About Cocorioko

The sole owner,  proprietor and publisher of Cocorioko is the Rev. Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu. The paper was  founded and set up at Fourah Bay College in 1973 by  Rev Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-Kanu , who is also the Chief Executive Officer –who used it as  the mouthpiece of the  student government led by the late Boubaccar Njai-Bah, which Kabs Kanu served as Minister of Propaganda. The paper thrived at FBC  and was popular among the general student body.

 

The paper folded up after Kabs-Kanu graduated from FBC in 1975 with a B.A. degree in English , History and Sociology and a Diploma in Education .  However,  Kabs-Kanu revived in the U.S.   at LEONENET-UMBC in 2002. He started with the DAILY NEWS-INQUIRER ,  before he decided to change the name to COCORIOKO.

 

The present mission of the newspaper is the rebranding of Sierra Leone . Kabs-Kanu is presently  the CEO and Editor-In- Chief of the paper presently.

Cocorioko played a leading role in helping to effect regime change in Sierra Leone in 2007, through democratic Presidential and Legislative Elections that floored the inefficient and corrupt government of former President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and ushered in the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma , that  inherited monumental socio-economic and political problems but is working diligently to help change the face of the nation for the better.

The Cocorioko Publisher , KABS KANU, has an enviable record of winning big awards for excellent journalism . In 2005,  the New York Chapter of the oldest political party in Sierra Leone, the Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) gave him an award for outstanding journalism and community service. In 2008, Kabs Kanu  won the prestigious NOSLINA Award for excellent community service  as a journalist with COCORIOKO . NOSLINA is the National Organization of Sierra Leoneans in North America . It is  composed of the country’s leading intellectuals  –an umbrella organization for Sierra Leonean oorganizations in the U.S .and the NOSLINA Award is the Sierra Leonean equivalence of the OSCAR.

KABS KANU was one of the Sierra Leoneans honoured on the occasion of the 50th Independence Anniversary of the country in 2011 when he was recommended for and received the Jubilee Award for Journalism , specifically for providing Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora and back home with information about the country through the Cocorioko Newspaper .

In  2012,  KABS KANU  won another coveted honor–The HALL OF FAME AWARD -from the SAVE SIERRA LEONE FOUNDATION–Another very important organization in the United States–for outstanding Journalism and community service. He also won another award for the same purpose from the umbrella organization , the UNION OF SIERRA LEONEAN ORGANIZATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA.

In 2013, KABS KANU was again invited to mount the rostrum to receive another award–THE GEMS OF AFRICA Award –from the U.S-based organization, SPRINGS OF JOY.

The  Assistant  CEOs are  Mr. Pavi Jalloh AND  Dr. Bankole Gibson ,  Mr. Foday Mansaray.  They assist the publisher and CEO, Rev. Kabs-Kanu  in assignments assigned them by Kabs-Kanu.  No member of the board finances the paper.  Cocorioko is sacrificially produced by the Rev. Kabs-Kanu. Other members of the Cocorioko board are   Mr. Jacob Sax-Conteh, the Assistant Editor  ;  the Freetown Bureau Chief Joseph Kamanda ; the Canadian Bureau Chief and Managing Director  for the print magazine edition  published in Canada, Wilfred Kanu jr;    Our Features Editor is Mr. Kolleh Dumbuya , while Sanpha Sesay is  our Texas  Bureau Chief ;  Financial Correspondent Mohamed Sowe and Technical Directors Ahmed Kamara and Muckson Sesay. The Financial Secretary of Cocorioko is Ms. Wilfreda Kabs-Kanu .

REV. LEEROY WILFRED KABS-KANU, ESQ

PUBLISHER  AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE  OFFICER  OF COCORIOKO AND AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST

eft a colony of amputated and deformed citizens and destroyed the country’s infrastructure.

KABS KANU  HOLDING THE NOSLINA AWARD IN 2008 which he won for outstanding Journalism . 

 

KABS KANU WITH THE 50TH INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY AWARD HE ALSO WON FOR OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM 

 

 

KABS KANU WITH THE HALL OF FAME AWARD , ANOTHER AWARD HE  WON FOR OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM FROM SAVE SIERRA LEONE FOUNDATION IN 2012

 

MR. FODAY MANSARAY 

ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE OFFICER 

MR. PAVI JALLOH : ASSISTANT CEO

DR. BANKOLE GIBSON : ASSISTANT CEO

JACOB SAX-CONTEH : THE ASSISTANT  EDITOR OF COCORIOKO

COCORIOKO  has a very rich history . It was first published at Fourah Bay College , the University of Sierra Leone ,  in 1973 during the era of the first revolutionary students union government led by Boubaccar Njai-Bah . It was set up by Leeroy Wilfred Kabs Kanu, who was the Minister of Propaganda in the students government ,  to serve as the  mouthpiece of the students union , then involved in a battle of wits and supremacy with the archaic college administration and the political powers downtown. With Kabs-Kanu ,  as Publisher , the Editor-In-Chief then was a Nigerian student , Ben Ikeakor.  Other members of the editorial board then were  student activists Florence Iscandri, Millicent Macauley, Mohamed Lamin, Anthony Brewah ,  Princetta Godwin, Joan Mundoma , Jaiah Kallon etc. The paper covered hard and entertainment news on campus as well as explaining the goals and aspirations of the revolutionary students council government .  The main aim of the government was to effect changes in the welfare  of students on campus. It was that government that set the stage for the student revolution in 1977  headed by Hindolo Trye . The massive students action against the lethargic political powers forced the government to make wholesale  reforms  in governance and a snap General Elections  that brought intellectuals  into the national government for the first time .  The newspaper folded up in 1976 when the main publishers graduated from college.

COCORIOKO was revived in 2002 by Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu to serve as a vanguard for credible , accurate , authoritative  and reliable news and analyses from Sierra Leone . Cocorioko , in just a few years after being revived , is today one of the Sierra Leone’s biggest and most widely read newspapers , with an emphasis on rebranding Sierra Leone, a nation suffering from an image hangover , occasioned by decades of misgovernment, misrule , rampant corruption and a devastating war that killled over 200,000 people , left a colony of amputated and deformed citizens and destroyed the country’s infrastructure.

 

 

 

 

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY JOURNALISM AWARD WON BY KABS KANU IN 2011

 

 

KABS KANU IS HONORED AGAIN –THIS TIME WITH THE GEMS OF AFRICA AWARD -IN 2013 FROM U.S.-BASED ORGANIZATION, SPRINGS OF JOY. HE IS SEEN HERE WITH PROFESSOR MIKE DILO SESAY, HIS COUSIN

Our modus operandi is not only to supply readers interesting and reliable news and features but to help rebrand Sierra Leone, an exercise we consider very important  if the post-war nation should make any headway in attracting foreign investors , donor and development partners and tourists ,which would help rebuild the shattered country. Sierra Leone is mired in desperate socio-economic and political challenges at the moment and masive foreign investment and donor support are direly needed to bring relief to our people , restore social services and rebuild the infrastructure destroyed by the war. We want to appeal to all patriotic Sierra Leone and devoted friends of Sierra Leone to throw in their lot to help rebrand and rebuild the country. The negative perceptions about Sierra Leone being peddled by unpatriotic citizens and foreign commentators are inimical to the socio-economic and political recovery of the country. If Sierra Leone must rise again and take her rightful place in the comity of progressive nations, we all have to, as a matter of patriotic duty, help to project a more favourable perception of the Country. There is no doubt that Sierra Leone is a very beautiful country, a tourist’s delight , and  a veritable paradise laden with  abundantly  rich mineral, material and human resources. All the country needs are faithful development partners to help us harness these rich resources at our disposal and a government committed to the development of the country and alleviation of the suffering of the masses. Hopefully, as the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon , noticed when he visited Sierra Leone, the country is making tremendous progress and in the words of the UN Chief , Sierra leone provides optimism that there is  hope for Africa.

The Publisher and CEO of the newspaper, Rev. Leeroy Wilfred Kabs -Kanu,  is a man with a wide professional experience in life. He  has studied  English , History and Sociology , journalism,  Law , Educational Psychology  and Special Education . He started his journalism career as a student at Christ The King’s College ( CKC), an elitist secondary school in Bo, Sierra Leone, where he rose to become Editor of the CKC TIMES in the late 1960s.  At FBC in the early to mid-1970s , apart from being Publisher of Cocorioko,  he was also Editor of  SPOTLIGHT  after the founder , Reginald Pobee,  graduated from college; He has taught in Sierra Leone , Liberia and the United States and was at one time Principal of the United Muslim Association Secondary School in Freetown, Sierra Leone and  an Educational Psychology Lecturer at the World Bank -sponsored Ministry of Education/University of Liberia  /Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute In-Service Teachers Training Program. He was also a features editor of Sierra Leone’s most radical newspaper , THE TABLET (now defunct ) , published by Pios Foray and Hindolo Trye in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  He also worked as the Monrovia-based sports correspondent of WE YONE newspaper in 1978-79. He has also served as the New Jersey Bureau Chief of the WEST AFRICAN JOURNAL , then published in the U.S. by Joe S. Kappia and the U.S. Bureau Chief of the also defunct EXPO TIMES newspaper. He is presently a diplomat, serving as Sierra Leone’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations in New York.  At the UN, He is also Coordinator of C-10 ( The Committee of 10 African nations tasked with negotiating the UN Security Council Reforms  on behalf Africa ) and also Coordinator of the Sierra Leone Government media in the U.S.

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