By Joseph Lamin Kamara
The country office of the international nonprofit organization Search For Common Ground (SFCG) is protecting the rights of landowners in three districts in Sierra Leone through a project sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
SFCG which is locally known as Talking Drum Studio is implementing a project it initiated in 2013, but was interrupted by the Ebola outbreak, which is titled: “Understanding and Advocating for a change to the Land Tenure System in Sierra Leone.” The general aim of SFCG and OSIWA in the project is to enhance equitable land governance for small-scale farmers, with particular focus on women.
In community gatherings among aggrieved landowners, foreign investment companies and local authorities in the northern districts of Bombali and Port Loko, and Pujehun in the south, SFCG is advocating for justice in the distribution of land between especially landowners and investment groups.
Before the gatherings the organization conducted a survey in the country and discovered that there is widespread discontent among landowners in the transaction of their lands between them and foreign companies.
SFCG found out that grievances among landowners are most prevalent in the three districts, says Saa Bandabla, the organization’s country programme manager.
At the gatherings, the organization reminds the landowners of their comments they made in the surveys and allows local authorities and officials of the companies to address the issues raised in the comments. Afterwards the landowners will express their dissatisfactions in front of the officials of the companies and the local authorities.
SFCG will then urge the local authorities and the companies to ensure there are agreements between the companies and landowners, but if there are and are unfair to one party, to review them.
“We did a research earlier, and in the interviews we conducted you expressed several concerns. One of the things you told me was that investment companies come and sign agreements about your lands in your absence,” Bandabla told landowners through an interpreter, in Gbonkoh Mayeame Village, in the Maforki chiefdom in Port Loko, last Thursday.
“You said Sierra Leone Agriculture (SLA) bought lands and later sold them to another company West African Agriculture (WAA), but WAA failed to buy SLA’s liabilities – it did not fulfill the promises made by SLA. You said again that WAA did not do environmental impact assessment; for instance, if they cut a tree, how that can affect your lives.
“You also said that women don’t have job from these companies and when they give them job, women have the same portions of land men have for brushing. For WAA, you said that it does not have an office. You said many things . . . .”
Bandabla then urged speakers to respect the views of others and react to them respectfully. He also urged the landowners to express their grievances fearlessly.
In response, the PRO of WAA, Foday Sorie Kamara, former councilor of Ward 183 in the Burreh Kasseh Maconteh chiefdom, said he joined the company after “almost everything had been done,” but he understood that the company, which is working to operate in oil palm, and the regent chief, Pa Alimamy Kamara, deceased, had an agreement. He said they signed lease agreements with landowners in December, 2013 and began brushing the following February.
He said in April, 2014 they started planting palm trees and began payment for the land lease.
“So if people are complaining that the company just came and signed agreements in their absence or did not sign any agreements, it’s not true,” he argued.
Corporate social responsibilities
The PRO confirmed that the company did not have offices in the villages where they operated, but in Port Loko Town they had an office at 6 Water Works Road.
Mr Kamara revealed that the company had already “incorporated the paramount chief as consultant” and that the Paramount Chief (PC) Bai Burreh Sallu Lugbu was present when they made the last payment to the landowners.
“Initially, landowners disturbed our work because we had not made lease payments, but since we paid them they have stopped disturbing us,” the PRO added.
He however confirmed that the company was giving the same portions of land to men and women for brushing, but payments were made at the same time, whether or not a woman finished her own portion on time, as opposed to the aggrieved landowners’ claims.
In terms of their corporate social responsibilities to the communities, the former councilor said the company had just started operating, and they needed some more time to fulfil them all. Although he could not tell the number of students, he nevertheless added that the company had given scholarships to a number of secondary school pupils in the district.
When he spoke, the Deputy Chairman of Port Loko District Council, Ibrahim Kamara, agreed with the PRO about signing agreements with landowners, but he said “the problem started with disagreement in the agreement.” He said the company was defaulting on its promises to the people.
“I don’t know the company called WAA on that road the PRO has talked about,” he said.
The deputy chairman chided the PRO for “siding with the company,” instead of the landowners, even though he “is former councilor.”
When he was councilor and there was problem between his people and investment companies, said the deputy chairman, the PRO always reported to the council.
He complained that the council and WAA had never signed any agreement.
“A community person has no right to go into an agreement with a foreigner without the district council,” he stated.
The council vice chairman urged SFCG and OSIWA to organize a meeting with the company owners to register with the council. He warned the company to stop giving the same kind of job to men and women and to state in the agreement with the employees how long they would employ them, how much they would pay them and whether or not the employees would have benefits.
Poverty
According to the representative of the Senior District Officer (SDO), Patrick Turay, WAA had also not signed any agreement with the SDO. He said he’d been hearing people complaining that they’d not seen any agreements with the company.
“But that’s all because there has not been any proper documentary procedures,” he bemoaned.
Civil society activist, Tejan Ayoub Joaque, of United for the Progress of Human Rights (UPHR), one of SFCG’s partners, said when WAA made the first payment to the people, it said it was only helping them, but did not exactly say it was paying for their lands.
“But we the civil society began suspecting when the company was taking pictures during the payments and asking them to sign after the payments,” Joaque said.
Joaque said he and the current councilor Hassan Kamara had warned their people when it all began, but they ignored them.
“All that’s as a result of poverty. Let the people stop signing agreements because of money, when they don’t understand them,” he warned.
He urged the landowners to report their problems to his office and SFCG would ensure their rights were protected.
The headman of Gbonkoh Mayeame Village, Pa Abu Renka Conteh, complained that they’d given their lands because the company brought their member of Parliament (MP), Hassan Sheriff.
“Hon Hassan Sheriff told us he had brought development to us and wanted us to give the company our lands for Le2, 000, 000. He told us our children would work on the farm and they would have permanent jobs. But just after we finished brushing, they sacked them all,” the headman lamented.
“Councilor Hassan Kamara warned us not to give the lands, but it’s poverty that led us into that.”
The landowner explained that the councilor, who was reported to have refused attending the meeting because of the landowner’s defiance to his warning, and the MP, who was said to have travelled out of the country, were not on good speaking terms.
The company had not worked on all the land it had acquired, Pa Conteh said, and vowed that they [landowners] would not allow the company to take any more lands.
“I swear to God! My head will roll on my own remaining land they have not taken,” the Gbonkoh Mayeame headman swore.
“If the only thing you depended on for your livelihood is gone, and you were promised to be given a permanent job, but that’s not done, would you be happy?” he asked the gathering solemnly.
According to the WAA PRO, the company had acquired 72 hectares (ha) of land. One ha is about 25 town lots or approximately 2.5 acres. So, 25 town lots multiplied by 72 gives 1, 800 hectares.
This vast amount of land, according to the landowners in Gbonkoh Mayeame and Masondo villages, spreads through four villages in the Maforki chiefdom, with 2, 000,000 per household of landowners.
And each land lease agreement in Port Loko, Bombali where ADDAX Bioenergy is operating and Pujehun where Socfin Agribusiness Company is operating in oil palm, does not last less than 50 years.
“It’s either 75 or 100 years,” says Bandabla.
In Masondo Village, which is about 14 miles off Port Loko, the villagers reported that before the coming of the whitemen, they measured their lands by bushels. They said they knew one bushel of rice gave them one acre, but they did not understand measurement by a GPS system, which WAA was using.
They reported that their deceased regent chief Pa Alimamy Kamara and MP Hassan Sheriff told them it was government that had sent them.
“They said government wanted to help us. We did not want to give them our lands, but it was the name of government they called that made us allow them to take our lands.
“We are appealing for the future of our children,” cried Saidu Conteh, the headman of Masondo.
In all the meetings held in Port Loko, the owners of WAA, who are Malaysians, were not present and the Paramount chief and the MP were not available. The PRO would not give out contact numbers of his employers, saying he did not have them.
According to Saa Bandabla, SFCG will continue to monitor and urge authorities in the three districts for sanity to prevail, where “the landowners can benefit satisfactorily from their land transactions with investment companies, and where the companies can also realize gains from their investments.”
Where legal intervention is required, says Bandabla, SFCG will seek legal measures.
“One of the international standards is that you cannot sign an agreement without a lawyer. In fact, it’s a lawyer that should write the agreement. Because of these things you’ve expressed, we have a legal partner called NAMATI. It will ensure you understand the agreement before you sign it. If the need arises, NAMATI can even take the matter to court,” Bandabla told landowners in Gbonkoh Mayeame.
“But we don’t want you to go to court and deny all what you’ve told us because you fear your local political leaders. And we don’t want you to misunderstand us. We’re not saying don’t let companies work on your lands, but we want you to benefit from them.”
Politico 10/06/15
