President Kabbah and VP Berewa End Kono and Kailahun Provincial Tour
By Yusuf Alghali

9th February 2004 - The President, Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and Vice President Solomon Berewa returned to Freetown Monday 9 February, concluding a four-day extensive visit to Kono and Kailahun Districts in Sierra Leone's eastern region. Prominent among the important towns covered by the visit were Yengema and Koidu in the Kono District, Koindu, Kailahun Town, Pendembu (the President's birthplace), Siama, Manowa, Bunumbu, Segbwema, Baiwallah, Daru, Jojoima, Bomaru, which experienced the first gunshots that heralded the start of the civil conflict on 23 March 1991, and the President's maternal birthplace of Mobai.

On arrival in Kono Thursday morning 4 February, the President first commissioned the newly rehabilitated Motema Police Station and Magistrate Court in Koidu Town, two among the countless public buildings not spared during the widespread carnage and pillaging that accompanied the country's just-ended civil conflict. Rounding up his visit to Kono, the President also inspected the Branch Enegry (Koidu Holdings) Kimberlite mining site.

In the events that followed their arrival in Kailahun District, the President and Vice- President went on to officially commission a series of newly rehabilitated public structures, including the once devastated Government Hospital in Kailahun Town which was undertaken by the International Medical Corps (IMC) with funding by USAID, several schools as well as newly constructed police stations to maintain law and order in the border district and erstwhile rebel stronghold. The formal opening of Police Stations in Pendembu, Daru, Kailahun Town and Segbwema were indications that government authority has now been fully restored throughout the length and breadth of the country and for the promotion of law and order in these areas, Vice President Berewa said in an address to the people of Kailahun.

At each of the various stopovers, both President Kabbah and Vice President Berewa addressed the people about security and developmental issues and apprised the hundreds and in some cases thousands of locals about government's recently launched SABABU Education Project, formulated to address basic education and undertake the rehabilitation Non-Formal Education and Vocational Skills training in the country. In this regard, Vice President Berewa re-emphasised the importance of the education of the girl-child and proceeded to distribute school fees, free textbooks, uniforms and other essential stationery to which every eastern and northern provincial girl child who passes the National Primary School Examination is entitled. Also as part of government's national recovery programme fifty-two primary schools will be built in the entire Kailahun district and a Junior Secondary School in every chiefdom throughout the country's one hundred and forty-nine chiefdoms.

While encouraging women's participation in the upcoming local government elections scheduled for May 2004, the President indicated that the pending District Council elections were in keeping with government's declared policy of decentralising governance and empowering people in the regions to have a greater say in the running of their local affairs. He therefore emphasized the need for vigilance, collective security and hard work, elements he referred to as prerequisites for national development and prosperity.

However, he also took the opportunity while in Bomaru, to issue a stern warning to would-be troublemakers, assuring the public that government and its security apparatus stood ready to nip in the bud any trouble and to defend the country and its citizens at any time. Earlier, President Kabbah had listened to testimonies of victims - Mrs. Baindu John and Mr Momoh Konneh, both of whom witnessed the March 23rd 1991 invasion of Sierra Leone and the attendant slaughter and other atrocities that signalled the beginning of the rebel war that was to last more than a decade.

At Bunumbu Town, the President and entourage inspected the ruins of the once famous Bunumbu Teachers' College, another tertiary institution that felt the brunt of the rebel war. In his address at a public meeting in Bunumbu the President renewed his government's commitment to restoring the once vibrant college to serve the educational needs of that part of the country.

Earlier at Pendembu, President Kabbah officially opened a USAID/International Rescue Committee (IRC)-sponsored Vocational Training Centre in the Upper Bambara Chiefdom. According to USAID Director, Julie Koenen, USAID had taken up the challenge to putting into good use the strength and talents of the youthful population by supporting the erection of the centre, which the IRC country Director, Allan Mukuru, derscribed as the IRC's assistance to rebuild community infrastructure critical to Sierra Leone's post-war recovery.

In another engagement, the Head of State also delivered the keynote address at the launching of the UNDP/UNAMSIL-sponsored Eastern Clinic Rural Development Rehabilitation Project in Mobai (ECRD), Mandu Chiefdom, initiated by one of Sierra Leone's most renowned medical practitioners and master-farmers, Dr. B.M. Kobba. The ECRD is an ambitious oil palm rehabilitation and expansion project with a potential of not only increasing domestic oil palm production significantly but of also creating employment opportunities for scores of the local youth population in oil palm planting, processing, milling and soap making skills. Br. Kobba in his statement lent his support to the President's food security vision and said that with some motivation, Mobai was capable of producing a large percentage of rice needed by the whole country.

President Kabbah re-stated his declared vision of food security and called on local farmers to join the bandwagon. However, President Kabbah acknowledged that there could be no food security without good roads, an issue which he said was currently receiving the close attention of government. He disclosed that there were some funds available for road construction from Kenema to Koindu, pointing out that some 216 kilometres of feeder roads will be constructed country-wide within the next two years. He thus urged traditional rulers and farmers to hold consultations with the Sierra Leone Roads Authority in order to establish which agriculture-related feeder roads should receive the most urgent attention when the project eventually kicks off.

Concluding his visit to Kailahun Monday morning 9 February, President Kabbah toured the dilapidated ruins of the once economically viable Daru Oil Palm Company consisting of a mill and 3,000 acres of oil palm plantation, which during its heydays used to produce up to 50 tonnes of palm oil per month. In his brief remarks, Agriculture Minister Dr. Sama Monde indicated that Malaysian oil palm experts have expressed interest in reviving the facility under a proposed joint venture oil palm plantation and milling project by the middle of this year. Already, 30,000 oil palm seedlings have been procured from COTE D'IVOIRE and a further 50, 000 seedlings were being awaited for onward distribution to farmers.

The four-day visit also featured the swearing-in of Justices of the Peace to help with adjucating magistrate court cases in the Kailahun Judicial District, statements from traditional rulers most of whom acknowledged the many impressive rehabilitation work carried out by government through the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA), the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) and non-governmental organisations. Traditional rulers also expressed varying local chiefdom needs such as the urgent rehabilitation of health centres, schools, transportation, telecommunication facilities, better deal for cocoa farmers, bridges, feeder and trunk road rehabilitation, rehabilitation of tree crop plantations, water supply, shelter and youth development programmes, chiefs' participation in teachers' verification exercises, etc.

Vice President Berewa, who pointed to government's meagre resources, assured the people of government's continued commitment to providing their social and welfare needs but underscored the importance of prioritising needs that could be addressed between the short to the medium term.

A high point of the tour was the ceremonial crowning of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah as Honorary Pararamount Chief Gbornie of Jawei Chiefdom in Daru, in recognition of his untiring efforts to restore peace and development to Sierra Leone.