By Ralph Sesay
Ambassador Anthony Navo Jr., Chairman and founding member of All Walks of Life (AWOL) has, in an exclusive interview with this medium, broke silence on the twenty years of existence of AWOL which has been dedicated to serving humanity and nation building.
Anthony Navo Junior who also doubles as the Chief Executive of Sierra Leone’s biggest media conglomerate, African Young Voices (AYV) disclosed that together with few others, they founded AWOL some twenty years.
He continued that they later approached the late Morseray Fadika, aka Super, to lend his support to the group but that the legend had emphasized that he will only lend his support to the group if it changes its trajectory from just organizing social events to undertaking humanitarian activities and also contributing to nation building.
The AWOL Chairman further disclosed that since then AWOL Sierra Leone was positioned to contribute to nation building and also serving humanity by contributing to various programs.
The organization, according to him, has stood the test of time serving all governments since the late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah through to former President Ernest Koroma and now President Julius Maada Bio.
Mr. Navo emphasized that AWOL has remained apolitical serving the interests and aspirations of the people of Sierra Leone no matter what government is in power.
He cited that over the years they have been contributing to feeding school children every June 16, African Child’s Day across the country, offering scholarships and learning materials to unfortunate schools kids and the building of schools, amongst others.
Most importantly, he also noted that the organization has been contributing to nation building by organizing the biggest National Achievement Awards in the country.
The National Achievements Awards, he indicated, recognizes individuals and institutions that are contributing immensely to nation building in both the public and private sectors.
Ambassador Navo also disclosed that they are almost on the verge of completing over one billion Leones project which entails the construction of a modern school at Gondama, southern Sierra Leone.
Speaking on this year’s National Achievement Awards, Ambassador Navo disclosed that they have expanded the National Achievement Awards Committee to involve more representatives from significant organizations in the country both in the private and public sectors such as the Anti-Corruption Commission, 50/50 Group, Sierra Leone Bar Association, Police and the Military etc.
This, Mr. Navo indicated, is informed by the fact that they want to increasingly make the awards credible, independent and free from interference by AWOL.
He also disclosed that AWOL has also provided a consultant this time round to help provide technical support to the National Achievement Awards Committee in sorting out and making final decisions on the winners for the respective categories.
The AWOL Chairman assured all Sierra Leoneans that the organization would continue to position itself to serve Sierra Leone and also contribute immensely to the development strides of government.