By Babsy

I came to know the late Managing Director of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, Abdulai Fidelis Turay, through his predecessor, Idriss Alooma Kamara who told him of all the good works I had been doing for the Bank as a Public Relations Consultant/Agent for Print Media.

After I was introduced to him, he requested that we have a private meeting. In the meeting he told me that he likes working with honest people. He asked that anything I have to tell him, let me come out and say it. He implored me to work in the best interest of the bank so that it would grow. Fidelis believed in the media. He always ensured that the Bank had a good working relationship with the media.

Fidelis was a man who believed in work. He said little but worked hard to achieve results. As a team player, he was a leader who liked consulting in order to get the opinion of others before making a decision.

In terms of his personality, he was a cool, calm and composed man who did not like to see people bullied. He hobnobbed with staff in the bank down to the drivers and cleaners. Whilst he headed the bank, he never sacked anybody and granted promotion to over 90 percent of the staff as a way to motivate them towards higher performance.

Fidelis was generous. He could easily sense what people needed. He was a secretive philanthropist who donated to countless worthy individuals and institutions.

Fidelis believed in collective effort. Before the Bank launched any program, he will call me, and tell me to talk to his abled lieutenant Bockarie Kalokoh, Project Manager Dr. Orlean Cole and Festus Sowah to discuss about the product which the bank intends to be launched to know its utility and what dividends it would yield the Bank.

His last official function was few months before his passing at the King George’s Home for the Aged where the Bank does annual donation to help the inmates.

Making a statement, he disclosed that out of the profit the Bank makes, they deem it fit to share some of it with the poor and needy. It is notable that he insisted that all directors be present at the occasion and so the ceremony was pushed from 11am to 2 pm. Fidelis was a problem solver. He believed that every problem has a solution. He did not like people who saw the impossible or who think that it cannot be done.

His death came to me as a big surprise. I received the shocking news on Sunday 15TH August, 2021 after talking to him the previous Tuesday to appeal to him for the Bank to honour all newspaper advertisement bills which he graciously did.

Fidelis is dearly missed by not only me but all those that had the opportunity to work with him.

MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE