Julius Maada Bio (left) and Bola Ahmed Tinubu (right)
H. E. Brigadier Maada Bio ( Retired)
President of the Republic of Sierra Leone & Chairperson, ECOWAS
H.E. Bola Tinubu
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Mrs Fatima Bio
First Lady of Sierra Leone & President, Organization of African First Ladies & Development (OAFLD)
Senator Mrs Remi Tinubu
First Lady of Nigeria
(Other Nigerian and Sierra Leonean dignitaries, and, celebrities, religious leaders, business leaders, film stars, musicians, football stars, etc.)
Dear Messrs presidents & first ladies; and other dignitaries and celebrities of Nigeria and Sierra Leone:
Jump Onboard The Slave Ship-Freedom Ship to Travel to COP-30 in Brazil
A couple of months ago, Pan-African Climate Change activist, Oswald Hanciles, based in Freetown, Sierra Leone started publishing in THE OSWALD HANCILES COLUMN his idea of a slave ship to travel to Brazil, for COP-30, November, 2025, a historic and imaginative gloss to this year’s global annual Climate Change conference by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Oswald Hanciles has written articles with detailed credible information to buttress his postulate that for the African, and coloured peoples of the Americas, climate change is a continuum of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
The slave ship idea is to use a regular cruise ship to travel from Central Africa and West Africa to Brazil for COP-30, and, regularly to cruise around the world.
Onboard the ship there would be a reenactment of the horrors endured by Negroid African slaves as they were shipped from Africa to the Americas over a four hundred years period.
The ship will be like a school or college where youth and children will interact with, and be taught by, globally-renowned scientists, African scientists, environmentalists, economists, and religious leaders, etc. They will be taught to spread the message on the climate change emergency, and guide people what to do about climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Inside the ship will also be film and music production studios to create climate change messages in diverse languages.
Instead of normally only very wealthy people from Europe and America going for cruises on luxury ships, this time, ordinary people would deliberate solutions to the most urgent crisis facing humanity today.
Oswald Hanciles started the SLAVE SHIP-FREEDOM SHIP idea in Calabar, Cross River State in 1992.
In 1994, with support from Etubom Bassey Ekpo Bassey, and Etubom Oyo Orok Oyo (both members of the Royal Council of the Obong of Calabar), Oswald Hanciles ignited a project that links climate change with the tropical rainforests and sports.
In 1996, the Federal Government of Nigeria, through its High Commissioner in Sierra Leone, H.E. Chedi Abubakarr, financed Oswald Hanciles to produce a video documentary linking the Atlantic Slave Trade, the environment, and Olympics-1996. The Nigerian envoy took part in media publicity for the concept.
In 2019, Oswald Hanciles singlehandedly financed a climate change demonstration on the streets of Freetown in which actors playing the role of kidnapped Negroid African slaves in the era of the Atlantic Slave Trade marched through the streets of Freetown, and were ‘freed’ by the Deputy Mayor of Freetown, Osman Kamara.
Oswald Hanciles was the brain and CEO of the SAVE MY FUTURE CONSERVATION SOCIETY (SAMFU) in Liberia in 1987; SAMFU was financed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-International and German Forestry Mission to Liberia to produce and publish GREENLOVE magazine in 1989, and in 1992, with background support of his friend, Paddy Ezeala, GREENLOVE/Nigeria was contracted by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-United Kingdom to produce and publish PANGOLIN magazine for the Cross River National Park Project (CRNPP)
Climate change is intertwined with everything that humanity does; the six hundred years enslavement and subjugation of Africans would mean much worse poverty, wars…if climate change is not addressed relentlessly and with imagination like Oswald Hanciles presents.
Since 1994, there have been 29 COPs, but progress made has been superficial, and the core issue of the use of fossil fuels has worsened with more carbon emissions into the atmosphere – resulting in regular droughts, floods, wildfires, heatwaves, lower agricultural yields. All reputable scientists and environmentalists are united in stating that Africa’s 17 percent of global population that has contributed just 4 percent of carbon emissions into the atmosphere would be worse hit, lacking the capacity for adaptation and mitigation, as melting ice in Western Antarctica will lead to about 8 feet rise in global sea levels, submerging African cities like Lagos, Accra, Banjul, Monrovia, Dakar, and parts of Freetown, causing hundreds of billions of dollars loses.
Africa must not wait for such worse case scenarios to unfold. Africans must not trust in the goodwill of the West that have caused the Climate Change problem.
At this point in time, it’s significant that the President of Sierra Leone is also Chairperson of ECOWAS; and the First Lady of Sierra Leone is also President of the Organization of African First Ladies and Development (OAFLD): their support would be pivotal and symbolic.
Of course, Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa, and has always championed liberation causes for Africa. Climate change is like putting all the liberation fights of Africa together. And much more..
On behalf of 1.4 billion Africans, especially children and youth who would face the brunt of climate change would ravage, I plead with you all to give this idea of Oswald Hanciles urgent financial and intellectual and moral support. With faith. Don’t wait.
This Open Letter is to ALL Africans of all religions and political persuasion and tribe and country, all musicians and film producers and actors, all footballers, all business people, all content creators, etc. Widely circulate this letter with the idea of Oswald Hanciles.
Yours sincerely,
Gassimu Binas Mbaimba
CEO Leone First Music/CEO of Shine Bright Fashions
August 28, 2025
Copy:
• Senate of Federal Republic of Nigeria
•Parliament of Sierra Leone
•ECOWAS
•African Union (AU)
•Organization of African First Ladies & Development (OAFLD)
•Leaders of all political parties in Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
•Rema, Davido, Whiz Kid, Emerson, LAJ, etc
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