January 9, 2017 By: Sahr Morris Jr.
Regent Chief, stakeholders and the people of Kpeje West Chiefdom in Kailahun District have continued their appeal that President Ernest Bai Koroma fulfills his promise in taking back Bunumbu Teachers College (BTC) to its original base and granting it university status.
According to P.C. Alhaji Lamin Bunumbu Ngobeh, following President Koroma’s visit to Kailahun, he promised to re-open the college in the district with an upgraded status as the University of the East.
“The Bunumbu Teachers College, which was founded in 1933, was operating in Kailahun District but because of the war it was transferred to Kenema and named the Eastern Polytechnic. Over four years after the President made such pronouncement, we are still waiting for the transformation,” said Chief Alhaji Ngobeh.
“Last year, we visited the President at his State House Office in Freetown and disused the issue. The Ebola scourge affected the entire process but we are now hoping for the BTC to become University of the East and returned to its original base,” he added.
Chief Alhaji Ngobeh, who alongside other stakeholders wanted the new academic year to commence with a new status for the college, applauded President Koroma and his government for their relentless work in Kailahun, especially in Kpeje West Chiefdom.
“President Koroma and his administration have done remarkably well for us and we must applaud them for the work done especially, the good road network in the chiefdom, the electricity, to name but a few. That is why we are still pleading to the President, in his wisdom, to ensure we have the campus back home just like they did for Njala University, which was transferred to Mokonda,” he further appealed, adding that constituent colleges of the new university would still remain in Kenema and Woama in Kono District.
The pledge to transform BTC into a university was made by President Koroma in May 2012 at the college campus in Bunumbu Town, Kpeje West chiefdom, Kailahun district.