Sierra Leone Telegraph: 6 March 2017
Sierra Leone Presidential hopeful Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella has arrived back in Freetown, after attending the inauguration of the Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Nigeria.
In 1941 US President Frankliyn D. Roosevelt dedicated the first presidential library in America. Since then, the establishment of such institutions has become a tradition for succeeding Presidents all over the world.
This is done so as to preserve history, and to give citizens an opportunity to know how major decisions were made in government, as well as codifying their country’s destination towards progress and development.
The multi-million dollar Obasanjo Presidential Library is designed by the same company that is working on the Obama Presidential Library. It is the first in Africa, and financed by private donations.
Dr. Kandeh Yumkella will be contesting presidential elections in Sierra Leone next year, if elected by the country’s main opposition party – the SLPP as their presidential candidate.
The Obasanjo Library has 4,000 artefacts and 15 million pages of documents of Nigerian history dating back from the colonial period to the first republic, through the civil war years on to present day.
Images of Dr. Yumkella are also featured in the museum complex in a special exhibit “Architects of Africa’s Future”, as well as featured in a special electronic video presentation – “A vision of an industrialised modern Africa”.
Also present at the ceremony were the former UN Secretary General – Kofi Annan, and former president Kufuor of Ghana.
You can see some of the pictures here:
(Yumkella with former Ghanaian president Kufuor)
(Yumkella seen here with the president of the African Development bank – Dr. Akinwumi Adesina)
Yumkella and former Kenyan prime minister – Raila Odinga, whom Yumkella hosted a few years ago in Vienna.
(Below: Dr. Yumkella and the former UN Under Secretary General and Executive Secretary of UNECA – Mr Abdulai Janneh, who is now the Representative of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation).
I hope the political elites of Sierra Leone will put enthnic sentiments and bigotry aside and support KKY to lead SLPP and support him to be the next president of S.Leone. It high time we stopped the negativities of our beloved country. We had cvil war, Ebola pademic, lower standard of life and low human development index becasue of poor leadership. We need a leader who will not come to line his pockets.
Please Sierra Leone elect Mr. Yumkella for president. He is a better candidate for President than the Paopa, tribalistic, and divisive candidate.
I think West Africa, as well as other global leaders and thinkers are sending Sierra Leoneans a subtle message, by pointing to the way forward for us. The message is simple – wake up and replicate this model or template that has succeeded in the other countries in the sub-region, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal and recently, the Gambia.
This is because as things are unfolding, towards the forthcoming 2018 elections, global leaders both present and past in politics, economics, multilateral and bilateral organizations, especially in West Africa are pointing the way forward for the SLPP and Sierra Leone at large, by embracing this learned humble servant and brother Dr. Alhaji Kandeh Yumkellah for progressive leadership in Sierra Leone.
The question then becomes, where do Sierra Leoneans stand when serious leaders in the sub-region are asking us in a subtle way to make a stand, to rise and support a competent learned, pragmatic and 21st century leader who will transform Sierra Leone from the comatose and life support stage its economy is in now to one of a vibrant, all encompassing, and inclusive entity that will stand the test of time, and be counted among its peers in the sub-region?
I say, it’s time for Sierra Leoneans to stand up and be counted, in support of a competent, pragmatic, and informed leadership. It doesn’t matter which party you are from, be it APC, PMDC, or SLPP.
West Africa is saying to us, here is the model that will help you make this informed decision, to move away from mediocrity, and once again elect a leader that will transform your country. Someone who will enter office, and from day one, take Sierra Leone to the pinnacle of its aspirations.
They are therefore urging us to replicate this model, I think it is a deterministic model, not a stochastic one (don’t mind the econometric terms) and elect a leader of substance who will join the other inspirational and transformational leaders in West Africa, who came to power through tough battles to preserve and maintain democracy and the rule of law in the sub-region.
We are talking about leaders such as, Alhaji Mohammad Buhari, a man of his time, former military leader and pragmatist. Dr. Alhassan Outara of Ivory Coast – a PhD in economics and former Director General of the International Monetary Fund; Nana Kufor Ado – current president of Ghana and a seasoned lawyer – former foreign and justice minister and leader of his party for two consecutive elections; Maki Sal – the current Senegalese president – a former engineer by training and a seasoned and pragmatic politician; and lastly the young and pragmatic leader of the Gambia – Adama Barrow.
As can be seen above, the distinguish names have no place for the mediocrity and incompetence we have seen for the last nine years in our country.
We are therefore asking you to join us this time and put the interest of Sierra Leone ahead of all other parochial interest to elect Dr. Alhaji Kandeh Yumkellah – PhD in Agricultural economics, former lecturer, politician, and Director General for two consecutive terms in the United Nations Industrial Organization (UNIDO), so that he can proudly join the A-team that West Africa has built 21st century leadership, to take us out of the teething, pervasive and endemic poverty we currently find ourselves in, due to self-inflicted wounds.