Noorudin KaiKai: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 27 December 2017:
I think that our country’s media practitioners are struggling to catch up with other African countries when it comes to exposing our Presidential candidates to the limelight, and getting their messages across to the electorates.
And I hope AYV Television and other news outlets, will continue to create space for all would be candidates to come forward with their respective plans for the development of the country.
I must say I have listened keenly to the interviews of Kandeh Yumkella, Maada Bio, and Samura Kamara. I however regret to announce that the worst performance trophy goes to Samura Kamara.
As noted, Samura’s interview was the most anticipated in the country, given the controversy and all the hoopla surrounding his selection to lead his party.
To say that he missed a great opportunity to convince the electorate about the absurdity of the allegation levied against him as a rapist, and an intellectual thief, cannot be over emphasized.
According to unconfirmed report, he was nearly a no- show. He kept the interviewer cooling her heals for hours before he finally showed up. The interview itself was unremarkable.
He appeared ill prepared and taken totally off balance by the questions the young lady shot at him. And come to think of it, these questions were yes or no questions, and really did not deserve all the prevarication.
I was stunned by his manner of speech and delivery, which can only be compared to that of a high school student.
But the fact is, even if there is no veracity to these probing allegations, his refusal to douse the smoke that has been swirling around these two issues is enough to keep the rumour going.
If Samura Kamara cannot answer simple questions regarding his integrity, it would be a mistake to trust him to make decisions affecting millions of his fellow citizens.
Samura Kamara has survived all these years by keeping his head down and going by his daily work unpretentiously.
He has been thrust into national politics and does not appear comfortable in his current role. He would be a disaster for our country.
In his desperation to continue to wield power and influence after failing to secure more time, President Ernest Bai Koroma may have selected the wrong horse for the race.
Peace to all Sierra Leoneans. Fellow citizens this is a time that we should think wisely, and elect the best man that we think can lead this our beloved country to another level of progress. There is only one Sierra Leone that we have, for that light we should put the country first in all our activities.
Politicians will come from all corners of the world to disturb our mindset for them to be elected, then after that they will just rule us the way they feel like, rather than doing the right things that can develop our towns,districts and the country as a whole.
How was Samura Kamara sponsored to pursue his Ph.D in one of the universities in Wales as an employee of central bank of Sierra Leone when his pay was 50% less than his first job after his uni studies in 1974 at the Barclays bank then in Sierra Leone. Was it a scholarship or privately financed endeavour?
Here we are seeing civil servants bleeding the Sierra Leonean economy by using the government to sponsor their families abroad as part of their benefit and conditions of service.
Compare civil servants like teachers who depend on their study leave allowances just to pursue further studies in institutions inside the country with their minimum allowance to staff and employees of the central banks, whose families are well taken care of by the financial resources under their control that enabled them to pursue activities at the total cost to the detriments of tax payers and citizens of the country
After 10 years he now makes references to the Truth and Reconciliation Commision. Did the APC government implement the recommendations of the commission to get people back to their homes that were destroyed and the provisions and resources needed that were provided by the Tejan-Kabbah SLPP government, so as to depopulate and decongest the Western Area especially from population explosion?
After 10 years of the failed APC government why are they now talking of over 70% youth unemployment, education stagnation and worst mass unemployment? Samura never made any mention of tangible efforts to address these factors despite his emphasis on their white elephant projects that will have minimal impact on the average citizen.
To end the program you can see the so-called APC activists with their ill-gotten wealth dominating and controlling other members of the panelists, despite given the chance to voice their opinion; and others gave them the chance to say theirs. It leaves me with the impression of the violence and thuggery perpetrated by the current APC party to hold on to power through violence, threats and intimidation.
Please APC party activists think of how you get into power in 2007 after over 560000 registered voters were disenfranchised by Christiana Thorpe in 2007, then as chief electoral commissioner and in 10 years where you have taken the country of Sierra Leone to be the hungriest country in west Africa and the third hungriest country in the world.
Samura claims that the Sierra Leone economy was among the fastest growing in the world at 20% before the Ebola epidemic and went to -20% degradation without sound socio-economic buffers; and the Ebola epidemic first started in Guinea and Liberia. And since the eradication of the epidemic in the three countries affected, why is Guinea now one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and despite the epidemic the revenue structures were stronger in both Liberia and Guinea than in Sierra Leone that has led these two other countries to fast-track their economies to where they are now.
The wrong choice for the APC. A lame lion fighting to survive the meltdown of the country’s economy. What can we expect of someone unnecessarily chosen and not elected to bear the APC presidential flag. Dr. Koroma`s advisers have always been wrong in doing and making everything wrong.
Can we expect anything good for the APC which is not corruption? Other political parties went through questions without problems; and his late arrival to the interview swells most listeners. This situation shows that he is not someone to believe. “WE ARE ALL ONE” ONE COUNTRY ONE PEOPLE.
All these capital weaknesses of our political system and the quality of our political candidates would not have come to light had it not been for KKY running for the presidency. We will remain underdeveloped for centuries if you the press people don’t help in exposing these shortcomings.
Journalistic Sycophancy and opportunism is bringing Africa down. Look at the majority of our political leaders in africa today, they don’t leave up to the challenges of the offices and institutions they govern but end up staying in office for many years!
Before I attempt to make any comments I would like to point out that I do not support any political party in Sierra Leone. However, I do follow the forthcoming elections in Sierra Leone, as a matter of interest. Referencing points made by Noorudin Kaikai on the recent interview of Dr Samura Kamara, I was surprised at the number of comments he made following the interview. In his opinion he said that Samura Kamara ‘was ill prepared for the interview and his manner of speech and delivery was that of a high school student’.
After listening to the full length of the interview myself, I was not sure where Noorudin Kaikai got his information from, or how genuine these assessments were; or was it an assassination of Samura Kamara’s character, a vendetta or witch hunt. It is evident from the interview that Samura Kamara did extremely well.
His response to each question shows that Samura Kamara has insights into the many problems that currently exist in the country, although he may have contributed to some of them.He was honest about this and accepted there are at present some gaps that needs addressing. He pointed out that, if elected, he would continue with his Government’s Agenda for change. This was an honest statement, showing consistency and commitment, this he maintained throughout. He spoke at length of his determination to move the country forward giving examples of his plans in that direction.
All of these are within his vision as a Leader and he further talked about working with stakeholder and partners in pushing forward his economic agenda and make a number of social reforms that would address the ongoing problems in the country and to further move the ‘bar’ up to another level through planned economic activities, benchmarking, setting priorities, tackling variance in youth unemployment, the health service, education, the infrastructure etc, etc.
UNDOUBTEDLY THE GUY KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. It was quite easy, from the interview, to know that this Samura Kamara has a wealth of knowledge, skills and understanding of what the people of Sierra Leone wants, especially now that he would be given the opportunity to lead his people. His participation in governments over three decades and his international acquisition of skills and experiences put him at par with other similar Contestants on the race to State House.
He has shown respect for other Presidential Candidates and did not at anytime boast or bluff about his suitability to become the next President but rarher leaves it to the people to decide; instead he talked about his experiences in various roles and how he would use them towards achieving a sustained Economic growth for our beloved country, Sierea Leone.
Finally, let me conclude by saying that Samura Kamara is not stupid though he seems humble, polite, and honest; people underestimates your ability in such circumstances.
Your comments have a whiff of sycophancy about them. I am not sure you watched the same interview as I did. If you did, you may have noticed a man far happier to talk about the offices he has held (needless to mention junior roles that are not commensurate to his qualification) and not how they benefitted the country. No coherent narrative and ambition for Sierra Leone.
We know why, because he has none (no vision). Here is a man who was far contented to be in the shadows now thrusted into the limelight as tool of the outgoing president. He never thought he would be flagbearer. In fact there were no records of him putting his name forward, while the others were already building bases in the party.
It was only when the convention was approaching that he expressed interest. Unthinkable in any normal political contest. As a result, he is unable and perhaps deep down within himself – unwilling to be president. Unfair to him, unfair to the country. It would be a travesty if Dr Samura Kamara becomes President of Sierra Leone.
In terms of performance in these interviews, Dr Yumkella towers above the other two candidates. He has a compelling vision of the kind of Sierra Leone we should all be living in, and the detailed policies to make them happen, including the means to pay for them.
Kandeh has a vision of a country where the law rather than the individual reigns supreme; a country where you can get ahead by your own industry rather than who you know; a caring country for the vulnerable. There are many more and he is taking these messages to the ordinary man/woman regardless of their education. Who would not want to live in Sierra Leone under these values? A nefarious sycophant perhaps.
I would like to also add that you, the commenter, also come across as the sort of person who is content with the current state Sierra Leone is in. Anyone who does not have a nefarious interest in the current way Sierra Leone is being run will be agitating for change. It has been 10 years since the current administration came to power and the country is worse now than when they took over.
We want change. We want to change the destiny of Sierra Leone for the better. That is why NGC and Dr Yumkella is the right man on this occasion.
None of these current Sierra Leone Presidential Aspirants have convinced me that they have got our national priorities right, particularly; transparent accountability about our nation’s finances, respect for the audit functions as optimising management and administrative tools, national lands tenure, public hygiene, poor and low standards of economic maintenance management and maintenance, dishonest public purchasing and supplies strategies, policies and malpractices, etc.
I HOPE OTHER SIERRA LEONEAN MEDIA OUTLETS COPY THIS YOUR EXAMPLE.