It has been months since we had the last weekly press briefing at the State House. At these briefings, the President, Adama Barrow used to speak to the citizens through Mrs Amie Bojang-Sissoho, the Director of Press at the Presidency. This was indeed very helpful and was highly appreciated as information is very important.
However, for the past few months, these briefings have been stopped and there seems to be a disconnection between the Presidency and the general population. Besides the monthly press briefings by the minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure, the public have been in the dark about issues relating to government.
It appears now that the president only talks to foreign journalists when he travels. His primary audience should actually be the citizens of the country as they are the ones who voted him into office. Communication is a very important element of governance and should be taken very seriously.
In fact, that is the whole point of having a press secretary. The job of such a person should be to serve as a mouthpiece for the presidency to keep the journalists informed who in turn should inform the general public.
Whatever a government does is – should be – for the good of the citizens. Thus, informing the citizens of what is being done for them, and in their name, is indeed crucial.
We call on Madam Amie Bojang-Sissoho to resume the weekly press briefings as it will close the information gap that is hindering communication between the governors and the governed. Press releases, no matter how many they are, will never be enough because the real issues that people want to know about are never mentioned in those releases. It is therefore vital, for the public and the President, to resume the press briefings so that information will flow regularly from the Seat of power.
