Preventing Violent demonstration with the common Ground Approach June 2021
Preventing Violent demonstration with the common Ground Approach June 2021
Violent Demonstration and tensions averted in Bo district by youth and women-led CSOs through Scorecard Process and the Training in Finding Common Ground provided TDS-SL.
Story by Sorba Albert Stevens
“Deaths! Heart-attack! High Blood pressure! Broken homes and families! among many were the order of the day when the Sierra Leone security sector, the Resident Minister South and the Sierra Leone Bank Governor Froze the Account of an online Crypto currency business in Bo district.” Sorba A Stevens tells this story not as an individual, but as a representative of a local CSO who after receiving training from Talking Drum Studio were able to find breakthroughs in mitigating key service delivery gaps in Bo district.
28-year-old Civil Society Activist Sorba works as the head of programs for Peoples’ Rights, Integrity and Dignity Empowerment Sierra Leone (RIDE-SL) located in Bo, Southern Sierra Leone. As a local organization PRIDE-SL seeks to advocate on behalf of local citizens in Bo and its peripheral towns. They are largely respected because they stand as advocates of the marginalized (women, youth, persons with disabilities etc). Sorba and PRIDE-SL role in Bo was put under test when the life and welfare for citizens in the district were at stake due rampant missing of babies in the maternal ward of the government hospital, the sales of Free Health Care Drugs became the business of the day and when a cryptocurrency business failed with thousands of Sierra Leoneans in that part of the country have their life investment at stake. For these three major failures in service delivery under the health and security sectors, citizens were going to stage a deadly street demonstration if not for the timely intervention of local CSOs led by PRIDE-SL and COME-SL.
From 6th to 8th July 2021, the 28 year old Sorba and four other members of his organization as well as members of COME-SL benefited from a three-day capacity building training provided by TDS-SL. During this training period, lessons were provided on two-accountability, inclusive governance, citizens’ participation and non-adversarial approach in finding common ground. This training gave breakthrough to Sorba and his team to meddle between vicious citizens and local authorities, as citizens wanted to take the streets of Bo with clubs, machetes and other harmful objects in protest against the security who failed to protect their property and also in protest of rampant disappearance of new born babies from the maternal ward at the Government hospital and the sales drugs meant for free. “The TDS capacity building training and the scorecard engagements have helped us as local CSOs to touch on significant issues thus pushing state actors into improving service delivery in key ministries. The issue of missing babies from hospital wards, the high rate of marketing the FHCDs and the blackout in Bo and Kenema are now history as H E Bio switched on substations in Bo and Kenema on the 23rd December 2021 to provide uninterrupted electricity supply”.
The crypto currency business which is commonly called “MY COIN” was brought into Bo in September 2020 by a business man called Joe Betts. He started the business in Bo after securing licenses from the government of Sierra Leone to operate in line with the Companies Act of 2009[1] with an uninterrupted initial client investment of more than 600 people. The company paid clients 60% interest of whatever amount invested. For instance, if someone invested SLL 100,000, the investment will mature after 42 days with repayment of SLL 160,000 including the initial investment. Seeing that Joe Betts was running a legitimate business, citizens of Bo and other surrounding districts pumped in in numbers to invest their life savings into the crypto business. At that point people were withdrawing large amounts from their savings in regular banks to invest in the crypto business for fast profit.
In May 2021, the news about this crypto business reached the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, who after conducting a due diligence on Joe Betts realized that he registered his institution as a company and should not operate as a bank. For this reason the bank Governor ordered to freeze all accounts operated by Mr. Joe Betts, the Chief Executive office of ‘My residual Global investment’ (My Coin). This unannounced freezing of My Coin accounts sent a wrong signal to clients with huge investments like $150,000-$300,000, leading to heart attacks and eventual death and shock related health issues. People thought Joe Betts had scammed them and disappeared with their Money. As the Bank governor could not allow Joe Betts’ company to continue operations, Joe has asked that after the due diligence of a certified Liquidator he is permitted to pay back his clients before tensions are mounted. With this delay, citizens in Bo had planned to go on the rampage with harmful items just to get the attention of the Bank Governor. However, after the capacity training PRIDE-SL and other CSOs based in Bo called emergency meetings to use the non-adversarial approach to reduce tension among disgruntled citizens in Bo. Citizens flagged the issue as red and very important in the Scorecard engagement organized by TDS. This doubled the effort by CSOs and now after a letter sent to parliament for clarification on the operations of companies in Sierra Leone, the Governor has promised to make payment to people by the first week January 2022.