The Pariotic Vanguard
By Tamba Jean-Matthew, Dakar, Senegal.
Sierra Leone’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Morocco Her Excellency Khadijatu Bassir, was among three other African diplomats who presented their letters of credence to the authorities of the North African country on 1st March 2012 in Rabat.
During her presentation, Ambassador Bassir thanked the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Saad El Otmani for the warm reception and the opportunity accorded her to present the copies of her letters of credence to the Foreign Ministry of the Kingdom of Morocco.
The Sierra Leonean diplomat who is also accredited to Senegal, Cape Verde and Mauritania, conveyed the warm and fraternal sentiments of her country’s Foreign Minister Joseph B. Dauda to his Moroccan counterpart.
The ambassador highlighted the history of the diplomatic relations between Sierra Leone and Morocco which she described as “very unique, pleasant and promising” and informed her counterpart about the latest political developments in Sierra Leone
“During my tenure here, I would seek to further strengthen the already cordial relationship between our two countries by suggesting that we step up our cooperation in all fields and especially as stipulated by President Ernest Bai Koroma’s vision in the “Agenda for Change” for the mutual benefit of our governments and people,” Ambassador Bassir said.
Responding, the Moroccan diplomat congratulated Ambassador Bassir for her presentation and expressed his government’s readiness to further strengthen bilateral ties and help Sierra Leone in every conceivable domain.
“His majesty Mohamed VI is very keen in strengthening closer ties with African Countries and your country Sierra Leone, is one of them and I can assure you that Morocco will always support Sierra Leone’s development efforts,” Minister El Otmani said.
Later in the evening, Ambassador Bassir who was accompanied by the Head of Chancery Mr. Sahr E. Johnny, were entertained to an official dinner along with the other plenipotentiary envoys from Kenya; Lesotho and Botswana with residences in Cairo, Tripoli and Addis Ababa respectively.
During the dinner, the four envoys raised a plethora of issues concerning bilateral cooperation and communication channels which were clearly answered by the Secretary General, Ambassador M. Nasser Bovrita and the Head of division for Bilateral Cooperation, Africa Directorate, Madam Nezha Alaoui M’hammdi.
Sierra Leone’s Honorary Consul in Casablanca Dr. Abdellatif Bouchra, accompanied the Sierra Leonean diplomats throughout their three-day visit to the Kingdom.
Her Excellency Bassir started off her official working visit in Morocco on 2 March 2012 by meeting with the Kingdom’s Minister of Education, H.E. Ambassador EL Wafa in the capital, Rabat and informed him that the objective of her mission was to take already existing relationship existing between the two countries to a higher stage. Ambassador Bassir encouraged the minister to contemplate on increasing the quota of scholarships to Sierra Leonean students and especially in the physical sciences.
She pleaded with the minister to make the scholarships available ahead of time to enable Sierra Leonean applicants to adequately fill in the formalities. Responding, the Moroccan minister promised to do all in his powers to help suitably qualified Sierra Leoneans to pursue education in Morocco. Minister El Wafa recalled the undying memories of his encounter with several learned Sierra Leonean scholars during the days of the late President Siake Stevens’ regime.
Ambassador Bassir also underscored the need to increase bursaries including travel assistance for students pursuing technical and vocational education compared to those in the academic discipline. To this, the minister promised to discuss the possibility with the officials of the international cooperation.
On the second leg of Ambassador Khadijatu Bassir’s working visit to Morocco, she held discussions with Dr. Youssouf Imani, the Director General of the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation whose department was instrumental in electrifying the avenue leading up to President Koroma’s lodge in Freetown.
Director Imani informed the Sierra Leonean ambassador that cooperation in the domain was still available, but regretted that the response from Sierra Leone had been rather slow lately.
He also informed the Ambassador about a planned visit last year to Sierra Leone at the head of multi-sectoral delegation but which also flopped due to yet another lack of response from Sierra Leone and expressed the hope that this could be possible by May this year.
Responding, Ambassador Bassir assured the Director that she will inform headquarters about the visit and promised to place a premium on that arrangement.
As they pursued their discussion, Ambassador Bassir inquired from the Director about the possibility of increasing the number of scholarships for Sierra Leoneans to undergo Diplomatic and Language training in the Kingdom of Morocco. “This will be a significant boost in the development of our foreign service personnel,” Ambassador Bassir said.
Director Imani promised to discuss the possibility with the concerned colleagues. Finally Ambassador Bassir thanked her host for the meeting and promised to follow up on all the discussions in due course.
On the third and final leg of her working visit in the afternoon of 2 March 2012, Ambassador Khadijatu Bassir met with Mr. Adbellatif Bendahane Director for Africa in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Rabat.
At this meeting, Ambassador Bassir introduced a critical discussion on the future agenda of the cooperation between Morocco and Sierra Leone. But Director Benadahane was aslo quick to hint that the problem was the snail-pace response from Freetown and suggested that a fluid cooperation would be possible if Sierra Leone could overcome that deficiency. The Director promised that tickets will be provided for the Sierra Leonean student since the Ambassador had made the request repeatedly to all of the officials she had met during the visit.
Furthermore, he promised that the Kingdom of Morocco will offer an impressive quantity of assorted medicines for the ministry of health in Sierra Leone and will subsequently examine requests for assistance in all other sectors as the drafting of a cooperation strategy with Sierra Leone proceeds in the months ahead.
Ambassador Bassir thanks the Director of Africa and promised to work on all issues he had raised and encouraged him to continue maintaining open corridors for communication with the Sierra Leone Embassy in Dakar. “I can assure you that you will get responses on time,” she concluded.
The Head of Chancery of the Embassy of the Republic of Sierra Leone in Senegal Mr. Sahr E. Johnny and the Honorary Consul in Casablanca, in the Kingdom of Morocco, Dr. Abdellatif Bouchra accompanied the Ambassador to all of the working visits.
Photo: Ambassador Bassir, left, with the Minister of Education in Rabat on 2 March 2012.
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