It is official : Kandeh Yumkella has quit the SLPP

Distinguished Guests,
Representatives of the Fourth Estate,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Sierra Leoneans are not born RED or GREEN.

On 3rd July 2017, I publicly announced my decision to suspend my bid to contest for the Presidency of the Republic of Sierra Leone under the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). On the same occasion, I promised to keep the public informed of the next steps in my political career. Your meeting here today is in fulfilment of that promise exactly two months since that decision.

Permit me to state at the outset that my candidacy for the presidency of our country has always been about seizing an opportunity to reset our people on a progressive trajectory by improving governance, reducing mass poverty, curbing corruption, fostering national cohesion, providing hope and opportunities for them to translate their needs and aspirations into reality and using our abundant natural resources for sustainable development.

I have had profound sentimental attachment to the SLPP since my childhood when my father and family made huge sacrifices as their contribution to the establishment of the Party.
Thereafter, many great men and women each did a little so that the SLPP could survive including, to name only a few, Sir Milton Margai, Bai Farama Tass, Bai Shebora Yumkella, Ella Koblo Gulama, Bai Koblo Pathbana, S.B. Marah, Sir Albert Margai , Salia Jusu-Sheriff, Teacher Lagao, Lamina Sankoh, R.G.O. King, John Nelson Williams, Gideon Thomas, Honourable Mana Kpaka, John Akar, Honoria Bailor Caulker, Pa Sanusi Mustapha.

The SLPP Party to which my parents belonged was a party of these dignified and respectable men and women who, together with my own parents, were committed to working for the progress of their country and compatriots. They strongly believed in the core values of the primacy of rule of law, preservation of unity, guarantee of freedom and justice.

It was this tradition that I felt duty bound to preserve and contribute to with my own talents, time, energy and resources. Regrettably, as you are all aware, that Party is no more. What we have today is a caricature of the SLPP of our Founding Fathers suffering as it is currently under a mis-leadership that continues to thrive on violence, lack of respect for elders, falsehood, betrayal, violation of rules, manipulation of people with messages of division, dark schemes and designs, lack of focus and loss of credibility.

When I announced that I was suspending my aspiration for the position of SLPP Flag bearer, I strongly believed that the conflicts and tensions within the party would be at least reduced if not eliminated since some people had, wrongly though, attributed those tensions and conflicts to my presence in the race. However, the whole country is now aware that since I suspended my bid for the flagbearership, the camps have multiplied, the internecine squabbles have intensified, whilst the divisions have become deeper, and the confusion has continued.

Yet the party mis-leaders are still in denial that they are the real architects of the ongoing conflicts, dysfunctional nature and eventual demise of the party. People who supported me and continue to do so have been marginalized and wrongfully excluded from mainstream party activities while the quarrels over delegates’ lists continue unabated.

Today, the SLPP is in a suspended state of re-animation due to the greed, selfishness and wickedness of a few characters as majority of the people of good conscience in the Party are being led down the path of destruction of a party they have been loyal to and made sacrifices for.

There are no red or green Sierra Leone, we are just one people bound by a common heritage in the land that we love.

A political party is a vehicle for contesting elections and attaining state power, but loyalty to party must never take precedence over loyalty to country. Our country must always come first and no interest should supersede national and public interests. Hence, my belief and the mantra of the KKY Movement has always been “Country First”.

Consequently, it is with a heavy heart that I hereby publicly declare that with effect from today 5th September , 2017, I cease to be a member of the SLPP.

I am not leaving alone. As you can see gathered here with me are many of the leaders of the party (especially the critical leaders at the constituency level), who have felt disenfranchised and share my views about what the SLPP has become, and have therefore decided they can no longer remain on a ship that is fast sailing towards the breakers ahead.

They are men and women who have held high positions in the party for over two decades, and some including former Vice President Joe Demby, and Dr. Momodu Yilla, have served our country in very high positions. And I know that after today, many thousands more will also exit and follow us and we encourage them to do so from today.

I want to recall that when I announced the suspension of my bid for the flagbearership of the SLPP, I also stated that I will continue my bid for the presidency and will seek to work with a Coalition of Progressives. Well, today, I stand on the threshold of a new beginning in my life, when my personal commitment to put my country first takes on a new meaning.

The urgency with which our people are crying for help in Sierra Leone today has compelled me to leave all the negative forces behind and look forward to a positive life of service and dedication to God and country.

Some people have argued that in the politics of Sierra Leone, there are only two parties capable of winning elections and therefore a THIRD FORCE is not possible here. They say that CHANGE is not possible in Sierra Leone because the ordinary people are not intelligent and clever enough to know that they are being robbed and used by their current mis-leaders who have ingrained in them the false belief that the people will always choose to support those who are responsible for their past and present lives of misery and deprivation.

However, we Progressives hear and see a totally different narrative from around the country, especially at the ground-zero of suffering in the Ataya Bases, among the Okada riders, and in the sprawling urban slums around Bo, Freetown, Kenema, Kono, and Makeni etc. They don’t want to continue to suffer because they know now that they have been fooled all along. We Progressives know that no one can fool the people all the time.

Therefore, what the people are looking for now is a NEW FORCE with a totally different political narrative from the ones they have been used to for over half a century and not just a THIRD FORCE that will repeat the same old stories of the past. And there is strong reason to believe that change is coming and that something entirely new is going to happen.

The call for change can be heard from the unemployed youth, college graduate who cannot find a job, young girl who dropped out of school because of pregnancy, relatives of thousands of mothers who died while delivering a baby in a dilapidated healthcare system, market women who cannot make ends meet after days of selling; thousands of veterans without sustainable livelihoods, and tens of thousands of teachers without payroll identification numbers.

Everywhere, people are rising, people who have never been political are now getting involved and stepping forward; there is a general mood in the nation today that enough is enough.

Furthermore, I can see people belonging to different political parties putting away their party colours in order to work together for the good of the country and our people. When good people stay aloof it is bad characters that fill the vacuum, which brings us suffering, destroys our lives and the future of our children.

Therefore, I feel energised and charged today to move forward and join other people of like minds as part of a New Force of Hope and a Coalition of Progressives. I have been talking to several political movements and parties recently, trying to assess the best approach for us to integrate into existing efforts, and my decision is now to work from within the National Grand Coalition (NGC) as a rallying point for those progressive minds, students, workers, traders, unemployed people, business people, elders, religious people, civil society groups, and women’s groups, that I have had the opportunity of meeting in my recent consultations.

For this purpose, the Global KKY Movement will fully transition into the National Grand Coalition by 31st October, 2017.

Some may wish to ask why the National Grand Coalition? The answer is simple. The NGC is not a political party like other political parties we have known in this country. It is aspiring to be a mass movement of Sierra Leoneans at home and in the diaspora who are committed to real change, and are working to ensure that ordinary people have ownership of the party.

I have been impressed by the NGC’s ability to attract people from every region, religion and other political parties; the integrity and dynamism of those at its helm, freshness of its outlook, high values and principles on which it stands and the confidence it commands in those who are yearning for a new kind of politics in Sierra Leone. It is indeed a Grand Coalition of Progressives.

I shall be paying a visit to the NGC’s office later today to visit interim Chairman and Leader, Dr. Dennis Bright, and to formally take up my role in the party. The NGC Movement has already received its Provisional Certificate to operate as a political party and as such it is bound by the rules set out in the Political Parties Act, 2002.

Last week the Commissioners of the PPRC inspected the NGC offices around the country, and I am reliably informed that the offices fully meet the requirements to be registered as a full-fledged Political Party.
As we await receipt of the final certificate in a few weeks which I understand to be the on September 23rd, we will respect the PPRC rules of engagement. Consequently, I shall refrain from making political statements on behalf of the NGC for now, but will continue to exercise my rights as a citizen of Sierra Leone and as a professional development expert and continue to speak about development issues and education.

At this point, let me say that I bear no ill-feelings towards any members of the SLPP most of whom will remain my great friends. I hope at some stage in the future we will all agree to work together for the good of our country by sharing the same concerns and solutions to humongous problems our people are currently facing. This applies equally to people from other political parties and persuasions with whom I find common ground. They are all sincerely and genuinely welcome to join me and the National Grand Coalition in our patriotic search for a better Sierra Leone.

We need to break away from some old allegiances that were meaningful in their time but which unfortunately have been overtaken by the realities of a changing world and can no longer offer us the solutions that we seek.
We must all rise above ethnic chauvinism, reduce patronage in public institutions, cub corruption among public officials and make the stage work for ordinary citizens.

Our new party is calling on all Sierra Leonean – irrespective of party affiliation, region of origin, and ethnic identity and religious affiliation – to join us in taking our country back. At the end of the day, a good leader is someone who leaves his or her state in far better shape than it was when they took over as leaders of their country. Measured in terms of this common sense proxy, the late President Kabba left our state in a far better condition than it was when he took over a war-torn and broken nation in 1996. And when the candidate chosen by the party to succeed him was defeated in the 2007 presidential elections, he gracefully did the right thing by peacefully handing over power to the APC after his party’s defeat, Kabba was clearly putting his Country First ahead of his party.

Let us hope and pray President Koroma will follow Kabba’s example and hand over power to a new generation of leaders in the forthcoming elections in March 2018.

To this end, we have full confidence that the National Electoral Commission is fully capable of rectifying the 30,000 missing voters expeditiously from the hard copies of the registration forms. However, we express deep concern over the technical integrity of the voter machines, the software for voting tallying etc. We should learn from the Kenyan experience and capacitate NEC and not undermined it.

Today, more than ever before, Sierra Leone, our country, needs people of courage and integrity and fortitude. So, let us stop sitting on the fence. I call on all well-meaning Sierra Leoneans, all those who truly care about Sierra Leone and want real change to take place, those who want this land that we love to take its rightful place in the community of nations, those who want their children and grandchildren to grow up in a peaceful and prosperous country to join me and become a members of the National Grand Coalition.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my wife and my family, the KKY Movement, our many friends and supporters, at home and abroad, for their steadfast support and continued confidence in my candidacy. With God’s grace and guidance, we shall succeed in bringing change to our beloved Sierra Leone.

Long live the people of Sierra Leone !
May God bless us all !