By Ragan M. Conteh

After an eloquent delivery of his debate on Presidential speech in the Well of Parliament on Wednesday 6th November 2024, the Deputy Speaker of parliament, Hon Ibrahim Tawa Conteh and some of the ruling SLPP MPs have expressed their unwavering satisfaction praising the Tonkolili Member of Parliament, Daniel Fornah for his honest and transformative debates talks in Parliament.

However, because of the input made by the Tonkolili MP on telecommunications sector he had selected by the Speaker to be part of the committee “to investigate the Mobile companies” regarding the high cost of tariff and the failure to adhere to the regulations passed in parliament.

Hon Daniel Fornah has eyed by the Parliament of Sierra Leone as proficient and as expert inthetelecommunications industry, a position that he exhibited during his debate on Wednesday.

During his debate, Hon Daniel Fornah started his critics on President Julius Maada Bio frequent travels.

Hon Fornah spoke on the floor price implementation by NaCTA especially on voice traffics, stating that  NatCA is conniving with the mobile operators to rip off the people of Sierra Leone.

He said the mobile operators are hugely benefiting more than it was after the free calls were cutoff by NaCTCA.

Hon Fornah said the failure by NaTCA to use the Regulations that have been passed in Parliament resulting to bad ramifications on government and people of Sierra Leone.

He said when the floor price was  introduced in recent years the regulatory institution could not take punitive actions against mobile operators violators.

He said what is currently happening in Sierra Leone is like NaTCA taking the water from bore holds to the ocean.

“I used to talk to my friend from Kailahun, Foday Sheriff for a whole night but because there are no free calls again; since they’ve been cutoff, I am now calling my friend once after every six months,” he said.

Hon Fornah underscored that most Sierra Leoneans now spend a lot  buying top up to discuss family issues,  livelihood issues and the rest.

The MP said his people in Tonkolili District never agree with President Bio on his speech on most of the things he said he has provided such as electricity, roads and infrastructure.

He thanks the Speaker to constitute a committee to look into the tariff of the mobile companies which he said are ripoff the country.

He maintained that five regulations where passed in parliament that regulates mobile companies but NaCTA did not use any regulation which has cost huge losses on the government and it people.

He called for swift intervention of stakeholders and parliament to hold NaTCA accountable through the actions of the mobile phone companies

In his submission to the debate, Hon. Aruna P. Lako from Tonkolili District has also urged the government to speedily accomplish certain road projects in Waterloo and in other parts are in progress.

He called for unity in diversity and added that the people should be represented.

On economic growth, he said, they can’t challenge what is documented, but that is far from the reality. Hon. Lakoh gave comparative analyses of the economy from the previous government to the present, considering their rice buying. On agriculture, he said the previous government constructed roads linking farms to market urban places for proper and agricultural productivity was booming.