You have to praise and give honour to whom honour is due.
You know what they call 77 (1) k?

If you don‟t oppose you are out; and likewise if you don‟t praise you are out.

In short, my duty is to praise.

If I am wrong you tell me (Laughter).

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, is that your understanding of 77 (1) k?

HON.

BLISS OSHO-WILLIAMS: That‟s it Mr Speaker.

If I criticize, then, I am out.

That is my understanding Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Proceed Honourable Member.

HON.

BLISS OSHO-WILLIAMS: Mr Speaker, honour must be given to whom honour is due.
In this case, honour, might, glory, power and valour go to you my handsome and beloved President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma.

Let us put this in perspective.

For the first time since independence in the history of Sierra Leone we have a formidable figure.

He was the head boy in his school.

Am I wrong?

The Minority Leader of the 41 opposition was a head girl in her school.

Am I wrong?

If I am wrong, please tell me.

Today on this side our Majority Leader was head boy of his school.

Am I wrong?
Am I wrong?

Mr Speaker was also a head boy during his days.

This means that we have a very vibrant legislature.

The executive headed by former head boys and head girls.

We are what you would call cross roads, especially when we shall have finished this administration.

I would be out after my five years.

The five years would be enough to service my people.

I will be right behind the President.

I will out with the President.

At my age, I must speak the truth.


This is because when I am dead and gone, you will lay me out there in the State Hall.

People will be saying, S.O.2 „dis pa nᴐ bin de tᴐk di tru.‟ (That is, this old man was not speaking the truth).

Therefore, I am going to speak the truth.

I am going to take off my party colours and speak as a Sierra Leonean.

Have I got the permission from my leader to go ahead?

No, there is 77 (1) k in the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we got what you will call the litmus test to show that you have the right to rule next time and to show that they don‟t have the right to rule next time.

Mr Speaker, when you look at the President, if I am not wrong, he got the vitality and the dignity of the Mende tribe.

He has the vigour and intelligence of a Themnɛ man.

He has the honesty and sincerity of the Susu.

He also has the money making instinct and the prayerful nature of a Fullah man.
He has the loyalty of the Konos and the understanding of a Krio man.

The Krios are in the minority.

Therefore, we the Krios have to be careful.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let us put it this way.

To be a perfect gentleman, you have to change many things.

You cannot get perfection without having changed through trial and error.

So, when you criticize, try to praise your Government.
At the end of the day, he who changes most becomes perfect and on this occasion the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, the father of the Armed Forces, Peace Maker and Fountain of Honour, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma is perfect in his aspirations for this country.

42 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, there is a place in England called Bleshly Park.

Those who have been to the UK must know Bleshly Park.
During the WWII, those who are as old as myself will remember that when the war started, the Germans were torpedoing the British ship in their hundreds.

Therefore, they could not deliver arms to the other side to fight the war; and the Germans were gaining strength all the time.

The 1939 to 1945 war was the Second World War.

The British were clever than the Americans.

They did not go capturing or trying to torpedo the German ships.

They tried to capture one of the submarines of the Germans.
They captured the submarine and took out the equipment that was being used by the Germans.

They captured the submarine but didn‟t get time to torpedo it.

They took the equipment and all the brains of Germans to England to a place called Bleshly Park and kept them there.

They are the brains of all tribes, all sectors of the society; Scottish, Welsh, English etc.

They were there for four months.

When they finally got it right, they used it against the Germans and therefore, they started winning the war.
This was all mentioned here with dignity about Goderich.

Goderich was the Bleshly Park of Sierra Leone where Dr Ernest Bai Koroma got all the brains of Sierra Leone like the Mendes, Themnɛs, Limbas, Fullahs, Loko, etc.

He put them together and let us work it out how we can develop this country.

The President got it right.

Mr Speaker Honourable Members, there are three great Prime Ministers in my lifetime that I respected in this country.
The first one was a man of dignity, respectability and a man who possessed the devotion of others.

He was Dr Milton Margai, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Sierra Leone.

He gave this country dignity, respectability and independence.

You also have Siaka P. Stevens and Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh.

The other person I want to mention here is Alhaji Dr Tejan Kabba.

Alhaji Dr Tejan Kabba gave us peace.

I will tell you today what you don‟t know.


I was a keen supporter of the Sierra Leone People‟s Party (SLPP).

This was because that Alhaji Dr Tejan Kabba symbolizes dignity and respect.

He gave us peace.

And for the fact that he gave us peace means that we must say thanks to former President Alhaji Tejan Kabba.

After Former President Tejan Kabba, we come to another great man, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma.

43 Whether you like it or not, we have to be realistic and honour must be given to whom honour is due.
I have lived long enough than most of you Members of Parliament, as well as the Speaker of this Honourable House.

For that matter, I think I am the oldest in this House.

I am pretty sure about it.

For the first time in the history of Sierra Leone, nowhere else in this country you have got a President in the person of Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, who had made this country what it is today.

But I will dwell myself more on the present leadership.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Ernest Koroma came to power when I was sitting where you are sitting now.

At any time from now, the Appointment Committee would try to approve somebody.

There would be murmurs on this side.

The President has made his appointment.

Today, I am a member of that Committee.

You will not know who is a Mende man from Themne man, or a Limba man from a Foullah man.

Everybody has got the right to serve under Dr Ernest Bai Koroma‟s government.
Therefore, I say to you all, irrespective of affiliation, SLPP, PMDC, APC, UDP etc, all congratulated this great man for what he has done for this Nation.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have four girls, four boys, and 6 grand-children.

I worked hard in making them.

Whilst some of you were sleeping, I was busy making children.

Therefore, when I am talking about women, I am talking about girls that I have got in my house.

My daughters and my grandchildren asked for 30%.


Well, they should have asked for 50%.

I will tell you the last man to be hung in England.

His name was James Anrat in 1957.

The last woman to be hung in England was Dane Alice Rye, in 1870.

She was hung because she joined the revolution to overthrow the King.

After that, no woman was hung from 1870.

There was also another great woman, Emily Pancost.

She fought hard for the women to get their votes and their voting rights in 1908.
She was imprisoned and spoon fed.

Have I made myself clear?

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in 1908, they passed the Representation of People‟s Act.

And from 1908-1928, they gave women the right to vote after the WW1.

Mr Speaker, I am saying to the women of this country that if they are asking for less, they 44 get less; and if they are asking for more, they get more.

Therefore, go for the maximum.

I was surprised to see that women that are coming here feeling inferior to men.
I remember when we started allowing women to announce on radios in England.

We were all saying that women should not be allowed.

We were saying why women should go there.

We described as clumsy.

Not too long, one of the Directors came to us and said that women are honest, sincere and genuine when they speak.

Therefore, I say to the women of this country to stick to fight their way out.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to talk about the Wilkinson road and the Airport.
If you all agree with me, please clap.

This is the reason why I am going to say this; and I am sure you are going to support me.

There is a college called Milton Margai College of Education.

I am proud of that.

He was a good man.

He deserved such memory.

Our stadium was called Siaka Steven Stadium.

We in the APC have Siaka Steven Street.

Mr Speaker, I think that the new Wilkinson Road and the new Airport must be called Ernest Bai Koroma Airport and Ernest Bai Koroma Road.
I am going to move a motion on that when the time comes.

I want your camera to be turned to the Honourable Members on the other side of this Honorable House Mr SLBC Reporter.

I was going to ask if the opposition agree with me about renaming of the Wilkinson road….-(Interrupted).

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, let me caution you.

I think you are treading on dangerous ground; and those who were here in the last Parliament would attest to that fact.
We had a visiting Head of State on a new year Monday and somebody got up from this Well of Parliament and said I am moving a Motion on….. That caused a lot of problem.

Give your notice of motion to the Clerk‟s Office.

HON.

BLISS OSHO WILLIAMS: I will give my notice of motion to the Clerk‟s Office Mr Speaker.

But at the same time, I want to thank you Mr Speaker for directing me.

You don‟t have to clap or smile.

Just tap your big toe on the ground, and I‟ll watch it.

I saw some of them clapping.


I vow to my country and my people that this President is the greatest President Sierra Leone has ever had.

I vow to you my people.

I was sent 45 by my people from Bololo, Berwick Street, Krootown Road, Kroo-Bay, Kroo Town Road Market, Adelaide Street, Susan Bay, Government Wharf and Abacha Street.

Mr President, you are simply the best and the greatest this country has ever had.

Long Step is my favourite area Mr Speaker.

I forgot to mention that area.


I vow to you Mr beloved President and my beloved country to stay good as you are.

Please stay long and serve your country as you are doing.

Be faithful and sincere to your country.

We will always be with you and support you I want to end by repeating my earlier statement that never in the history of this Nation or in the history of this generation that this country has got a vibrant leader like Dr Ernest Bai Koroma.
I am saying this from the bottom of my heart with all honesty.

I am not saying this because of party loyalty or affiliation.

Mr Speaker, without hesitation and inch of doubt that this is the greatest President Sierra Leone has ever had.

I thank you Mr Speaker and Honourable Members of the opposition (Applause).

HON.

P. C. VICTOR SIDI KEBBIE: Thank you Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I know all of you are happy because we are all one.
I join my colleagues to express my sincere thanks to His Excellency the President for the good intention he has for this country and for all that he has done.

If I were in the position to bless this book I would take it as my every day sacred Bible.

And for those of you coming in newly, I am telling you, I am talking as an experienced Parliamentarian having served this House for more than three terms, and this is going to be the fourth term.

I may be the oldest Parliamentarian for now.


Ansu Kaikai had a break, but I had never had a break.

He contested and there was a problem, so he lost for two months.

But I have never left this place, so I know more about this ground.

If in this country anybody is to testify what is going on, it should be we the traditional rulers, because we are everyday with the people.
Let me tell some of you who are just coming in, I remembered when H.E the President was going through his speech during the State Opening of Parliament, he came to a point where he said he has looked around and he cannot see some people, and he was right.

Do you know why he never saw them?

It is because they failed to dance to the tune of good music.
It is always like that in politics; we come here and 46 took an oath, this is the reason why some of you leave this place, and you do not enjoy your life for too long.

Because when you go through that oath, and you go outside, saying the wrong things, God is going to punish you for that.

So let us be very honest.

I am looking at you people because a lot of mistakes are coming from this end.
Yes, people are misquoting, people are misjudging, people are making misleading statements and that‟s the reason they don‟t live long.

We are in this Parliament to represent our people.

(Undertones) Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we‟ve all seen the development in this country that we are enjoying today (Sierra Leone).

The country economy is growing; Hon.

Rado, you are the right man.

You can explain.


And when you talk about experience, it depends; if you are not given a job you will never get an experience.

And experience goes with age, and there is age limit in the civil service in this country.

It does not mean that because Mr Y was an experienced man you have to look at the other side, how old was Mr Y when he was removed from the office?

We have young graduates coming up, we have our brothers coming up, and everybody should be given a chance.
When you are given a chance, then you‟ll get the experience.

It is not you that should be just there as a result of your age.

If chieftaincy was for a period of time, then you don‟t know what chieftaincy is all about.

We have all been driving from here to Bo and from Bo maybe to Koribondo or Kenema.

I remember when we came in newly, like Ansu looking at me very seriously, the road was not completed, it was not good, and now it is good.
Listen, I am not talking about politics here, I am talking about what I am seeing and what has happened and what is happening in our country.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in Pujehun, we stand to praise His Excellency the President very much because of what he has done for us in Pujehun.

If you go to the old part of Pujehun Township, the place has changed completely.

We have one of the best hospitals and we have three medical doctors.

Since independence, we‟ve never had more than one.

47 HON.
47 HON.

ANSU KAIKAI: Mr Speaker, I stand on S.O.

33.

The Honourable Paramount Chief keeps referring to me.

I am not his reference material Mr Speaker (Laughter).

HON.

P.C VICTOR SIDI KEBBIE: Mr Speaker, he could be my reference point Sir.

THE SPEAKER: Deputy Minority Leader, give me any good reason as to why you are interrupting this proceeding.

HON.
HON.

P. C. VICTOR SIDI KEBBIE: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to remind those who were around when His Excellency the President, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma took the governance of this country.

He said he was going to run this country like a business.

He is going on with that nicely.

Some of you who were not fortunate to see a train moving in those days you can now go to the northern part of this country to see how trains are moving.

You will never believe it.


Gentlemen, please listen and learn from me.

The President has invited all creditable international investors to come to this country and invest.

International companies are now coming into this country to boast our economy.

For some of you who are not fortunate to go to my own area, we have an Agricultural Company in that area.

I am inviting you to go there and see.

The last time, I had an MP here who was very unprogressive, who could not see reasons at all.
He thought by opposing me he was going to be voted again to come back to this Parliament.

That was how he lost his job.

He lost the elections because he failed to embrace development.

So, I am telling all of you here to embrace development.

Don‟t just say because it is APC that is doing this development.

Any government that comes to power is obliged to develop your area.

We should not say because this party is the brain behind this development I should support that development.
Your people will reject you.

Honourable Rado Yokie, you wouldn‟t have been here today.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in the Agricultural Sector, we have the Gold Tree Agricultural Company at Kailahun District.

It is doing very well in that area.

Development is not easily embraced by our local people.

Human beings cannot easily accept changes.

So, what the President has done is to bring Multilateral Companies into this country to help and even provide money through tax assistance.
It is a huge help 48 to the government.

It can really boost up our economy.

Ansu is a living witness to that.

I don‟t just praise people like that.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want you to know that.

I am a chief, apart from the fact that I should work with the government of the day, I am very reasonable in my judgments.

I tell you what I am saying here now, I can even go around the cotton tree and say it again loud and clear, because you see evidences of it.
I am not going to be that type of person who comes from our area with colours„ yellowism‟, „greenism‟, „redism‟ etc.

I know, I have always been praising His Excellency the President and believe it, let me confirm to you as somebody said, Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, as far as our country is concern, we are praying that after this President, we have another leader that would be as good as him.

I have people here who were my schoolmates and they know me very well.

I cannot hide behind my fingers.


People like Dr Bernadette Lahai, Hon.

Ansu Kaikai know the type of character I have.

The President is extremely a good man.

If you are a good human being and you are very caring, if you don‟t bring out your intention and follow them, then you are not a good human being.

If you don‟t plan what you intend doing, then you are not a good human being.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, what this President has done again in the health sector is that most of our young girls who cannot easily go through higher education are now enrolling in the nursing field.

And let me tell you, each nurse you see now has a bank account.

This is the first time we have seen a President during election time, laughing and playing with the people each place he visited.
He went all over the country, we want other people to be like that, do your campaign and allow people to assess you.

Some of us are here to be good preachers for whosoever is ready and is in the position to move this country.

Like any other district, Pujehun district is not just for one man.

We are all peers, and therefore, praise His Excellency the President.

The president is a God fearing man.

I could remember other leaders, if you are not very close to them they forget about you.
Pujehun did not vote 4 for 4, and yet still, they have 5 ministerial positions.

We don‟t even deserve that, but it‟s a good thing for your district.

At least, each minister will try to do something that will be in the minds of his/ 49 her people.

In this country, it‟s natural, excuse me SO (2) „you scratch my back then I scratch your back‟, but we did not scratch the man‟s back and he continues to encourage all of us.
Look at Bo town where we all grew up, went to school there when you are walking or driving in Bo town, you will enjoy good streets.

He is that type of President.

Njala will have stayed in Bo or even in Freetown here, but he said, Njala should go back to Makonde village.

It‟s not an intention, but by action.

we are seeing progress being implemented.

Yes, look at the hospital in Bo, Hon.

Kaikai knows very well, because recently I saw him there.
It is one of the best hospitals in this country; another is in Kenema…-(Interrupted).

Hon.

S. B.

B. Dumbuya (Majority Party Leader): Just one point of observation Mr Speaker.

The Honourable Ansu Kaikai might be a very good reference point that is why the Honourable Chief is talking about him.

HON.

P. C VICTOR SIDI KEBBIE: Mr Speaker, Hon.

Ansu Kaikai is my elder brother; he grew up in my Chiefdom and we have been together for nearly seventeen years.

We all went to Conakry during the war.


I have nothing bad about the former President, Tejan-Kabbah, but Ansu Kaikai knows very well that I was very critical with his behavior and I had a big pinch of salt about him.

I told him my piece of mind.

Mr Speaker honourable Members, let me just give you a small story.

When Mr Berewa was campaigning to become President of this country, he went to Pujehun and I was there and I was never supporting him.
He stood up and said “Pujehun may support me, but there is one person here that would not support me”, and then I stood up and said, it‟s me.

He said, yes, but we will talk it over and then after the meeting he called people and he spoke to me and then we had a clear understanding on issues, before ever I supported him.

For some people, they just give blind support.

They don‟t really know where they are going.


Mr Speaker, there is something that is just too natural that is not everybody will go to heaven.

Yes, it‟s just too natural - not everybody will go to heaven.

No matter what you may say, there are people who will prefer going to hell.

50 THE SPEAKER: Honourable Paramount Chief, do not be too disparaging to colleague MPs, let us try to be charitable.

HON.

P. C VICTOR SIDI KEBBIE: Thank you Mr Speaker.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am the representative of the Chiefs in Pujehun District in this Parliament.

If I don‟t serve the government well, I will not be able to take developmental programmes to my chiefdom; it means I‟m not a good leader.

Pujehun District is going to benefit from one of those vocational institutions that they are going to build and that is in Sahrmalen where I come from.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, under the leadership of the President, it has been approved and contractors are preparing to go there and that will serve not only Pujehun, but maybe even eastern province or Bo district.

You need to go there; this President is a very good man.

He has sympathy for the females, for our sisters.

I remembered somebody said they would have asked for 50%, but they asked for30%.

In fact, the world acknowledges that the 30% is too much and even 5% to be given to women.
We will not give them Mr Speaker that percentage.

We would not even give them 2%, because the world is now becoming more democratic.

If that is the case Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, only the fittest or strongest will survive.

If you say you are a woman and you want to compete with men you must have the necessary requirements and character that will entice people within that community to support you to represent them.

We will never allow the ratio of 30%.


This is because if we give them 30%, they will ask for 60%; and they may not even measure up to the challenge.

The Minister of Finance in Nigeria is a female and she is very outstanding.

She deserves it; let us try and create the awareness to our daughters to learn and be very serious, let us try and tell our sisters to be very serious and to avoid going to the beaches at night.

I see them there with many big men (Laughter).


THE SPEAKER: Honourable Paramount Chief, on that very high note, we‟ll bring this sittings to an end; let us don‟t go higher than that.

51 ADJOURNMENT (The House rose at 2.35 p.m., and was adjourned until Wednesday, 6th February, 2013, at 10.00 a.m.).

52