Four teams set out for the Northwest and Northeast regions, and Kono district, on a four-day scheduled trip to monitor the National Solar-powered Television project managed by National Council for Civic Education and Development (NaCCED). This monitoring exercise focused on validating that all chiefdoms in the regions have the equipment installed and running, gauging sentiments of the leadership of the chiefdoms, community members including young people, and to find out whether there were issues that the Council needed to address. The teams left Freetown on Monday October 17 and returned on Friday October 21, 2022, and each of them had terms of reference including clear and specific tasks to accomplish. Each team was led by a team leader and supported by other staff. The Chairman of the Council toured the regions, to supervise the monitoring activity.
Engaging a group of youth leaders in Magboroka the headquarter town of Tonkolili district, Mr. Kalilu Totangi Chairman of the Council intimated members of the Chiefdom and District Youth Councils that, “the purpose of this project is to take government to the doorsteps of communities, as well as educate and inform citizens about rights, responsibilities and obligations to the state. The Council will be providing video contents containing activities of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, to improve community understating of government activities and their responsibilities towards supporting those activities”, he paused. The Chairman continued that, “information is power! The more you know, the more you understand, which helps you make informed decisions”, he concluded. He urged the audience to support the project and advised them to protect the equipment.
Responding to NaCCED Chairman, Alhaji Hassan, Kolifa Rowala Chiefdom youth leader commended the government and NaCCED for the support to their community generally and having young people beneficiaries of this project in particular. “We are happy for this support from government. We also thank Mr. Totangi for your leadership and support to young people across the country. We promise that this facility will be used to help our chiefdom understand government and civic activities and to achieve what the project plan to accomplish” he concluded.
This sentiment was shared right across both regions. In all the districts and chiefdoms, the Paramount Chiefs (PCs) or their representatives who are the heads of the chiefdom and also provide leadership of the project were delighted for, in their own words, “such a great project”! The paramount Chief of Wara Wara Yagala said, “this is the first time in the history of our chiefdom for a government institution like NaCCED to supply us with electronic gadget for information dissemination. This will bring our community together and will increase the civic knowledge of my people”, he noted.
You may recall that the Council engaged in similar monitoring exercise in the South and East regions of the country in July this year. This project, as noted by the Chairman of the Council, intends to provide information to communities across the country so that they are aware of the various government activities, civic matters and development interventions nationally. It is intended that this intervention will increase community knowledge of development activities in their communities and across the country, as well as minimize misinformation and disinformation.
Largely, most of the chiefdoms enjoy the benefits of the facility. Regarding the chiefdoms that have issues, the necessary authorities will be engaged to resolve them as soon as possible. The Council has put a management structure in place to ensure the project achieves its intended goal and objectives, including but not limited to developing project management plan, strategies, and content development, collection and distribution to the contact persons in all 190 chiefdoms.
