By Alpha Lebbie(Fonz), Boston, USA.
It is deja vu all over again in Kono. As the August election approaches, violence has broken out in Jaiama Nimikor and Koidu town in the Kono district between the two main parties : SLPP and APC. The most recent was on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 when at a political rally in burnt out Koidu Town,supporters of the two opposing parties attacked each other,wounding and maiming individuals on both sides of the aisle.
Since the days of the APC, Kono district has always been a very tense zone when it is elections time. It seems that the political parties have been using the people of Kono as pawns in the political process of Sierra Leone.
The district, which is the breadbasket of the country, has hardly ever done any better, be it under the APC or the SLPP. The district has barely developed since the discovery of diamonds in 1930. It has fared even worse under the SLPP leadership.
In the internecine war that followed the bad governance of the APC, it was the district that bore the brunt of the war as the district headquarters town of Koidu was razed to the ground. And since then there has been no concerted effort on the part of the SLPP government to raise this city back to its pre-war status.
It is therefore fruitless for the people of Kono to lose cognisance of this fact. What are we really fighting for, when in the final analysis we would be left to fend for ourselves inspite of whatever government comes to power?
Should we be apathetic to the current political process? No. Yet we ought to exercise caution in how we support or oppose each other’s political allegiance. For,while other districts might benefit from the electioneering process, we are likely not to gain anything. We will be still encumbered with illicit miners panning for diamonds in the district from both sides of the political spectrum, while our people go hungry and homeless.
And as a people or tribal group, we will always have to live with each other. A proverb in the Kono language says" KONO EE, KONO FAH" which literally translates " A KONO MAN SHOULDN’T KILL ANOTHER KONO MAN."
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