Kadie Sesay Lays Out The Stark Choices Facing The People Of Sierra Leone

Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio

Bio in Europe

Dr. Kadi sesay

The Presidential candidate of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party Rtd Julius Maada Bio was given a rapturous welcome this morning in Freetown the capital of Sierra Leone, with thousands of people accompanying his motorcade to the party headquarters where he was due to address party loyalists and the people of Sierra Leone after his extremely successful tour of Europe that has injected the party with a major infusion of international funds, and during which he made a brief diplomatic stop in Canada to talk about proper governance on the African continent.

Monday Morning welcome Crowd

Former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) advocate Sylvia O. Blyden who currently says she is neither APC nor SLPP because President Koroma is not listening to her advice,  wanted to pour rain on Maada Bio's parade this morning in her propaganda mouthpiece by claiming that he had snuck into UK and came back into Sierra Leone via Lungi Airport instead of Guinea as he had promised. The fact that Soldiers deliberately mislead rebels did not register to Sylvia.

The people of Sierra Leone, tired of listening to endless propaganda and feeling the true impact of the bad leadership they are now under, did not have to be paid to join the welcome crowd as President Koroma's handlers are currently doing, nor did they have to bus in crowd loads of people, but the Segbwema Blog correspondent states that they turned the capital green this morning sending a clear message that a hungry people are also angry people, and the people are very hungry and angry indeed.

Bio Walking With the People

At the Party headquarters, waves of  major party leaders addressed the huge crowd, many of whom were unable to enter the building. Notable amongst the many speeches made at SLPP headquarters this morning in Freetown was that given by the vice presidential candidate and academician Dr. Kadi Sesay who enumerated in very clear details the stark and bleak choices the people of Sierra Leone faced, if they ever  made they made the disastrous decision of  voting back President Ernest Koroma and his thieving cabal into   State House in Freetown come November 2012.

A Tired people

In a speech delivered in the Sierra Leone lingua franca Krio and punctuated by shouts of "one country one people" and "professor, professor!" Dr. Kadie Sesay, a former professor of the most prestigious educational institution in the country, Fourah Bay College, stated her pride at how effectively the opposition flagbearer Maada Bio had represented his country in the international arena. She reassured the huge and attentive audience that Maada Bio's choice as the party flagbearer had been the right choice the people had made, regardless of all propaganda to the contrary and that it was rare for an opposition leader to be held in such high regard outside the country as Maada Bio had received huge crowds in UK, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Canada.

Professor Dr. Kadi Sesay VP Candidate

She emphasized that by getting such a huge crowd on a Monday morning in the western Area which was supposed to be an APC stronghold, the people had sent a loud and clear message that they were simply fed up with the lies and broken promises of the government. She promised that with the help of her people and supporters, the votes in the north of the country will be split right down in the middle between APC and SLPP. She reassured those that were being intimidated by the APC that SLPP will stand by them at all times and noted that they had paid 35 million Leones to keep unjustly acused councillor  Aziz Carew free, instead of efforts by the state using the judiciary to keep him locked up.

Dr. Kadi Sesay stated that it was a common saying that in Freetown these days that the men work but the women can no loger afford to cook, but go to cheap restaurants to buy food for the family, but under their leadership, the promise women will be able to cook a decent meal once more in the country and be able st share what the cook.

APC's Youth Employment

Dr. Sesay told the attentive audience that Sierra Leone was in a deep political and economic crisis and in a terribly sorry state and that it was time for the people of the country to make up their minds and make choice between hope and hopelessness.
 She recounted that on a recent visit to a village in the north, the people had told them that they were tired with the lies and harassment of the APC. APC agents were going around northern villages demanding monies, chickens and goats from the people and disappearing while leaving behind lies and false promises.

Dr. Sesay went on to state that the people of Sierra Leone had to choose to either bring back peace and security into the country or live with the type of insecurity that has become the daily life of the Sierra Leone people since 2007. She stated that in the current state of lawlessness, young people were being killed for nothing and people were no longer able to sleep peacefully. The people of Sierra Leone had a stark choice between the current chaos in the country and the imposition of genuine peace and security which the Bio-Kadi team will bring under their new direction. She stated that the people had to choose between high youth employment which APC claims they have already addressed and real job creation which they intend to take as a major priority.

Women's leader

The people of Sierra Leone also had to choose between the active marginalization that some population and opposition groups were facing under the current dispensation where your name and party card were the paths to available opportunities and that of a government that would create equal opportunity to all, regardless of political, tribal or regional affiliation, as long as you were Sierra Leonean.

The people had to choose between the current unreasonably high food prices of food and fuel in the country or go back to the days when she was minister of trade and fought hard to ensure that food prices were kept to the level that people could afford.

Finally the women of the country had to choose between a government that would put respect for women and their concerns at the top of the agenda or a government that only paid  lip service to the concerns of women. Bio had already demonstrated his concern for the problems women faced by having one of their own at the top of the party ticket.Dr. Sesay stressed while APC was claiming free health care in the country to hoodwink the international community into giving them free money whilst the health care system was in a state of near collapse, about 90 children were dying in the country everyday according to recent reports by reputable health care NGOs in the country.

Youths Want Change

Sierra Leone Health Minister Bags Top UN Assignment

UN Undersecretary Geneneral
and Health Minister Bangura

One of Sierra Leone's foremost human rights activists, the Health and Sanitation Minister Ms. Zainab Hawa Bangura, one of the few current  government ministers with a demonstrated commitment to the welfare of the Sierra Leone people as a whole and a real national patriot,  a woman who stood up to and talked against notorious Sierra Leone warmonger, the Late Cpl. Foday Saybana Sankoh, has been appointed by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as a United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict at the level of Under Secretary General, the highest position below the Secretary general himself.

Ms Bangura does not come to the job without the requisite experience. She had extensive on the ground experience when she was in charge of the civilian aspects of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL). In Liberia she was tasked with promoting capacity building in government institutions and encouraging local communities to engage in reconciliation and help put the evils of the past behind them. She left the UN position when the new president of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma decided to appoint her as a foreign affairs minister in 2007, shortly after his elevation to the presidency after many years as opposition leader of the All Peoples Congress Party.

UN Sec Gen Ban Ki-moon

Zainab at the UN

Ms. Zainab Bangura spent a few uncomfortable years as the foreign minister trying to project the image of the All peoples Congress, a party that was notorious for instigating violence against women, and she  had kept loudly quiet when APC agents led by the president's own bodyguards had gone to the opposition SLPP headquarters and raped a group of women in broad daylight with the government quietly minimizing the magnitude of this abominable crime.

Zainab Bangura was later transferred to the health ministry where she had once again decided to focus on helping the people of Sierra Leone as a whole by promoting health care services for women and children in a country where the health care infrastructure is amongst the worst  on the face of the earth and where people would prefer to put their faith in the hands of native healers rather than go to the mostly underfunded and undermanned health care institutions that has made the country the shame of the developing world.

"A man with limited understanding"

Sankoh's Enemy

Ms. Zainab Bangura hails from the northern province of Sierra Leone, where almost 80% of the current government hails from. She was born on December 18, 1959 in Yonibana, Tonkolili district. She followed another foreign minister of the SLPP, Momodu Koroma, who was also born in Yonibana, giving this small town a unique distinction in the history of the country, that is providing back to back foreign ministers from the two main political parties in the country. Zainab graduated from Fourah Bay college with a degree in political science and later bagged some accounting diplomas in London.

During the conflict period in Sierra Leone, Zainab Bangura  co-founded and later became the national coordinator for the Campaign for Good Governance and has also worked with Transparency International amongst many other assignments. During the conflict in Sierra Leone she was vocal in her opposition to the genocidal leader of the RUF Foday Saybana Sankoh who she famously dismissed as "a man of limited understanding". For her opposition to the RUF she became a special target for assassination by the group.

In 2002 she launched her own political party and challenged the incumbent SLPP President Ahmed Tejan Kabba, another UN veteran,  for the presidency.  Zainab Bangura's views on female genital mutilation however proved to be unpopular in a country with a high degree of illiteracy and deeply held cultural traditions. She wound up with less than one percent of the votes cast and her Movement for Progress Party did not get a single seat in parliament, a testament to the huge institutional constraints women faced in African politics.

How does she Work with
Tarawallie?

Many have wondered how Minister Bangura  with her background in human rights advocacy has been able to function in a government with people like the notorious Interior Minister Musa Tarawallie who brought weapons into the country promising to target the opposition and has let loose police militia who are engaged in killing sprees of innocent civilians across the country by turning guns on protesting civilians. Human rights activists have asked how she could function in government in which senior advisers to the president are complicit in the distribution of illicit drugs like cocaine and bent on making the country a major transit point for drugs on the West African coast. But as they say, "politics makes strange bed fellows". Zainab Bangura is married with children and joins the list of prominent Sierra leone UN diplomats like James Jonah and Ex-president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

Sylvia Fooling Blyden

Blyden Dressed For Church?

Sometimes people can be their own worst enemies,  and when they are as egotistical as Sylvia O. Blyden, they blame the whole world for their own problems, but never look at themselves. In one of her recent senseless rants full of unnecessary self adulation, self pity and frustration, she went on and on yesterday complaining and whining about how everybody in Sierra Leone seems to be against her. According to her, the president's media strategy was wrong, she had the best strategy, but no one was listening to her and she was probably waiting for November to tell President Koroma,  "I told you so!"

She complains that Sierra Leone Peoples Party and their journalists are insulting her parents. She cries that even though APC's  Kabs Kanu had used bad words on her in the past for defending Christiana Thorpe who she had happened to defend when the good Reverend had rained sexual insults on the poor electoral commissioner, Kabbs Kanu had eventually seen his evil ways and apologized to her (Blyden) and of course the merciful human she was, she had readily forgiven the good Reverend with the tendency to insult women.

She goes on to say that though the Reverend Kabba had once accused her of being an RUF rebel, he had withdrawn the statement, but Lans Gberie was now making these same accusations and she was threatening libel. While reading her long, boring and crazy rant, two things occurred to me. Firstly, this woman needed a husband and some children to keep her busy and secondly, she must be as crazy as a bat. Now I know she is not really crazy in the Sierra Leone sense of the word, her condition is what I may confidently diagnose as an extreme case of narcissistic personality disorder. People with this disorder have an exaggerated sense of self importance and feel that they are always right, they are always the best, everyone else is physically and mentally inferior and nothing anyone can do or so will convince them likewise.

Blyden's Uncle Taylor

Why in God's name would President Koroma even listen to anything Blyden tells him. Was it not the same Blyden  who when she was in bed with SLPP and calling Sama Banya uncle that was calling EBK a womanizer and calling a woman she alleged was his gilrfiend "Ba nya fakii" fist lady? Even when she knew that such statements must have been personally hurtful to the president's real wife Madam Sia Koroma did she even care? What did Sylvia blyden not write about APC when she was in the embrace of SLPP. Why would any one in their right mind blame Judas Iscariot? Look at what he did to Jesus! Who would trust anybody with the mentality of a snake and the personality of a chameleon.

I personally am no fan of Rev. Kabbs Kanu, but the incident that Sylvia is referring to was initiated by her very self. Journalism is about reporting and analyzing news, not attacking the reputation of people. We love Awareness Times not because of the quality of the news or the veracity of anything Blyden writes, we simply read that paper to get updates on the latest gossip in Sierra Leone; which soldier is sleeping with somebody and making videos of the action, how the president's girlfriend is going to Kailahun pretending to be first lady, and what have you. Anybody who reads Awareness Times to get serious news would just be going to the toilet to buy fresh hamburger. Sylvia, you attack people on a daily basis, so develop a thick skin and swallow some of your own medicine.

Lans Gberie Sylvia's Craw Craw

Sylvia is threatening libel because she is accused of colluding with the RUF and  that just  makes me laugh. How would you convince anybody that you had no connection with RUF when you went into mourning when their chief sponsor Taylor was jailed? Ever since Charles Taylor was jailed for life, the woman has become unhinged. Libel! Let the cases begin. How many people in Sierra leone that are important has this woman not tried to bring down? What has she not written about both Ernest Koroma and  Maada Bio and who would she fool that she is impartial? When you are with SLPP you write against APC and when you are with APC you write against SLPP. That is not being objective, that is called being unreliable, a candle in the wind bowing in whatever direction the breeze takes her.

And the talk of Blyden complaining that people are insulting her parents. Who is she kidding, anybody? If Blyden can insult Sama Banya, a man old enough to be a school mate of her grandfather, a man who is somebody's grand parent, why would she even complain if the same thing was done to her own parents. Is there any sense in that complaint. Sama Banya is a man past his 80s. In our African custom we respect such people and treat them like elders. This man had a university degree probably before Sierra leone gained independence and long before Sylvia was born, yet she has no problem viciously attacking the poor old man, just because she wants President Koroma to think that she is now on the side of the APC.

Blyden Target Banya

If there was anybody who should be talking about taking people to court for libel and verbal assault, it should be EBK, Arabella Foray, Sama Banya, Maada Bio,Sia Koroma and Sorious Samoura all dragging this social degenerate to court. Journalism is not about insulting people or calling the information minister "Mumu", it is about reporting the news.

When I read the crazy rant today I was reminded of what an old man once told me, "Boy," he said, "Some people just love the smell of their own fart" Our people say that when they tell you to cover your bad part, you should not cover some other part, you should cover your mouth.

Poor Pa leigh-Blyden's Football

The Ignorant Shepherd Boy

The Ignorant Shepherd Boy

Nyandeyama

The whole village of Nyandeyama, near Komende Station in Nongowa chiefdom was up in arms! A herd of deer had been wrecking havoc on the rice fields for three months, attracted by the succulent stalk of newly seeded rice. The Nyandeyama village economy depended on three things; coffee, cocoa and rice, in order of importance. Nyandeyama diamonds, occasionally found in swamps, were small gemstones that were usually not worth the effort to mine, so farming was the way of life, the culture, the tradition and all activities in the village were carefully planned around the farming season. 

Nyandeyama farms

While the eastern city of Kenema planned activities around the rainy season, dry season and harmattan, the people of Nyandeyama, the village of the Segbwema blogger, meticulously planned all social events around the harvesting and cultivation of rice, cocoa and coffee. So when the herd of deer decided to wreck mayhem in the rice fields of Nyandeyama, the people were not happy, not at all.

Chief "Mahei" Moriba

Chief Moriba the town chief, called on Kpana Sipo the town crier to go round the village one humid night and summon the townsfolk to an emergency session to seek a final solution to this impending catastrophe that would kill their women and children with hunger, if the men did not rise up and confront this terror. Kpana Sipo's task was not very difficult, as Nyandeyama was quite a small village. He did not have the kind of work that the town crier of Segbwema had. The poor town crier in Segbwema throat was so hoarse after each town crying assignment that he was given a bottle of castor oil for two days to calm his frayed vocal cords, as Segbwema had grown so large that town crying was no longer an enviable profession.

Kpana Sipo the town crier

Chief Moriba lamented to the town people that they were under a deer invasion, the likes of which he had not seen since he returned from the Burma war, many years ago. The people's way of life was under threat. Their subsistence was at risk, their children were on the verge of starvation and a suitable response was to be found. Famous trappers from all around Nongowa were to be contacted. Word has been sent to Majihun, Komende, Borbwehbu, Jormu Kafeibu, Potehun, Tijobu, Sami Saindima and even Segbwema and Kenema for help in controlling the deer menace. 

The Village Meeting

Trappers had come from far away as Madopolahun and Folu Jawei, but these were intelligent deer and they seemed to have studied the ways of humans. Some had been caught and killed, but hunters had identified their leader, a short stocky buck, a cunning and sly animal that had evaded all traps and seemed to mock the effort of all the renowned trappers who had descended on Nyandeyama. The chief put a price on the head of the leader of the herd. Any man that caught the deer leader would be given suitable reward and his name would be sang in songs of the village, for many years to come. Every man and boy, gathered in Chief Moriba's compound that humid mosquito infested night, left with dreams of glory, of their name being sung, even long after they had taken the long journey to join their forefathers.

The Leader

So the men tried, they caught a lot of deer and drastically reduced the menace, but somehow, the short stocky buck, the leader of herd, always seemed to be one step ahead of even the best trappers and though it taunted them and tried their patience, there was nothing they could do, as he just could not be caught.

One fine day, a young shepherd boy was out looking after his father's five sheep making sure they did not stray into neighboring farms, when he noticed a strange strange short stocky animal sleeping very soundly near the stream that led to his father's coffee farm. He carefully got a thick rope, moved gingerly, treading all so carefully on the tip of his toes to avoid disturbing the dried leaves and blades of grass, and tied the thick rope around the neck of the strange creature. He was sure he had caught the deer everyone was trying to catch, though he was not sure, as he had never seen a live deer and would not know how to tell it from a cow. He only knew that deer only ate plants and that theydid not attack humans.

The Shepherd Boy

The young ignorant shepherd boy, Ishmael Sengu, secured the rope around the neck of the short stocky beast and started to drag into town, filled with day dreams of honor and pride and of his name being sung all through the villages of Nongowa chiefdom, for many years to come. The strange creature did not put up even an ounce of resistance, but slowly got up and majestically strolled behind the boy, yawning as it went.

When the boy brought the strange creature to the village, everybody had gone to their farms and as is characteristic of Nyandeyama, the village was practically empty save for a few goat and sheep looking for orange skins and few young boys and girls locked up in rooms, doing certain things that would have certainly caused their parents much headache and misery, had they ever been discovered. Ishmael entered the village drawing the strange obedient creature along and headed straight for the compound of the wise old chief Moriba, who house was situated right on the main road to Komende Station, a morning's journey to the Njaluahun chiefdom headquarter town of Segbwema.

Chief Moriba was lying in his hammock drawing puffs of fragrant tobacco from an intricately carved pipe, one of his valuable relics from his days in Burma, where he had been a porter and later a gunner in a West African infantry regiment. He kept his eyes shut as he inhaled the cancer spreading smoke and enjoyed the nicotine as it passed through his lungs into his blood streams, giving him a sense of calm and happiness that would later become violent bouts of nonproductive and very dry cough as the day wore on. Chief Toegondoe Kebbie, the village gossip and busybody,was lying near chief Moriba relaying the day's rumors and gossip in silent whispers, while occasionally sipping from a gourd of palmwine. Chief Moriba deliberately kept a gourd of palmwine for Toegondoe every morning, to loosen his tongue and encourage him tell the chief all the underground activities going on in Nyandeyama.

When the boy entered the town chief's compound he was surprised to find only the old chief and his talkative and poisonous friend Toegondoe Kebbie reclining lazily in their hammocks. 

"Chiefs," the young ignorant shepherd boy said, "I think I have caught the famous deer and here it is!"

The two chiefs opened their eyes in excitement and took one look at the strange animal and stood there shaking. Chief Toegondoe Kebbie the village gossip fell down and fainted and must have had a small biological experiment, for the smell in the yard suddenly grew very unpleasant. Chief Moriba stood for a minute, shaking like a featherless chicken on a cold harmattan morning and sweating profusely. At last he found the courage to mutter some words.

"You stupid boy!" The chief said, leaving the boy confused. "That is not a deer, it is a leopard." Chief Moriba then also fell down and fainted. The shepherd boy Ishmael Sengu who had heard of leopards but had never actually seen one also started to tremble, shake and sweat with fear and dread, thinking to himself that his young shepherding days were surely over.

Suddenly the leopard turned to the boy and spoke. "Untie me," the leopard said. " I am going to let you go free. You do not know me and that is why you tied me. Had you known me, you would never have dared to do so. I am not going to do anything to you as you are an ignorant little boy. I am here to catch the deer that has given you people so much problem. But your ignorance has delayed me. Let me never see you in that bush where you tied me again. When those adults wake up, ask them about me and they will tell you who I am."

"Untie Me"

With shaking hands, the boy slowly and carefully untied the rope from around the leopard's thick neck, being careful not to even breathe. The leopard slowly made his way out of the village, walking very majestically into the field of grass that bordered the village. Days later the stubborn deer was found dead, and there was much rejoicing in Nyandeyama. Chief Moriba and Toegondoe never mentioned the leopard in embarrassment and nobody believed the shepherd boy, as he had no proof that he ever caught a leopard.

Sheku Sheriff

Segbwema Blogger

Sierra Leonean Bags Top Accounting Award

Mustapha Wai. BS, MS, CPA, CGMA

Mustapha Wai, an excellent Sierra Leone born certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Global Management Accountant (CGMA), a quiet and unassuming African intellectual, has just been awarded the Emerging Leader of Excellence Award by the United States Association of Government Accountants (AGA).

This outstanding annual honor is given by the AGA in recognition of a substantial contribution(s) by a government financial manager toward the profession and practice of financial management.

Mustapha who migrated from Sierra Leone to America in search of better educational opportunities in the 90s, obtained his Bachelor of Science (BS) from the American University in 2001. While at the American University, Mustapha's academic excellence was soon spotted and he was employed as a supplemental accounting instructor for financial and managerial accounting. At American University, Mustapha was given the distinguished American University Kogod School of Business Trailblazer Award, an award given to outstanding students who are viewed as having tremendous future potential in leadership, accounting and business.

Mustapha

After graduating from American University, Mustapha enrolled in the University of Maryland, College park and graduated in 2010 with Masters of Science in Business, Accounting and Internal audit.

In 2003, Mustapha was employed by the American government's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the foremost aviation and aerospace corporation in the world, responsible for sending the first man to the moon and for building among others the Apollo spacecrafts and the Space shuttles. Hired as a project manager for audit, Mustapha eventually became the Deputy Director for Quality Assurance in just nine years, a major feat at such and outstanding government agency and a rare distinction for a humble boy born in the small West African nation of Sierra Leone.

University of Mary Land

University Gardens, College Park

The national Emerging Leader of Excellence Award was given to Mustapha after a rigorous selection process for his leadership effort in successfully overcoming major difficulties and challenges to make a major contribution to NASA's ability to ensure a sound financial management and internal control account, in the era of cost cutting by the American government in all public agencies. He contributed to the refining of NASA's internal auditing procedures and was also recognized for his contributions to the US federal government financial management community in general.

NASA's Space Shuttle

The AGA is a professional organization which supports development of government financial professionals working in federal, state and local governments as well as the private sector and academia. The AGA currently has over 100 local chapters divided into 15 regions across the United States. After sixty years of championing financial management excellence since its founding, AGA continues to pride itself as a long-standing thought leader for the government accountability profession in the United States.

Mustapha is currently a senior partner in the accounting firm Wai & Associates, based in Dumfries, Virginia, USA.

When Angel Koroma Was A Devil

Young politicians in Sierra Leone like to accuse the old ones of treachery, deception, betrayal and lies and vow that when they have the chance they will do different.

One of the latest Sierra Leone Peoples Party flagbearers to join APC and currently sing the praises of President Ernest Koroma was singing a very different tune just a year ago. Before I say anything, I would like the world to listen to Major Ishmael Sengu Koroma himself.

Mohamed and Isata's Wedding

 Mr and Mrs. Songa

Saturday June 16, 2012 was a special day in the lives of Mr. Mohamed Songa and Ms. Isata Bangura as they decided to make the ultimate commitment and become man and wife. 

Chief Abdul Songa

Both Isata Bangura and Mohamed Songa are long time members of Tegloma Minnesota Chapter and all Tegloma Minnesota members and members from Tegloma Houston and Tegloma Indiana were out in full force for the wonderful wedding celebrations.

Wedding Ceremony

Mohamed and Isata are unique in that in this age of divisiveness in their native Sierra Leone, they decided to buck the trend and and spend their lives together, uniting their families, relatives and friends.

In Church

Mohamed is from Baoma in the Eastern Region of Sierra Leone and Isata is from Kamakwie in the north. The turnout out their wedding, the joy, euphoria and enthusiasm was an indication that regardless of all our small differences, Sierra Leoneans are essentially one people, and we do know how to party.

Great looking Couple

In a wedding celebration fit for royalty, the beautiful Isata and handsome Mohamed were at the top of their game and all we can wish for them is what they essentially vowed to do; to become and stay man and wife till death do them part. To be together through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, with poverty miles away from their door. 

Chief and Mrs. Baryoh from Indiana

The Segbwema blogger Sheku Sheriff, represented the federation board to the occasion, with Chiefs Hassan Kamara Kamara and Moses Baryoh representing Tegloma Minnesota and Tegloma Indiana chapters respectively. Chief Abdul Songa, the founder of Tegloma Minnesota, who also happens to be the uncle of Mohamed Songa was at hand to grace the occasion, support his nephew, bless the union and represent Tegloma Houston.

Chief and Mrs Kamara Tegloma Minnesota

Ms. Julia Tucker and Mr. Daniel Kenewa were co-Mcs for the occasion and Segbwema Blogger was paparazzi in chief and Facebook 

Daniel Kenewa &Julia Tucker MCs

Mdm Isatu Sowa-Matchmaker

Mr. Samuel Bangura Brother of Bride

Wedding Guests

Sheku Sheriff Segbwema Blogger

Gambian Becomes Tegloma Leader

Rev. John Loum Tegloma Board Asst Sec General

In a sign of the seismic transformation that is taking place in Tegloma International Frederation, the Rev. John Loum of Tegloma Missouri Chapter, a Gambian national who spent many years in Sierra Leone, has just been appointed as Assistant Secretary General to the board of Directors of Tegloma Federation International Inc. 

Tegloma which which came into existence 37 years ago during the repressive one party regime of Siaka Probyn Stevens in 1975, was originally founded purely as a southeastern Sierra Leone organization in Wahington DC by the members, in a bid to provide mutual assistance to each other during periods of crisis, as the Sierra Leone embassy at the time was not responsive to their needs as they saw their members as the intellectual and financial back bone of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party at the time. Eventually with introduction of the one party state in Sierra Leone, SLPP was banned but Tegloma continued to exist and members continued to assist each other in immigration cases, bereavements, weddings, job search and other social events. 

Abu Bhonapha Tegloma Board Chairman

Over the years Tegloma has gradually opened up to people from other areas of the country and the world, although the perception of it being a southeastern organization still persists as most of its members are from the southeast of the country and the "Goboi" and "Sowei" are still prominently displayed at all cultural events.

Though Tegloma still has the perception of an SLPP organization, nothing could be further from the truth, as the organization is now an apolitical and federally registered nonprofit committed solely to the fulfillment of eleemosynary objectives and humanitarian missions.

Alfred Moi Jamiru Federation Adminstration Chairman

Most Tegloma members have decided to disregard the negative perceptions of the organization that mostly stem from intolerance and ignorance, and focus instead on doing good deeds in Sierra Leone and helping Sierra Leoneans facing crisis in the diaspora who seek the organization's assistance regardless of regional or tribal affiliation.

Tegloma is composed of 24 chapters, most of which are in the major metropolitan areas of USA with two chapters in Canada and a chapter in United Kingdom, Sierra Leone and a brand new chapter that was inaugurated this year in the small West African Nation of The Gambia, with Joseph Bangali as the first head of the chapter.

Jeneba Bangura Tegloma Federation Secretary General

Rev. John Loum who has tremendous love for the people of Sierra Leone stated that he was extremely elated at this great honor and pledged to do all he could to help the organization embark on the massive fundraising campaign that the newly elected board chairman Abu Bhonapha has set himself over the next two years to massively increase the finances of the organization. 

Sheku Sheriff Tegloma Board Secretary General

Abu Bhonapha is the head of the federation board of directors and Alfred Moi Jamiru is the head of the Tegloma adminstration. The board and the adminstration together manage the affairs of Tegloma with the board acting in an advisory and custodian capacity while the adminstration is responsible for the day to day implementation of the objectives of Tegloma. The Secretary General of the federation administration is Jeneba Bangura and the Secretary General of the board is Sheku Sheriff.

Tegloma Mini-Convention 2012 New York/New Jersey

Tegloma will hold its 2012 main convention in September in Washington DC and delegates from Canada, UK, The Gambia and Sierra Leone are expected to join their colleagues in the USA.

Tegloma Minnesota Mother's Day Event at Red Lobster