Sierra Leone Telegraph: 01 February 2023:
Tonight, there are more high profile resignations from Yumkella’s National Grand Coalition (NGC) party, following a string of resignations this afternoon, tendered by the party chairman – Dennis Bright, Deputy Secretary General – Nyamakoro Sillah, and the party’s Western Area Coordinator – Arthur Pearce.
A few hours ago, the Sierra Leone Telegraph received a resignation letter and video addressed to the NGC party Secretary General by Haroun Zubairu, whose ambition was to contest the Freetown Mayoral election in June 2023 under the NGC symbol.
But tonight, Zubairu says that his dream has been cut short by Yumkella’s selfishness, greed. untrustworthiness and betrayal. This is what he said in his video recorded today as he announced his resignation:
Realistically, Sierra Leone is declining as a KLEPTOCRACY, confirmed by the international purchasing power of the LEONE! Seton During.
Those who have Dickensian “Great Expectations” in their genetic makeups will feel so disappointed.
https://www.verywellmind.com/expectation-vs-reality-trap-4570968
I am certainly neither surprised nor disappointed. You could see it coming with frightening speed. The only thing i feel disappointed about is being part of more or less the latest generation or cohort of Sierra Leoneans that keep failing their motherland big time. My heart bleeds because i know either personally or have lived in the same campus, environment, town or city with most of those calling the shots in the motherland. I have always held the view that our country is not progressing at all as borne out by the UN Human Development and Happiness Indexes. I confirmed and concretized that belief after a recent visit to Freetown after over over 15 years. The beggars and begging in Freetown beggars belief. Could the present Leadership in Freetown put their hands on their hearts and tell me they have never been beneficiaries of the largesse of the British Welfare System.
At a mininimum, those of us in employment all receive a child benefit payment of about £50 a month. If i were a tourist to Sierra Leone, a landing at the Airport, a drive through Lungi, a boarding of that old-rickety ferry, a drive-by pass via Kissy Ferry Terminal and nearby smelly Bomeh, and the congested streets of Freetown would have caused me such a post-traumatic stress disorder that i will vow never to return to the wretched place in a million years. For God’s sake, an airport and its environs should act as a shop window for your city or country. The present London Squad in Freetown have landed at Heathow Airport on many occasions and drove through upmarket West London before dispersing to their neck of the woods in run-down East or South London. They should be in the know about first impressions and that first impressions count.
Yong4na observation of the elite putting up mansions in areas with atrocious access roads is on point. I observed do many roads that could only be accessed by only an SUV or a motorbike AKA deathtrap. We have had APC 3 and SLPP 4. How long will it take to have a stomach for a fight to stop such infinite iterations of such dinosaurian political parties? I pay tribute to the indefatigable Ngor Charles Margai and late Korthor Thaimu Bangura for a good and brave fight to shake some boots a little bit compared to Kandeh Yumkella’s damp squib or storm in a tea cup and not in choppy waters.
Before I end my short and succint comment, could the likes of Alan Luke and Santikie Sorie do a Mea Culpa and apologise to me personally for the comments you made in the article below.
https://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/kandeh-yumkella-is-his-own-man-and-will-not-be-defined-by-the-rotten-politics-of-apc-and-slpp/
I was enamoured by KKY the student leader as I was probably just an impressionable teenager then in Makonde, and his ×××- fuelled fiery speeches made an impression on me then. But as most things in life, a strong character is what really matters most when it comes to human qualities and not the flattery, facade or mask of rhetoric or oratory. I have made the right judgement calls in this forum so many times. I even predicted last year a BAME will soon unlock the keys of No.10 Downing Street in apparently or made-to-believe racist Britain and it is now passe. Check out all my comments and see the outcomes in months, a year or two.
FORGIVING someone does not mean ACCEPTING their bad behavior. Lack of forgiveness for our fellow men is DETRIMENTAL.
Secondly, Giving a “FIRST IMPRESSION” that is DECEPTIVE … is EVIL!
I was recently in Sierra Leone as well. The OP has hit the nail on the head. Greed and selfishness is the order of the day. How can you have a millionaire’s row of mansions with stone age roads. When a riverine country starts to erect water tanks. Bob Marley comes to mind. ” In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.
Interesting times in our nation’s political landscape. If anything, my recent trip to the nation, which gave me the opportunity to tour the South -East part of the country for the first time ever, acquiring a full scope of the hardship and poverty that permeates all regions of our nation, left me with the full conviction and bleak assessment that, ours is a nation that will continue to be third rated and impoverished for decades to come.
In almost every angle or sphere of life in our nation’s affair, all you see is selfish and personal ambitions. Virtually all civil servants and their political masters are in there for themselves. No body works or caters for the greater good. It’s about me, myself, and I. That is Sierra Leone today.
With all the cries of hardship and poverty in the nation, you will be shock to observe how rapidly mansions are being erected ( albeit the lack of good roads that leads to their door steps) , all across the nation. Of course, majority of the crawling constructions sites across the country are being done by diaspora, contrast to the current ruling politicians however, they build with speed, might, and class. Besides Freetown, if you happen to visit Bo or Kenema anytime soon, just ask the locals. The hills overlooking the government reservation area in Kenema is a prime example hosting million dollars mansions, built within the past 3 years, by ruling SLPP elites.