ThinkTank

By Umaru Fofana

Believers of religion, and I am one of them, will tell you that praying is good. Praying communally is even better. But such is the reality these days that praying communally is ill-advised and dangerous because it can be a potential vector of the new coronavirus.

It is with that in mind that houses of worship around the world – including those in holy places like Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican – have been closed for weeks and months now. I am not sure the world has collectively ever seen anything like this.  

By Umaru Fofana

By Umaru Fofana

Sierra Leone has emerged from being the last country in West Africa to fall to the coronavirus pandemic, to one recording an average daily new infection rate of eight patients. As I write it has a cumulative total of 338 with 20 of that number having died and 72 recovered. All of that in just six weeks since the index case was registered.

By Umaru Fofana

“Little is known of Sierra Leone and how it connects to the diamonds we own”, so said the US hip-hop artist Kanye West. In his 2005 hit song DIAMONDS FROM SIERRA LEONE, he presented a powerful case for the troubles that diamonds had brought upon the country.

By Umaru Fofana

In this day and age of technology and civic awareness, being in politics – especially at the helm – is like a hen sitting on a hammock. Neither the bird nor the swinging couch is able to rest. From the United States to Europe, from South America to Africa and Asia, citizens are demanding more and more from their leaders, while the leaders are giving them less and less – or are getting more confused and unsure of what to give them in this era of demand accountability and deliverability in leadership.

By Umaru Fofana

How hard is it to have a fixed date or week for our presidential election as it is in the United States? The 90-day discretion the president of Sierra Leone has to decide an election date after the end of his five-year mandate is such that the recent history has shown that almost the entire three-month period has been used since the 1991 constitution has been in use.

By Umaru Fofana

One by one they came. Ten of them. Well dressed. Each walking like a cat. Accompanied by music. First dressed as casual. Then in their national dress. And then in their dinner wear. They were resplendent.

On each occasion they walked up to an elevated podium drenched in a thick AFRICELL brand, with nice chairs for them to sit on in the end. You do not expect this to happen to prisoners. But yes it did.