The people’s rights for God’s sake should not be trampled upon no matter the political, social and economically influential status one commands in the world. Any attempt at that will serve as a reminder that such does not provide any moral grounds for any foreign establishment to consider the country called Sierra Leone and Sierra Leoneans being sold to them as slaves, and should be thus subjected to all sorts of inhumane treatments.

Wrong!

Never again the people Sierra Leone tolerate such behavioural attitude from foreign-Chinese, Indian and other Asian, as well as business establishments including the very infamous China Railway Seventh Group, which is on record for hanging on it Asian perceptions of sharing everything with government and Sierra Leoneans, simply because of their exploitative investments in the country under the watch of President Julius Maada Bio. These are the clouts they capitalizes on to capture the leeway to perpetuate any forms of human rights abuses and violations against Sierra Leonean workers with their companies.

As a matter of fact and by law, the government of Sierra Leone be it under whichever leadership has a genuine role to protect the rights of its citizens from the claws of bad Indian and Chinese businesses in the country, though much is not realize from the powers that be.

With such constantly in place, you are urged to ask again who regulates the powers that be that do not raise concerns of rights limitation of Sierra Leoneans working with Chinese-CRSG and others bad Indian companies. Of course their unholy ties with government functionaries does not warrant them to trample upon the rights of Sierra Leoneans like what the Chinese CRSG fellow did perpetuate against the Sierra Leonean Kingho staff.

The CRSG staff we are told in a scanty note release has been fired whiles the victim is being hospitalized. That is what is expected from authorities but does that actually restore the dignity of the man whose rights was violent abused. Does it also restore his God’s given life had he been killed by the bruit CRSG Chinese national who took an iron bah against Sierra Leoneans are some of the critical concerns government and its self-hired civic organizations as well as the Sierra Leone Human Rights Commission should be ready to answer at a time like this, rather than remain armchair apologists. Nothing absolute was heard from all rights groups or the government Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources, the National Mineral Agency, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, not to talk of poppet Civil Society Organizations. Do they want to tell the world and the people of Sierra Leone they have also been bought by these companies, especially CRSG?  CRSG’s continuous disregards for Sierra Leoneans’ rights working with the company required international right groups’ attentions, if those within the country continue to be mute and blind to the concerns of the masses.

The people of this country along with exploitation they continue to suffer from foreign investors including Chinese and Indians cannot be constantly subjected to enslavements under these establishments thus government must do something to safeguard the rights of the people now from its business partners.

Moreover, it is no secret that the interests of any foreign investments in any country are not permanent, no matter how much they may have bought whatever they are in for in, whiles citizens’ interests are always fixed and permanent. And government should at all cost stand tall in ensuring firm protections of the rights of Sierra Leoneans working in these enterprises, not just in the selfish comforts of the powers that be, but the country as a whole and people of Sierra Leone, bearing in mind that company A/B never bought the entire country but went into an agreement for a limited time framework, within which citizens’ rights should not be jeopardized for any reason. This is not so in the case of Sierra Leone and foreign investments. The unacceptable facts are that people keep grumbling all over the place about exploitations by foreign companies and existing social and economic hardships. These must stop now and government should place the protection of the interests of its people as the highest premium above everything else. For far too long people have been crying over the misuses of their natural and human resources in the exploitative name of foreign investments by China and India.

We are yet to see a country where foreign nationals’ interests especially Indians and Chinese businesses are placed above citizens of their own country. It does not operate so at all for other nations have all their rights to benefits from their human and natural resources through very good local content policies. For us here it is a different thing all over.

Specifically on the recent violence attack on a Sierra Leone staff of Sierra Leone Mining by a Chinese national with a metal rod during work and safety inspection at the mine’s site was uncalled for and has been completely condemned in its entirety. Condemnations cut across the board ranging from the diaspora, social media platforms, with people from all shades of opinions expressing serious concerns over the persistent inhumane behavioural conducts of Chinese and other Asian national against Sierra Leoneans; occurrences according to people working with CRSG is the first as so many of such have been going on unreported.

The unfortunate incident clearly explains how series of work place intimidation and human rights violations are on-going on a daily basis in isolations at Chinese and Indian establishments across the country. The more reasons government through the appropriate line agencies should ensure regular human and labour rights inspections of these foreign-Chinese, Indians and other companies operating within the country to ensure the protections and safeguard of the rights of Sierra Leoneans in the hands of these wicked foreign investments/investors. Our citizens come first as the greatest assets to the nation.

By so doing as a government, it will speak to them that the people are not being sold to them as slave but merely working with them as partners in development and in the even any rights violations are uncovered such establishments stands to face the full penalties of the laws of the land.

Apart from subjecting them under unfavourable working/service condition with take homes that cannot even feed their families and upkeep them, most of the workers are routinely fired by these establishments without benefits, against their wishes though the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the government and the investors at the end of the day emerge as lucrative beneficiaries, which reminds us of a nation and people being sold into slavery to foreigners. However much as we continue to commend CRSG and other Chinese investments for their diverse roles in national development in the country, we also want to remind these them that Sierra Leone and Sierra Leoneans are not for sales into slavery to their companies at all, and enough is indeed enough. A word to the wise is quite sufficient.