Hotels - Freetown

Media Links

Mining

Shipping

Travel

Freetown Weather

March 2010
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Feb
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

Umaru Fofana’s campaign cannot be reduced to a debate about his looks

Author: SEM Contributor

I strayed into the website of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) the other day in my usual look out for any news I could lay hands on. To my pleasant surprise there was a piece on the stance the president of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) Umaru Fofana has taken to have the infamous criminal libel law repealed. One which turns decent people into common criminals for what they say or write. Action on this issue is not new. It is as old as the act establishing it. What makes this different is, it is a one-man action. This is the first time a Sierra Leonean has gone it alone. Umaru will not have his hair cut until the Supreme Court gives a ruling – which is long overdue – on the matter. Needless to say, this has changed his looks from what we are used to.

In an attempt to build momentum around the campaign, I have been forwarding the news to friends to read and most importantly comment on as I have done. A recipient in Spain messaged me on yahoo messenger to say it is pointless to post a comment because it will have a counter effect. “It would only harden the government” she insists. How I wish I could agree. It is similar to others I have sounded and some on the CJP website. A thread that runs through these comments is the feeling of helplessness which is not helpful to this campaign. This is a bit worrying especially when in little over two years ago the people clearly demonstrated they can hire and fire their political leaders.

However, what struck me most was not the can-do-nothing-about-it kind of mentality but rather the attempt to reduce the whole issue into looks. The poor man seems to have been caught up in the obsession with looks sweeping across the world. ‘He should shave to look good’ some comments seem to suggest. In the comment I posted, I said among other things that President Koroma promised to repeal the law while in opposition to con his way to power but not to fulfil it. Yes, Umaru’s looks have changed but reducing his stance to a debate on this, is uncalled for and defeats the very purpose of the campaign. These people need reminding that our perception of beauty can be very subjective. But more importantly they are playing into the hands of the government. Since the focus on looks deflects attention from the real issue to one which the campaign is not about.

Don’t be deceived by the foolish bravado and spin, this issue is already a big embarrassment for the government. In the story, Umaru speaks of the embarrassment he now faces trying to prove his identity. To say the government is more embarrassed is an understatement. Unfortunately, it has not dampened its resolve to dig it heels on this issues, hoping to stretch Umaru’s resolve to the limit.

This explains why the government is at a loss over what to do. It just wants to keep the ruling on hold indefinitely; after all there may be no intention of using it against journalists. All it wants is to have this scary law still hanging over the heads of journalist as a way of saying: ‘Look blokes we have the raw power to chuck you in prison if you mess with us’. But with Umaru resolved to carry on to the very end, the government’s plan to lay the issue to rest as quickly as possible has backfired spectacularly as the whole issue is now set to remain in the public domain and momentum building by the second.

Whichever way the ruling goes will have a serious effect on the relationship between the government and the judiciary. The courts have an unenviable history of toeing the government line. The records speak volumes. For a few examples, it has ruled that the presidential nominee for Minister of Justice cannot be vetted by parliament but other ministerial nominees can. Also, it ruled that Charles Margai was not a member of the SLPP because he does not have a party membership card. This is despite the party not issuing membership cards well before Margai rejoined the party. There is also the embarrassment over the imprisonment of Paul Karama for defaming the then president. He was released after months in prison and told he was never guilty in the first place. In a classical example of buck passing the then government said the presiding judge was an idiot for ignoring vital evidence which would have changed the verdict to not guilty. With past and present governments accustomed to using the judiciary like a piece of meat, a ruling in favour of SLAJ will signal the beginning of an end to a master and slave kind relationship.

So a ruling in favour of SLAJ will mean the government is beginning to lose its grip on the judiciary. It does not want this to happen because it will be a body blow to ego. In addition, it will have a wider political implication which will not serve its self-interest especially with the opposition. Don’t illude yourself, this is less about the media. On the other hand, a ruling against SLAJ will be the final nail on what is left of the integrity of the judiciary. It will also make a laughing stock of the British Government which has pumped a lot of taxpayers’ money on the judiciary. There is no denying a government with a cap in hand policy would think hard before biting the hand that feeds it. For there is no guarantee, the British government will remain useless at holding the government to account forever.

The plight of the government is worsened by the fact that it is dealing for the very first time with a SLAJ president that is fiercely independent. In the past the government has played the political god-father role by telling all SLAJ members with the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS), Sierra Leone News Agency (SLENA) and the Ministry of Information to vote for its anointed candidate. Since this group makes up over half of registered members – a deliberate tinkering – the support of the government was crucial. So, unlike previous actions on this issue, this time around the government has been caught off guard. We have a president they cannot use as a pawn. To rub salt to a wound, it has as Information Minister one of the longest serving journalists in the country in the person of I B Kargbo. The anger of journalists stems from what they see as one of their own stabbing them in the back. This makes Mr Kargbo look like a liability. Maybe President Koroma should start thinking through his options on him.

While I do not profess to know Umaru more than everyone else, I know he is passionate about the things he believes in. And this is one of them. We can help his cause by not focusing on whether his new looks make him handsome or ugly but rather tell it to the world that the President of SLAJ has refused to shave because in the 21st century we still have laws that punish and criminilize free speech. The clout of the President of SLAJ must be fully exploited in this campaign. But please, please do me a favour, spare me the nonsense about his new looks.

By Joseph Dumbuya, UK

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!

Umaru Fofana’s campaign cannot be reduced to a debate about his looks

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items