By Ragan M. Conteh
The Leader of the Opposition All People’s Congress (APC) Party in Parliament, Hon. Chernoh Maju Bah, has warned those preparing President Julius Maada Bio’s Presidential Speeches to henceforth, “stop the cut and paste speeches.”
According to Hon. Chernoh Maju Bah, paragraph 36 of the abridged version of the Presidential Speech delivered in Parliament on the 28th May, 2020 is an abstract of the exact statement and words of Former President Ernest Bai Koroma’s statement when commissioning the Teko Lab sometimes in 2017.
Hon. Bah said he was there when Former President Koroma made his speech on the occasion of the commissioning of the newly rehabilitated Lab, adding that the cut and paste style of the writers did not only limit to paragraph 36 but the speech also lacks truth.
He made the disclosure on 6th July 2020 when making his submissions during the Presidential Debate in the Well of Parliament.
The Leader pointed out that the recent speech of President Bio and all other speeches are lacking in consistency and are engulfed with plagiarism, which is a serious crime in the country.
Hon. Bah furthered that, some of these abnormalities in the speeches of the President are not caused by the President and he is not to be blamed for such problems. He said the blame should be attributed to the drafters of the President’s speeches.
The Opposition Leader however called on President Julius Maada Bio to also look at those responsible for his speeches, because some of the many things highlighted in his speech are not true and he is not the one that rehabilitated the Teko Lab, but it was graciously rehabilitated and equipped by Former President EBK.
Hon. Chernoh Maju advised the President to start using experienced people, especially the Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Chernoh Abass Bundu, IB Kargbo and among many others to prepare his speeches before passing them on for public consumption. This will ensure that mistakes like cut and paste will become a thing of the past.
He furthered that what has also been bothering him is the inconsistency of the Minister of Finance to put together data for the President, adding that the figures that are highlighted in the Speech of the President are quite different from what the Minister delivered to the public on radios.
He went on that data are key in governance, and admonished the Government to give data analysis on their speeches because it will help where they started and the achievement they have made.
The Leader also intimated that the utilization of experienced people is very key in speech writing, especially when it involves the President who will be delivering policy statements at all times.
Hon. Bah also pointed out that, as opposition members, they have always supported President Julius Maada Bio’s Free Quality Education flagship project; but what they envisage, as opposition since the project was launched, was that there is no quality side of the free education.
Hon. Chernoh Maju Bah referred to the two years of President Julius Maada Bio as wasteful and urged the administration to improve on their strides to boost and revitalize their Free education and pledged their support to always support development.
He said, as opposition Members, they have been working hard with the government over the last two years. He added that they also try to be moderate on their approaches, citing that, as opposition, the “honeymoon is over, we are going to take on the government of President Julius Maada through responsible criticisms. All will be to ensure that the right thing was being done,” he lamented.
The Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Chernoh Abass Bundu who responded to Hon. Chernoh Maju Bah, said President Julius Maada should not be blamed on the lacunas in the Presidential Speech, but should be thrown to the relevant MDAs who submitted to the writers of the Presidential Speech.
The Speaker who was very much concerned about the statement of the opposition Leader continued that, MDAs are primarily responsible for the abnormalities in the Presidential Speech in any given situation.