Sierra Leone Government Hires PR Firm to Repair Relationship With US Government

The government of Sierra Leone has engaged the services of Mercury Public Affairs, a New York based public strategy firm to mend its relationship with the United States Government.

Mercury announced on Tuesday that Sierra Leone government has reached out to them, and they are negotiating to represent the West African nation in a pact that is expected to include PR, government relations and outreach to US officials and media outlets.

Mercury prides itself as a high-stake public strategy firm providing results for the world’s most successful companies, leading advocacy groups, governments, political parties, NGOs, and prominent public and political figures.

The US State Department has raised concerns about “anomalies” in Sierra Leone’s June 24 election where President Julius Maada Bio was re-elected.

The department, in its statement from July 24, voiced its unease over accounts of threats, including those of a lethal nature, directed at local and international observers, civil society groups, and election commission members.

In a recent interview, US Ambassador to Sierra Leone, David Reimer also said that, “United States is concerned about irregularities in the result that were announced by ECSL, that include a big difference between the ECSL announced result and the parallel vote tabulations as well as inconsistencies that were analyzed by domestic and international observers.”

Reimer added that the US would review its government-to-government programs, including a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact grant worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Sierraloaded understands that the move by the government of the Sierra Leone to engage the United States government through a PR firm is unconnected to the hundreds of millions of dollars which is at risk should the country not respond to concerns raised about the elections.

In its statement, Mercury said that Six professionals are slated to represent Sierra Leone. The team includes former Congressman Toby Moffett, who previously co-headed Mayer Brown’s Africa sector; Bryan Lanza, ex-communications chief during the Trump Transition; and Eric Bloom, who once held the position of senior producer at CBS Evening News.

Comment(s)

Disclaimer: Comments expressed here do not reflect the opinions of Sierraloaded or any employee thereof.

Kamara umar | 2023-08-24 08:32:09

That was the reason why he told Mohamed coneh the electoral commissioner to announce the rigged vote in favor of him, that was how he planned the whole thing to leave the rest with him by convincing international partners to favour his rogue govt. He will never succeed because sierraleonean has a serious curse on his govt by stealing our votes in favour of him.
Rosemarie | 2023-08-24 03:52:56

Thank God for his great mercy upon the whole world. Sierra Leone does not belong to one person who thinks that their fathers and great grandfather's own Sierra Leone and its their personal property. People are suffering while this so called president and his so called ministers do not care. They are so heartless. No good education, Hospitals,water, light and food etc. These are the basics things required. Since Africa became independent, their people have become slaves under our own so-called black head of states. They treat their citizens worse than when we were under the colonial power of the white man. I look at Africa today I only see few head of states who love their people and their country, such as the late Nelson Mandela, Jerry Rollings and the president of Rwandan and Guinea. They fail to remember one thing nothing last forever look at Mogabies children of Zimbabwe today. Even in our own country of Sierra Leone look at most of the former heads of states families/children how they have ended up. God is not asleep he sees all and knows all. The election in Freetown was ridged he should hand over to the right person the country voted for if he value peace in Sierra Leone.
| 2023-08-23 20:25:13

Fake
| 2023-08-23 15:43:49

We've people in the world that lunatic but when you come to Sierra Leone, the worse. This show how our leaders are just doing things crazily to benefit their self desired motive leaving the masses langushing in the agony of poverty. Simple do the right thing at the end of the day you'll loved and voted for. If there would been a choice of citizenship before I was given birth, I would've advocated for a change of citizenship way back before I would've surface on planet.
Sahid Mohamed Kamara | 2023-08-23 14:57:21

Maada Bio has no good intentions for Sierra Leone but for himself only. Why do you need to pay a lot of money to repair Sierra Leone's relationship with the American government? What is really wrong with the relationship? Maada Bio you actually need to examine and evaluate yourself thoroughly before hiring some firms to repair your relationship with America. The people of Sierra Leone have very good relationship with America. Maada Bio you actually promised the American people that you were going to conduct a Free, Fair Transparent and Credible elections. Your failure to keep your promise is the main problem. That shows that, "you Maada Bio are not honest". Why are you so dishonest? Nobody will be ready to repair relationship with a dishonest person. Maada Bio you have brought this country to shame. Are you not ashamed of yourself? Please think twice before taking this step.
A Sanusie | 2023-08-23 14:11:08

Wow! It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to retain these firms and if repairing relationships means changing opinion about the election theft, then this is a complete waste of money we can't afford, money that could be used to pay salaries that haven't been paid yet, attack the kush problem, etc..instead we have this useless illegitimate government throwing away money. God help us