60th INDEPENDENCE DAY: STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR MOHAMED HASSAN KAISAMBA ANKARA, TURKEY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Deputy Ambassador and Colleagues

Fellow Sierra Leoneans

Friends of Sierra Leone

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

In a couple of hours, we will join our compatriots around the world in celebration of 60 years of Independence from Great Britain. This day, April 27, marks the beginning of a new Sierra Leone: A jubilee era that is full of promises and great triumphs albeit the mount challenges we currently face. As we celebrate a milestone today, we must also remember that we, the present generation, are called upon to reflect on the extent to which we have delivered on the dreams and aspirations of our Founding Fathers.

The challenges we have faced in the past decades have taught us that our young nation is a work in progress, never a finished work. And our nationhood is not a fixed idea cast in stone. It is a developing project that needs constant re-work. From the Civil war to the Ebola Virus outbreak and Coronavirus, we are called - every so often- to re-imagine it and adjust it to a higher ideal.  

To continue doing this, we cannot be contented with the status quo. We must make every effort to make ‘‘Mama Salone’’ a better place – ‘‘Paopa!’’ And when we are successful, the next generation must not rest until they move it from better to best. This ‘‘Paopa’’ dream for a better Sierra Leone is a journey. Each generation must make this journey and leave the country better than they found it.

As the next generation of leaders, be mindful that Sierra Leone is a work in progress. We must build and improve on the platforms left by those before us for they had to make better what others had done. It is this framework His Excellency the President, Dr Julius Maada Bio has based the delivery of improved human capital development, economic growth, regional peace and stability, food security, and an end to sexual violence against women as a policy in his administration. 

On this day, we should all feel the special pride of being citizens of a free, beautiful, and peaceful nation. Let us gratefully remember our Independence heroes whose sacrifices, bravery, and astuteness enabled us to attain independence through constitutional means – rather than fight for it. 

 

Fellow Sierra Leoneans, 

 Let me, at this juncture, remind us all, in the very words of our late Independence hero, Sir Milton Margai, on a historic day in 1961: “We must [now] also face up squarely to the problems which will confront us, and I want you all to understand clearly that the Sierra Leone Government in future will depend very greatly upon the active support and assistance of each one of you.  The aim will certainly be to make our country a land worth living in, a land worth serving; but this can only be done by wholehearted service and hard work now.  I have told you this before, and I call upon you to give the Government your active help and support.”

 

Thank You! 

Happy Independence Day.