FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – With less than a week to Sierra Leone’s General Elections, NAYMOTE’s Young Political Leadership School – Cohort 9, comprising members from Liberia and Sierra Leone and on Sunday, launched its nonviolent elections campaign in Freetown.
The campaign targeted voters from diverse backgrounds including youth, marketers and residents in disadvantaged communities across Sierra the Leonean Capital.
With loud speakers and flyers depicting peace and nonviolence election messages, the Liberian delegation headed by Ms. Musu Davis, president, YPLS Cohort 9 and their Sierra Leonean counterparts visited several communities and market places.
The voters including first time voters, market women, residents of slum communities and disadvantaged youths thanked the team for reaching out to them.
Meanwhile, the team climaxed the campaign with a live radio appearance on Tumac FM, 89.3 Mhz, a local radio station in Freetown, calling on all voters to exercise restraint and go to the polls to exercise their franchise in a peaceful manner void of violence.
The delegation’s head, Ms. Davis said it was important that Liberian youths under the auspices of Naymote through the Young Political Leadership School Africa join their Sierra Leonean counterparts to carry on the campaign for peaceful elections.
“Liberia and Sierra Leone are neighboring countries and both have experienced ugly past. And whatever affects Sierra Leone affects Liberia and vice versa. So, as young people, having been trained by Naymote through the YPLSA, decided to undertake this initiative. It is a great experience and we look forward to future collaboration with Sierra Leone and other African countries to promote peace on the African Continent,” she said.
Also speaking, YPLSA Cohort 9 – Sierra Leone Spokesperson, Ambassador Mohamed Umar Barrie thanked the Liberian delegation for joining him and his colleagues for the non-violence campaign.
“Their presence creates a lot of difference. We have not had foreign delegates to come into our communities to preach the message of peace and nonviolence. Our people seeing them in the neighborhoods were so excited and appreciated them. It made our message resonate well,” Barrie said.
“And this was one of the most significant aspects of our campaign today. The number was very superb, it was fantastic, we engaged them peacefully.”
Writing on his Facebook page after the campaign, Barrie called on his fellow Sierra Leoneans to exercise restraint and go to the polls in a peaceful manner.
“We continue to admonish our people for them to reflect on the eleven-year civil war and that of the recent August 10th [August 10, 2022) resurrection not to allow it to happen again. We begged them to maintain the peace our forefathers fought for.”
Meanwhile, the Liberian delegation included Musu Davis as its head, Amos Samukai, Famata T. Willie, Otis B. Kruah, Paul P. Paukpa, Jethro Harris and Gerald C. Koinyeneh all of YPLS Africa Cohort 9 of 2022.
About the YPLS Africa
Established in April 2016, the Young Political Leadership School (YPLS) Africa is Naymote’s flagship political organizing, leadership development and campaign training program for emerging young African leaders.
The program convenes young politicians and youth activists with a passion for supporting good governance, policy advocacy, fostering transparency in government, and mobilizing their communities to ensure governments are accountable to the people.
The YPLS Africa challenges, inspires, motivates and sparks new insights for participants to become transformational and servant leaders in their generation.
Since the launch of the school, hundreds of young people from across the African continents have benefited.
More than 100 youth from several African countries including Cameroon, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Namibia and Sierra Leone participated in Cohort-9, the latest class in November last year.
This year, according to the organizers, Cohort 10 is expected to be held in August and will bring together youths from several African countries.
