Sewa News Stream

Almost six months after Sierra Leone’s first lady launched  “Hands Off Our Girls“ (a spin-off campaign from the Bring Back Our Girls movement), Fatima Bio has taken some flak.  Fatima (seen standing with former first lady Sia Koroma in an undated photo) hasn't been out of the news since she led a controversial event on April 27, 2019, in a noticeably empty stadium in the capital, Freetown. A few days later she shared her thoughts on WhatsApp, hoping to silence the critics with revelations about rival factions at State House and Presidential aides who are living the life of Royalty, while poor Sierra Leoneans eke out an existence on $1.20 a day.   When that social media PR  didn't do the trick, Fatima put out a video to hex her husband's enemies, real or imagined. Needless to say, all bets were off! Now, every other day there are videos from local comedians, which in all honesty send up some of the first lady's worst pronouncements in the most hilarious ...

Andrew Kelli's syndicated column, "Ponder My Thoughts" returns with the challenge of Sierra Leonean cohesion, the capacity of Sierra Leonean society, and conflict management. Our leaders were divided on the eve of independence in 1961. Since then, every change in government has been accompanied by accusations by the new government that it inherited a broken country and economy. President Kabbah accused the NPRC of emptying the country’s coffers. President Koroma levied the same accusation against President Kabbah’s government. Enter President Bio-ditto. Accusations apart, what has become apparent over the past 11 years has been the division of the country along party lines and the government sharing the spoils to party supporters in a country where parties are roughly aligned along regional and tribal lines. The winning party would kick most heads of institutions out and in some cases, clear out whole institutions of senior staff and install their own supporters. The...

Excerpt from social media commentary by Chukwuemeka Taylor:  Dr. Sandy can lawfully through the office of the Director of Surveys and Lands put signs or notices on any land he considers to be unoccupied land. This notice is simply an expression of the Government's intention to repossess land deemed "unoccupied ". The Minister’s mistake is in the "mongrel wording" of the notices on signs he erects all over the place. The wording on such signs departs from the statutory prescription provided in the Unoccupied Lands Act and the State Lands Act. There is no statutory authority for the notice to read " repossessed by the State ". The notice being erected on private lands by Dr. Sandy is my opinion, mischievous and is calculated to mislead. Dr. Sandy Ph.D. ought to know that repossession of any land cannot be fulfilled without an Order of the Court. It surprises me that the Learned Attorney General & Minister of Justice has not made her knowled...

Thanks to a change of government, The Gambia achieved one of the biggest rises in the World Press Freedom Index in 2018. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF),  which has published the  Index since 2002, the level of press freedom in the smallest country in West Africa has significantly improved, up 30 to 92nd. The RSF is the largest non-governmental organization (NGO) specializing in the defense of media freedom around the world. Here's how member countries in the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) ranked out of 180 countries in 2019. Ghana 27 Burkina Faso  36 Senegal 49 Niger 66 Cote D'Ivoire 71 Togo 76 Sierra Leone 86   Guinea Bissau 89 Gambia 92  (***Up 30 at 92nd) Liberia 93 Benin 96 Ghana  Guinea 107 Mali 112 Gabon 115 Nigeria 120 Morocco/Western Sahara 135 Source: World Press Freedom Index 2019