The New York Chapter of the Sierra Leone People’s Party has lashed out at President Koroma’s recent visit to the States saying he needed a reality check.
The SLPP New York chapter said in a press release that they were compelled to comment on the President’s town hall meeting with Sierra Leoneans in New York City on September 20, 2009. They said they were anticipating an open, honest, and meaningful conversation with the President but described it as a “pep rally for the ruling APC party”.
They also stated in the release that “While we had expected that the Government might use the occasion to roll out a laundry list of “accomplishments” to embellish its record as it celebrates its second anniversary in office, we were utterly dismayed by the President’s silence on a number of critical challenges the country currently faces”.
Clearly, they went on “the Government deliberately steered clear of sensitive issues such as the increasing crime rate and insecurity in the country, gender-based violence, youth unemployment and egregious examples of high-level corruption such as the Income Electrix energy contract and the NASSIT ferry deal, which apparently have escaped the attention of prosecutors despite the Government’s vaunted “zero-tolerance” policy” they stressed.
The SLPP New York chapter also said they were particularly appalled that during the President’s town hall meetings, he did not mention the gender based violence meted out on some women during the SLPP/APC clash in March.
In addition to the President’s shocking failure to address these key issues of concern to Sierra Leoneans during the meeting they stated there were obvious distortions and blatant manipulation of facts.” Among several others, the most glaring in this regard was the President’s glib statement – devoid of any relevant statistics or references – that the Government had reduced infant mortality during its two years in office. Such a cavalier pronouncement is an affront to the countless number of Sierra Leonean women and young girls who must contend with the most inadequate healthcare services anywhere in the world as well as the infant and maternal mortality rates that are among the worst, as corroborated by an Amnesty International report”
The SLPP New York Chapter therefore implores the Government to understand that its penchant for spin is eroding its credibility at this crucial time for Sierra Leone. “What a country needs at a time of crisis such as now is a government it can trust: a government that is willing to acknowledge and tackle head-on all of the problems of the day and not a government that merely wishes them away”.
By Ishmael Bayoh
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