Another Endorsement Why I want Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella to be flag bearer of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) …Francis Garrick Since the debate on who should be the flag bearer of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) started raging some three years ago, I had bided my time and deliberately refused to indicate my preference because I have been critically studying the various men and women who have expressed interest in the position. Finally, after extensive research of these aspirants, and extensive consultations with people in America, Europe, other parts of Africa, and in Sierra Leone, I have convinced myself that Dr. Kandeh Yumkella will be the best choice to lead the SLPP to victory in the 2018 Presidential election. My choice is neither based on sentiment nor on tribal or regional affinities with any of the candidates who have come up so far, but rather, on the unshakeable fact that Dr. Yumkella is nationally accepted above all the others, especially Retired Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio, who had been riding the waves in recent times. In all honesty, if I was being either sentimentally or regionally and tribally biased, I would have chosen to support Rtd. Brig. Bio because we both hail from the same Bonthe District. That said however, I want to stress that, from my findings, Dr. Yumkella is the only man among the many aspirants so far whose popularity, support and acceptance cut across the Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern Regions of the country. From all indications, he is highly respected and accepted by most supporters the All Peoples Congress (APC), the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) and the other seven smaller parties that the country has. Even as I write, intelligence reports reaching me state that the APC is frantically contriving secret moves to woo Dr. Yumkella to join their party and become their Presidential candidate for the 2018 elections. For those critics who continue to lambaste Dr. Yumkella for not having being in the mainstream of SLPP politics, the answer is that the United Nations Organization (UNO) has written rules that do not allow their employees to either make national political statements, nor take part in their countrys political activities, nor run for or hold elective office. For that reason, Dr. Yumkella couldnt have became politically active while he was an employee of the United Nations, but now that his contract with the world body is coming to an end, he is now free to openly belong to a political party of his choice, make political statements and run for any elective position in his country. Nonetheless, even when he was not openly practicing national politics, he pioneered many meaningful projects in the country in the areas of industry and energy while he was Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as well as in his current position as Under Secretary and Special Representative of the Secretary General on Renewable Energy for All. We are also witnesses to his many assistance gestures to vulnerable communities across the country especially his food aid to Ebola epicenters in Kenema, Kailahun, Bo, Moyamba, Port Loko, Bombali, Kambia and Tonkolili. I have also reasoned, that all things considered, Dr. Yumkellah has a clean track record both in his country and abroad, and he is highly recognized and connected both nationally and internationally and he can use these goodwills to better the fortunes of the SLPP and Sierra Leone if he is elected flag bearer of the SLPP and ultimately President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. Now, to some of my brothers who think I should not support a candidate because of my position as a unifier: On my position as a unifier and reconciler in the party, and that it is therefore not appropriate for me to support any candidate, I beg to differ, and to state that my work does not in any way preclude me from having the right to support a candidate of my choice to lead our party to victory in 2018. After all, I belong first and foremost to the SLPP (Since 1994 with the youth wing in Grassfield, Kissy – prior to the 1996 presidential elections), and as founding member of a group within the party to seek for unity and reconciliation does not in any way suggest that I should not and cannot support a candidate of my choice to become flag bearer of our party and lead us to victory in 2018. We can recall that the late President Ahmad Tejan-Kabbah was a member of the SLPP but led peace talks with the late Corporal Foday Saybana Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), not as Leader of the SLPP but as President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. By the same token, I am involved in bringing unity and reconciliation to the SLPP not as a supporter of Dr. Kandeh Yumkella but as a member of the Campaign for National Unity, Sierra Leone (CNU-SL)
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 19:41:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015