By Alusine Sesay
Don’t tell me you are not capable because you are in opposition. That would not be a sufficient excuse! You have the ways and means. The right leadership required, a leadership that would galvanise the kind of spirit to salvage the current trend of things-the total cut-off of Kerene District.
Now is time to prove the worthiness of your leadership to your people, the people of Bombali and Kerene Districts, and above all greater Sierra Leone.
The bridge linking Kerene District and the entire Sierra Leone has finally been broken. There has been a total cut-off and the people are now looking up to you, to either fix it or you render them more isolated.
I am not saying the government cannot do it (please don’t get me wrong), but the willingness is not there. Plain truth and nothing else! To many, the feeling is that Bombali and Kerene are like foreign lands to this administration.
Bombali is the home of former President Ernest Bai Koroma while Kerene is home to Samura Kamara, the embattled 2018-2023 presidential candidate of the main opposition All People’s Congress(APC).
To many from that part of the country, this administration would crave for a situation worse than what had happened. They set the agenda for that cut-off to take place and whatever they are doing now is absolutely hypocritical.
The Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) was well aware about the situation of that bridge and who knows their prayers were for one of you-prominent guys from that part of the country, to fall into that bridge and die.
What has taken place was exactly what they wanted so that they would behave as if they were concerned and make some political gains out of it.The bridge was a complete death trap, but nobody cares then.
The Makeni-Kamakwe highway was under construction before the Julius Maada Bio led Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) government assumed office in 2018. Immediately they came to power, we saw the Senegalese company (CSE) that was awarded the contract to construct the said highway, parked their machinery and left. And, all excuses about lack of funds by the SLRA are flimsy because they don’t want any form of development to take place in that of the country. Let them throw a challenge to the above assertion, but I know they won’t because the handwriting is very clear on the wall.
Since 2018, the both of you (Dr. Samura Kamara and Dr.Richard Konteh) have been craving to be president of Sierra Leone under the ticket of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC).
Now you have been presented with a formidable test case-the route leading to your people have been cut-off and failure to fix it can be used against you in their quiet moment.
The question is, would you wait on the central government to champion that course? I guess you will not because your people rely on you to salvage that situation. You have to stand up and tell the whole wide world that you can do it, even in opposition.
You need to be united around this issue and let your people be proud of you. Don’t wait until you are elected into political offices for you to contribute to the development of your area, let there be some clear references that people will use to judge you when the time comes.
I will not hesitate to say that, that part of the country has long been neglected by this administration hence no need to wait on them to do the needful. But again, you can choose to join the government by abandoning your people and the choice is yours. But, this is absolutely your call and you need to quickly respond to it.
