By Hassan Y. Koroma
Despite President Julius Maada was trumpeting the elections sound-bite about “Kono Matters To Me” throughout his campaign; his final and complete cabinet has shown that the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) doesn’t seem to regard Kono District as one which has indigenes capable of being appointed as Government Ministers or Deputy Ministers.
With a bloated Cabinet of 34 Ministers and 29 Deputy Ministers; only two people from Kono District, Ambassador Tamba Lamina and Philip Tetema Tondoneh, were appointed as Minister of Local Government and Community Affairs, and Deputy Minister of Public Administration and Political Affairs respectively.
It could be recalled that prior to the June 24 multi-tier elections, President Bio reportedly visited Kono District over six times with lofty promises that if voted overwhelmingly by the Konos; he would compensate them handsomely.
But the Cabinet is showing that Kono doesn’t matter to either President Bio or the SLPP both as a government and party.
Many Kono residents in Kono, whom this newspaper spoke to last evening, said they were missing the All People’s Congress (APC) which had always given sons and daughters of Kono prominent Ministerial and Ambassadorial jobs.
Apart from that, they concluded that they also saw real development during the Ernest Bai Koroma’s government like the construction of the Matotoka-Kono Highway, the reconstruction or rehabilitations of major township roads, the renovation of the Koidu Government Hospital, and that it was the last APC government which secured the funds for the construction of the Kono University.