As part of their responsibility in ensuring a unified nation, the National Commission for Democracy (NCD) on Wednesday 12th August 2020 engaged stakeholders in developing sensitization messages on national unity and development at the Council of Churches Sierra Leone (CCSL) hall. According to the Director of Programs at NCD, Khalil Sillah, the event is a thought-provoking intellectual exercise that has brought together communication professionals, poets and musicians to brainstorm, guide and produce the messages.
“The workshop is intended to provide an opportunity to assess several messages to be able to select the most appropriate ones that will be more contextually suitable to the current political context,” he said. He disclosed that the project generally aimed at improving political attitudes and behavioral patterns that are favorable to the functioning of the democratic system of the country.
The Program Director disclosed that the objectives of the event is to bring communication experts, musicians, poets and governance professionals to brainstorm on critical governance situation aimed at developing civic messages to be used as a tool to build strong civic awareness in the country. According to the NCD Chairman, Abubakarr Hassan Kargbo, the three suggested themes from which messages will be developed are, National Unity, Political Tolerance and Cohesion, Early Warning and Conflict Prevention, Lawlessness and Rule of Law.
“The messages will be validated and produced as jingles to educate the general citizenry of Sierra Leone on the behavioral pattern needed to improve on democratic good governance in the country,” he maintained. He assured that the messages that will be developed would be translated into five (6) local languages to serve as part of the “drumbeat” component of NCD communication tool to help reinforce a consistent civic idea in order to transform the behavioral patterns of citizens.
The NCD Chairman maintained that civic education is learnt in the society, which is why they are putting more emphasis on educating the public, disclosing that most of the communities over the years have been primordial that requires attention to them to be changed. He called on the participants to give their best in ensuring they come up with vital information that will be meaningful towards national unity that will attract development, disclosing that most things that are happening in the country were as a result of polarization.
“I think national issues should not contain politics, in the sense of factionalism, parochial ideology,” he said, explaining that if the country wants to create national unity and cohesive state, everyone needs to work as a team. According to the Minister of Political Affairs, Foday Yumkella, the issue of national cohesion has been a serious problem for the past decades without corresponding solutions, commending NCD for the initiative at this material time.
He said a one day engagement on the topic of discussion will not do justice as there are vital issues to be addressed, urging the NCD to cascade the idea into a project which his Ministry will like to collaborate on to see how they can expand it to become a nation-wide activity.
By Alhaji Manika Kamara