President Koroma

Addressing the team, President Koroma thanked them for their quick response to
an invitation for intervention in the sector. He gave them a background of how an
oil find has been made in the country but that the internal authority supposed to
be handling the sector is a mere unit in his office. He therefore said that the unit
clearly has “limited capacity” to handle the “technical and complex” matters
relating to oil business.

“We need the relevant expertise to maximize our oil returns. Because of that, we
set up a presidential task force as a committee charged with the responsibility to
effect the transformation from a unit to an oil company to ensure that we have the
capacity to handle the business effectively,” he stated.

The President noted the necessity to prepare the legal instruments to that effect
and the need to train all stakeholders with the primary objective of “making
whatever find we have to be beneficial to the country… and evenly distributed”. 

The Head of State cautioned that other sectors or activities should not be abandoned
because of oil: “It is a great challenge, but I believe your group will give us the advice
to meet this challenge and move forward.”

At State House again today, President Koroma received the new executive of the West
African College of Physicians (Sierra Leone Chapter), headed by Dr. Patrick E. Coker.

Receiving them at State House, the President said he was pleased that they were
coming after he delivered a speech at the state opening of Parliament last Friday where
he raised matters relating to the health situation in the country, while hoping that this
meeting would be the first of interactive consultations in addressing the myriad problems
facing the sector.

He maintained that the health sector posed an embarrassment to the country:
“We are not the poorest nation on earth; we have the potential to be among the
top-ranking nations in terms of our natural and human resources. But I think we have
not got it right in the past, especially in the management of our human resources.”

He maintained that the group would certainly be needed to play an advisory role to
government in terms of motivating medical personnel to stay in the country and working
out strategies that will give the right answers backed by the political and financial will.

It is the President’s view that the answer could lie in creating a separate regulatory body
(different from the Public Service Commission) that would determine the conditions of
service of personnel in the health sector and also regulate the overall health service.

“There is a possibility for us to succeed, and we have to succeed… By the end of the year,
we should come out with a definite road-map on the activities we have to take to ensure
that we put behind us this talk about Sierra Leone having the worst infant and maternal
mortality rates and least medical practitioners in- country,” President Koroma said.

The President congratulated Dr. Coker for being elected President of the organisation:
“I hope and pray that you will conduct your affairs in a manner that will make all of us proud.”

Earlier, Dr. Coker gave an overview of the organization, founded in 1976, as a virtual college
and not a structure or college per se. However, he noted that it has been very instrumental
in not only training health personnel and advising governments, but in improving on the overall
health situation in the countries that seek their advise. He urged government to upgrade its
health institutions as in Ghana and Nigeria, while expressing commitment to promoting the
health of the people of West Africa.

Dr. Coker was introduced by the Vice President (Sierra Leone Chapter) Dr Alpha Bundu
Kamara, while female doctor Euphemia Gooding gave the vote of thanks. Others included Dr
Daniel Olubimi Robin-Coker, Dr Egerton Luke, Dr E.C, Cummings, Dr. Arnold Aubee, Dr. Kojo
Carew and Dr Sahr Gevao.

The Press Secretariat
State House
13 October 2009