By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
“The game don bala bala…,” says Julius Maada Bio.
“Babala,” someone on the High Table corrected him.
“Anhaa (Yes!) Babala,” the President noted.
“The game don babala. You must delete that first one. It’s an Executive Order,” he added.
And the crowd burst into laughter.
This is the President of Sierra Leone genuinely tongue-tripped to pronounce a common colloquial slang – Babala, meaning ‘very big’, apparently coined by his political opponents to express the difficulty facing the country’s economy since he assumed the mantle of leadership.
If you just entered this space, there you have it, Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, the Commander-in-Chief, entertaining media practitioners for free.
He is doing this on the poolside of a luxury hotel in Freetown. It doesn’t get better than this.
For those of us who saw Comedian, Richie Obama perform just before Bio took the podium, we know the President outperformed Richie on the night.
In another life, President Bio could be a great stand-up comedian, he could put Richie out of job with a performance like that .
This is a President that doesn’t do this much often. His public persona is stern. But tonight, all bets were off, we were all free to joke with him or about him.
It’s annual media cocktail with the President. For the second year in a row, himself and his Vice Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh interacted with us (journalists), drinking, eating, laughing and taking selfies.
A public relation event perfectly curated by the office of the Press Secretary.
But underneath all of it are the subtle things that you don’t notice, which are perhaps moving this crowd. With the President almost an hour late to arrive, journalists in an open space did the usual - having mini conversations about the state of the economy, the media and so many other things.
Through the space, there was gentle gossip going around about the seeming division in WIMSAL (Women in the Media Sierra Leone) following a bitter fallout resulting from their tightly contested election. The two presidential aspirants were present, so were their supporters and bystanders.
In another corner, we were discussing what’s wrong with the economy, brainstorming economic theories that we thought might be in play, even though we knew we were not experts. But the conversation was literate and it’s flowing anyway.
Whiles wine, liquor and water were been served, older journalists caught up with friends and old tales. Some of the discussions touched on the state of the media. At one end where I joined later, the discussion was about drama and sensationalism on newspaper headlines.
One journalist told his friend: “you have lost your touch.” His reason behind his comment is that their newspaper was not as “hot” as it used to be. Like always they unleashed all the media theories they knew on each other. Even though they couldn’t agree, it was a healthy debate.
Now, this event is not just about the side talk, gossips or small chit chats. It is about the President expressing his thought on the media’s work for the last year. If Bio was a media Professor, perhaps you would call this event a peer review, even though he was doing most of the talking.
On the spotlight tonight were newspapers. Seven newspapers made it into the President’s speech this year; New Age featured prominently, as did Awareness Times, Salone Times, For Di Pipul, Sierra Express Media and We Yon.
“Bio returns home from Dubai empty handed,” the president read a banner headline from the New Age. “I had my suitcase at least,” he said, and the crowd burst into laughter.
Whiles he read sarcastic and funny headlines about his presidency, Bio also took turn to taunt his Chief Minister for his “baptism” into politics by the media.
He didn’t stop short of throwing jibes at opposition parties either, describing the National Grand Coalition (NGC) as “bread and butter party”, mocking their monthly press conference which focuses on the economy and cost of living.
Jokes aside, most of the talk in this year’s event was around the repeal of the Criminal and Seditious Libel law from the Public Order Act of 1965. Last year it was a distant possibility, but this year it feels different. It feels like we are almost there.
With the Minister of Information, Speaker of Parliament and the President himself assuring us, what could possibly go wrong for this not to finally happen?
“My campaign promise to repeal Part 5 of the Public Order Act has transcended to what used to be a dream to almost a reality,” Bio said.
SLAJ (Sierra Leone Association of Journalists) as an association was formed on the backdrop of this law, to make sure it is expunged.
In a very flamboyant speech, the President of SLAJ, Ahmed Sahid Nasrallah thanked Bio for his commitment towards accomplishing what the media in Sierra Leone has always asked for.
“I want to again thank you, our host your excellency President Bio for your commitment to repeal the criminal and seditious libel laws and for your continued tolerance and support towards the media,” Nasrallah said.
A speech to the media by Bio will not be complete if he doesn’t address the Elephant in the room- deploying Press Attaches to Sierra Leone’s foreign missions across the world.
The delay, he said, had been caused by the financial situation of the country. His excuse was reasonable. He promised that deployments would be made next year. Since he didn’t mention any specific month, it means it could be in January or this same time next year. Much of that though depends on the Finance Minister, Jacob Jusu Saffa, who nodded his head and appeared to have smiled a bit when Bio mentioned the subject.
After his speech, the President and his Vice took a tour and shook hands with as much journalists as possible.
“His (President Bio’s) palm is tender” a colleague remarked after shaking his hand.
Tonight, we all feel very close to power. We also feel soft and pampered. This is bound to have a subtle effect on our psyche. The program was designed for that.
But when all that booze and food would have been digested and the tender feel of the President’s hand would have dissolved into our skin, many of us would go back to being just what we are - JOURNALISTS.
Copyright © 2019 Politico Online
