By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Incumbent aspirant for the mayoral position of Freetown City Council (FCC), Franklyn Baba Bode Gibson, has said he inherited a council with a debt of Le20m ($2,666.67usd) when he was elected mayor in 2012.
Mayor Gibson, who was speaking last Thursday during his official declaration to run for a second term of office at the Attouga Mini Stadium, east of Freetown, said he had been happily paid all the debt.
He said he was the only Mayor in the history of FCC that took eight hundred and ninety-five million Leones (Le895m) from the council’s internally generated revenue fund and gave it to all the councilors in order to take development to their respective wards.
“When I took over FCC in 2012, most of the pupils in the municipal schools were sitting on blocks and stones but I have been successfully able to provide desks and chairs for all of them. Some of the municipal schools were also in bad shape but I have been able to rehabilitate and reconstruct most of them in the last five years,” he said. He added that he had been able to construct and rehabilitate more health and market centres, schools, from the proceeds of the local tax that people were paying.
He disclosed that under his administration, he worked vehemently to commence the construction of a 16-storey administrative building, noting that the King Jimmy project, which costs about US$80m, will commence before the end of this year.
“In that project, we will have a guest house, shopping mall, comfortable relaxation center, among other facilities, for our traders including those who bring to Freetown vegetables and other items from other riverine communities through the sea to King Jimmy,” he said.
Unlike most of his predecessors, Mayor Gibson boasted that he had completed his five years in office without problem of corruption and misappropriation.
He also boasted that he had never untied a tied grant since he was elected a mayor and that he had also never misused all the monies from the central government to FCC for devolved sectors.
“All the numerous dumping sites that were all over the municipality have been cleared and we were successfully able to manage our wastes by depositing them in a centralize dumping site. But I want to make it clear that we should change our attitude by stopping to throw our wastes in gutters, the streets or in our neighbors’ compounds,” he said.
Mayor Gibson, who is fondly called ‘Man Na Ose’ by his admirers, said he fought the Ebola disease together with his councilors in Freetown as they were doing lots of sensitizations and provision of soap and veronica buckets and encouraged people to be washing their hands always.
“Sadly, though, some people have been claiming all the praises for fighting the disease in Freetown. But let me tell you that I will never stop fighting for the progress of our people and this municipality as well. Very soon, people will no longer dwell in slums, plans are underway to relocate them to a comfortable place in this municipality,” he said.
He warned against violence before, during and after the 2018 elections and urged his supporters that they should maintain the country’s hard-earned peace because there is only one Sierra Leone.
Councilor Abu Bakarr Nylander Kargbo said all of the six predecessors of Mayor Gibson, he was the only one to have successfully completed his term without problem, noting that he has served as a councilor and Mayor of FCC for thirteen years.
Aaron Boima, an aspiring Member of Parliament (MP) under the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party in one of the constituencies in Kono district, who works at the Sierra Leone Labor Congress, said Mayor Gibson deserves another term to complete his mission of making Freetown a better place for everyone.
The trade unionist-turned-politician said Mayor Gibson had constructed market centers for his members and assured him of the traders support at all times.
Members of the secret society, traders, motor bike riders and drivers’ unions, women and youth groups, pledged their support the man they believed is in the best capacity to development the municipality of Freetown.
