When a 'Jamba Smoker' heads an organization

Rejoinder

When a ‘Jamba Smoker’ heads an organization

By Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

It goes without saying that a good journalist focuses on issues rather than going personal.

It is said that when a journalist sways from the real issues and start delving into the personal life of another, it only shows that that journalist is arguing on weak grounds.

While I’ll never go personal in all my writings, guys like Abdul Fonti, the runner of the Ariogbo Newspaper, take great pleasure in doing just that. Of course, I’ve worked together with Abdul Fonti so I do know a couple of things about his personal life…but I’ll not dwell on those things.

In my resolve to stick to the issues, let me here respond to Fonti’s assertion that “When a Jamba Smoker heads an organization, it is almost likely that that organization will not be treated seriously”.

The writing is on the wall that Fonti is sick in the head and therefore cannot think rightly enough to distinguish between a personal fight and a media fight that has to do with real issues.

Because Fonti cannot counter my arguments without making himself look foolish, his strategy has been what we call in logic an ad homminem fallacy i.e. launching personal attacks when there is no strong counter argument to put up.

In Fonti’s piece that equals to a trash, he stated that members of the Association of Journalists on Mining and Extractives (AJME) made a mistake to have elected me chairman of the organization.

The fact remains that my colleagues are proud of my leadership role and want me to go on leading them.

Apart from the fact that I happen to be one among the three founders of the organization, I’ve always been considered an asset. I was the first Secretary General of the organization and became chairman following the death of the Late Christian Keili, a co-founder and first chairman. May his soul rest in perfect peace.

Since assuming office as chairman, AJME has produced a number of newsletter publications and made representations at several quarters both locally and internationally.

AJME is as a matter of fact one of the most vibrant affiliates of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ).

SLAJ holds AJME in high esteem and always redirects issues that have to do with the mining and extractive industry to the organization which over the years I’ve transformed into a research-based professional and non-compromising entity.

Without questioning his opinion of me being a marijuana partaker and that no one takes me seriously especially when I write critical stuffs bordering on the common good, let me state emphatically that I am counted amongst the best journalists you can find in the country. My record is clean, which is why I continue to grow tougher and tougher in the profession.

Mention the name Abdul Fonti and then mention that of Theophilus S. Gbenda and you’ll see who’ll first be recognized. My name rings a bell in the ears of all unpatriotic Sierra Leoneans, as evident in the number of accolades I receive each time I put out a thought-provoking piece or appear on television or Tea Break to talk issues which the likes of Fonti will never ever even know how to tackle.

I’ve represented my country in diverse capacities in several countries across Africa and Europe. As a matter of fact, I just returned from Accra, Ghana, to deliver a paper on Sierra Leone’s oil sector and related governance issues, and hope to be in Germany sometime in March to deliver a lecture on land grabbing and its associated socio/economic and cultural impacts.

Two of my executive members at AJME, Mohamed Konneh (Secretary General) and Diana Coker (Organizing Secretary), returned from Ghana some two months ago and two other members have been listed to travel to the same country by mid this year on a special training course.

AJME, being a reputable media entity, commands high respect within the broader civil society body both locally and internationally, and works in close collaboration with major local and international organizations such as the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), Campaign for Just Mining (CJM), the National Advocacy Coalition on the Extractives (NACE), GIZ and IBIS, to name a few.

There is no function bordering on social justice particularly in the mining and extractive industry to which AJME is not invited.

By and large, AJME is a success story, thanks to me leadership. We have succeeded in gaining recognition far and wild, both in the private and government circles.

Following a report published by AJME on the country’s oil sector, no less a person than the Chief of Staff, Dr. Kaifala Marah, attached at the Office of the President at State House, summoned the organization to a meeting, during which he showered praises on us for doing what he referred to as a good eye opening job. That particular AJME report is currently being used by the government as a working document.

During the investigations by the Jenkins Johnston Commissioner of Inquiry into the circumstances that led to the killing of two protesters by armed police guards at the Koidu Holdings facility in Koidu, Kono District, I was the only journalist (in my capacity as chairman of AJME), that provided pictorial evidence of the entire incidence, thereby making the work of the commission much easier.

During the said incidence, I had a direct mobile phone conversation with His Excellency the Vice President, Alhaji Samuel Sam Sumana and even had a meeting with him at State House on the same matter. As a matter of fact, I was the only journalist that was brave enough to cover the incident in question amidst sporadic gun fire, and therefore the only one capable of providing a true account of what happened. I was expressly recognized in the Jenkins Johnston Commissioner of Inquiry report presented to His Excellency the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma.

To say therefore that nobody is taking AJME seriously because it is headed by a dreadlocked personality is not only a far fetched and erroneous piece of misinformation, but a claim aimed at attempting to undermine the respectability of the organization.

During a recent function organized by African Minerals Limited (AML), AJME was duly invited to deliver a statement. The AJME representative at the function, Diana Coker, was amongst the personalities on the high table. All this couldn’t have happened without the outstanding leadership I’m providing.

Apart from being chairman of AJME, I’m also the Station Manager Culture Radio FM 104.5. You just need to come to No. 24 Fort Street where the station is located and see the enviable progress and changes I’ve effected since assuming office less than two years ago. We now operate on a brand new transmitter covering up to %75 of the country, with my staff being fully catered for.

With my leadership, Culture Radio now ranks third in terms of our transmitting scope, and it is worthy to note that Culture Radio is the only station that has become a member of EED partners in the country and also a member of the board of the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF).

Under my leadership, Culture Radio has secured funding from abroad and is now one of the very few media entities running on solar in the country. What else can I say but to state that I, Theophilus Sahr Gbenda, has never been a failure in all the positions I’ve held. Like AJME, Culture Radio is a big success story, thanks to my astute leadership.

Based on the foregoing, it is clear that the only reason why Abdul Fonti is trying to taint my character by delving into my personal life is to bring to the fore an ongoing ploy by his likes to dissuade me from my critical stance against their interests.        

To show how inconsistent Fonti has been in his malicious pieces of trash against my personality, he onetime linked me to the cocaine bust at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Quay and even insinuated that no cocaine consignment enters the country without my knowledge. Just the next day, Fonti came up with yet another trash indicating that I’m being afflicted by hard-up. While making it point blank that I’ve never set eyes on cocaine not to talk about being an ardent partaker of it as he libelously claimed, let me here state that a cocaine baron will never be hard-up or cash constrained. Isn’t that inconsistence…???

Anyway, I remain Theophilus Sahr Gbenda, the firebrand journalist and campaigner, whose fire cannot be quenched by twits like Fonti.

  

Unlike Fonti who corporate money has easily reduced to a praise-singer, the marijuana he claimed I’m partaking of has never made me become foolish. Rather, it has made me become wiser and more patriotic to my nation, as evident in my writings. So what’s the fuss about…???

It goes with saying that Fonti who can waste a whole newspaper page boasting about bearing a babe girl and even publishing on front page the photograph of the innocent girl and that of his and his girlfriend standing in a rather romantic posture, is only succeeding in making himself look funny in the eyes of good people rather than spoiling my hard earned reputation in defence of his selfish interest.

Let me end by stating that this same Fonti happens to be one of the many young journalists I’ve helped groom, as James Bampia Bundu, his staff at Ariogbo Newspaper, would attest. It’s therefore out of sheer ungratefulness that he is doing what he thinks is best in the eyes of his handlers. Posterity will judge him accordingly.

I remain undaunted. Jesus Christ was persecuted for being righteous and even killed. He was called names, dragged in the streets and spat upon. Isn’t that a good source of motivation to stay on…???