At the commencement of the First Allotted Day for the presidential debate on the speech, which was graciously delivered by H.E. President Julius Maada Bio on the occasion of the State Opening of the Third Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone, the Rt. Hon. Speaker Segepoh Solomon Thomas Esq., on Monday 13/10/2025, admonished the nation by calling on citizens to behave responsibly, especially in handling and using social media. The Speaker urged Sierra Leoneans to put on the lenses of patriotism and nationalism compared to other countries.

We, the politicians, are the ones destroying the image of this country for political reasons. Crimes are happening everywhere across the globe.

Even in the United States of America, you have foreigners who commit  offences. So why do we present Sierra Leone as the worst nation on earth? he asked. And yet, we want investors to come and create jobs in the country. Who has bewitched this nation?”, Speaker Thomas asked again.

Speaker Thomas expressed dismay at the level at which citizens, especially politicians, are propagating Sierra Leone as a major haven for drug trafficking .

He said it was unfortunate that people whom citizens have maximum respect for are the ones taking the lead in putting the image of the nation into disrepute. Mr. Speaker remarked that similar things are happening in neighbouring countries, but their citizens are not going all out to discredit their country.

Speaker Thomas shared his experience where Ghanaian Airport Police Officers held a lady’s phone and smashed it on the ground. He said he probed further into the matter of the Ghanaian authorities for such an action. Speaker Thomas said he was left with the understanding that the lady had recorded a scene of fighting in the airport and wanted to post on social media. Speaker Thomas furthered that he was further educated that the Ghanaian authorities would never allow negative posts on social media, which have the tendency to dent the image of Ghana.

Speaker Thomas continued that Ghana even has a system to delete content on social media handles of citizens if the government deems it to pose  reputational damage to the country.

“We want people to come to Sierra Leone, we want investors to come and invest in the country, we want tourists to come to the country, and we want Sierra Leone to look attractive to the outside world. Therefore, if we want most of the aforesaid, we have to be nationalistic and patriotic in controlling most of the things that have the potential to dent the image of the country.

Let us try to inculcate the habit of defending the issues that have the potential to ridicule the image of the country”, he concluded.