By Ragan M Conteh

 Parliament has ordered communications’ minister to dismantle and restructure the state broadcaster, SLBC.

Sierra Leone Broadcasting Co-operation (SLBC) needs a facelift as it grapples with some growing internal problems.

During a familiarization meeting between the Committee on Communication and the Ministry of Information and Civil Education (MoICE) the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) lawmaker Hon. Mustapha Sellu called on the Minister of of Information and Civil Education (MoICE) to dismantle and restructure SLBC.

The meeting was held on 29th , February,2024.

The Committee on Communication is mandate to supervise the activities of the  Ministry of Information and Civil Education (MoICE) in order to ensure that the communication gap between the government and the people of Sierra Leone is bridged.

Hon. Sellu thanked the Minister fir his weekly press briefing and encouraged him to pay attention to the state own media.

He spoke: “[IT] is disheartening, you cannot compare a private media Africa Young Voices (AYV) to SLBC in term of disseminating information to the general public.”

He emphasized that the problem is a management level, disclosing that a lot of aged people are still working at SLBC.

The opposition Chief Whip of the main opposition All People’s Congress Party (APC) Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara, said due to the communication gap between the citizens and the government the gap has led to a predicament in the country, adding that over the years the government had failed to communicate on timely to the general public.

He said whenever the government fails to communicate to it citizens, the people will give different interpretations to certain ongoing rumours.

He urged Minister Chernor A. Bah to bridge the communication gap between the government and the people of Sierra Leone on a timely manner.

The Hon. Minister Chernor A. Bah said the ministry is mandate to provide policies guidances, strategic directions over information in the civil education landscape through strategic coordination of information, on  civil education and citizens’ engagement to ensure effective and efficient service delivery to the people of Sierra Leone.

He assured that Sierra Leoneans will  be well –informed, providing them access to accurate, reliable credible  on timely information.

He said that Sierra Leone’s lack a directorate to archive and record information.

“The ministry only has one director,” he said.

He said the Directorate of Achieve has been overlooked in Sierra Leone and that has contributed for a lack of control of government information.

He disclosed that the ministry is supposed to have five directorates including directorate civil education, civil education, research plan , monitoring and evaluation and directorate of archive and record.

Ministry Bah assured that they are working with other partners including Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) SLAJ among others to address issues highlighted.