Team TENGBE
SIERRA LEONE PEOPLES’ PARTY (SLPP) FLAG-BEARER IN 2017
Introduction
Further to his first Town Hall meeting in London, UK on 11th October last year where he announced his candidature for the position of Flag-Bearer and President for the 2017/18 General Elections, Dr Jonathan Bonopha Tengbe flew back into the UK on 11th December from his busy Highways construction engagement in Qatar for a three-week Christmas and New Year break. But while he was occasionally spending some quiet and quality time with his family in Cambridge it soon became apparent that it was business as usual on the campaign trail in London, Bristol, Manchester and Reading. Please see a snap-shot of how he used part of his short ‘working holiday’ to mingle with some of his SLPP stalwarts around the country.
Bristol
London - Peace and reconcilliation meeting
The Executive of the SLPP UK & I Branch organised a Unity and reconciliation meeting where Dr Tengbe was invited, together with two other FB aspirants, Rtd Brigadier Julius Maada Bio and Mr John Oponjo Benjamin. The resultant Communique from that meeting has already been widely publicised, and has been generally endorsed by the rank and file of the Party as a significant milestone in the process of achieving sustainable peace in the Party. In that meeting Dr Tengbe re-echoed the importance of an intra-party dialogue/peace conference as, inter-earlier, recommended by the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) in Sierra Leone. Following on from the meeting Dr Tengbe has written an open letter to the Party Chairman and Leader, Chief Somano Kapen asking him to expedite the process of holding such a conference. At the time of writing I understand that the Chief has provided a public and positive feed-back to this request.
Manchester - Ebola Church Service + Town Hall Meeting
Team Tengbe were in Manchester for a Town Hall Meeting as the main event, but two important other issues affecting the Manchester SLPP and Manchester Sierra Leoneans had to precede that main event:
· SLPP Manchester Womens’ Leader in Hospital
It can be recalled that Ms Zainab Sheriff is still recovering and recuperating from her brain surgery operation in hospital. Dr Tengbe and his team visited our sister who is making an increasing remarkable recovery. We offered and prayed with her for an even speedier recovery so that she too can join in the fast moving peaceful train of our SLPP.
· Ebola Church Prayer Service
Sierra Leoneans in Manchester believed that:
“Ebola is real, let as all accept the reality and pray against it. Only God’s intervention can save Mama Salone now”.
These are the poignant words from a special ‘Inter-faith Service of Prayer’ organised by the Sierra Leone Women’s Association Manchester and Sierra Leone Association of Greater Manchester, to which Dr Tengbe and his team were invited. We joined and fully participated in this large service of about 60 worshippers at the St Luke’s Anglican Church, Longsight, Manchester.
· Town Hall Meeting
From the Church the congregation joined their Manchester SLPP brothers and sisters for the main event at Newton House, Longsight, Manchester. Here Team Tengbe, led by Chairman and Campaign Co-ordinator, Mr Abu Sheriff was introduced by Manchester SLPP Chairman, Mr Abraham Sonnah. The flag-Bearer aspirant wasted no time in addressing his up to 120 eager audience on two key issues:
Reading
Given the ‘short working holiday’ in the UK Dr Tengbe was not able to meet our SLPP Reading and Bristol Chapters in a Town Hall meeting as he had done in London and Manchester, but he hopes to do so when next he visits sometime this year.
However, he was joined in Reading by two members of his Team and Reading Chairman, Mr. Ahmed Wurie to visit the families of Mr. James Momoh and Mr. Brima Katta who both lost their mother and father respectively last year. At their family homes the FB aspirant participated in short traditional worship and prayers, as well as, made undisclosed financial contribution towards memorial arrangements in honour of the departed loved ones.
DR Ts Vision for Sierra Leone
. Progress towards UNITY within the SLPP
Since the Party was born in 1951 Dr Tengbe emphasised that we have been well known for our unity of purpose and democratic values, but in recent years there have been a steady decline in our values. This has led to calls from various quarters for us to unite as a credible opposition.
“If we continue at the current rate, we will miss this golden opportunity of winning State House, come 2017/18”, Dr Tengbe lamented.
Following his first Town Hall Meeting in London in October last year Dr Tengbe pointed out that the following had been achieved on the UNITY front:
· Unity and reconciliation meeting was held with Mr John Oponjo Benjamin and Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio on 16th December 2014 and the Communiqué that resulted from that meeting is already in the public domain.
· I Suggested a way forward for the National Secretariat to host a one-day Stakeholder conference which will require an independent facilitator to lead the peace conference
· I will be writing an open letter to the National Chairman Chief Somano Kapen urging him to lead the overall peace process
2. My vision for Sierra Leone
Here the Flag-Bearer aspirant reiterated a more detailed insight into his vision for his country, with the following objective:
“Improving the standard of living for all Sierra Leoneans through Integrated Infrastructural and National Development”
This will mean harnessing the Country’s human and natural resources capital to transform Sierra Leone into an emerging economy within a short period of time. This will be done in 3 phases: Short Term Phase (within 1 year); Medium Term Phase (2 to 5 years); Long Term Phase (5 to 10 years):
2.1 Short Term Phase (within a year)
· Reducing the cost of living for the average Sierra Leonean
-Review import duties on basic commodities like imported food with the view to reduce prices on essential commodities
-Providing storage facilities in rural areas to encourage farmer to store food during the period of harvest and transport to market centers when necessary
This will also mean providing storage facilities for perishable food items
· Maintaining our National Assets such as Roads, Public Buildings, Government Housing etc
-Review the current Road fund of the Sierra Leone Roads Authority with the view to improving the maintenance of both Urban Roads in major cities and rural villages. This will mean using Labour Based Technology and Food for Work Programmes that will simultaneously provide employment for the Rural Poor.
-Improving the Capacity of the Ministry of Works in the area of Maintenance of Public buildings and Government Housing. This will provide a secure working environment for our Civil Servants and also alleviate the housing need of the human resource asset of governments. It is also a strategy to minimize corruption as statistics indicate that most of the corrupt monies secured by Civil Servants are spent on building their own houses, which otherwise will not be the case if they are provided with Government houses with the potential for them to own these houses.
· Reviewing the Local Government System to identify gaps in their roles and the respective conflict with Central Government and building their capacity to manage their Areas of Responsibility.
· Preparation of a comprehensive 10-year National Development Strategy
· Reviewing and Continuation of Projects for which the past Government have already secured funding.
· Carry out benchmarking for progress monitoring and evaluation and identify suitable indicators to measure the standard of living of all Sierra Leoneans – the key objective of my vision.
· Improve communication between the Government and the general public through monthly update on objectives achieved by Government from the various Government Ministers
· Improve Security of the country through the police and the National Army and securing our porous borders with neighboring countries.
· Improve relationship between other Governments and bi-lateral donors through transparency in government handlings and promoting justice and maintaining rule of law
· Providing an enabling environment for local and international investors to do business in Sierra Leone, particularly in the area of “Ease of Doing Business” and minimizing or eliminating “corrupt practices”.
· Empowerment of our Women & Youths
2.2 Medium Term Phase (1-5 years)
Implementation of the 5-year National Development Plan to achieve integrated infrastructure, economic and social development. Key development areas to focus on which will be prioritized on regional basis are as follows:
2.2.1 Key areas of Infrastructure to be developed within the 5-year development plan
Transportation -Roads – Expressways, Secondary Roads, and Feeder Roads
-Aviation
Water Supply -Water supply Collection; Water Supply treatment Plants; Drilling Water Wells in Rural areas
Solid Waste Collection and Management - Solid waste Incineration plant; Recycling of waste; Burying solid waste in Landfill Sites.
Waste Water Collection, Treatment and recycling -Construction of sewerage systems in urban areas; In Rural Areas we will develop the following: _ Septic tanks; -Cesspits; simple Treatment plants
Power Supply -Diesel generated Power; -Hydropower generations; -Solar Power generation; -Power Distribution
Public Buildings -School and University Buildings; -Hospitals and Healthcare Centers; -Government Housing and Lowcost housing
Maintenance of all infrastructure facilities belonging to the Sierra Leone Government
-We will set up an awareness campaigns to educate Sierra Leoneans on the importance of maintenance culture.
2.2.2 Key areas that will bring about Economic Development
Sustainable mining development
This will mainly involve restructuring the mining system of Sierra Leone to maximize economic returns for the country and to make sure resources are extracted in a sustainable manner
Integrated Agricultural Development and Food security
-Providing incentives for Small Farmers and encouraging them to cultivate subsistence food to minimize import of essential food items; rather than the current cash crop production whose economic benefits are questionable.
Review of investment vehicles for funding of infrastructure facilities
-National Road Fund
-Taxes Collected by the National Revenue Authority
-Income from Mining leases
-Donor Grants
2.2.3 Key Areas of Social Development
Low-cost Housing development for commercial purposes
-Investment in low cost housing with priorities given to Healthcare Workers, teachers, Civil Servants
Integrated Human Capital Development, through improved Education
-Incentives to teachers who are deployed in remote parts of the country
-Prompt payment of salaries
-Providing Staff housing for teachers particularly those living in remote parts of the country
- Empowerment of our women through Girl Child Education and Adult Education and skills training for our youths
-Improving the Healthcare systems
-Providing incentives for Doctors and Nurses living and working in the country, and to those currently living in the diaspora to return home and work in our hospitals
-Providing adequate cleaning facilities for our hospitals
2.3 Long term Phase (5-10 years)
Review of the 10-year Development Strategy and carry over unfinished programmes and projects from the last 5-year Development Plan and re-prioritize government programmes and produce a new 5-year development plan:
Measure indicators identified during the 1st year to determine how the standard of living for all Sierra Leoneans has been achieved over the past 5 years and provide an action plan for inclusion in the new 5-year development plan.
In addition, we will start looking at the following aspects of Infrastructure:
-Railways
-Waterways
-Internal Airports
Conclusion
At a season of Christmas and New Year when many families would be engaged in festivities and merry making it is evident that Dr Jonathan Bonopha Tengbe is a determined and focused political candidate who does not only want to lead the SLPP but be a future President who can preside over the improvement of the standard of living of all our people of Sierra Leone.
During his short visit here in the UK over the last festive season he has demonstrated that, indeed, family life can go hand in hand with busy political life as well, by accomplishing two major goals of his campaign:
· Pursuing Peace and Reconciliation within the wider SLPP; and
· Sharing his Vision for Sierra Leone with members of his Party and other Diaspora Sierra Leoneans in the UK.
Without doubt Dr Tengbe fervently believes that no meaningful and purposeful political activity can justifiably take place within the current climate of disunity in our Green family. That is why, as one of those leading the way to true and lasting PEACE and UNITY with the Party, he is confident that a United SLPP will, in 2017/18:
“…take the mantle of POWER and redeem our people from the bondage of poverty, deprivation, disease and misrule of the APC government”
As he pronounced in his maiden Town Hall meeting last October, his campaign will not turn into full gear until the fight to eradicate Ebola in our beloved Sierra Leone is either under complete control or at a practically manageable stage. When that time comes, this dynamic and tireless professional Engineer will definitely be at the fore in re-building our nation again from the ravages of the APC maladministration of our country. In doing so he has always considered that as a first step in nation building the top ‘General’ has to put together a team that is prepared and ready to serve the people in an honest, transparent, and responsible way. Team TENGBE will do just that.