OPINION > Plein Tok Mr. President, We Need One Million Denis Sandis in Your Government Posted by Ishmael Kindama Dumbuya on Jun 18, 2009, 15:32

It is becoming clearer in every day light that the need for over one million Dr. Denis Sandis in Sierra Leone government is important. The shameless-audacity and boldness of the Minister of Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment; Dr. Denis Sandi to name Members of the House of Representatives in the country should not be linked to politics of Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) Versus All Peoples Congress (APC) but a right direction that is needed and should be welcomed by all people in Sierra Leone.

On the 9^th of June 2009, the Minister of Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment; Dr. Denis Sandi appeared before the Honourable House of Parliament where much is expected in the country, to name some MPs allegedly involved in the fleshing of the lands that are belonging to the government of Sierra Leone. Some of the MPs that were named for involving in carting away state lands for their sole benefit are the APC majority leader and leader of government business, Hon. Eddie Turay, the Parliamentary oversight Committee Chairman for lands and Country Planning, Hon. Dauda Dumbuya and Hon Raymond Jones. To substantiate and proof his allegations about these MPs who are taking and grabbing away the state lands in the city, the Minister of Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment presented documents to the House of Parliament in order to authenticate what some people referred to as his allegations.

The Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment Minister after taking an oath from the Holy Bible he believes on, he was quoted by the Concord Times that “he was going to transform the lands Ministry by unearthing all illegalities that fraught it over the last ten years”. He was also quoted for saying “if we are to move forward and transform this ministry, we have to name people”. The above statements are clear manifestations that Dr. Sandi is ready to work for the country in the best interest of the people and not in the interest of some sections (MPs, Government officials etc.) of people.

At the Honourable House, Raymond Jones was reported wanted to divert the attention of the House to cite that the minister demanded for ten gallons of fuel to inspect a land at Grafton. But to the sensibility of the Hon. Speaker of Parliament, Abel Nathaniel Strong dismissed his accusation about the Minister citing it was not contextual. Just as the Speaker of parliament has dismissed that allegation of being out of context, so it is because if really it was true, why Hon. Raymond Jones did not bring that matter earlier in front of Parliament rather than until the day he was exposed for grabbing state lands in the country. From this point, one can really see the guiltiness of Hon. Raymond Jones towards the state and he needs to pay for this.

Dr. Sandi is a kind of Minister among the past SLPP ministers and even in the present APC ministers that had set the pace in the country. By the look of things, he is still ready to continue his effort depending if he is given the maximum support by the government of H.E Ernest Bai Koroma. I can still remember Dr. Denis Sandi when he took a bold stance in his Ministry very recently to suspend sixteen lands officials suspected of being involved in the selling of state lands in the country and also he took one of his officials in the survey division to the Central police after fighting his colleague draughtsman in the ministry. Some of the words that appeased my attention most was when the Minister said that his short term in the Ministry has discovered that a good number of people have been illegally engaged in grabbing acres of state lands depriving many Sierra Leoneans from accessing a single piece of land in the country. At the Youyi Building also the Minister when addressing some lands officials, he said there is need to follow H.E Ernest Koroma’s call for additional and behavioural change and by this all dubious land officials need to excuse the Ministry adding that the lands are not the properties of the fathers of the dubious people.

Indeed the lands are not the properties of any person in the country but owned by the government of Sierra Leone. In the past, during the administration of the Sierra Leone peoples Party, government officials have been engaging on selling and grabbing state lands. Apart from the three Mps that had been named by the Minister of Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment; Dr. Denis Sandi another MP that is a good example is the former SLPP Member of Parliament for constituency 106, Hon. Kabba Kamara. He was grabbing the lands situated at Leicester Road, one of the communities that he was representing in Parliament. There was a bitter fight between Hon. Kabba Kamara and the community people. Even at now, the MP had demarcated more than three ton lots of land belonging to the Fouray Bay College. The arduous and unshakeable Minister of Lands needs to investigate that land at Leicester.

State Land grabbing by any individual especially by government officials and Members of Parliament is a state offence punishable by law. The President together with the House should investigate this matter involving Eddie Turay and Co and if they are found wanting or culpable of grabbing state lands belonging to all Sierra Leoneans, they should be punished according to the law and even shamed to the public and eventually removed from parliament as some MPs have already supported for the removal of these MPs from the House. They need not to be speared or given Parliamentary immunity.

The new stance by the Minister of Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment; Dr. Denis Sandi is a welcomed effort by all most sections of the country. Even the civil society have agreed that if the Minister of Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment is removed from his Ministry or given any problem by the government or any arm of the government (Executive, Legislative or Judiciary), they have resulted to pose a massive demonstration in the streets of Freetown in favour of the Minister for his stance towards the people of Sierra Leone. Some members of the society have said that Dr. Sandi’s types of person are the ones needed to head the various Ministries and even government agencies in the country.

Conclusively, as I have already stated, Dr. Denis Sandi’s action for naming land grabbers especially from the Legislative and representative house of the country should never be linked to PMDC/APC fight but should be taken as a development oriented effort to put the country into the right direction and also follow the President’s call for attitudinal and behavioural change in the country. In this case President Koroma should not listen to any whispers that are ready to spoil the image of the Minister in a way of transferring him from that Ministry to another Ministry for the sake of not sabotaging the government. If all the other Ministers should follow the foot steps of the Minister of Lands, Housing, Country Planning and the Environment, the country will grow well and our citizens who are presently escaping Sierra Leone will stay and the country will grow fine.