By Alpha Abu
The Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC) is busy completing the setting of a Situation Room that will be ready ahead of the country’s General Elections in June this year.
A team from the African Union (AU) based in Ethiopia is in the country with equipment and experts to support the establishing of the structure at the Lamina Sankoh Street Freetown headquarters of the commission. Members of staff assigned to the centre are being trained on how to run it.
Receiving the AU team, the Executive Secretary of the Peace Commission, Hawa Samai said they were happy to have trainers in their midst with the expertise to help set up the situation room and capacitate their staff that will be operating it. She said some people think the structure was being set up just for the elections, but pointed out that it is a permanent facility that will help support the country’s development initiatives and not just emergencies.
She said people should therefore not be apprehensive about the name situation room
She disclosed that the commission will on the 29th April this year also organize a March for Peace across the country which they hope will attract 2.5 million people including stakeholders across the country, and who will be expected to make their commitments to maintaining peace in the country. She said since the commission will be launched alongside the situation room, they now have to work round the clock to make sure that the centre was fully ready for operation by that time.
The officials from Ethiopia said they had undertaken the setting up of such centres in other countries but said the commitment, motivation and cooperation demonstrated by staff of the commission in Sierra Leone was on another level.
This latest intervention by the AU is a follow-up to a delegation that first brought some office equipment that were donated to the commission during which discussions began in earnest about providing support for the commission’s plan to have a situation room.
Following the Bintumani 3 National Dialogue Conference initiated by the Government of Sierra Leone, the views of the people were sought nationwide about fostering lasting peace in the country. There was the general consensus for the establishment of a permanent office that will focus on enhancing peace and national cohesion, which eventually gave birth to the peace commission. The country’s post-war Truth and Reconciliation Commission had also recommended for the setting of a permanent peace office.
The commission which has been operating for some two years now, has since, embarked on programmes such as engagements with the Police, commercial drivers, rickshaw (keke) and bike riders as well as youth groups and other community stakeholders aimed at enhancing peaceful co-existence in the country.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (17/04/23)
