By Joseph A. Kamanda
Journalists investigating the sales of rotten by SAAD Group Sierra Leone Limited appear to be working vein as leading pro-government media defenders continue to stifle their efforts through illicit extortions of moneys from the Lebanese supplier, who claimed to have parked the rice in one of their leaking roof stores at Cline Town, where it got soaked rotten and spoiled.
This is indeed a huge saga presently rocking new and traditional media for several weeks now, except that it has midwife another new defender, this time around in spirit and person of a publisher and senior government worker. The board chairman for Sierra Leone Cables Limited, who has automatically, becomes a PR errands point man for a Lebanese supplier; SAAD Group SL Limited. This is unimaginable and hard to believe. The ground and board rooms at SALCAB are hard and really dry for board Chairman and Mr Publisher.
At the unregistered SALCAB board room, chairman and Mr Publisher couldn’t have allowed himself paying more attention to defending the sales of rotten rice by SAAD Group SL Limited instead of dedicating his time, energy and resource to the work for which he’s being paid from government’s consolidation revenue funds. We withhold the name and other identification details of the journalist and we shall publish them as and when, where required for professional reasons.
For a media personality at your cabala to dragged yourself to that level of covering up for SAAD Group SL Limited, on the sales of rotten rice to consumers with cooked up story from your newspaper deceiving the people to buy such food stuffs, is not good for the country and your integrity and must be discouraged to stop it now before we name names. You have grown above defend and collect journalism and we believe professional level of Sierra Leonean journalism has also graduated from unprofessional practices long ago, so Mr Publisher try to raise your head above that and restore your credibility once more in the field of journalism.
What you were trying to cover is not new and this is not the first time business people are importing into the country and selling contaminated food stuffs to consumers; mostly traders change the expiring dates of imported food stuffs and sell them to people. So a journalist and publisher of a whole daily newspaper trying to deceive the public that SAAD Group SL Limited does not sell rotten rice, then we have to look for some other credible people to start talking and defending the people of Sierra Leone because some of our senior journalists are being hijacked by those with money to buy media ownerships across the board.
On the other hand not all journalists are up for grabs as there are still highly professional media and communications practitioners in the country, just that the capacity, moral as well as ethical challenges keep affecting the profession, one of the categories within which the board chairman and publisher finds him/herself. No wonder the mad rush to defend SAAD Group SL Limited, so as to silent the issue.
However, no need to sweep the sales of rotten rice to our people under the carpet as Mr Publisher of a daily newspaper and board chairman of SALCAB may always wants to read and hear flowery reportages on each and every media outlets in town. No, not every journalist has to go down that path with SAAD Group SL Limited just for minor tokens like one of our senior colleagues did while trying to defend and covering up for the supplier and sales of rotten rice.
That won’t happen at all for public and national interests come first and whatever relates to the sales of an unwanted rice product to the people for consumptions, must be relentlessly exposed, to informed and educate the people against the consumption of such harmful food stuffs. Also in situations where in civic groups and standard authorities as well as the consumer activists have all suddenly gone mute about the existing state of affairs, we the media should talk and provide formidable platforms for constructive discussions of such matters as part of our roles in national development.
A key reason we want to encourage the desperate board chairman and publisher to slow down a bit and allow independent, credible, opinion leaders and investigative journalists to continue with their findings into the sales of rotten rice by SAAD Group SL Limited to Sierra Leonean consumers. An act a very small sect of the media is trying to cover under the guise of defends and collects to line his pockets.
Defend and collect will only damage and discredit you further and exposed your unprofessional tricks as well as those so called officials at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation who covertly trying to connive with you in that mess. Mind you if the product had been credible food stuffs then it won’t have been in the markets up till now, but all what is known about SAAD Group SL Limited now is rotten rice; nothing else as there is no other way of taking public attentions from the truth now, when rice is the staple food in Sierra Leone.
The fact remains that rice products in now by the supplier in question are not good for human consumption as it poses health hazards, thus people must be careful with such rice whenever one comes across it in any of the markets or stores in the country. People should also alert standard officials and consumer protection activists to further expose and mitigate the circulations and sales of such harmful rice that is almost flooding our markets and stores everywhere in the country.
The public should therefore ignore the report authored by that desperate senior coasting journalist – the SALCAB board chairman, who has overnight transformed his role into defending and collecting moneys for rebuttals and at the same time serving as the PR shield for notorious profit making Lebanese supplier, SAAD Group SL Limited.
By all indications there is even a huge conflict of interests therein as the publisher and government worker are two conflicting public status which can hardly come together, except that one is down for the other. And what many are eager to know now is that why didn’t this respectable journalist resign from mainstream journalism and decides to work for his government, than to serve in both capacities; using them to solicit advantages all over the place at the detriment of ignorant and vulnerable people.
Is that not a high profile corruption Mr ACC Kaifala? It not, then give us your interpretations of what is that, for we the people deserve to know what is the meaning of serving in two public roles – enjoying the board chairmanship and simultaneously the publisher status. In as much as we are not averse to your defend and collect journalism, we want to encourage you in your interest to completely hands off works of other independent, objective and professional journalists to continue with their various investigations into SAAD Group SL Limited rotten rice saga properly.
In the interim, for all we have come to see over years is that Sierra Leone is almost a dumping ground for rotten commodities including contaminated food stuffs ranging from rice, palm oil to name just the few so there is nothing to hide from the well informed public. The rice stinks that’s the fact so don’t cover it Mr Publisher and SALCAB board chairman as there is nothing more to hide from the people.
