By Isaac Massaquoi
When the First Lady arrives in Pujehun tomorrow to launch the ‘hands off our girls’ campaign she will, of course, receive a great welcome from a large crowd of pupils, the ordinary people and those who matter politically in that district.
Fatima Bio can expect no less a welcome than what she got in Makeni and Kono in the past two weeks. I know that hundreds of people originally from Pujehun and their friends are planning to be in that otherwise sleepy head quarter town to grace the occasion. It should be an interesting day in that southern corner of Sierra Leone.
While it may be a good thing to let the First Lady feel the full extent of the famous Wanjama hospitality during her few hours stay in Pujehun town, it will a great idea if the local organizing committee opens up the reality of the situation of the district on the crucial issue of rape and sexual abuse, the main issues of Fatima Bio’s campaign. That committee should let the First Lady know the extent to which young girls and children - the very people she is trying to rescue from the hands of predators - are under pressure in Pujehun district. I hope that part of her briefing notes for this visit include information from the Family Support Unit files in that district.
The First Lady is going out there to attempt to deal with a specific problem, but she must never forget how difficult things are with Pujehun district. The difficulty begins about fifteen miles from the district headquarter. The condition of that road is poor. I understand emergency spot improvements are ongoing now but that may well be too late. Pujehun and Kailahun have the worst roads leading to their headquarters. Despite cries from the people of that district, since the days of Alhaji Tejan Kabbah, the situation remains the same. In fact the condition of the road continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate. So our First Lady should expect a very bumpy fifteen mile ride into the town.
I have just again looked at UNICEF’s Child Poverty report for 2016 and Pujehun district is identified as having the highest levels of child poverty in Sierra Leone with 93% found to be poor. I know that for at least five years now all the young people from that district, who entered University, got their requirements from outside the district. Performance in the last National Primary School Examinations (NPSE) and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is bad. Nobody feels good about churning out such negatives about their own district but this is the reality and I fear that in all the speech-making and celebration around the visit of the First Lady, this reality will be lost.
I the last 24 hours, I have made some calls to get some figures of rape and sexual abuse cases recorded by the FSU in Pujehun since the launch of the ‘hands off our girls’ campaign. Despite some stonewalling by a few officials I managed to get a very grim picture. This is why the headline calls Pujehun the epicenter or one of them.
All I ask our dear First Lady is to make sure that support to the FSU in that district is an integral part of her strategy after the big ceremonial event on Saturday. She should also have some words for those authorities, and they are mostly local authorities, who compromise rape and sexual abuse cases. It’s a common practice not just in Pujehun. Many times they do so not for any financial gain or pressure from politicians in national offices, but to stay away from the headlamps of national publicity that crimes like rape and sexual exploitation now attract. If these same local authorities are the ones the First Lady is looking up to in driving this campaign after she returns to Freetown, then she must be on very clear terms with them about the rules of engagement going forward.
At the national launch of the whole campaign, President Bio told the nation that:
“Any man who rapes or places any form of violence against women and girls is not a real man and doesn’t fit in any decent society. Almost all girls who are raped are most likely to drop out of school. If the girl child is forced into early marriage, the bride price lasts only for two months. But if the girl child is cared for until she finishes her education, the benefit to the parents lasts forever”.
This was well put. I hope the First Lady quotes this line over and over again to support the zero tolerance policy that her husband has been pursuing as far as this matter is concerned.
A lot has been written by different people about the factors responsible for rape and continuous sexual exploitation of women and girls. To effectively champion such a campaign, the First Lady should definitely proceed across all of those arguments. However, I believe the issue is so serious now that while we commission experts to determine how to deal with those factors, strong measures have to be put in place in those local communities in far flung corners of rural Sierra Leone to stem this tidal wave. The President had to declare a State of Emergency and he pledge that: “My government will ensure that men who rape have no place in society and also any man who rapes will be jailed forever, so that a single rape becomes the last rape”.
I am aware that a lot of work is taking place now in Pujehun by all stakeholders to make the place safe for the girl child to grow and get an education in peace. So, it’s not as if nothing is happening there. Not too long ago I attended a conference on girl child education organized by the Pujehun District Students Association, PUDSA. The children were very bold in raising very important issues in the presence of their teachers and parents. As always with such conferences all the follow-ups collapse easily because of lack of organization, commitment or money to drive things.
So for many people the presence of the First Lady, in all the districts she will be visiting with this campaign, is as important as what happens when she returns to other duties in Freetown. Putting her considerable weight behind this campaign is real blessing. But the fact that she keeps talking about local ownership means that she is calling on the people in those places she visits not to consider the fight won with just a few hours of demonstration and speechmaking.
The First Lady is calling on all to intensify the fight and only turn to her for inspiration at difficult times in the battle.
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