SLAJ boss turns Addax consultant

SLAJ Regional Chairman turns Addax Media Consultant

By Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

The Northern Region Chairman of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Stanley Bangura, has taken a job with Addax Bioenergy Limited as Media Consultant, with roughly $600 as his monthly pay package.

Rumours about Stanley Bangura´s new job have been going round for a long time but there had been no independent confirmation until recently when the man himself broke the ice while participating in a pro-Addax radio talk show on Radio Mankneh in Makeni.

During the said radio broadcast, Mr. Bangura, after introducing himself as media consultant for Addax, went on to shower praises on the company and referred to it as God-sent.

Many observers including journalists and civil society activists in Makeni and beyond consider Mr. Bangura´s new role with Addax as a conflict of interest and sheer disgrace to the profession, while he continues to serve as SLAJ regional chairman.

In view of this, concerned journalists in Makeni have started putting modalities in place to force Mr. Bangura to resign from his position in SLAJ ahead of the organization´s 2013 biennial conference. The said journalists have sounded the view that they no longer trust him to lead them.

Mr. Stanley Bangura as SLAJ regional chairman has been promoting the operations of Addax Bioenergy and even coordinating and chairing press conferences and other media/community engagements organized by the company in addition to circulating pro-Addax articles to newspapers and radio stations on commission.

Reports indicate that Mr. Bangura has been misusing his office as SLAJ regional chairman in his poise to promote the interest of Addax by using the SLAJ regional office as an assemble point for journalists going on Addax engagements.

Mr. Stanley Bangura in an article defending Addax and published worldwide with his byline, attempted to discredit the Makeni based Sierra Leone Right to Food Network (SiLNoRF) and its international partners over an independent study report in which very serious revelations were made regarding the adverse economic, social and cultural effects of the Addax project on the lives of the people directly affected.

Mr. Bangura is also part of a group called Civil Society Organizations for Peace and Development (CSOPAD), a group wildly believed to be an appendage of Addax. He is also said to have openly declared for the ruling All People´s Congress (APC), with plans to run for a political office. 

This unprofessional conduct by the SLAJ northern region chairman has been complained to the SLAJ headquarters in Freetown on a number of occasions without any action taken. Some reports indicate that Mr. Stanley Bangura is a blue eye boy of SLAJ President Umuru Fofanah, and is therefore well protected.

Meanwhile, Radio Mankneh FM 95.1, a renowned community broadcasting network, has been dubbed as a pro-Addax establishment and accused of suppressing radical views about the company.

There have reportedly been cases wherein ongoing radio talk shows by civil society organizations critical of Addax have been stopped halfway and also cases wherein panelists have been strictly warned not to touch on Addax.

The Addax project is currently a controversial issue in the Makeni general area as apart from the fact that the persons directly affected are yet to be fully convinced that it will contribute positively to their socio/economic salvation, the negative effects of the operations of the company have already started inflicting wounds in the minds of the people.

“The role of the media and civil society is crucial if only to get Addax to behave responsibly”, said Emmanuel Conteh (Pa Massim), who happens to be the Chiefdom Speaker of Bombali Shebora Chiefdom.