By Ragan M. Conteh

The executives of the Timber Association Sierra Leone have elected Hafiz Sesay as their chairman.

He was elected on Saturday 23rd March 2024.

This comes after several years of struggles by the timber association to have a very formidable group that will seek the welfare of others.

Hafiz Sesay before his election was the deputy chairman of the association and as per the association’s constitution the deputy should act as chairman after the expiration of the time of the substantive chairman.

Past Saturday, luckily, 95 percent of the national executive and 96 per cent of the district executives, women and youth wing voted for the Hafiz Sesay to man the affairs of the association to elections.

The election of the new chairman was following the intervention of Abass Janneh and Alhaji Bah including Alie Suma, as moral guarantors, facilitated the said peaceful meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was to settle the long standing dispute in the association over the past years.

Addressing the membership of the timber association, the former chairman of Timber Association, Abass Janneh said they decided to intervene due to the long standing fracas affecting the association since last year.

Janneh apologied to the membership for the fracas, adding that two of them (Janneh and Alhaji Bah) were the root causes for the problems happening in the association.

Abass Janneh said their primary objective was to now finally bring to and end the longs-standing impasse.

“We are not here to contest or engaged on timber trade any longer. We are here to bring back the past glory in the organization,” Janneh asserted.

Janneh revealed that the constitution of the association is clear and it gives enormous powers to members of the association to choose their leaders of their choice without the interference of government or foreign bodies.

He, however, appealed to all the membership to uphold the principles of  peace and tranquility in the association and push for solution to address their issues in house.

“As moral guarantors we cannot sit by and allow the association we nurture to go down the drain. We will ensure that we put lasting peace in the minds of the members,” he said.

Alhaji Bah who was also one of the founding fathers of the timber association also reiterated the fact that lasting peace will be the solution to the association.

He said a lot of problems have derailed the timber businesses in the country.

He maintained that foreigners especially the Chinese are now entering the bushes of their land to cut timber as contrary to the laws of the land.

“Indeed Abass Janneh and I created the whole fracas but we are now in peace. We have decided to fix up the problems and we are ready to bring everyone on board for the betterment of the Sierra Leone Timber Association,” Alhaji Bah said.

He emphasized on the peaceful co-existence within the association.

A member of the association Alie Suma also spoke on the relevance of peace and how the association during their time peacefully undertook peaceful transfer of power from one person to another without a rift.

He urged the membership to work with concerted effort for peace and unity of the association.

Representatives from the national, districts, women and youths wing expressed their satisfaction for the intervention of Abass Janneh, Alhaji Bah and Alie Suma for the peace of the association.

They said they suffered serious setback due to conflict with the association over the years, adding that they appealed to their moral guarantors to talk to the Ministry of Environment to work with the association.

After several hours of fruitful meeting, the membership ended up elected the deputy chairman of the association, Hafiz Sesay.

He is to serve as the substantive chairman who will take the association to elections within six months period.