By PV Staff Writers.
The Public Affairs Unit of the Sierra Leone Mission headed by Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Reverend Leeroy Kabs-Kanu has been doing a good job in helping to rebrand and promote the good attributes and image of the country after the gruesome and evil civil war that tore the country apart. But that unit needs to do more to spread the good news about Sierra Leone and we have some suggestions for the Reverend and his team:
1. The unit and its members should stay out of petty squabbles with APC supporters in North America and concentrate and focus on the job at hand which is simply selling the country to the outside world to foster increased bilateral trade and understanding. We don’t think anybody should be jealous and envious of the Reverend’s position since he has served the party well but he should stay above the fray and be able to take criticisms of his attitude and stewardship like a man. Talking about how he donated money to other newspapers or how he helped various people in the past is too childish. He should rise above such pettiness. We all constantly help people in one way or the other, not necessarily through money. Volunteering our time, energy and skills to disseminate information about our country and government for free over many years is in itself a huge contribution and gift that can be estimated, in monetray terms, into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
2, There are many Sierra Leonean online newspapers in North America like PV, Sierra Express, Daily Mail, Daily Nation, Herald Tribune, Salone Monitor, Rising Sun, New People and various entertainment blogs and forums that should always be interacting with the Public Affairs unit. Mr. Kabs-Kanu should invite these papers to press conferences and press briefings and arrange for interviews with visiting dignitaries as is being done in Freetown by State House and the Ministry of Information. He should also organize workshops, seminars,and town hall meetings in which Sierra Leoneans in the US and Canada can meet and interact. But to do all that he needs to draw up a "business plan" that he can forward to his superiors in the US and Freetown for evaluation.
3. The unit should be sending out press releases to the various newspapers on a regular basis. Publishing something in Cocorioko newspaper and then sending it out to other media is not proper. A published Cocorioko story is not a press release as the good Reverend very well knows. Send a proper press release with photos and video clips to the other papers. DO NOT send published Cocorioko stories please. That’s what Kwame Yankson and young Joseph Kamanda at the ministry of Information and State House respectively do (sending press releases and photos only, not We Yone published stories). That’s what former PV correspondent and now deputy Information minister Sheka Tarawalie does too, even though he has own newspaper, The Torchlight.
4. Once again, we love you Rev, keep up the good work. Nobody is jealous of you, or after your job. But reach out, open the doors and let other media people help spread the message, take criticisms with bravery and courage and avoid petty fights. Good Bless you, hold tight and sleep well.
Photo: Reverend Wilfred Leeroy Kabs-Kanu.
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