Sheik Sesay has no reason to be so cheap

Special Commentary

Sheik Sesay has no reason to be so cheap

By Theophilus S. Gbenda

Sheik Sesay, the Managing Editor of the Exclusive Newspaper, is supposed to be making a complete difference in life.

Though uneducated, Sheik Sesay has distinguished himself as a young man who through hard work and dedication, made himself a multi millionaire and a very successful businessman.

Coming from a poor background with strings of family responsibilities as the eldest son, Sheik Sesay’s Exclusive Newspaper is rated amongst the most renowned and widely circulated newspapers in the country.

Conservatively, one can estimate the daily returns of the newspaper at nothing less than Le 2,500,000 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Leones). The bulk of the profit accrued goes directly into his personal account.

With effective management provided by Sheik Sesay himself, the Exclusive Newspaper won two prestigious awards last year alone, and is likely to bag others in the years ahead.

During my enquiries for this piece, I found out that Sheik Sesay single-handedly sponsored the establishment of the Exclusive Newspaper courtesy of revenues painstakingly generated both as a newspaper vendor and a smalltime businessman operating between Sierra Leone and neighbouring Guinea.

This is contrary to the fact that most newspapers in the country received sponsorship for there registration from notable politicians and mostly unscrupulous business people.

The Exclusive Newspaper has the clout to boast of being an outstanding independent newspaper, but recent praise-singing articles dedicated strictly to His Excellency President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, have become a cause for serious concern.

Sheik Sesay lost direction since the APC assumed power, and today, the Exclusive Newspaper has effectively become a political instrument. Whatever reward Sheik think he stands to gain for foolishly selling out remains a mystery, but suffice it to say that he is simply allowing himself and his innocent newspaper to be used unduly.  

        

Going through the Exclusive Newspaper in the period under review on Page 3 to be precise, you will come across banner headlines such as: ‘President Koroma is God-sent’; ‘President Koroma is one in a million’; ‘President Koroma will win the 2012 elections hands down’; ‘Why Ernest Koroma is popular?’; ‘Ernest Koroma is my father’; ‘APC takeover Kailahun and Pujehun’; ‘3000 SLPP supporters defect to APC in Bo’; ‘Ernest Koroma is the best president ever’, ‘Well done Ernest Koroma’, ‘Mo-Ibrahim commends Ernest Koroma’, ‘Barrack Obama hails President Koroma’, ‘Ernest Koroma is a Christly figure’, Sierra Leone’s future is bright under President Koroma’ and so on and so on and so on.

In one of the boot-licking articles herein referred to, Sheik Sesay, the fake author, wrote “Within three and half years since he came to power, the progress made by the government of Ernest Bai Koroma so far shows that the future of Sierra Leone is bright. By 2012, Sierra Leone will be boasting of several four-lane roads countrywide which were not here before. By 2012, the road networks in the entire country would have been so improved that people will no longer see traveling to remote areas as a burden. By 2012, the entire major district headquarters and cities would be enjoying constant electricity like Freetown. By 2012, agricultural inputs would have been increased three-folds as the president’s tractorization programme would have taken root”.

It goes on to state that “President Koroma is determined to make life better for the people of Sierra Leone, so those trying to sabotage him should stop for the interest of the country. Under President Koroma, Sierra Leone has been having high ratings in terms of human development, the practice of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. He has changed the face of this country through rebranding. Sierra Leoneans are now proud of being Sierra Leoneans as they are no longer looked down upon as people from a war ravaged country but a country that has been contributing towards peace in Africa. President Koroma is also trying to unify the country by bringing people from all regions and tribes into his cabinet. With all these good intentions and determination, why are people still trying to sabotage him?”        

Apart from the misleading and misinforming, you will agree with me that the above headlines have no business emanating from the Exclusive Newspaper. Or are we being told that the Exclusive is on contract to do PR for State House? I wonder, because not even the APC’s ‘We Yone’ Newspaper is coming up with such bogus headlines.

The most disgusting thing is that all the articles in question carry a gigantic photograph of the president. Sometimes the president’s photo occupies more space than the narrative itself. I laughed the other day when I saw that President Koroma’s photo on the front page of the Exclusive almost covered the masthead, thereby making the ‘good guy’ look more like a teddy bear than president.

Sheik Sesay lacks the ability to type the ordinary letter ‘A’ on the computer, talk less of him constructing a simple sentence. Yet, he takes pride carrying the byline for all the bootlicking stuffs emanating from the Exclusive. In fact the write-ups always go with a bloated photo of Sheik himself. The fact of the matter is that he relies entirely on hustlers like Mohamed Sankoh of ‘One Drop’ fame and one idle Ghanaian called Kofi Nana Sarpong of Mohamed Bangura’s ever-falling Atomic Newspaper, to do all the write-ups in his name.

As if there is nothing else to write about, all the stories referred to are directed solely at projecting the good image of the president and the goodies he is ostensibly delivering, and nothing else.

For all this, Sheik Sesay is deriving benefits that he otherwise can afford, taking into account the fact that his newspaper makes a net profit of at least Le 2,500,000 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Leones) per edition. Multiple that by 20 editions in a month and you’ll get something like Le 50,000,000 (Fifty Million Leones). Oh, how I wish I was the lucky guy making such a huge amount that requires no sweating.

     I am reliably informed that the car he is presently using was purchased courtesy of a $12,000 (Twelve Thousand Dollars) gift from above. He also collects on a regular basis a bag of rice from the Sierra Commodities, of which the president’s younger brother is the managing director. I tracked Sheik’s movement during the course of my investigation to the Sierra Commodities where he materialized recently to collect a bag of rice which he hurriedly took to his mother’s residence at Garba Lane, off Mountain Cut.

As far as I am concerned, such a conduct amounts to nothing but utter cheapness in the midst of plenty. By all indications, Sheik Sesay has no reason in the world to be so cheap. Why has he got to go to Sierra Commodities to feed his mother?

One thing I want my good friend Sheik Sesay to know is that he is doing a great disservice to the Exclusive Newspaper as an independent institution with high rating in the media landscape. The editorial content of the newspaper is nothing good to write home about. Likewise, both the respectability and popularity of the newspaper are now at stake.

Let me drop this into Sheik’s coconut that while we critics are quite aware and appreciative of what our president is doing, we know however that he is not doing us a favour. He is under strict mandate to do much more if only not to end up being another presidential nightmare. We all know how ex-President Joseph Saidu Momoh messed up.

A word for the wise is quite sufficient, and I beseech Sheik Sesay to stop interfering with the work of journalists and be satisfied with his position as manager editor. He is not a journalist for goodness sake, and is making no effort becoming one.

Lonta!