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Finally, the much awaited and much talked about official visit of President Ernest Bai Koroma to Kailahun town, the eastern part of Sierra Leone, took place over the weekend with several programmes lined up for the President. He reportedly attended all and the receptions he had were all good in the midst of thousands of people who had gone to these occasions to take glances of their Head of State for the first time since he became President of this Republic.  President Ernest Koroma
Considering the fact that the people of Kailahun voted overwhelming for the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) in the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, the President's visit to this SLPP stronghold shows that he is determined to unite the country as he promised on several occasions.
It shows his commitment and determination to get first hand information from the people themselves on the ground than getting it from those in government. Most importantly it shows the President's determination to rub shoulders with the common people of Kailahun and to feel the pains they go through due to the bad road leading to this district and town. Also President Ernest Bai Koroma's launching of the Kenema-Kailahun Road, while in Kailahun, shows that he wants to make true his promise of opening up the country so that cocoa, coffee and other produce from that part of the country will reach the capital Freetown and other provincial cities, hence more income for the people of Kailahun town and district. The significance of President Ernest Bai Koroma's Kailahun visit is that he is sending a loud and clear message that he is not only President of Freetown and the north, the two regions that voted for him overwhelmingly, but Sierra Leone as a whole. Now the people of Kailahun town and district will feel part of Sierra Leone not neighbouring Liberia and will also breathe a sigh of relief that the President does not plan to punish them because they voted against him in the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. With that visit, the people of Kailahun will no longer feel cut off from Sierra Leone but will get the sense of belonging to this Land That We Love. Another significance of President Ernest Bai Koroma's Kailahun visit is that he has shown that he is a man who does not bear grudge for people who had once perceived him as an enemy. It shows that he has forgiven the people of Segbwema for making an attempt on his life during the last President election. On his way to Kailahun, the President reportedly made a stop at this place where he was well received by its residents including traditional leaders. Once again, whatever his critics might say, President Ernest Bai Koroma has shown that he is still popular amongst Sierra Leoneans. The large crowds that turned out to see him during both his Kenema and Kailahun visits prove that he is the "People's President". What I think some of the President's critics should do is to work with him for the betterment of the entire country. Undermining him in places which are the traditional strongholds of the opposition would only defeat the ideals of true democracy. I am taking this opportunity to thank both the people of Kailahun town and district and President Ernest Bai Koroma for making bygone be bygones. They have shown that Serra Leone is bigger and greater than everyone and that the more we cooperate amongst ourselves as a people the better it would be for this Land That We Love. |
