By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
On Saturday, 13th July 2019 the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) will elect a new President and various officials to serve in its executive council.
The new President will replace Kelvin Lewis, who has served two terms, as per the association’s constitution.
This year’s election will be contested by current Secretary General, Ahmed Sahid Nasrallah and a former Secretary General, Mustapha Sesay. Both candidates share significant experiences in journalism and SLAJ politics.
SLAJ, which was formed in 1971 as a pressure group, will be 50 in 2021. The next president will oversee its affairs to that milestone occasion. But before then, journalists face so many challenges and have so many more aspirations as professionals.
The question of professionalism in the media industry is a growing concern that SLAJ must contend with. The Seditious Libel Law is still alive and kicking, despite several efforts to repeal it.
SLAJ has also been seen very distant in participating on important national discourse.
It is important for the media to plot a clear direction in the face of all these challenges. The way forward must be carved by the new SLAJ president and his executive.
In this edition, we interviewed both Presidential aspirants. They spoke about their visions and what their aspirations are for a union that holds journalists together.
Nasrallah, commonly known as De Monk and Sesay are both campaigning on the platform of complete transformation.
In these interviews, they highlighted what they have offered in the past as scribe of the association. They also made some fresh commitments on what’s new that they will offer.
AHMED SAHID NASRALLAH:
You have served as the Secretary General for one consecutive term. Why have you decided to finally contest for the Presidency?
I decided to contest for the presidency because I believe I am the right candidate at this particular point in time. The outgoing Executive, of which I was a key figure, made tremendous achievement in certain areas. We have put a sound financial system in place and our accounts are now audited by an internationally recognized auditing firm, Baker Tilly (formerly KPMG). We succeeded in organizing the 2018 Presidential Debate which no SLAJ Executive ever succeeded in doing. And the EU Observers commended the media for its role in the 2018 national elections. We have developed a comprehensive membership database which would help future executives to plan for opportunities. We have taken a giant leap in the fight for the repeal of the criminal libel law; the repeal document is now at the level of Cabinet and with the commitment shown by this Government, we are optimistic this long and arduous fight will be over sooner than later. And we have conducted countless trainings for journalists across the country on various fields.
These are just some of the achievements we have made as an Executive that I want to build on and also pursue my own agenda.
Your candidature is a little different from your opponent’s, in that you are in the current executive, which you are trying to replace. What did you do as an executive member to address these issues you are raising now?
Every executive is headed by a President who was elected based on his/her own vision or agenda. He/she provides the leadership and the direction, and the rest of us in the executive have a duty to support the president in achieving that agenda. The issues I want to address were not part of Kelvin Lewis’ agenda.
In your manifesto, you said you will focus on four areas; Welfare, Mentorship, Gender, Unity and Independence. Why did you decide that these will be your priorities?
Having worked in the Secretariat for 3 years, I believe I know and understand the pressing issues affecting the association as an institution and its membership. But I went around media houses with my small team to gauge the concerns of journalists. From that engagement, we found out that their concerns resonated with what we had put together. So it is OUR manifesto.
Your opponents are concerned that your Presidency will be an extension of Kelvin Lewis’ term. Some say you will be doing the bidding of some other powerful patrons in SLAJ. What do you have to say to people with such concerns?
That is far from the truth. I am a man of my own. I decided to contest because of my conviction that I will provide the right leadership for SLAJ. I have served Kelvin Lewis diligently, so it’s natural if he decides to support me. I listen, I consult and I engage; that is my approach.
As you may know, the 1965 Public Order Act is still a threat to our profession. Part five of the Act goes as far as criminalizing our work. What approach will you use that is different from what previous executives have done to finally get the government to repeal it?
If you employ a strategy and it is working, then I don’t think you need to change it. Rather we may review, if need be.
What do you think you can offer to SLAJ that your opponent won’t?
Stability. Unity. Progress. Results. I am a result-oriented person. I speak less, and do more. And I am team player.
MUSTAPHA SESAY:
You are not new to the SLAJ presidential race. But why are you contesting this time around?
I am contesting because I want SLAJ to be left in a competent hand. A hand that has the capacity to effectively and efficiently administer it. You know that SLAJ is a national voice and it is the most powerful national voice. But for the last six years SLAJ has been dormant on a lot of national issues. So we want to reverse that trend and see how far we ensure that SLAJ takes on its traditional role of being the leading voice when it comes to national affairs or national issues. That is one reason why I am contesting for this position.
The second reason, I think I am matured enough, competent and capable to move SLAJ forward from where it is at present.
The third reason, we were among the few journalists who institutionalize SLAJ. When SLAJ was established, people were administering it through portfolio, through their bags and through their offices. I have contributed towards institutionalizing SLAJ. I helped get the headquarters for SLAJ as a secretariat, with offices for SWASAL, WIMSAL and SLRU. We want to maintain that structure and improve on it.
Of all the reasons you have stated, what will be the top five issues you will focus on as President? And why are these your priorities?
I have already highlighted some of them.
One, to ensure that every member of SLAJ be provided an ID card. The past executive did not issue any ID card to anybody for the past six years.
Secondly, I want to ensure that we establish the office in Makeni, which is a priority, and equip all the regional offices so that they will be able to operate at their own local levels.
Thirdly, I want to reverse this arrangement that is in place now in terms of collection of dues. The constitution is clear that collection of dues should be done by the various regions. They are supposed to give the national executive 20% of what they collect. But this current executive has changed that trend. Instead of allowing the regions to collect their money and give them the 20%, they are collecting the dues on behalf of the regions, in one single account.
Now for 2018 and 2019, all the dues that they collected for Eastern region and Northern region have not been remitted into the accounts of the regions. The executive has been dissolved. So how are they expecting these regions to operate? The funding source on which they rely, membership contribution, is in their custody and now they have dissolved the executive. So, I will have to reverse that arrangement and ensure that regions collect their own dues now and pay the 20% in to the SLAJ account.
In terms of capacitating the national office, we will try as much as we can to re-equip the office, apart from establishing the library which will be a resource center. So, we would try as much as we could to furnish basic equipment into the conference room.
The other issue of priority is welfare for journalists. We have undertaken a lot of issues regarding that, but I think there is need for overall needs assessment. So that we will know which reasons that are responsible for the challenges that journalists in employment and other media people in employment are facing. Once those assessments are done, we will be able to develop comprehensive programming on how we can address the issue. When you want to address issues of those nature, you need to understand them well. You trace the factors responsible for the problems and know how to deal with them.
Like your opponent, you have served in SLAJ Executives before. You served under three Presidents. Is there something that you can offer now that you couldn’t offer back then?
Well, I was serving in those executives as national secretary general, not as the president. And there is a difference between being the president of an association and being the secretary general, although you coordinate and discuss a lot. So that is the reason why I think it is necessary to come in again.
Issues relating to welfare were not adequately addressed. And apart from that there are also some other issues that have to do with capacity building. For example, specialized reporting, mentorship and all the rest of it. And even to write project proposal, the secretariat is constraint in that area, and I have expertise in that area. When I was in the secretariat, I wrote all those proposals and we hadn’t any issue despite the blackmail. There have been a lot of misinformation in the media. Fortunately for me, I have been able to correct them in those places where they have been circulated.
As you may know, the 1965 Public Order Act is still a threat to our profession. Part five of the Act goes as far as criminalizing our work. What approach will you use that is different from what previous executives have done, to finally get the government to repeal it?
I think the best way out with the Public Order Act now is policy advocacy and soft diplomacy which will involve lobbying, because we have tried several methods including going to court for the court to declare the Public Order Act illegal in view of the national constitution of Sierra Leone. But unfortunately, the court ruled against us because they say SLAJ does not have the locus to take that matter to court because SLAJ is not under threat by that law, that it is the journalists that are under threat and they should go to court.
So, we told our colleagues and our colleagues filed their cases. What we can do now is to have constructive engagement, policy advocacy and lobbying with the law makers and other authorities concerned. We are encouraged by the fact that the government has already made a public declaration that they will repel that law and we hope it will be repealed. Because our common position and the position of my executive is the popular position of SLAJ, that is the Public Order Act should be repealed. So, we want the law to be scrapped all together, not to be amended, adjusted or reviewed.
What do you think you can offer to SLAJ that your opponent wont?
I have already informed you that I am very vast in project proposal and policy engagements which are vital for the lifeblood of SLAJ and the success of the association. Beyond that, I have had a wider range of experience more than any of the executive members in terms of working in public life. I have worked for the human rights commission as communication officer. I have worked at the independent police complaint board as communications officer. I have worked at UNFPA as communications officer. So all of these experiences that I have acquired, have been able to empower me enough to be able to do what I am doing now. I don’t want to keep the knowledge to myself. I want to see how best we can share some of these best practices with colleagues so that we have more people benefitting from it and the task of SLAJ becomes easier when people are familiar with what SLAJ wants and do what SLAJ wants them to do.
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