The Acting General Manager of the Sierra Leone Airport Authority John Braima has said that workers at the airport were not foreigners but Sierra Leoneans.The airport authority has been facing persistent pressures from some people in the Kaffu Bullom Chiefdom for job opportunities and other developmental issues because of the location of the airport.
Answering to questions from Awoko in an interview about the airport’s corporate social responsibility, he answered that apart from their statutory responsibility for the nation and the traveling public, they have a social responsibility to the community where the airport finds itself.
He disclosed that voluntarily, managers in particular contribute from their income to a scholarship fund that was established by the company an amount which is beefed up with the company contribution.
He thus said scholarships are given to deserving students and majority of them hail from Kaffu Bullom Chiefdom. “Some of them don’t come from Kaffu Bullom but they are Sierra Leoneans who deserve equal share of the cake because the airport is a national cake its location does not mean it belongs absolutely to the people of that area.”
Besides that, he further revealed that the airport gives holiday jobs “that too, we give a good proportion to Kaffu Bullom students and also we contribute immensely to all social functions in Lungi.”
He revealed that all Schools, and Mosques and social clubs write to the airport for financial assistance, to which they respond positively.
He advised that the question of “saying that workers at the airport are strangers” when they are Sierra Leoneans, should be wiped off from people’s mind. “Those working there are all Sierra Leoneans irrespective of the area or zone, town or tribe they come from.” We should be seen to be socially contributing to the community in helping them in development” he stated.
The acting General Manager pointed out that every Sierra Leonean has the right to work in any part of the country if qualified for the job
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