By Hassan Osman Kargbo
A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) led by the Resident Representative to Sierra Leone, Ambassador Harouna Mousa, has visited the Southern part of Sierra Leone, Bo City. This all important visit to Bo took place on Friday 27th October 2023.
The ECOWAS delegation was welcomed by the Mayor of Bo City Council, His Worship Kobba Musa. The visit came as a result of an ordinary Session in June 2007, in which ECOWAS adopted a resolution to transform ECOWAS from a secretariat to commission which stipulates that ECOWAS should move from being an ECOWAS of state to an ECOWAS of people that saw the appointment of Residents Representatives in member states.
According to the Residents Representative to Sierra Leone, Ambassodor Harouna Mousa, the visit to Bo City Council is a familiarisation so that he can acquaint himself with the Council leadership and to get insight on developmental strives undertaken by the Council on the one hand and on the other, for the Council to equally identify possible interventions of the ECOWAS Commission.
‘Our visit to this great Council is to familiar ourselves with the Council’s leadership; and get insight on development programmes within the city and for the Council to equally identify possible interventions of the ECOWAS Commission that will ensure peace, security, good governance and democracy prevail,’ he stated.
He admitted that the new vision of ECOWAS is to come to the people to know what their needs are, and ensuring that those needs are satisfy.
He disclosed that waste management is a serious concern in the Sub-Sahara, stating that they now have a commission at the ECOWAS level responsible to reach those cities to see how they can tackle waste management issues, hence the reason they are in the country to identify the problems for onward communication to the commission.
Ambassodor Mousa assured the Mayor that ECOWAS will surely try to work to salvage the issues raised by the Mayor ranging from waste management, health centre, social and environmental issues and a modern market space for residents of Bo city.
Welcoming the delegation of ECOWAS to Bo City, Mayor Kobba Musa, stated that seeing the ECOWAS delegation signals hope to the people of Bo and further disclosed to the delegation that Bo city is peaceful with no skirmishes during and after the election.
Mr. Kobba highlighted series of programmes undertaken by the Council and plans of the council in his tenure as Mayor of Bo. ‘Among other things, my focus as Mayor of Bo City is on Waste Management, an area in which we have many challenges,’ he said.
He outlined the challenges associated with waste management including lack of machines and vehicles for the collection, transportation and disposal of waste, which he called on the ECOWAS Residents Representative and team to come on board and collaborate with the Council to tackle the challenges in the municipality.
