Sierra Leone Telegraph: 12 January 2022:
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio yesterday pulled off a political masterstroke that almost went unnoticed, as Sierra Leoneans were caught-up in football mania, celebrating the country’s nil-nil draw against Algeria in Cameroon.
Two big movers and shakers of Sierra Leone politics are affected by the President’s unexpected cabinet reshuffle announced yesterday.
Presidential aspirant of the main opposition APC Party – Alpha Kanu, whom many regard as a political maverick has been rewarded by President Bio for supporting the government’s agenda on health and education.
Alpha Kanu is now the new Resident Minister for the North-West of the country, replacing Isata Abdulai-Kamara who is now Deputy Minister of Trade.
Critics of Alpha Kanu have described him as a political prostitute who trades pride and self-respect for personal gain. But his supporters say that he is merely showing patriotism by rising to the occasion to serve his country, irrespective of which political party is in power.
In the run-up to the 2018 elections, Kanu was one of 28 candidates aspiring for the presidential flagbearership of the APC party. But his dream was cut short when the leader and chairman of the APC – President Koroma decided to hand-pick Dr Samura Kamara as the party’s presidential flagbearer.
The APC party is yet to recover from the volcano that erupted, after that decision by President Koroma to side-line Alpha Kanu and other popular presidential aspirants. And it seems President Bio and his ruling SLPP are now exploiting the weaknesses of the main opposition APC ahead of Presidential and General elections taking place in about a year’s time.
But the question is – will Alpha Kanu deliver the North-west – political heartland of the main opposition APC to the SLPP, which is vital – if the SLPP is to remain in power for a second term?
What is certain though, is that Alpha Kanu’s appointment as cabinet minister has once again raised questions about whether a former minister found guilty of corruption by a Commission of Inquiry, can be approved by parliament to serve as minister.
Another major eyebrow-raising decision announced in yesterday’s mini cabinet reshuffle by President Bio is the appointment of a new Ambassador to Egypt – Sadiq Sillah, raising serious question about the political survival of Dr Alie Kabba – the incumbent Ambassador to Egypt (Photo above).
Alie Kabba’s presidential ambition was cut short in 2015 with the election of Maada Bio as the 2018 SLPP presidential candidate.
Though Kabba was appointed foreign minister by president Bio in reward for accepting defeat and helping Bio become president, he was demoted to Ambassadorial duties in a cabinet reshuffle two years later, marking the beginning of the end of his political career.
Has Alie Kabba been relieved now of his ambassadorial duties, to return to Sierra Leone to help the President prepare for next year’s elections? Or has he been sacked?
I still don’t understand why our people are so blinded by their personal interest. The problem of Sierra Leone is not leadership, but the level of ignorance of our people. Leaders of our country are not aliens, they are products of our society. Therefore, they are direct reflection of our level of natural human intelligence. Since independence, we have never looked for a natural leader of Sierra Leone; it has always been about Southeast and Northwest. It’s only a good people that can produce a good leader. Please let us start to think as Sierra Leoneans in order to produce a true leadership that will represent us as a nation.
Mr Sparrow, Abraham amadu Jalloh is the one that replied to your observation. That was just a typing error. If you allow me I will extend my observations that it seems to me as Sierra Leoneans one can think or hold a political position and stay neutral out of the nitty gritty of the political debates in our country without being pigeon hole as a member of particular political or the other. APC /SLPP. Yes my father is one of the first members of the APC back in the sixties when it wasn’t fashionable to be a supporter of the APC without loosing life or limb. But I never inherited his enthusiasm for none of the two parties that have govern our country and destroyed its economic prospects. That is why I think is best we adopt proportional representation.
What that means smaller parties will have more representation in Parliament, which will allow them to have a greater say in the way the affairs of the state is run. Germany, with their Jaimacan traffic light system of proportional representation is a good example. The SPD and the CDU are the biggest parties in the German parliament. But because of their system of proportional representation, none of this parties can formed a government with out going to coalition with the smaller parties like the Green parties.
The system is good because the parties that comes together to form the government are doing so for the national interest not party interest. I think is where we want our country to be. To remove the strangled hold that the two major partiesAPC /SLPP, have in our country.
Can we remember the Macbeth play? The line “fair is foul and foul is fair” means that all is not what it seems. What seems good and trustworthy is actually not; what might seem repugnant is actually good. The witches are foretelling the treachery of Macbeth, who will commit treason by killing the king. This is an another such of actions from the critics, one thing I personally believed since the appointment of Mr. Alpha Khan as minister in a mini cabinet reshuffle, APC became totally in trouble. It is not strange to me folks, this gentleman is going to be called names, the process just started. The same happened within the SLPP party in the late 2018, before the presidential election when Dr.” KKY” surprisingly quits his original party SLPP and formed a new one to lead as the leader of that party named” NGC”.
The most intelligent man in the country, his recognition has no doubt because he’s well educated we are all proud of him but, he made a terrible mistake. Had he not so wise enough to stay and wait for his reward one day?, but his case and Mr. Khan’s are quite difference. Today some people even naming Mr. Alpha Khan a traitor, is that new in to our ears? no, they have even labelled the late” Taimu Bangura” after he sees that there is no way to defeat Tejan Kabba, and he gavew his support to him. After his death, FATIHA was recited for him to go to hell because of his support, I hope that not happen to Mr. Khan in the future. If I were Dr. Samura Kamara I would just step aside because, I don’t think he’s ready to take another second wave of defeat, and this is going to be more harder.
I think Mr. Khan is just a smart guy in his family, EBK is already rich, you risk your short time for him brother, most of all his important family members lived in abroad. If you can cross check of all comments and contributions to this noble platform, you will find out that no politicians children or family member throwing even a single comments here, I doubt it if they have time to read our comments, do you know why? because they are busy that fact. Stay tune.
Thanks Mr Sparrow, to be honest Iam not wedded in any political party. The only party that I support is called team Sierra Leone! You might not have heard of this party, like me or or many millions of Sierra Leoneans that have no party affiliations, that just want to see changes in our country, for the better. Of course open, transparent, accountable, respect the rule of law, free press, corrupt free, nepotism free, tribalistic free, and above all eles doesn’t preach regionalism just to woo their supporters. Not long ago Bio admitted he only employ people he personally knows. Here was a president that was elected by the people, brandishing his tribalistic tendencies. If the head of a company had said those words, he will be in breach of our constitution that says you should not discriminate against peoples due to their ethnic make up or regional affiliations.
No one has to live in Mars to think under Bio, our country that relies on 60% to 70% of its budgetary needs, from our international aids partners like the IMF and other international financial institutions can claim anything but. The standard of living for many families up and down the country is worse than when Bio too charge. The APC under the Stevens government was terrible. I took part in so many demonstration against the Momoh government because even me at my younger version realised he wasn’t up to the job. Morelike the Stevens policies and his handpicked successor Momoh sow the seeds of discontent that led Foday Sankoh and Sam Bockarie, through the help of former Liberian Warlord turned president Charles Taylor thought the only way to arrest the situation was to waged war on our people. Maybe is something to do with the men in uniform, once again we are seeing an other military strongman in the form of Bio making the same mistakes that brought us war in which fifty thousand and countless of our fellow countrymen suffered life changing injuries.
Now for me whether is SLPP OR APC in power, and is trying the same tried and tested failed policies, I have it within my right to sound the alarm. We as ordinary citizens have to remind Bio or any others that are aspiring to lead us to remember the reasons why we have the civil war. Nations that failed to learn from their past history is more than capable of repeating the same mistake. And for goodness sake we should stop supporting politicians that only brought us hardship. That is where we are today. Lonta!
The appointments by this president at times will only make sense to himself with lots of dissapointment within his own party. Someone like Alpha Kanu who is only rubbing shoulders with the SLPP because he was denied the APC presidential ticket with bones to pick with the APC leadership is a national disgrace. Lets assume that he was appointed as APC Presidential candidate and lost to the SLPP with the hope that he will be given a second chance he would have stayed in the APC. These selfish opportunists called politicians have no interest in the welfare of their people but themselves.
The APC leadership was right to choose Samura Kamara over Alpha Kanu as they are far apart in so many ways.
President Bio may think he is playing smart politics but he may be making a serious error of judgement by bringing people in to his government with questionable characters and no integrity.
Prostitution is known as the world’s oldest profession. It takes different forms ,especially nowadays when much of the so-called Liberal West has recognised same-sex marriage . But here we are dealing with political prostitution, we have politicians switching sides quite often for the right price.
Alpha Kanu has switched to SLPP to join another prostitute – one Abass Bundu. Both of them are criminals too. Abass Bundu stole our passports and sold them; while serving as Secretary General of ECOWAS he became an arms merchant, selling weapons to rebels in the sub-region for them to perfect their carnage.One wonders whether he has a conscience.
Alpha Kanu was embroiled in a number of criminal activities while serving under Earnest Koroma. One of the notable ones was embezzling Haj money, and dumping Muslim pilgrims in Abuja, Nigeria; he insisted that that was the Holy Land of Mecca, having adjusted the map of the world in his head. Having altered his surname from Kanu to Khan he had convinced all interested parties that he was actually a Pakistani, a people known for their uncompromising Islamic values. He was therefore entrusted with the entire program of getting pilgrims to the Holy Land. As the saying goes, the rest is history.
So now we have Alpha Kanu, Abass Bundu and others in the kingdom of kleptomania, with king Maada Bio presiding over everything. For the moment let us keep our eyes on Alpha Kanu, he may do something nasty and then disappear into the arms of Imran Khan, the Pakistani Prime Minister, who will embrace him as his long lost cousin. The long arm of Sierra Leone’s law won’t be able to reach him then .
Mr Seton During you asked a pointed question regarding finding a capable woman, that many of us believe will transform our country’s fortunes, if only we as a nation recognised we cannot carry on as usual as long as we continue to elect Sierra Leonean men in leadership positions, that have not only failed the present generation, but generations yet unborn. The fact remains since independence men that were elected to lead, have not only proved their inadequacy to lead, but have also proved to be untrustworthy, corrupt, tribalistic, selfish, unpatriotic, practice nepotism, fanning the flames of regionalism, and most important of all, lack the connective tissues in their brains that will enable them to think outside the box to bring about meaningful changes that will ideally benifet every citizen in the country, rather than their families and friends that orbit their world and the way they see and do things.
We can’t get away from the fact,over the past few decades, women in Sierra Leone, have suffered due to the poor choices made by male politicians that lack the acumen to lead. Increasing the quality and quantity of Sierra Leoneans women participation in our political process, both local and national level, will go a long way to redress the imbalances that exist in our country today. Maybe a quota system on all levels of government institutions should be introduced and jealousy enforce to brake the deadlock. To break the glass ceiling, we will need more education for women and girls,which translate more liberation women from the tyrannical strangled hold they suffer from their male counterparts. We saw it during the RUF wars, started by Mr Foday Sankoh, a misfit that was living in the peripherally of normal society. The war started by men, was due to the long running practices of corrupt men that were in leadership positions that abused the powers given to them to trampled on their fellow citizens rights. All those men that were excecuted, on a false coup pretence suggest to me their blood that was spilled come back to hunt our country.
I have complied few leading role models in our country that I believe given the chance, even if is one term presidency will make a difference. You welcome to add to the list. There are lot more tried and tested Sierra Leonean women that have proved their worth. Zainab Bagura, the present UN representative in Nairobi Kenya.The Internationally recognised Freetown Mayor Akin Sawyer, straight talker Dr. Femi Claudious, the no nonsense former Auditor General Mrs Lara Taylor, Dr Blyden who likes to speak truth to an oppressive government like Bio, Ms Basita Michael that have been in the forefront in sounding the alarm bells on Bio’s dictatorship, and the hapless Dr Priscilla Schwartz, a victim of Bio’s misogynistic tendencies.
Sierra Leonean males historically continue to disappoint as national political leaders.
Time to sift and sieve for a tested and proven honest and sincere SL Woman to contest for our Presidency. Please let me know after you have found one for me to support?
Seton During, London, UK.
This political move by Bio might be seen by many as slam dunk decision that might rescue his reelection chances, but he might have bitten morethan he can chew. After all come 2023, the most urgent question in people’s mind will be,:Is my life better off today than when this do nothing president was sworned in back in 2018.If the answer to the question is yes, which I presumed to be Bio’s associates will rather he stayed on, so they can protect their stolen loot. As for the vast majority of Sierra Leoneans, this government have not live up to their expectations. So come 2023, rendering their verdicts in the privacy of the polling booth is made easier for them. At the end of the day picking Alpha Kanu, and making him Resident minister for North west, the most maverick of politicians of our times in the vain hope he will bring more support for Bio and his SLPP party from that corner of the country, is not only seen as a political master stroke by his supporters, but for the people in that region that have endured a one direction hardship, this calculation by Bio might like most of his unhinged decisions making process a miscalculation of biblical proportion that will come back to bite him.
On so many occasions, Bio have lied to us , to the point if he goes on national television and confessed to us that he is a serial liar, we might be tempted to ask if he is telling the truth. In his last campaign, he promised us he will fight corruption, and reach out to his political opponents, to help build a national cohesive agenda, so our country will move in one direction for national developments. Suffice to say, four years on we are still waiting to see what Bio and his government plan to bequeathe as his legacy. His flagship Free education, which is still working in progress, and please spare us the mantra of protecting our young women and children, as of last week a Sierra Leonean national was arrested in Liberia trying to sell his ten years old son, child trafficking is common in that border region with Liberia, what is Bio’s government doing about it?
The abolition of the 1965 seditious and libel Act, the abolition of the death penalty, the last two are colonial era legacy legislations that should not have been in our statue books in the first place. Because as Bio himself conceded they were never used for their intended purposes, but rather used as blunt instruments to suppressed political opponents. Now for all we know, on paper they are no longer in our statue books, yet the recent arrest of Dr Samura, Dr Bright speaks volumes about how far Bio is ready to honor the abolition of this two heinous legislations.Freedom of speech is not the sole ownership of the press or journalist, but it applies to everyone, including the opposition politicians. So Bio keeps banging on about, there are no journalists in prison, but what about honoring the voices of your political opponents, that raised concerns about your government policies. Or are we to say freedom of speech doesn’t applies to them when its suited your political brinkmanship? So this appointment of Alpha Kanu will do little to influence the election outcome. You can fool peoples once, but twice that is stretching it too far. Sierra-leoneans have wised up to your political pantomime.
Abraham amadu Jalloh: How blind can you be ,is it because you are seeing Red all the time when progress is hitting you in the face.
All what you have stated on your analyses are just a bitter pill for you to swallow. Over 30years of the apc dominating and enslaving the population of my Country, killing their own brothers who would have taken over the baton of leadership in the apc party,to mention a few. Ibrahim Sorie Fornah, Bash, Minah, Samuel Bangura. The Lists goes on.
You cannot lecture us about any thing regarding the wellbeing of my Country,the party you belong to would Never See the Sunshine again In Sierra Leone politics. So my Advice to you and all the Cronies of The worlds Worst {World Best} Koroma Tolongbo Cabal is You have Failed, yourselves and the Nation. Lonta