The Member of Parliament (MP) representing Constituency 045 in Koinadugu District, Hon Lahai Marrah, yesterday pleaded with the Government through the Minister of Finance, Dr Kaifala Marrah, for support to his people in Kurubonla which is about 110 miles from Kabala.
He made this plea during the on-going parliamentary debate on the 2016 budget laid in the House by the Minister of Finance for approval by the MPs.
According to Hon Lahai Marrah, educational facilities should be extended to the rural communities where children are suffering to access education, citing a village in his constituency (kurubonla) as there is only one Junior Secondary School in the entire town and the pupils who intend to further their education to Senior Secondary school level will have to either travel to Kono which is about 10 to 15 miles or they go to Kabala which is the district headquarter town, 110 miles away from Kurubonla.
This, he explained, is responsible for the high number of school dropout, increase teenage pregnancy whilst most of the boys with little or no options divert to motor bike riding (Okada), maintaining that most of his constituents focus on doing business in Koidu Town, Kono District which is very narer to them.
“It is no secret that more educational opportunities are present in the district headquarter town than the rural communities. If we want to take education to the people we should concentrate on the rural communities by creating facilities, provide learning materials and even give incentives to teachers as a way of motivation,” he pleaded.
On the area of infrastructure, Hon Marrah maintained that the road being constructed from Sandor Chiefdom in Kono to Kurubonla was one of the main reasons why the people in that area voted for President Ernest Bai Koroma who they believed will have some developmental intension for them as Kurubonla was known to be the strong hold of the opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP).
The Honourable disclosed that most people will use the Kono axis to access Kurubonla instead of going through Kabala town through which people spend days to reach and in most cases vehicles stuck along the road, even the motor bikes find it hard to dodge the rugged roads.
He maintained that the action of President Koroma in appointing the Finance Minister, the former Tourism Minister,Peter B. Konteh and the National Telecommunication (NATCOM) boss, Momoh Konteh was not a mistake as the Finance Minister is presently constructing a road which is more than 50 kilometre road leading to his village and also a bridge to access the Bintumani Loma mountain with his own resources.
By Alhaji M.Kamara
Wednesday November 18, 2015
ADVERTISEMENT