By Abdulai Fasineh Dumbuya
The Chief Executive Officer of the Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), Abdul Fatorma has asked that the Sierra Leoneans; mostly government officials attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) give public feedback after the Summit.
Speaking to Politico in an interview on the 19th of September 2023, Fatorma emphasized that there is every need to update the public, as citizens have to be abreast with happenings outside of Sierra Leone.
He said that after UNGA, delegates would hardly do consistent follow-ups on the stories and engagements they had at the Summit, describing it as “propagation of flashlights at the end of the day.”
‘’We as a country only propagate flashlight; that is, a development that is very flashy. The delegates are not normally doing follow-ups on the various engagements at the Summit,’’ he said.
He noted that in every engagement the delegates go into at the Summit if at all development is coming at the end of the day, they must explain such fruitful and developmental engagements to the public in order to ensure public trust and confidence.
He said the reason many Sierra Leoneans have had conflicting ideas about the country’s presence at such a gathering was due to the fact that those responsible for informing the public on matters of such nature have failed to do so. As a result of this information gap between the public and the government, he said that people would think that there is nothing beneficial coming out of such a summit.
"This is because of the inability on the part of the government to provide information to the people of this country,’’ he said.
Asked whether poverty makes Africa vulnerable to the West, he said that poverty is not the only contributing factor but the lack of systems in governance across the continent makes Africa more vulnerable to the West.
Copyright (2023) Politico (20/09/23)
