Sylvia Blyden Saves Her Name and Integrity from Government’s Hajj Failure
Hon. Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs.
Saturday 19th August,2017.
Mr. Daramy,
I have seen your question and innuendoes you have been dumping on various social media groups in form of questions for me as Cabinet Minister with the mandate to handle religious affairs. I know you are doing it to try to sully my name as you did few weeks back – fruitlessly.
The answers to your questions and much more, will all tumble out as the days go by…
Papa God na Kareem… Papa God na Alim.
Now, when last did you see anyone invite the Religious Affairs Minister when the President hosts religious groups at his State House office? As recently as last week when a Muslim agency went to donate cash for Hajj pilgrims, was it not the Honourable Vice President whom His Excellency the President invited to witness the occasion at State House? Did you see me there? Why did you not ask at that time as to the whereabouts of the
Religious Affairs Minister?
The list of me being sidelined and undermined in matters to do with religious affairs is endless. The litany of examples abound all over. So so undermine…
No Minister of Social Welfare in history of this country, has had their functions so brutally hijacked or their mandate so systematically undermined in the way that has been done to me. Everyone knows this. I am SYSTEMATICALLY subjected to regular MOLESTATION WITH NO PROTECTION!!!
And don’t tell me it is because I am a woman. Mrs. Shirley Gbujama remains one of the most successful Social Welfare Ministers because she enjoyed unfettered support from President Kabbah.
Why should I be maligned and sidelined so badly? Only for you to turn and ask questions that are rhetorical and meant to anger me. You cannot rile me because I am smarter than getting angry or upset with you and your handlers.
Is it not always the Honourable Vice President who is shown in all matters religious at State House? When last you even see me face na television attending a presidential event that has to do with religious matters? Even when the Adejobi Bishop of Aladura visited the President from overseas, I learnt of it whilst watching TV that night.
Honestly, as it pleases the Head of State, so may it be. He is our Supreme Executive Authority and commands very high respect from me or I will have left this Government.
It is his decision to put his VP in charge of Hajj and make him the defacto Religious affairs pointsman… Let the chips all fall as they may.
The Ministry responsible for religious affairs & social welfare & gender was given 30 Hajj scholarships slots to spread all around the numerous applicants which numbered hundreds that wrote to us.
Before I fell sick (yes, I have been seriously sick with Liver and Lungs problems for over one week now), I had personally supervised the placement of names into the 30 slots.
I did this because I did not want to let the President down. We only got a mere 30 to spread nationwide and I wanted to submit to His Excellency only those persons proven as needy and having served their communities in the Muslim Faith, will go.
Guess What? Even some of our 30 slots were hijacked. Thank God that some of the most hardworking women who have served this nation, made it under my Ministry’s few slots.
Because of transparency in my ministry, dynamic and well known women who applied to President Koroma have been able to go on Hajj.
NAMES LIKE:
Marie Bob Kandeh of Market Women
Nancy Kanu of Barefoot Solar Women
Mariama Sesay, the first elected Founding President of Women In the Media Sierra Leone (WIMSAL)
Nationwide Nominees from Women’s Forum including from 50-50 group and including a stark illiterate Muslim woman from Lokomasama.
Low-income Street traders
Two Muslim women from Bo Muslim community.
One Muslim woman from Kenema.
One Muslim woman from Kissi Teng, Kailahun
Kambia district female councillor who heads Social Welfare Committee in Kambia.
Chairladies of three Freetown mosques. One chosen from the East and another chosen from the West and one chosen from Central Freetown. I have never met these woman but they are chairladies in their mosques.
Mama Mbalu Wusha Conteh, a devout Muslim woman whose son is one of the bulwarks in Muslim journalism writings.
Two of our low income female compatriots who live in Banjul and have worked and believed in President Ernest Bai Koroma travelled by road to Freetown to apply for scholarship. They both got slots under the 30 scholarships.
I did not give Scholarship out to even a single Muslim relative of mine neither to my wonderful Foulah Tong people because the scholarships were not enough*
I benefitted from not even one single one that can be said was Minister Blyden’s own personal relative or nominee. Not even ONE. I provided selfless service. Led the distribution of the 30 proposed slots to others and denied myself.
I now feel very proud.
The eulogies are already coming out en masse as needy women from across this land whom I had never met, but whom were carefully handpicked by ministry staff and endorsed by me, are all now safely in Mecca. May their pilgrimage be blessed.
The tributes for my leadership are pouring in from all over -About how I managed just 30 scholarship slots to be shared nationwide.
‼ Imagine if His Excellency the President had given me the chance to supervise and oversee the entire process?
Just imagine how PROUD our beloved President would have been by this time… Proud of how his Government transparently and successfully conducted the Hajj 2017 affairs! Just imagine ehn?
If I had been left to do my work as Social Welfare Minister, just imagine how PROUD our party the All Peoples Congress would have been by now?
But Papa God na Ya Alim. Ya Kareem. He Knows All and He Protects the Best.
Que Sera Sera…
Please publish my above response verbatim in your DAILY MAIL Newspaper since you are passing from pillar to post in the name of asking questions for the paper you manage. May God guide and bless you. May He judge us all.
Amen Ameen.
Hon. Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden
BELOW ARE STATEMENTS OF JOY FOR THE MINISTER’S FACILITATION OF THE 30 GOVERNMENT SCHOLARSHIPS THAT WERE PROVIDED TO HER
UNITED COUNCIL OF IMAMS BO, SOUTHERN PROVINCE OVERWHELMED WITH JOY AS DR. SYLVIA BLYDEN FACILITATES TWO NEEDY MUSLIM WOMEN FROM BO TO ATTEND HAJJ
Imam council in Bo are overwhelmed to learn that His Excellency President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma through Hon. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden provided two scholarships to Islamic community based women in Bo.
We will send a letter of high appreciation to His Excellency the President through the Ministry of Social Welfare and Gender because “this is first time community Islamic women are specially targeted as women to benefit from such an opportunity”.
Shiek Dauda Tarawally
Public Relations Officer
Regional Council of Imams.
THANK YOU PRESIDENT KOROMA AS DR. SYLVIA O. BLYDEN PUT SMILES ON APC GAMBIA.
The Gambia branch is so grateful to President Koroma for the two slots Gambia benefitted in this year’s Hajj package.
Madam Salamatu Conteh and Mrs. Kadiatu B Koroma, both petty traders and staunch members of the party branch in the Gambia, with faith, travelled by road; a long journey which took them four days and nights with the hope of being pilgrims in this year’s Hajj.–a hard time they had of it.
Upon reaching Freetown, our ladies didn’t know where to start but for the love, industry and timely intervention of our Gender Minister, Dr. Sylvia O. Blyden, their hope was restored. She assured our ladies that, although she had a very limited quota, she will not let them return to Banjul clapping hands.
In utter disbelief, I received a call from the Minister asking me as Chairman of Gambia to identify the two ladies and their membership to the party branch.
In less than 24 hours again, Dr. Blyden called the branch confirming that ‘because of the faith of the two ladies in President Koroma’, vis a vis their pivotal roles in APC Gambia, they will benefit in this year’s hajj package. As I write this piece, Madam Salamatu Conteh and Mrs. Kadiatu Baby Koroma are in the holy land of Mecca.
Thank you President Koroma for appointing Dr. Blyden to serve in your government. She cares and listens attentively to the “cry of the African woman”.
Thank you Dr. Blyden for your diligent role in government and for lifting the spirit of APC Gambia.
God bless President Koroma, God bless Dr. Sylvia O. Blyden, God bless Sierra Leone.
From:
Alimamy Dumbuya
Chairman
APC Gambia.
WOMEN’S FORUM THE UMBRELLA BODY FOR ALL WOMEN GROUPS THANKS SYLVIA BLYDEN FOR MAKING SURE SOME OF PRESIDENT KOROMA’S HAJJ SCHOLARSHIP REACHED NEEDY WOMEN
We once again thank our Honourable Minister Dr Sylvia Blyden for slotting in the five Women’s Forum members – women who are serving the nation to participate in this years Hajj. Irrespective of the 30 quota she received, she equitably shared them all over Sierra Leone.
Dishonesty from others may have made her fall ill because hopes of other deserving female pilgrims were shattered. Honorable May God grant you healing. Those whose hopes were shattered, you now see the reasons why.
How we wish Minister Blyden had been in complete control of the whole activity. JUSTICE IS MINE I WILL REPAY says the Lord.
Maude Peacock
President,
WOMEN’S FORUM
