By Mabinty M. Kamara
The relationship between the Media and the Government in a democratic state is one that is mutual. Governments have relied on the media to communicate with citizens, and stakeholders around the world, ensuring that they receive the information that will shape their day-to-day decisions. Much as the media rely on the government for information that could be analyzed for public consumption and in other cases like for us in Sierra Leone where media poverty remains an issue, we also rely heavily on the government for advertisements as well. The government is the biggest advertiser in the face of a weak private.
However, the attitude of some government officials towards the media in this land that we love is a cause for concern. Typical of this is the outbursts by the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Julius Mattai against the media over the Arise IIP and Leone Rock Minerals saga over the Pepel Rail and Port agreement. The way he confronted the media at a news conference was completely uncalled for.
All that we have done as Journalists is tell citizens that we know about the port and rail contract. We neither signed the contracts nor were we the ones that received 'Per diems' and other travel allowances for the due diligence visits done on both investors before the government reached a decision to award the contract to Arise IIP long before the current stalemate.
I am still wondering why the Mines Minister went to that conference so prepared to attempt to embarrass journalists. Is it because media reports about the issue in recent times have not been favourable to him and the government? Julius went as far as describing the country’s media output as reckless journalism. So when it doesn’t go your way it’s reckless?
In fact, he started his speech on a provocative note directed at our colleagues who were taken on a conducted tour of the operations of Arise IIP, Benin –saying they went on a pilgrimage or so. Is this the first time that Julius Mattai is hearing about journalists going on such trips anywhere in the world?
The Minister of Information also did not help the situation with his constant ridiculous attempts to spin the facts as speakers made their views known. A typical example was when the mines minister called a figure in billions and the increasingly restless information minister was all over the place trying to explain whether his colleague meant billion or million. Please tell our dear Information Minister that he was dealing with Editors and Station Managers, not a bunch of idiots. And there he was again trying to disagree with a senior colleague who recalled the president's speech at the launch of the Special Industrial Zone at Koya, with reference to the rail and Port agreement. He told our colleague that he should know that the president saying things in passing doesn’t mean it’s ….. Excuse me, Mr. Minister, that’s a statement made by the Fountain of Honour you’re talking about. So how do we decide which aspect of the president's many speeches should be considered as policy statements or things said “in passing”?
Back to the Minister of Mines who in his attempt to educate the media ended up confusing and spilling more oil on an already slippery public relations floor in the cabinet room.
Julius Mattai was completely not on the same page with the Attorney General and Minister of Justice who calmly and clearly explained the contractual agreement between the government and Arise IIP.
While the Attorney General was saying that indeed there was an agreement between the government and Arise IIP for the Pepel rail and port network, it could not materialize due to some technicalities that he himself could not explain which nullified the agreement by July of this year, the mines minister was busy making caricature of a potential investor saying he was not sure the company had ever played with a toy train on a table before and that any attempt to run a passenger train on the rail tracks will be as dangerous as embarking on a suicide mission. At the time those agreements were signed our mines minister was the Director-General at the National Minerals Agency serving as technical adviser to the Minister who was the political head. Here are a few questions again which the minister could not address at the conference.
Did he advise the minister then who is currently the minister of Foreign Affairs about the issues, including his toy train idea?
Was he so carried away by the travel allowances paid by the company that he could not realize that they were not fit to manage a railway business?
When asked of a potential conflict of interest in the whole deal between Leone Rock Minerals and Arise IIP, through his company INTEGEMS he said he was dressed in a suit and tie because he was an entrepreneur. Well done Mr. Minster by your definition of an entrepreneur, all lawyers are automatically one, because they are always dressed that way. However, please note that it is not all of us that fancy suits, and as journalists we are always more interested in the man in the suits, not the suit.
To my colleagues, next time public officials attempt to treat us in a disdainful manner, let’s walk out and leave their conference for them. Thank God everybody is now a journalist in Sierra Leone by merely handling a smartphone so they can report stories.
So let’s play on, don’t disrespect us because you think we are poor or because a few of us have behaved dishonorably in the past. We have seen politicians before you and the rest they say is history. We are not always in suit but we are professionals on whose services the nation relies.
I think my dear information Minster needs to call another press conference to better explain that particular issue to us for the benefit of the many Sierra Leoneans who had already celebrated the return of a passenger train in the country after many years.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (30/10/23)
