PROFESSOR LAMENTS DRIFT TO ONE-PARTY STATE IN SIERRA LEONE

Monday May 30 , 2005

A professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia  in the United States  , Dr. Jimmy Kandeh,  has lamented the  gradual drift to One-Party state in Sierra Leone.   Dr. Kandeh has also lashed at what he called the “Humility deficit”  in our Presidential aspirants .

Expressing his opinions at Leonenet-TAMU  last weekend on the political situation in Sierra Leone, Dr. Kandeh lamented the fact that Sierra Leone “is a virtual One-Party state now with no ideological or pragmatic difference between the  SLPP  and APC or any of the other so-called parties.”

Dr. Kandeh condemned the opportunistic trend politics was taking in Sierra Leone , where so-called opposition politicians were busy crossing over to the ruling SLPP. He wondered whether the SLPP  was becoming home to predatory and rogue politicians and asked whether the party can ever say “No to damaged poilitical goods.”

Dr. Kandeh drew attention to the fact that  John Karimu , who was once Chairman of the National Unity Party ( NUP) and  former All People’s Congress ( APC ) big wigs Musa Suma and Abdul Karim Koroma had all crossed over to the SLPP.Koroma alone, he complained, had moved to and fro between the SLPP and APC  three times. He also described Finance Minister J.B. Dauda as another nauseating example of a politician who will swing over to whichever party is in power, and “sucking up to Kabbah , rather than working to put  right the wrongs and injustices of our society “.He wondered when the SLPP  could cease to be a patronage outfit and mobilize the grassroots for development.

The University professor has also said that the humility deficits in our presidential aspirants was alarming. Since SLPP  aspirants Charles Margai and John Ernest Leigh’s speeches were published, many Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora have been commenting on them .

MEANWHILE,  news from Freetown is that another fledging outfit, the Young People’s Party ( YPP)  has planned to cross-carpet to the SLPP. According to the INDEPENDENT  newspaper, the YPP  said that its executive committee has decided to form an alliance with the ruling SLPP.

The YPP  has been showing praises on the SLPP and President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. If the party crosses over to the SLPP,  it will not surprise Sierra Leoneans because the YPP  never really made any impact , having been blighted  very early in its carreer by personality differences between the founder of the party, Mr. Cornelius Devereaux and the Chair woman, Sylvia Blyden.

PHOTO : President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah , whose government is being accused of edging Sierra Leone closer to a one-party state.