The Deputy Chief Administrator for the Koinadugu District Council, Umaru Jalloh, has disclosed to this medium that, the district of Koinadugu is at the turning point mindful of the fact that, women have greatly been involved in the political dispensation of the district.
Women in the district have over the years not been allowed to partake in the decision making process of the district and this has been the case in the district council where no woman has ever served as a councilor.
According to Umaru Jalloh, he is expecting a large turnout of women in the coming local council operations in the district and that, as a deputy chief administrator, he will encourage women in the operations of council.
“We expect to have changes in the running of council this time round. In fact, one woman has gone unopposed in Bafodia ward 2. We expect them to participate well in the running of councils”
Speaking on the way they have been running the council, Umaru Jalloh said, they have over the past four years implemented a number of projects for the development of the district and that in most of the projects they undertook, they always involved community people in undertaking such projects.
“We have implemented few projects with grants from the central government. We have got a market at Alkalia, a school at Mungu hospital and a host of other projects,” Jalloh said.
Speaking further, Jalloh said, when the councils came initially the expectations of the people in the district were so high but that, they were able to sensitize them on how council was operating. “Their expectations were so high but through sensitization, we were able to talk to them to pay their taxes to council and that aspect is encouraging”.
He disclosed that it has been difficult for council to be able to generate its own fund “it has not been easy for us in the past four years in raising funds.” According to Jalloh, people had not been paying their property rate to council, not to even talk of other rates. Umaru Jalloh said the council has been faced with the problem of not getting the needed funds from the central government. “We had problems in the aspect of project implementation because of the lack of funds”.
By Abibatu Kamara
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