Umaru Fofana has become an unnecessary embarrassment to the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ)

The BBC is an important media institution. One that has a moral and ethical obligation to get things right in its reporting of events happening across the world. And you would expect when it decides to enlist the services of a local journalist to report on events happening on the ground, it should take important steps to ensure that person is of impeccable character and with an outstanding reputation. But it seems this is sadly not the case in Sierra Leone. Umaru Fofana happens to be one of the correspondents who file reports for the BBC from Freetown on a daily basis.

Umaru Fofana – Embarrassing SLAJ

What the BBC may not know is that Fofana has become embroiled in the mafia-style politics of the opposition SLPP party; and if his recent reports are anything to go by, it seems he has become the camouflaged conduit of this morally bankrupt political organization. If anybody should observe and go by the tenets of the journalism profession, it should be Umaru Fofana. He doubles as president of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, and his tenure has been plagued by one controversy after controversy, as his style of leadership has come under scrutiny, and has been seriously questioned by his colleagues, who have expressed dissatisfaction and anger over his arrogance and lack of temerity.

Fofana has abused his privileged position in the media by engaging in fallacy and fabricating stories while deliberately distorting the reality of events taking place on the ground in Sierra Leone. Umaru Fofana represents a class of journalists whose pretence to call the government to account is simply a showcase of the reckless practice of journalism that has been constantly used to advance their own selfish cause. It is one thing to call the government to account, but isn’t it also vulgar when your agenda is purely a disguised political approach to demean those you report on? Umaru Foafana has failed his colleagues in the media, and has become an embarrassment to the journalism profession. The BBC may have to find an alternative if it is to salvage what is left of its reputation in this small West African state. I don’t see how Fofana can recover from his near-battered reputation – as even the party he is alleged to be supporting seems destined for massive defeat at the polls come November.

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