Ernest Bai Koroma : A President in love with progress | Cocorioko Newspaper

By Wilfred Kabs-Kanu :

The news that pure and safe drinking water will soon start flowing once again  through new  pipes into taps at home , businesses, offices and the streets in three key towns has  left Sierra Leoneans thrilled once more that real, sustainable progress is returning to Sierra Leone under the reign of President Ernest Bai Koroma. According to a government announcement last week, Sierra Leone has launched a $61 million (43 million euro) project to revamp three water stations and supply pipeborne water to three main cities Bo, Kenema and Makeni. The announcement went on to state that : “The project will increase national coverage of water from 33 percent to 75 percent and will involve the training of some 300 community workers in hygiene and sanitation..” According to Information and Communications Minister , Hon. I.B. Kargbo : “The government has also secured funds for the provision of water facilities for 24 smaller communities in the north.”

With this kind of exciting news making Sierra Leoneans glad, how can detractors like the  Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP )  convince the nation to join them in their pity party and crybabyism that President Koroma is  implementing projects they had started ? From the facts that are present, it is simply not true and no  rational Sierra Leonean will buy anything order than the truth that President Koroma is a progressive  Head of State and that  these are all projects he has  initiated . The  SLPP contention is a sick joke worth only ridicule ,  whether told by a more  educated , more refined  but very  deceitful  Alpha Wurie or abrasive   and pathological  liars and  political demagogues like John Benjamin and Sama Banya ! ! !

 If the SLPP  truly loved progress and not power for power’s own sake, they would have made news as President Koroma is doing  now for his development  projects. Progress is tangibe ; it is something you see around you . The people of Sierra Leone are seeing more progress in Sierra Leone now than ever before . This means that the All People’s Congress ( APC ) Government is more progressive than the SLPP. Progress is also  something that has to be ingrained in a leader and when it is there ,  he or she will naturally  deliver on promises made to the people . The  problem besetting the SLPP today as they regret what could have been is that they have no projects to show , like President Koroma .  They  failed the people of Sierra Leone for just one reason –They were never progress-oriented ,and whatever they say now is perceived by the people as untenable excuses for failure. President Koroma is outperforming them even in their traditional backyards of Bo and Kenema.

HANDS-ON PRESIDENT KOROMA (THIRD FROM RIGHT ) IN WORK HAT AT BUMBUNA

The joy of the inhabitants of Bo, Kenema and Makeni will be shared by a nation grateful for having a President who is in love with progress. From all he has achieved since he came to power, there is no explanation but that President Koroma is really a progressive leader. The hallmark and the defining qualityof President Ernest Koroma’s leadership in Sierra Leone  is progress.  President Koroma wants to be remembered as the Head of State who brought socio-economic and political progress to Sierra Leone and he is steadily achieving his goal . The President’s urban and rural water projects are just another piece in his lengthy and  impressive string of achievements which include  his electrification ,  road construction and agrarian reform projects. All the President’s projects  have one peculiar quality–They will  make life better for the Sierra Leonean people. The road may still be rough, given the global economic meltdown which is affecting other countries but what President Koroma is busy doing is laying a solid foundation for the socio-economic and political renaissance of Sierra Leone.

SIERRA LEONE ENJOYS PIPE-BORNE WATER AGAIN THANKS TO PRESIDENT KOROMA

During the SLPP era, the people of Sierra Leone lacked access to pure drinking water. This was a debilitating setback in the nation  that saw kids ,women and men alike foraging the streets during the day in search of water.  Because of  the war and the gross neglect and inefficiency of the SLPP Tejan Kabbah-led government, Sierra Leone regressed  deep into stone age- styled life . There was no pipe-borne water in the capital, not to mention the rural areas. There was no electricity . Garbage mounds with their nauseating stench, flies and rodents greeted people everywhere. Our road system was the worst in West Africa. Pregnant and lactating mothers , children and other vulnerable members of society were dying like flies due to the parlous medical condition of our hospitals and clinics . Our schools and universities were falling apart ,despite the millions of dollars being pumped into the Sababu Project by donors and our development partners. A young musician, INNOCENT,  became so incensed with the absence of progress ,  suffering and deprivation in the land  that he produced a blockbusting song threatening the SLPP that the Sierra Leonean people would give them an ejectment notice on elections day in 2007 .

The SLPP thinks that our people’s memory is short , like their’s. Only four years ago, every Sierra Leonean was praying day and night for the electorate to serve this ejectment notice on the SLPP in 2007. As God would have it , the electorate complied and the SLPP was voted   out of power. And what a bundle of blessing it has been for our people ! ! Since President Koroma came to power in 2007, there has been so much progress in the nation that Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad are now proud of their country once again.

THE BUMBUNA HYDROELECTRICITY DAM WAS COMPLETED BY PRESIDENT ERNEST KOROMA

To demonstrate his unbending love for progress, President Koroma launched the AGENDA FOR CHANGE, a robust  national framework for socio-economic and political transformation of Sierra Leone. Through the Agenda For Change, electricity and water have been restored in the capital and are being extended to other parts of the country. The government completed the Bumbuna Hydroelectricity Project  and  did not end there. With President Koroma’s brain working like a clock, the government also launched a comprehensive rural solar electrification program to provide light to even remote parts of the country. By last year, seven villages had been electrified in the pilot stage of the program. The Government was frank enough to acknowledge that Bumbuna will not satisfy all the country’ s electricity needs; as a result, the government set the machinery in motion for the second phase of Bumbuna to double the present output.

MODERN HIGHWAYS BUILT IN SIERRA LEONE BY PRESIDENT KOROMA

Even our much-criticised International Airport at Lungi did not escape the attention of a President in love with progress. The airport was resurfaced and new navigation equipment were installed . Right now, President Koroma is working towards building a new international airport for Sierra Leone and a new capital as well as a bridge across the Sierra Leone  River in an ambitious 50-year project. Through his love for progress, President Koroma has changed the face of the capital with road development projects and Wilkinson Road will soon be a dual carriagway and a  boulevard, while the highway project around the mountains and the peninsular road will definitely boost transportation and free movement of goods and services in the capital and its environs.

While engaged in the most elaborate infrastructural development this nation has ever seen, President Koroma is also working tediously to keep the nation’s other vital institutions viable , like the educational and communications systems, for instance. The President’s priority is access to education in the primary,  junior secondary, secondary schools and college   to all classes of society in a determined bid to fulfill the Second Millenium Goal. The government has successfully expanded the country’s girl -child support programs in junior secondary schools in all the four regions. Under President Koroma, there is an ongoing massive effort to improve the quality of teaching in the country . In the Communications area, the launching of high speed intent through the fibre optic project will revolutionize mass communications and boost business, investment and tourism.

PRESIDENT KOROMA HAS BOOSTED FARMING IN SIERRA LEONE

Realizing that all these developments will not be meaningful if the country cannot produce its own food, President Koroma demonstrated his desire to  remain committed to his pledge to achieve  food security in Sierra Leone by launching  reforms in the area of agriculture.  His goal is to increase agricultural productivity and make Sierra Leone self-sufficient in food production. The government is using the National Sustainable Agricultural Development Plan (NSADP) to put the objectives of the Agenda For Change project into action in Agriculture. The Government also launched the Smallholder Commercialization Programme (SCP ) to inspire farmers and make agriculture lucrative in Sierra Leone. The result will be bumper harvests in the not-too-distant future.

We have not even elaborated on the free health care President Koroma launched last year for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five.

Sierra Leoneans are counting their blessings. Despite the world economic crisis that is troubling even the industrialized countries, the nation is blessed at this time to have a President who is hardworking and progressive. We have never had a President in Sierra Leone like Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma whose overriding passion is to bring development into the country in all areas of human endeavour  . At a time of real need , President Koroma came and Sierra Leoneans for once can now afford to sit down with nationals of other countries and boast about the socio-economic and political transformation of their country. When a nation is ruled by a progress-minded President, pride and joy become two sides of the same coin in the hearts of the people.

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