By Abu Shaw
Christmas has come early for the SLPP govt Public Relations Officers and Media disguised as SLAJ journalists thanks to paymaster President Bio.
The Paopa Journalists-cum-SLAJ were seen smiling like pregnant rabbits during the recent cocktail night in Freetown organised by President Julius Maada Bio’s failed SLPP regime. The disappointing part of the cocktail episode was the unprofessional participation and endorsement of the executive officials and members of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists SLAJ – a professional association that is being misdirected by the incompetent Ahmed Sahid Nasralla that has now metamorphosed into a public relations institution for the corrupt SLPP government rather than for the people. Nowhere in the democratic world would one see the government of the day hosting journalists to say ‘Thank You’ for a job well done. No single democratic nation today would entertain this type of unprofessionalism to happen. Only in Sierra Leone under President Bio’s regime, you would see fake journalists selling their birthright and professionalism for a pittance. (Photo: President Bio, wearing glasses, swarmed by SLAJ journalists during the government cocktail).
On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, the failed Sierra Leone President Bio and his ‘Mob Justice’ wife Fatima Jabbe Bio hosted SLPP PROs and Media outlets disguised as independent SLAJ journalists at the disgraceful Annual Presidential Media Cocktail. The wining and dining at the SLPP Government Annual Media Cocktail has always been the perfect opportunity designed by the President Bio to meet and strategise government policies with the SLAJ stooges who would then disseminate distorted facts and figures for public consumption that are favourable to the government and not in the interests of the people. Truly speaking, the Paopa media and PRs have done a magnificent job to hide and deceive the public in the past four years of SLPP misrule. Unluckily for these fake SLAJ journalists, the people are now wiser than they think.
Sierra Leoneans and the global partners are no longer fools to be fooled by fools in the SLPP regime. Despite the determined efforts of the SLPP/Paopa PROs over the years to bury bad news and to misinform and underplay the seriousness of the abysmal social, political and economic situation in Sierra Leone today, the truth of what is really happening in the country is now in the public domain. Global partners are now aware of the SLPP misinformation being bandied around by the SLPP media and PROs. Thanks to the vigilance of social media activists in and outside the country, external stakeholders are now aware of the massive corruption in high places, the massive human rights violations, the arbitrary arrests and detentions of critics and opposition politicians, the absence of civil liberties in Sierra Leone, and the stagnation of democratic ideals, the dormancy of the majority of the useless and one tribe Mende Civil Society Organisations CSOs, and other vices by President Bio’s government. (Photos: SLAJ President Nasralla, far left, and First Lady Fatima Bio at the high table, 2nd picture, and the Paopa PROs).
It was beyond shameful to see members of SLAJ in their smart attires parading gleefully but idiotically with President Bio like school-going children tailing their headteacher during their first day in school. Wednesday night’s Annual Presidential Media Cocktail at the Country Lodge Hill Station hosted by the President violates the neutrality of the profession. Also, inside sources have intimated that it was that night that the so-called independent media and PRs received their brown envelopes as a token for burying bad news that emanates from State House, from Ministries, from Agencies, from Departments, and other state institutions where rife-corruption, etc, had occurred and continue to take place. Sources say President Bio was not delighted at the Cocktail night because of the way his Paopa journalists and PROs have performed in recent times. Maada Bio reportedly expressed disappointment and urged his PROs to buckle up henceforth. He mentioned the EU and the World Bank’s latest criticisms of the SLPP Mid-Term Census as examples of the failings of his media team’s effective PR work.
The majority of SLAJ officials behave like SLPP/Paopa media PROs, according to keen observers of their performances. The persistent corruption allegations unearthed by the Africanist Press and other media outlets, and the tribal and nepotistic styles of the SLPP governance, the rising human rights violations, the absence of civil liberties, and the overall threat to democratic ideals in the country have invariably damaged the reputation of President Bio. And unfortunately for the SLPP/Paopa Media, including the BBC freelancer Umaru Fofana, their unprofessional conduct has been exposed by vibrant social media activists in and outside Sierra Leone, whose efforts have ushered in awareness to the people in Sierra Leone and the international community about President Bio’s deceptive politics.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-7357360780567964&output=html&h=345&adk=2282423035&adf=2098076385&pi=t.aa~a.2105401457~i.30~rp.4&w=414&lmt=1640172971&num_ads=1&rafmt=1&armr=3&sem=mc&pwprc=6457675062&psa=1&ad_type=text_image&format=414×345&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheorganiser.net%2Fsierra-leone%2F3914-president-bio-romances-paopa-slaj-journalists-with-brown-envelopes-for-doing-slpp-pr-jobs&flash=0&fwr=1&pra=3&rh=321&rw=385&rpe=1&resp_fmts=3&sfro=1&wgl=1&fa=27&dt=1640172973646&bpp=2&bdt=1701&idt=2&shv=r20211207&mjsv=m202112060101&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3Da7f15e9b316f616b-2210ca76face0017%3AT%3D1640166029%3ART%3D1640166029%3AS%3DALNI_Mb2EXlyYv18p7zNwQD-qr6pyjScAw&prev_fmts=0x0%2C414x90%2Cauto%2C414x345%2C414x345%2C414x345%2C414x345&nras=2&correlator=2921566511611&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=1752926417.1640172973&ga_sid=1640172973&ga_hid=932053291&ga_fc=0&u_tz=-300&u_his=1&u_h=896&u_w=414&u_ah=896&u_aw=414&u_cd=32&u_sd=2&adx=0&ady=3548&biw=414&bih=707&scr_x=0&scr_y=0&eid=21066432%2C31062422&oid=2&psts=AGkb-H_LnRMB1iTI9LhOKqd9xrjrIxOrpHO-djzOzhbRAkMzlw4NGWNW1bkAoi6JAbWMpbuugVqe90Rvru02%2CAGkb-H_BkIRpBbDnt_72UXvsv0khWozs508WeIX8YchNVZzyoFuFJ83P0_yqmRM3AtXvif1_n5V-kSBqvsjb%2CAGkb-H85YHpbZ4f2L2curqdinGlqYcE3xDY3-ICSojSPphaI7oL7RZ7-DkIXH-bNPx4PsdoeiZ_VN3FMbrKf%2CAGkb-H8nPsII9FWlzqsXDZGIZvEsi03AIZuCy1wEjgBq86FenBVjSJD8z_rZGPSR4ujN31qHSFlD5a9qcGVf%2CAGkb-H-0mx2CnOWyCXnmM5nbInJiHh6kcJOsecp1pjMBkhoZH2AR70-oPugsozxPOcFFstVcjddiHUtC7dLD&pvsid=2454830993784554&pem=470&tmod=940&eae=0&fc=1408&brdim=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C414%2C0%2C414%2C896%2C414%2C707&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7Cs%7C&abl=NS&fu=128&bc=31&ifi=8&uci=a!8&btvi=5&fsb=1&xpc=RDBE3BCwrZ&p=https%3A//theorganiser.net&dtd=98
Wednesday’s Cocktail was used as the perfect platform to go back to the drawing board considering the recent international condemnation of President Bio’s illegal Mid-Term Census by the European Union and by the World Bank. The litany of opposition from the global partners and the rising internal criticisms from the opposition political parties have also sent shock waves in the corridors of power. “The jittery President Bio needs us more than ever before to continue to propagate and promote the SLPP agenda during these trying times. President Bio’s government has been taken aback by the recent EU and the World Bank shocking stance,” a Paopa Media activist who attended the cocktail was heard saying. (Photo: During the SLPP Govt Cocktail).
A Cocktail insider has also confirmed that the presidency is determined to reinvigorate the rebranding of the SLPP government’s tattered regime and she noted that President Bio has already commenced greasing the palms of the Paopa Media with brown envelopes and other incentives fatter than anything they had previously received. Next year, citizens are predicting Umaru Fofana of the BBC to continue broadcasting bad news for the opposition and airing only good news for his SLPP party as he had done in the past. Burying bad news emanating from the SLPP government and broadcasting good news only for President Bio is the pre-requisite condition laid for the recipients of the brown envelopes, which is detrimental to the people of Sierra Leone.
Episodes like these have often made people question the independence of the media and the impartiality of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists SLAJ. A Concerned Citizen from the Sierra Leone Herald Blog commented on President Bio’s Cocktail: “Why is it that the Presidential Media Cocktail is hosted a day after the release of the 2020 Audit Report? By now, we expect the President to meet with his government to discuss how come huge monies like 113 billion Leones cannot be accounted for. Why meet with the media people after this kind of state robbery? It’s disheartening to see that such state robbery will end without any action. Pitiful! The President, better invite some bloggers back because we are speaking up on these critical issues more than some self-acclaimed journalists and media houses. If Sierra Leone is really on a sober development trend, by now some people should have resigned or been sacked. No Integrity! No Shame!,” the Herald Blog concludes.
Posterity will definitely gazette the last three Presidents of the SLAJ administrations, including the present, as the worst and most partisan journalism administrations in the country’s history. From Kelvin Lewis to Umaru Fofana and now Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, SLAJ has been led by ardent SLPP party members, supporters, and sympathisers who could not see beyond their noses for selfish gains. All they see is the green Palm Tree that symbolises the SLPP party. However, they are great pretenders of independence journalism when in actual fact, these guys are not paid agents programmed to promote and propagate the SLPP party’s agenda but they have also destroyed their image and reputation beyond repairs. (Photos: Wednesday’s cocktail and the 2018 Cocktail President Bio flanked by Independent Media Commission IMC Chairman George Khoryama, left, an SLPP member, and Kelvin Lewis, then SLAJ President and SLPP member).
No wonder, the people of Sierra Leone no longer have trust in the SLAJ leadership. SLAJ has lost the total trust of the public a long time ago. When SLAJ conspicuously kept silent on the massacres that took place at the Pademba Road Prisons in 2020 when presidential guards shot and murdered nearly 100 prisoners and a prison officer. In 2020 also, SLAJ kept mute after the massacre of peaceful protesters in Makeni for the standby generator. The people also noticed the silence of SLAJ during the Lunsar, Tombo, Thonko Limba, Mile 91 killings of innocent Sierra Leoneans. No press statements of condemnation from SLAJ to that effect. It was not surprising the way SLAJ had behaved. One rarely bites the fingers that feed them. Read the press statement by the SLPP General Kalokoh Media Team about the Annual Media Presidential Cocktail.
President Bio Interacts with the Fourth Estate through his Annual Media Cocktail on December 15, 2021
The President discussed issues relating to press freedom, professionalism, and the major reforms the New Direction government has made in giving our country a new phase globally. President Bio witnessed this year’s annual media cocktail at the Country Lodge Hill Station. During the media, interactive session, the fourth estate had the chance for the President to comment on most of their publication headlines, from “We Tok En Do” to “Ar Go Continue for Fly”. So interesting, and filled with fun. Many people questioned the role of media in national development but President Bio has confirmed that the media is extremely important in keeping democratic principles and the acceleration of national development. Therefore, the President said he will increase fund allocation for the running of the organisation and urged the general public to partake in the Mid-Term Population and Housing Census that is ongoing. No Distraction, We Move.
