The Wise Bird felt so bad and uneasy when he saw a Press Release dated 22nd July 2024, acknowledging receipt of annual government subvention given to a more noble association, SLAJ.

 The bird could not believe what he saw on paper.

According to a document which is still available, the bird has now seen the reason(s) why the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) hasn’t a voice and cannot work effectively as a pressure group to put the government on its toes.

This question of subvention to SLAJ started way back in 2018 when Bio came to power to silent the parent body of all journalists in the country as the Wise Bird sees it that way.

From what the bird saw on the document presently on the bird’s desk is that the annual government subvention was a proclamation by His Excellency the President Dr. Julius Maada Bio in 2018 to support the operations of SLAJ as the Independent umbrella body for the media in Sierra Leone.

To the Wise Bird SLAJ is no longer an independent body the bird reads and understands the release.

The statement above shows that, the noble profession in which the Wise Bird is a member has been bought over by the power that be (government).

In 2018 according to the release SLE 150,000 (one Hundred and Fifty Thousand Leones) was given to SLAJ, in 2020 the money was increased to SLE 250,000(Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Leones), in 2021 the subvention went up, up to SLE 500,000(Five Hundred Thousand Leones), in 2022 it climbed up again to SLE 750,000(Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Leones) and in July of this year, it kicked up to SLE 1.500 million (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Leones) according to records.

The Wise Bird is of the view that, there was and still no need for government to give subvention to a “group that is supposed to point out the odds of the government,” doing that to give subvention, is like saying stop talking.

There is an old adage that, “you cannot bites the finger that feeds you,” so SLAJ cannot take the government to task because they are receiving money(s) from the government.

From the look of things, it might not be SLAJ alone other civil societies might be receiving secretly something that the public do not know of.

The bird as usual sounded the views of people in respect of the subvention SLAJ is receiving from the government; almost all those the bird came in contact with out rightly condemned the act in totality as uncalled for.

That is for a government to sponsor an institution that is ought to be independent.

Some schools are not getting what SLAJ is getting as subvention; some people went further to say that, subventions are mostly meant for schools to take care of the auxiliary staff.

This is a clear indication that, government is paying the executive of SLAJ.

The question is how much the other affiliate bodies are getting from the subvention given by the government to SLAJ?

The Wise Bird will continue to hit the nail on the head on this issue, and the bird will visit all affiliate bodies to know how much they having been getting if at all they have been receiving anything.

The Wise Bird only hopes that, friends and colleagues will not consider the bird as an antagonist in the profession.

Only the bird does is calling things by their correct and proper names.

The fact of the matter is that, no human-being or group of people will work effectively when their hands are being tied behind their backs.