By Isaac Massaquoi
Tomorrow, Friday 23rd August, I will be in Committee Room Number One of Parliament in the morning. Not to face the MPs as a presidential nominee. Rather, to witness my mentor and friend being questioned by the Appointments Committee in a confirmation hearing following his nomination by President Julius Maada to serve on the Advisory Board of the Anti-Corruption.
I want to profusely thank the president for nominating Joshua Nicol – a worthy Sierra Leonean – to that position. Your Excellency you have made a fantastic appointment and our country will be well served by Josh, as I fondly call him.
I met Josh in the late 1980s at the then Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) where I was doing some clerical job fresh from high school, to raise some money to fund my studies at FBC. He was a producer with the news and current affairs division.
In many news organizations, the very best producers more often than not cut their teeth in that division and many young people like us got aspired to switch over to the newsroom at some point of our journey through SLBS. After several auditions and internal training programs I would become a continuity announcer and presenter. With Josh, my journey to the news and current affairs unit was well and truly underway.
I know things have moved on a lot these days but in those late 80s and early 90s, presenting a news and current affairs program was for the very best presenters, and it was almost impossible for even the super talented to gate-crash that select group.
The most powerful news program at the time was called THE LATEST. The radio landscape was definitely not as packed as it is today so SLBS was everything radio could offer and THE LATEST was the peak of news and current affairs programming with a Sama Lenghor as head of that unit. He was a powerful writer.
So when one afternoon Josh called me up and told me to prepare to present THE LATEST on the following Wednesday afternoon, I almost collapsed. Apparently the scheduled presenter, a man called Emmanuel Young, had pulled out at the last minute and Josh as producer had to get the program on air within 45 minutes. All producers know that the best program with a bad presenter ruins everything. So Josh took a massive risk to have a trembling young presenter like me to anchor the broadcaster’s flagship news and current and current affairs program. Up to this day he hasn’t given me a complete analysis of my performance on that day.
All he said was that many people called in to comment on the performance of the new presenter. I was to learn later that the reviews were not so great and Josh didn’t want to unsettle his rookie presenter. This was the start of our relationship. He helped a lot in those early years and I owe my progress through the ranks till I later became head of that same powerful news and current affairs unit to his genuine mentoring.
Josh is an honest man, a well-respected household name in his Regent community. So apart from my personal relationship with him, I know of an incident involving Josh that has stayed with me all this while and which I think establishes his suitability for this new role. It occurred just before the both of us were recommended by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) to serve as Commissioners of the Independent Media Commission in 2008.
Josh suddenly realized that for two years (2006 – 2008), after his departure from the then SLBS, the Accountant General continuously paid Le 500,000 into his personal account every month. He had resigned from the SLBS when his application for leave without pay had been rejected. He mentioned the issues to me saying a few people had asked him to take the money, close the account and move on. He could have pulled that off by easily corrupting a few people at the Accountant General’s Office and what is now HRMO, but he returned the money to the state. The payments continued even after he had called the attention of the administrators.
Josh then wrote a letter to his bank, requesting them to block any further credits from that source. In the same envelop was his personal cheque for the exact amount paid to his account over the two years with instruction that the money be refunded to the consolidated revenue fund through the Accountant General. All this happened in an atmosphere of some friends telling him to enjoy the cash until the Accountant General put his papers in order. The bank wrote to the government saying “at the request of our customer, we return salary payments for period January 2006 – April 2008.” The total amount came to Le 11, 581, 228.00. Then that amount was a fortune and many people’s life savings. Even now, that is good money. So when I talk about his honesty and suitability for this new role this incident should convince President Bio he has the right man.
Josh is going to the ACC Advisory Board to represent the media in this country. In this area his credentials are also very well established. He studied for his Master’s degree at Cardiff University in Wales (UK).
Apart from his work at SLBS, this mild-mannered yet firm gentleman also worked for the Dutch national broadcaster, RNTC, in the Netherlands. He later became the main driving force behind the Dutch-sponsored Initiative for the Mobile Training of Community Radio or INFORMOTRAC project which set up a number of community radio stations across Sierra Leone and trained their personnel. He has also served many other media organizations. He is a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication at Fourah Bay College where he has taught and mentored many.
He is very religious, and holds the award for the longest serving member of the St. Charles Parish Church at Regent in Freetown where he’s been attending since 1981.
So fancy this: with such a reservoir of knowledge and experience, the fear of God, plus a high level of integrity, Josh brings an incredible asset to the ACC Board. A board that should be the beacon of honesty and integrity in Sierra Leone, if the fight against corruption is to be won.
This selection is well made.
© 2019 Politico Online
