By Bernard Tamba-Lebbie (MD) and Andrew James Weima (D.Eng.). 12.06.2023
We, the indigenes of Kissi land crave the attention of the government of Sierra Leone to address the basic needs of our region in the Kailahun district, a district named after Kai Londo (Kaya Dondoo) a famous Kissi man that fought fiercely to liberate and secure this part of our beloved country many years before Sierra Leone became a country.
The Kissi region, also known as Kissi Bendu is made up of three chiefdoms, namely Kissi Kama, Kissi Teng and Kissi Tongi.
The Kissi Teng chiefdom is unique in Sierra Leone because it is the only chiefdom that borders three (3) countries (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea). No other chiefdom enjoys this unique geographical position.
Nonetheless, this uniqueness carries significant proven ramifications for security, trade, education and health, which we will briefly discuss below. We humbly crave your indulgence.
Koindu town today, 20 years after the civil war
SECURITY: The derailment of this once trading hub was caused primarily by the war (security) and by the loss of low-priced goods (trade) imported through the free port of Monrovia in Liberia.
It is our conviction that the reinvigoration of this Kissi region will materialise only with the restoration of security which is absent to this day in Koindu due to Guinea soldiers stationed less than two miles away on Sierra Leone soil, and the restoration of cheap prices through innovative means as the freeport in Liberia will never be restored.
The delimitation of country boundaries in 1885 in Berlin is a colonial legacy that has unfortunately provided a point of contention at the Guinea-Sierra Leone border (commonly referred to as Yenga), after our civil war.
Unequivocally, only the keen (proactive and concerted) attention of the GoSL, consistent with the oath to provide security for all Sierra Leoneans and protect the country’s territorial integrity can address the yoke of insecurity suffered on a daily basis by people along the Guinea-Sierra Leone border at Yenga.
The residents of Yenga, Sokoma, Fendu and several other villages face daily harassment by Guinean military personnel that are now stationed on the Sierra Leone side of the Moa River. The forward observation post under construction currently encroaches further on the sovereignty of Sierra Leone.
We are not seeking confrontation with neighboring Guinea. Instead, we seek the utilisation of good negotiation between the GoSL and the GoG to tear down this colonial artificial divide and restore security a people who apart from official colonial delimitation continue to live as one with families intermarrying and sharing same language and Culture.
A prominent and dedicated emissary from Sierra Leone to liaise with or through (an emissary in) and from Guinea will resolve this border problem permanently. Without removing the advancing security threat, a cause of the current situation brought by the war, no true investment will ever come to Koindu in Kissi Teng, a once upon a time renowned international trade hub.
TRADE: It is evident from its strategic position that Koindu could be the true capital of the mano river union.
However, the only three things that will revive the Koindu market are restoration of full security discussed above, cheap goods and ease of access (good paved roads). Cheap goods and therefore increased economic activity will be possible if a special economic zone is created in this area with a lower import tax (say 50%) legislated.
This will attract private capital. Local and International companies with capital will relocate to such a special economic zone to take advantage of tax concessions. The logistics of streamlining the transport of containers meant for Koindu by road will create employment not just for drivers but for service industry serving drivers, mechanics, petrol stations etc., thereby creating a windfall for government revenue to replace the tax concessions.
Drivers and their apprentices need to eat, sleep, buy fuel and have broken down vehicles repaired. A whole new industry will spring up from such a policy and will definitely revive one of the best market places in west Africa.
Koindu has indigenes from all over west Africa and with the right conditions, can re-establish it as the trade hub it once was. That trade hub relied on a single factor: LOWEST PRICES: The Freeport in Monrovia created that opportunity in the 1970s and 1980s. With careful planning, GoSL can recreate a special economic zone that delivers these prices. Any waiver of customs for this zone will be more than adequately compensated by the proven customs dues collected for the national purse.
We also continue to suffer the issues of price fluctuations, which unfortunately Freetown is not immune from. You would remember that during the civil war the prices of commodities went really high when the eastern province and especially Kailahun was isolated.
No other policy will have a more profound effect in restoring Koindu as we knew it. It is undoubted that the GoSL has vast experience in establishing economic zones. We all know that today’s Shenzhen in southern China was a fishing village in the early 80s when Deng Xiao Ping, then leader of China made it a tax-free zone.
Today, it rivals Silicon Valley. Koindu has rivalled Conakry, Freetown in the past. With the right conditions, it can do so again and excel. We as a people, feel that in the robust development agenda being instituted in the country, we are not getting our fair share.
We believe that the GoSL should give us due consideration and support in order for us to catch up with the rest of the country. Such an agenda will make sure that no one is left behind. We further feel that our remoteness and isolation mean that we are at least ten (10) years behind our counterparts in other parts of the country when it comes to trade, education and health, and we must be at least twenty years behind all our counterparts when it comes to security.
The country has enjoyed twenty years of peace after the civil war.
However, the residents of this area have enjoyed zero years of real piece and the economic ramifications persists. We are aware of the government’s plan to build yet another market in Koindu. We would draw your attention to a market once built opposite the Kissi Bendu Secondary school by your predecessor that suffered what we believe will be the same fate that a new market would suffer.
What a market in this area needs is something that has been done for the areas of Lungi and Koya, namely a special economic zone. As an area with a proven skill set, we solicit that consideration be given by the GoSL to implement a Kissi Teng free trade zone or special economic zone.
This area is the easiest meeting point for twelve (12) million Guineans, five (5) million Liberians and eight (8) million Sierra Leoneans. No area has such geographical position. To reiterate, we crave that GoSL considers through collaboration with our local MP’s and chiefs to make Kissi Teng a special economic zone with tax exempt and create customs on both the Guinean side and the Liberian side as well as the exit from that area to ensure that goods coming from this area are properly taxed.
We have demonstrated in the past that the income from this area and customs dues are at least as equal as the income from Queen Elizabeth II Quay, when managed properly. Surely, such a move that recreates the price imbalance famous for the old Koindu can recreate a new Koindu.
EDUCATION: Being remote without modern amenities means that our graduates gravitate to Freetown and other big cities in search of better opportunities. The availability of extra tutoring to remote areas like ours needs a leg up. Access to qualified teachers is very limited as most teachers elect to reside and teach in big cities where they can enjoy amenities and earn more through extracurricular lessons not available in the rural area.
The GoSL’s agenda for free education will be better served if the teacher appointments were population based, allowing for special allowance based on the remoteness from provincial capitals. We suggest legislation to create Pin Codes and suffixes for Pin Codes for qualified teachers with a suffix based on the remoteness of the school.
The more remote the school, the slightly higher the salary. This incentive will encourage service in the country, address overpopulated class rooms in the major cities (by reducing student migration to cities) and create equity of access.
Above all, GoSL will ensure that the access it creates in its free education revolution will be to the same standard of education and not a twotiered system where children born to richer parents in the cities access a better version of the free education. This approach will also educate a rural population that will stay rural and stop the unwarranted migration to cities, that has negative social ramifications for both city and country.
We are humbly proposing the allocation of a minimum of pin codes to schools proportional to the student population that qualified graduate teachers can be incentivized with to come and teach in remote schools. Such teachers after, say three (3) years should automatically qualify for their own pin codes.
We also advocate that such pin codes given to schools be done so with, say 20% additional salary loading to the teachers that elect to sacrifice city amenities and tutoring opportunities.
Without such interventions, we risk continuing to increase urban migration of teachers and students and undermining decentralization that is so critical in GoSL future policies.
HEALTH: Last but not least, is healthcare. The advent of Ebola which came from the forest area of Guinea into Sierra Leone through Kissiland is a well-known fact. This area was devastated because of its vulnerability, porousness and lack of basic health facilities.
The devastation of Ebola lingers and Sierra Leone will take at least another decade to overcome its aftermath.
However, the GoSL has the ability, capability and opportunity to mitigate future cross border health crisis. The only question is when. It is common knowledge that plans do not fail. It is people that fail to plan.
A proactive GoSL is a planning government that will never fail. Failure to plan will result in the same outcome suffered by this area during the Ebola pandemic.
The Kissi region has some healthcare systems in place and we congratulate the GoSL on the hospital in Dia. Our expectation is to have a big, properly equipped hospital that serves the area and we feel a referral hospital halfway between Koindu and Buedu, the suggestion being Dia-Junction, may well serve the purpose after the road is made because this would be a ten (10) to fifteen (15) minutes trip by road from all towns and villages in the region.
Such a hospital will commandeer the joint resources of all three chiefdoms so that it can become in its own right of tertiary center together with solar electricity of about thirty (30) or forty (40) kilowatts to be able to offer surgery.
We do have the manpower and the know how in the area to be able to train the people locally. We are grateful for the opportunity given to air the requests of the people of Kissi Bendu in the Kailahun district. We look forward to the GoSL’s positive consideration of these requests.
