SLPP’S TOWN HALL CHARADE
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
Concerned citizens, especially the common Sierra Leoneans, who are bearing the brunt of the economic challenges in the country, are bemused by what they perceive as a ‘charade’ of a Town Hall Meeting conducted on Tuesday at the Bintumani Conference Center.
The meeting, which was supposed to be an opportunity for citizens to engage with the President, appeared to many as an extended session of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP).
This perception was reinforced by the noticeable absence of critical and dissenting voices at the meeting, such as journalists, civil society organizations, and rights groups, who could have raised pertinent questions that directly impact the daily lives of ordinary Sierra Leoneans.
The intentional exclusion of critical journalists and CSOs by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, the event organizers, completely undermined the intended purpose of the gathering.
Observers noted that what transpired at the meeting was a congregation of loyal SLPP supporters, who were unlikely to pose the real questions that the common citizens would have asked.
The entire event seemed meticulously orchestrated, especially evident in the deliberate omission of divergent perspectives in a forum that was meant to foster genuine dialogue between the President and his constituents.
To exacerbate the situation, a woman was on the verge of facing physical altercation for persisting on asking a probing question, only to be reprimanded as ‘’rude’’ by the Minister of Information.
The entire conversation on the meeting, according to observers centered around well-scrutinized questions, carefully designed by the organizers.
Many see this act as a complete disservice to both the President, who was made to miss a golden opportunity to frankly speak with his subjects, and the general citizenry, who were clearly denied the opportunity to make their concerns known to the President.