By Fatou Sanneh
The newly appointed minister of Lands, Regional Government and Religious Affairs, Hon. Sheriff Abba Sanyang, accompanied by senior officials from the ministry and its line departments, has recently embarked on a familiarisation tour across all regions of the country.
The 14-day visit was meant to afford the new minister the opportunity to dialogue and engage local authorities and a cross section of the communities in order to familiarize himself with the issues.
The recurring themes of the ministerial outreach, which began in North Bank Region, relate to issues of selection of “Alkalolu”, religious tolerance and environmental protection.
Addressing the local authorities in Njaba Kunda, Hon. Abba Sanyang called for more religious tolerance and advised the people to do away with political differentiation and tribalism.
On the issue of land, the minister said observed that indiscriminate selling and lending of land has contributed to its scarcity in the country.
Permanent Secretary, Buba Sanyang pointed out that authority and possession of stamps should be under the sole custodian of the Alkalo and the chief; which he emphasised, should not be delegated to anyone, unless extremely necessary. This, he elucidated, is to minimise confusion of power of authority.
The Permanent Secretary went on to advise alkalolu to abstain from appending their stamps on the same land document for multiple persons. This he warned, creates conflict during the leasing of that property. He also advised chiefs to be mindful when stamping land documents from alkalolu to minimie land disputes.
On the importance of attaining a building permit for any construction, PS Sanyang advised that anyone constructing should seek the expertise of the physical planning officer attached to their region to map out and approve the building or fencing plan. Failure to do so will prompt the authorities to put down anything erected on that land.
Addressing the issue of late payment of badge messengers of chiefs, Hon. Minister promised that they will now be paid on time as a new system has been put in place to accommodate the age range of the badge messengers since most of them are above the age limit for public service.
The Hon. Minister and the delegation were led by the Governor of the North Bank Region, Mr. Lamin Saidykhan to the various districts in the region.