Femi Claudius Cole (born 1962) is a Sierra Leonean politician. In 2016 she founded the Unity Party, making her the first Sierra Leonean woman to form a political party. In 2018, she was the first woman to run for the office of President of Sierra Leone. She is the only woman party leader in Sierra Leone.
Cole was a nurse over twenty years.[1] She worked as a nurse in Sierra Leone and abroad.[1][3] She was chief matron of the West End Clinic in Freetown.[1][4]
The gaps in available healthcare services between wealthy and poor Sierra Leoneans, the high maternal death rate and the high rate of deaths from preventable or treatable illnesses motivated her interest in politics.[1][5] Cole considered joining a political party in 2013, but could not find one that she agreed with.[1]
Claudius Cole founded the Unity Party in November 2016.[6][1] She began her presidential campaign before the party was officially registered in October 2017.[5]
The aim of the Unity Party is to bring Sierra Leoneans of all ethnic groups together in a common effort to improve the country.[7][1][3] The party's main focus is education, health, job creation and increased international trade.[3][5]
In partnership with the West End Clinic, she established the Unity Movement Sierra Leone a voter outreach initiative through mobile medical outreach programs to treat malaria, hypertension, diabetes, and other illnesses.[7] The initiative included town meetings in marginalized communities.[7]
Biography
Politics
Sierra Leone
