Sierra Leone Chancery, Riyadh, Wednesday, November 30, 2022-
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Communications has held a familiarisation meeting with the staff of the Embassy of the Republic of Sierra Leone in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Minister is leading Sierra Leone’s delegation to Saudi Arabia for a three-day-working visit at the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) symposium.
During the meeting, Hon. Mohamed Rahman Swaray said he was very pleased to meet and interact with the staff of the Embassy on his his first visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Minister highlighted the achievements of the Government of Sierra Leone and made emphasis on the activities undertaken by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
He reaffirmed President Bio’s commitment to Human Capital Development, especially the Free Quality Education, which he described as the flagship of the New Direction administration.
Hon. Swarray said President Bio is committed towards women’s empowerment, adding that the Bio administration on November 15, 2022, enacted the Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment Act. He said the law does not only give right to women to acquire property in Sierra Leone, but also seeks to address the gender imbalances by making provision for increased elective positions for women, enhance gender equality in employment and training, provide for the implementation of gender mainstreaming and budgeting, and women’s access to finance through micro credit facilities, among others.
He also spoke on the introduction of the Proportional Representation (P.R) System for the forthcoming elections slated for June 2023. He said the system would enhance regional cohesion and widen the democratic space.
Hon. Swaray said the rationale underpinning the P.R system is to consciously reduce the disparity between a political party’s share of the national votes and its share of the parliamentary seats, adding that “if a major party, for example, wins 40 percent of the votes, it should win approximately 40 percent of the seats, thereby enabling a smaller party with 10 percent of the votes to secure 10 percent of the legislative seats”.
He reiterated that the congruity between a party’s share of the votes and its share of the seats provides an incentive for all parties to support and participate in the P.R system as it would also help smaller political parties to secure seats in the next Parliament of Sierra Leone.
The Minister added that the new direction administration has abolished several laws in a bid to strengthen democracy, such as the repeal of Part V of the Criminal Libel Law, and the abolition of the death penalty.
The Minister also made reference to the enactment of the Cyber Law in June 2021, which helps to curtail the abusive use of social media.
The Minister also received updates from the staff of the Mission on the key activities undertaken by the Embassy as well as challenges affecting employees.
The Deputy Ambassador of the Sierra Leone Embassy in Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Hassan Koroma, on behalf of the Mission, commended the Minister of Information and Communications and his team for the visit. He also commended the IMCTC for inviting the Minister and his delegation.
Ambassador Koroma also lauded the valuable contributions the Permanent Representative to the IMCTC, Colonel (Rtd) Simeon Nasiru Sheriff and Lt. Col. Muctarr Samagutie Tejan, delegate for Communication and Military Representative are making at the IMCTC.
The meeting ended with a question and answer session, followed by a vote of thanks by the Deputy Ambassador of the Sierra Leone Embassy in Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Hassan Koroma.
The Honorable Minister was accompanied by Lt. Col. Issa Bangura of the Ministry of Defence (M.O.D), Abdul Karim Will of the Office of National Security (ONS) and George Lewis of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC).
END