My Fellow Sierra
Leoneans, I stand on this piece of land to call
your attention to our common cause to change the
manner in which we conduct our business of
Government, and to call your attention to the
need of embedding the culture of self reliance
in national development.
Our men and women
who serve in the Police and the Military train
to enter the armed forces. They train and
re-train to serve in times of war and peace. We
should adopt similar criteria and standards of
training for our public servants to prepare them
for good performance.
Our public
servants were once trained to enter the business
of service delivery for God and country; they
were good, they were the best in our sub
region. But the trend has changed over the
years. Though we still have some wonderful
public servants; we have collectively lost what
it takes to meet today’s ever changing and ever
demanding environment.
Today, we are
faced with the choice of reclaiming our past
glory and meeting the aspirations of our people
for a better life. We owe it to this nation to
reclaim the image of Sierra Leone as a country
whose children were once the bastion of
administration in the whole of English Speaking
West Africa. We owe it to the struggling
citizens whose taxes paid for our schooling and
our present jobs to transform this country. But
to do this, we must transform the public
service; we must make it better than it has ever
been before; we must create new frontiers of
excellence, service, and commitment to serve the
people of this country.
Now therefore, my
fellow citizens, I today summon the attention of
every Sierra Leonean at home and abroad to
support and sustain our transformation through
the establishment of a training center for our
public servants –which we will call, the Sierra
Leone Public Service Academy.
We take pride in
the number of mineral resources we have in this
country. But we should take greater pride in
the human resources. We are establishing this
Public Service Academy to build this greater
pride in ourselves as Sierra Leoneans; enhance
our expertise, and improve our capacity for
knowledge based transformation of this land that
we love. In establishing the Public Service
Academy, we intend to make full use of our human
resources and talents of the best and brightest,
to serve our country than any mineral resources
would ever provide us.
My fellow Sierra
Leoneans, we have drawn the transformative
roadmap; but we need trained agents and stewards
to quicken the pace of our achievements. I am
heartened when a few weeks ago, at a meeting
with permanent secretaries at State House, I
sensed a renewed commitment by public servants
to live up to the promise of their profession. I
have also perused The Ministerial and
Administrative Declaration concluded this week
at the Forum for Ministers and Senior Public
Servants. I am heartened by the mutual
commitments contained therein. The public
service is ready to move on with the times, and
we must acknowledge this renewed spirit of
patriotic service. That is why I am declaring
this day, September 17, as the National Day of
the Public Service; a day of rededication by
Public Servants to the ideals of service and
excellence.
My resolve and
yours should be to turn the corner and build a
Public Service Academy that will endure for
generations to come. I call on every Sierra
Leonean today at home and abroad - to give me
your support, your voice and contribution as
insurance for our machinery of Government to
move rapidly and efficiently towards Change and
Progress.
To move this
project ahead, I now ask the Sierra Leone
Commercial Bank to assist me in opening an
account for the Sierra Leone Public Service
Academy, to which I will make a deposit. I
expect every Sierra Leonean who has the means to
contribute generously to the account.
I also call on my
fellow citizens worldwide to join this
self-reliance project. If you are a builder, a
business man, a carpenter, a bricklayer, a
mason, give your service to this Project.
Whether you live at home or in the Diaspora,
render your commitment to your country. Let us
work with a single resolve, a single mind for
this Project. When the Public Service Academy
complex stands above these grounds in the near
future, we shall congratulate each other for
reclaiming our heritage of learning and seizing
as our destiny as inscribed in the country’s
motto: Unity, Freedom, Justice.
