By Gibril Gbanabome Koroma, Vancouver, Canada.
When Professor Monty Jones (pictured), Sierra Leone’s new Agriculture Minister assumed office not too long ago, many Sierra Leoneans were happy, not because former Ministers were incompetent, but because he is a man who has devoted his life to agriculture and more specifically, the cultivation of rice, Sierra Leone’s staple food. If there is ever anybody to turn around agricultural production in Sierra Leone, Monty Jones is the man. There is no other Sierra Leonean agriculturist with his stature and experience. No wonder President Koroma invited him to State House first as an adviser on agriculture and now a full blown Minister of Agriculture.
From my office in far away Canada, I could not help but think about how this man, with his principles and determination to end corruption at the Agriculture Ministry (a hotbed of corruption or pit of roiling evil, thieving, snakes) and to end the stranglehold of gangster-like so-called businessmen (and women) who have been feeding on the misery of our people, sucking their blood with mind-boggling food prices while our people become thinner and thinner, walking around the towns and cities with gaunt faces, flat stomachs and blood-shot eyes while the mostly foreign importers (rice, onions, cooking oil, etc) become fatter and fatter, puffing their cigars or licking ice cream from giant cones with their fat kids in their air-conditioned monster Japanese cars and trucks.
I knew those rice importer thieves are going to furiously attack Monty (their profits are just too enormous to let go) and the corrupt civil servant mafia (experts at stealing donor funds and donated equipment and fertilizer) will do all they could to trip (trifoot, as we say in Sierra Leone) Monty. I wanted to write and warn Monty about these gargoyles long before now, but I simply did not have the time until I received the article below by Titus, a colleague in Freetown. Then I knew the assault on Monty has started. This man needs the help of all journalists in and out of Sierra Leone. He should succeed. He MUST succeed, because if he fails, if the importer mafia and the civil service mafia bring him down, forget about our people having three square meals a day and living a happier life as they should in one of the world’s richest countries. Forget about President Koroma’s high hopes in Agriculture, one of the fundamental pillars of the government’s Agenda for Prosperity.
Meanwhile I would like to call on the Office of National Security to seek out and identify the people spreading lies and misinformation about the Minister and advise him and the president accordingly. This should in fact be done for all Ministers; a Minister under constant attack from nation-wreckers and robbers will find it very difficult, if not impossible to do their job well. This kind of nonsense must stop.
Here is the article from Titus Boye-Thompson:
Fresh from a meeting with potential investors in agriculture at Abuja in Nigeria, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security Prof. Patrick Monty Jones met with the media at his Youyi building offices.
In a self-assured but frank interview with certain members of the press, Minister Monty Jones pointed to his long career in international organizations where he had to work with a diverse group of people to reach the lofty pinnacle of his career, winning the World Food Prize, the most valuable prize in the field of agriculture.
He reiterated that it was because of his sterling work that he was able to assist countries like Mali and Rwanda to double their production of rice and other agricultural crops year on year and that the opportunity to come to Sierra Leone was taken measuredly.
He contends that he sees his position as Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security as a call to service under the able and dynamic leadership of His Excellency the President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma and in that vein, his name and hard earned reputation is not up for negotiation nor would he be interested in trading insults with personalities.
Minister Monty Jones intimated the press that he remains focussed on his objective and that he is very much guided by the President’s post Ebola recovery initiative to create 10,000 jobs for young people along key value chains and to achieve this, he is seeking to enhance commercialization of agriculture and increase production and productivity in the country.
He raised the issue of the launching of the planting season by the distribution of seeds and fertilizer, an event that was roundly applauded by farmers across the country as being done in a timely manner this year for the very first time. He also detailed that on his instructions, District Agricultural Officers will be ploughing a minimum of 20 hectares of Inland Valley Swamps so that local farmers and communities can plant on those ploughed fields with relative ease.
In the area of foreign travel, the Minister explained that the trips he had taken abroad after three months since he came to office has been either statutory meetings on which Sierra Leone has to be represented or trips to further the interests of agriculture in Sierra Leone at which occasions he had had opportunity to engage with private investors and governments for bilateral support.
He recounted his recent trip to a conference on the personal invitation of the German Minister of Food and Agriculture and as a result of which, the Federal Government of Germany has promised direct assistance to agriculture in Sierra Leone. He has also met with private investors and in the short time in office, has secured three MOUs signed for expansive investments in agriculture between the Government of Sierra Leone and private investment firms and on that note, a further six such MOUs are in various stages of negotiation.
In terms of value for money, the Minister pointed out that the full costs of almost all of his trips so far have not been borne by the Government of Sierra Leone but by the institutions and Governments that have invited him to attend at their behest.
Minister Monty Jones recalled that all his achievements in just under six months in office must not be confused with the rampant corruption and malfeasance that is reported in the press, events that happened before his time.
He however conceded that Government is about continuity and to ensure that the people get the best value services that they deserve. On this account, he will remain focused on his determination to change the paradigms for agriculture in Sierra Leone, send a strong signal that he would not want things to be business as usual because frankly, that has not worked for this country and it is lamentable that Sierra Leone is still producing a mere 1 tonne per hectare of rice cultivated when other countries are hitting over 4 tonnes per hectare.
In conclusion, Minister Monty Jones admonished staff of the Ministry to be more vigilant and to concentrate on the objectives and vision that he is setting for the Ministry, primarily focusing on the President’s initiative to increase production and productivity and to create jobs for young people in agriculture whilst enhancing farmers’ income and welfare.
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