By Joe Tucker
Honorable Loloh Emilia Tongi of Constituency 001, Kailahun District, has called on President Bio to improve on the human capital development in the country. The only independent female MP made this statement while making her contribution in the Well of Parliament during the debate on President Bio’s maiden address to the nation.
Hon Emilia Tongi raised serious concerns around the issue of children and young people in Africa, most especially in Sierra Leone, where a very good number of young people flee the country of origin in search of greener pastures only to die in the Sahara desert.
Loloh Emilia Tongi noted the alarming problem of unemployment facing our graduates in the country, calling on government to quickly address the challenge.
She also spoke on the health sector which, according to her, is in a very bad shape in her constituency, where a lot of pregnant girls and women who want to give birth are being referred to big towns due to the unavailability of these health facilities in the area. She called upon the government to provide the appropriate facilities in these areas for the people.
Madam Emilia Tongi applauded the President for recognizing the need for the development of the human capital, citing paragraph 51 of the president’s address: which recognizes that human development is both a means and an end to development.
Hon. Usman Wurie Jalloh of Constituency 109, Goderich, called on the government to pay attention to the high intake of Tramadol among the youths of the country which, he noted, is ‘slowly killing our youthful population’.
Alusine Bash Kamara of the APC, while making his contribution, drew the attention of the House to the economic status of teachers before 2007, which was nothing to write home about.
But with the intervention of the Koroma government salaries of teachers were increased and the banking system was introduced to pay them.
It could be recalled that, since the start of the five days debate, MPs have given meaningful contributions in the various areas highlighted by the President.