By Septimus Senessie in Kono
Chairman of the Council of Paramount Chiefs in Kono District has reminded President Ernest Bai Koroma of "his promise to provide a university for the district" during his November 2012 presidential campaign in Kono District.
P.C. Paul Garba Saquee V of Tankoro Chiefdom sent his message through the Minister of Education, Dr. Minkailu Bah during the handing-over ceremony of the construction of a technical and vocational institute to contractors at Sembakoro village in Gbense Chiefdom.
He told the minister that during the elections campaign President Koroma at the Konomanyi Lorry Park promised that he “will give Kono District a university as compensation if you vote me back to power for the second term.”
The paramount chief added that Kono District contributed in the reelection of the president with six out of the eight members of parliament, twenty-eight councillors including the mayor and chairman out of forty-one in both the district and city councils.
P.C. Saquee said that Kono District had fulfilled its part and it was the turn of the president to fulfil his own promise to the Kono before his mandate as president expired.
Chief Saquee noted that if President Koroma really wanted to fulfil his promise of providing a university for Kono District, he should demonstrate that with the rehabilitation of the defunct Woama Campus and include it in the national budget as it was now happening with the Eastern Polytechnic in Kenema District and Bunumbu Teachers' College in Kailahun District.
He pointed out that of the three campuses of the Eastern Polytechnic in Kenema “only Woama Campus was not receiving subvention and other running costs,” which he referred “as marginalisation at its highest peak”.
Chief Saquee said that after the civil war in the country, it was the Kono District Council and the German international cooperation, GIZ, that took "bold steps" to rehabilitate some few burned-out buildings on the Woama Campus in the outskirt of Koidu city.
He told the education minister that although the campus was providing only a distance-learning programme, there were hundreds of students pursuing their teachers' certificates through that programme, which he said was testament that the Kono people really loved education.
Chief Saquee added that the establishment of a university in the district would help minimise the high level of school dropouts, bring value to the education in the district, and reduce the cost of education for their children who could afford university tuition fees but not accommodation in other districts that had university.
He thanked the president for the township road rehabilitation and electricity projects in Koidu although he lamented that the projects were moving at a snail pace.
Dr. Minkailu Bah reaffirmed the commitment of President Koroma to the Kono people. He said the proposed tech-voc would be used as one of the campuses of the proposed Eastern University upon completion. He also promised to relay the chief's message to the president.
Meanwhile, the town chief of Woama, Chief Komba Sylvester James has expressed grave concern over the occupation of their 104-acre arable land meant for agricultural purposes "without utilising it for the educational purpose it was leased for" by his predecessors. He called on government to employ a permanent staff charged with the responsibility to clean the campus because the village was tired of taking the young men from their farming activities to clean the site.
(C) Politico 20/05/14
