By Francis H. Murray
The National Council for Civic Education and Development (NACCED) has held a one-day message design and development seminar on community engagement and inclusiveness.
The development is a culmination of a year-long activities that led to the development of a strategic plan which spells out how the Council would carry out its functions.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the Council, Kalilu Ibrahim Totangi, said that this stage of the process was geared towards the development of appropriate messages that would address key national issues that range from citizen’s engagement, patriotism, tribalism and many more things that prevents peaceful coexistence.
‘‘We at National Council for Civic Education, having expanded over the last year, now want to engage communities. Some of the ways that we want to engage the communities is to go out there and reach them with messages, things that they can remember easily and that will guide them to be more productive and more engaging in what we’re doing. But this is not something that we can just go in a room and do all by ourselves. So, we brought in our partners and other people within the media circle all around the country so that they can come and hang heads with us,’’ Totangi explained to journalists on the sidelines of the event held at the Conference Hall of the Ministry of Information and Communication.
The seminar brought together journalists, civil society members, political parties and school pupils to brainstorm on the possible messages to promote unity and patriotism.
‘‘We’re doing basically a brain storming session so that we can know by their own experiences what are some of the issues that are very key that the public care about most, among all of the issues that we’ve outlined,’’ Totangi added.
Chairman of the National Grand Coalition Party (NGC), Dr. Dennis Bright, who is a member of the board of NACCED, in his statement assured the Council of his party’s support, citing the importance attached to the transformation of our society in the interest of national development.
‘‘I would like to ask all of us here to focus on what we want to achieve, which is building a new society, the rottenness that has happened for decades would be very difficult to remove,” he said while addressing the general audience.
“But honestly, whatever development plans we have, whatever expertise that comes to develop the economy and whatever, if the people themselves are not made ready for development, that is mentally, psychological and socially ready for development, we’re not making any headway,’’ Dr Bright added, noting: “This is the point we need to insist on; when you hear people saying that let’s sell the country and share the money, it tells you the state we’ve gotten. It is very difficult. So you have to work on the mindset of people and their behaviors before you’ll be able to take things forward.’’
Dr Bright also urged all the participants to develop something that could suit the next generation, especially those that were in school to be able to have a curriculum for the open society that would touch each and every Sierra Leonean.
Executive Director of the Institute of Governance Reform, Andrew Lavalie, noted that the messages designed for their target groups were also of equal importance.
‘‘We have gone through wars, we have gone through the worst of things. I don’t know how many times we’ve asked ourselves how can we recouple ourselves again, how do we start building a new society,’’ he said.
Lavalie went on to say that in promoting messages to address these key issues, Sierra Leoneans must go back to the drawing board and ask few questions, like why corruption has been persistent and violence prevalent in society.
Key among the thematic issues highlighted to be addressed through the messages that would be designed are open government, national cohesion, electoral process, tribalism, political violence, state effectiveness, patriotism and accountability.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
