Reports monitored from Kenema states that President Ernest Bai Koroma received a rousing welcome from local authorities, paramount chiefs, women and youths led by the Resident Minister of the Eastern Province, William Juana Smith. 

The President was in Kenema Township on the invitation of the Eastern Polytechnic to participate in the convocation ceremony at which degrees and other meritorious certificates and diplomas were conferred to successful students of the Polytechnic. 

But as the visit became a reality, the elders and local authorities in Kenema, including the paramount chiefs asked the Resident Minister of the Eastern Province, William Juana Smith, not to allow any group to monopolies the president’s visit as that was his first official visit in the township after his victorious September 8 presidential election. 

As a result of the request from the local authorities and paramount chiefs of the three Eastern Districts, Kenema, Kailahun and Kono, the agenda of the President visit had to be revisited to include other activities emanating from a request made by the leadership of those three districts. 

On his arrival in Kenema, the President addressed a large gathering of people and local authorities at the Kenema Football Field where he pleaded with the people of Kenema to unite and rally behind the government for the development and aspiration of the country to be realized. 

He pleaded with the people to take farming activities very seriously in an attempt to make Sierra Leone self sufficient in its staple food. 

During a dinner held in his honour hosted by the Resident Minister and local authorities, President Ernest Bai Koroma dilated on his reason for zero tolerance and attitudinal change as the way forward for the country. 

He asked all Sierra Leoneans, most especially the people of the Eastern Region to join in the attitudinal change campaign to help make Sierra Leone a better place through change of attitudes. 

.Speaking on the need to embark on agricultural activities, President Ernest Bai Koroma said Sierra Leoneans cannot afford to depend on farmers elsewhere to count to feed them as food is becoming a problem even in the farming communities of India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and China. 

The President suggested that dependence on foreign farmers to continue to provide our staple food for us was suicidal as those places have suffered from poor harvest and don’t have sufficient food to feed their own people and thereby forcing them to discontinue the exportation of rice. 

The President joined the Principal, the  Academic Council and the students of the Eastern Polytechnic in their convocation and congratulated the authorities for a job well done while urging the grandaunts to make the most of what they have learnt and contributed to the development of the country. 

He asked the grandaunts to see themselves as future leaders of Sierra Leone and help to unite the people of this country for the good examples of leadership by example and not by precepts. 

In another engagement, President Ernest Bai Koroma also laid the foundation stone for a health care centre at the Sierra Leone Police head office in Kenema where he addressed a large gathering of uniformed personnel including police wives. 

The climax of the president’s visit brought together hundreds of cultural performers from all over the district to entertain the president and his entourage to that part of the country and help make his visit a memorable one. 

The atmosphere in the township was recorded as very jolly befitting the presence of President Ernest Bai Koroma, the democratically elected leader of Sierra Leone who came to power on the platform of progressive change.

The president and his entourage after a busy weekend were back in Freetown yesterday after what has been described as one of the most fruitful trips to the provinces in recent times. 

Reports also monitored from Kenema also indicated that the government received pledges of loyalty, solidarity and support from the dynamic people of the Eastern Province who have seen President Ernest Bai Koroma as a serious leader who are anxious to change the destiny of Sierra Leone. 

The people of the Eastern Province promised to work with President Ernest Bai Koroma and his government to help achieve his dreams of turning this country around.


Keywords: sierra_leone society