Cocorioko has the widest readership among Sierra Leone’s media, our men in Freetown and the figures and other indicators prove

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We can now safely say that the COCORIOKO Newspaper has the largest readership among Sierra Leone’s media , thanks to the advent of social media , which has now made the world a global village ,with thousands of Sierra Leoneans now able to access online media on their cellphones, IPADS and laptop computers. According to our men on the ground in Freetown –Foday Mansaray, Bankole Gibson, Joseph Kamanda, Abubakarr Kamara, Gunther Daramy, Daniel M’bomba Turay and Mohamed Sankoh ( One Drop ) —-there is no corner in Sierra Leone where Cocorioko is not known.

Hon. FODAY MANSARAY

Foday Mansaray, the Co-CEO of Cocorioko , said today that anybody who says Cocorioko has not impacted other parts of the country is a damned liar. Mr.Mansaray said that during and after the recent Presidential, Legislative and local council , he travelled all over the country , at times in President Ernest Koroma’s entourage , and there was no place in the country where the impact Cocorioko was not being felt . Mr. Mansaray said today that “As soon as people hear my name ‘Foday Mansaray’ , they immediately ask me : ‘Foday Mansaray of Cocorioko ?’ . In some places, people only need to see my face before immediately recognizing me and saying : You are Foday Mansaray of Cocorioko. Right ? If people do not know us or we are not making impact, how could that be ? Rev, do not listen to foolish talk “.

Foday Mansaray and Bankole Gibson said that they saw Cocorioko being sold during the elections. People print out our articles during major occasions and sell them out on the streets. Both men said they stood in the queue and bought the paper to prove to themselves that people are selling print-outs of the paper, as wellwishers have been complaining.

Dr. BANKOLE GIBSON

A New Jersey resident, Mrs. Jeneba Kamara, came back from vacation in Sierra Leone and congratulated her workmate Mrs. Tigidankay Kabs-Kanu, wife of the Publisher of Cocorioko , that her husband’s newspaper is now being sold in Freetown. Mrs. Kanu said she was not aware that her husband had started a print edition in Sierra Leone. “Really ?” , asked the stunned Jeneba . It was then that Jeneba announced to her that she bought a copy of printed articles of the paper on the street in Freetown. This lady had been bereaved . Her relative died in New Jersey in her absence .Cocorioko covered the funeral and provided colorful photos of the ceremony. Somebody alerted her that Cocorioko had fully published the funeral. The lady said that it was because of this that she decided to buy the street edition in Freetown. The woman stated that Cocorioko is one of the popular newspapers in Sierra Leone. “If you do not know that your husband’s newspaper is popular in Sierra Leone, let me tell you that now”, she quipped.

A FARMER IN THE BUSH CHECKS THE NEWS ON HIS CELLPHONE

The former Resident Minister of the South, Hon. Moijueh Kai-Kai and his counterparts in the East Mr. William Juana Smith and the North, Mr. Alie Doyle Kamara all independently and separately told the Publisher of the newspaper that Cocorioko is one of the popular media in their regions through which people access the news . As if that was not enough, the Mayor of Kono, Mr. Saa Emerson Lamina, was recently in New York to attend the Kono Progressive Union fundraising ceremonies . He paid a courtesy call on the Permanent Representative, H.E. Shekou Touray, at Mission in New York .The Mayor stated that Cocorioko is a hit newspaper in Kono and admonished the Publisher to continue the hard work .

During the bereavement last year of the President, His Excellency Dr. Ernest Koroma, relatives in Sierra Leone and the diaspora said it was through Cocorioko that they followed up the funeral ceremonies of his late Mother, Mrs. Alice Koroma . They loved our pictorial displays and some called us to thank us for the coverage.

And now, Sierra Leone is on social media and that has removed further any barrier the paper had of reaching a mass audience in Sierra Leone. With thousands of Sierra Leoneans on Facebook and Twitter, the country now has a huge presence online . “Everybody is online now, thanks to social media, ” a Sierra Leonean wrote on Facebook and the days are now gone when it was the sole preserve of newspapers with print editions to reach the people in Sierra Leone . In fact, it is now possible for an online paper to have a wider readership in Sierra Leone than a print edition with little internet influence . Not many newspapers in Sierra Leone have a readership of 1, 000. Most of them print only 500-600 copies. Internet newspapers quadruple those numbers in their readership. It is now possible for internet newspapers to reach the deeper crevices of the interior. Now, Pa. Sallu at Mamboma Village in the bush can read online newspapers through his cellphone if he is so disposed. The world has become a complete global village indeed.

On Facebook, Cocorioko has a very large following through which it reaches out to Sierra Leone and the world. Here are the number of friends our various forums have on Facebook , 50% of the people on each forum live in Sierra Leone AND receive our news reports :

Cocorioko Forum of Patriots 4, 395
Cocorioko Sierra Leone 4, 149
Sierra Leone Daily Nation 2, 930
The New Daily Nation Forum 4, 522
Sierra Leone Government Media Network 2, 459
Rebranding Sierra Leone 1, 316
APC Live Forever 2, 819.
OGI Forum 1, 656

Foday Mansaray asserted that, based on all these numbers and his experience on the ground in Sierra Leone , COCORIOKO has the biggest readership and he said he will listen to nobody who says otherwise. He knows that rivals of the paper would not like to acknowledge that Cocorioko is the most widely read newspaper in Sierra Leone. “Rev, trust me. I will not fool you. We have a lot of clout in Sierra Leone . Wait until the day you enter this country ” , Foday emphasized.

Another way we know we are making a huge impact in Sierra Leone is the number of inbox messages we receive from all parts of Sierra Leone. From as far afield as Mongo-Bendugu in Koinadugu District and Kukuna in Kambia , as well as Bonthe and Kailahun, people inbox us to express opinions about our articles.

We have also discovered an interesting trend of people in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya now commenting on Cocorioko articles pasted by the Publisher on the wall of his FACEBOOK PAGE. The evidence is all there to be seen. A recent article from Cocorioko praising President Ernest Bai Koroma for his infrastructural developments in Sierra Leone, which was posted on Facebook, received an input from a Ugandan, whose exact words were : “President Ernest Koroma is really doing a good work in Sierra Leone. ”