Kandeh Yumkella, after raising hopes for a third force, surrenders to President Bio , and leaves nation disappointed

What many Sierra Leoneans, including COCORIOKO ,  have been predicting for long that the huge hope for a third force to upset the SLPP/APC  duopoly in Sierra Leone–Dr. Kandeh Yumkella- will sell out and pitch tents with President Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP) has happened.

Yumkella has surrendered the cause and joined Maada Bio, the man whose supporters bludgeoned him out of the SLPP Headquarters and poured urine on his mother.

When Kandeh Yumkella feigned political integrity and independence and formed the National Grand Coalition ( NGC ) in 2018 , it excited many Sierra Leone who are tired of the predominance of the APC and SLPP  since Independence but it did not take long for disappointed Sierra Leoneans to suspect that the NGC  was just a satelite party of the SLPP and the pull of opportunism would be too strong for Yumkella to resist.

Now Kandeh Yumkella, by his action, has proved Sierra Leoneans right that the country suffers from a lack of principled politicians with integrity.

The hope for a credible third force to challenge the APC  and the SLPP  died a natural death in Sierra Leone and many Sierra Leoneans are fuming in the social media.

KANDEH YUMKELLA’S TWEET ON THE ISSUE

After a year of dialogue, we have reached a crucial turning point in our country’s political history, where we prioritize peace and set aside personal ambitions for a better Salone. Together, we will make a difference. Let’s continue to work towards a brighter future for Sierra Leone. Thank you,

President Bio and VP Juldeh Jalloh for a productive meeting. #SaloneFos #ProgressiveAlliance #Unity #Stability #Development #PoliticalCohesion.

SOME VIEWS BY SIERRA LEONEANS, MANY OF THEM HAPPY WITH THE ALLIANCE BUT THE MAJORITY VERY DISAPPOINTED

Mohamed Lamin Sesay

Itz Ibrahim Denelson Kallon

YUMKELLA AND THE NGC
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At this point, Yumkella and the NGC are a massive distraction. Amidst an ocean of depression, they truly are a bi-monthly generator of distasteful headlines. Without an ulterior interest of some sort, no reasonable person should buy the NGC’ surrogating itself to the SLPP as an act of caring for the country, peace and blah, blah, blah. They don’t.

You cannot wish to correct a wrong you have not acknowledged or vehemently spoken against. Amongst other things, if you joined those who are failing a country it is because 1) you are either oblivious or not affected, and 2) you have not seen any fundamental disagreements in their policy-thrusts. Therefore, you’re convinced of their amenability to ideas you possessed, to tweak theirs for better. That, is hardly the case here but selfishness.

What Yumkella and his NGC are doing is gaslighting: giving people the impression that hardships they’re experiencing aren’t real but in the imagination. And that widely chronicled killings were just bad mistakes or actions taken to excess. But all will be measured, and even more amazing, if they could integrate themselves to the fold. Dreamers.

The primary, and secondary reason the NGC existed at all, is because Bio and his mates in the SLPP were not, and are never unifiers. Their record speaks for itself. The NGC was an aggrieved split from the SLPP. Crucially, immoderate SLPP language and behaviour that drove Yumkella and others out remain uncompromisingly the same, solidified from the start of their tenure to now. Listen to them on tv or radio, it’s like they own the country – untouchables. But, come to think of it, they actually do. They can do whatever they want, unhinged by anything.

Who positions themselves as busters of corruption but sack an Auditor General, and then exclude themselves from subsequent audits? Never mind, Yumkella alone, is going to moderate that? And importantly, his influence is such that it’s most demonstrative, and useful near a crucial election? Madness.

Yumkella was forced out in 2017 because the SLPP was convinced it could win in 2018 without him. And they did! But of course, Yumkella is so clever, that didn’t happen. 2023, he’s bluffing otherwise as Mr Indispensable. It’s such a shame he’s forgotten this small matter: he, Yumkella, is the ultimate evidence in the public conscious of Sierra Leone’s ruthless party-politics.

Right now, Yumkella’s support is approximately an unscientific zero. His peak support was 2018. If they found his ideas and following superfluous the last time, if not parochial over-reliance on self, what gave him the confidence Bio and the SLPP would not kick him out after the elections?

The economy is decimated to zero. Government salaries are unreflective of a lack of productivity; presidential and official travels are criminally unrestrained with allowance in the millions of dollars. Above all, a party and president are roundly criticised for balkanising the country. But according to the NGC, at least, people should see a glint of hope in Dr Yumkella joining the other PdD from Bakke Loko, plastering cracks with uplifting rhetoric like, ‘let’s continue to work towards a brighter future for Sierra Leone’. How original. Isn’t that the same as ‘Poapa Salone go betteh’, or One country One people? How are those two platitudes going, mate?

Yumkella killed the NGC and he knows it. He never allowed the party to build on the momentum of 2018. His only interest in politics is himself, and specifically, being President. Unfortunately, barring the most unlikely tectonic shifts, that ambition might have evaporated. No shuffling or bad breakdancing with Bio could even begin to reverse the damage he caused himself and those who had faith in him.

‘Progressive’ parties coming together? How in the bloody hell can one associate the distinct and dynamic political category, Progressive, with killing prison inmates in the middle of the night? Oona lef, bo!

SLPP and supporters have earned the right to gloat. Given. Neutralising the NGC and Yumkella is a strategic success. Well played, Bio. However, in actuality, it is Yumkella coalescing with the SLPP. NGC supporters have long gave up on Yumkella, game over, kaput. In fact, they supported him the last time precisely because he stood opposed to the SLPP/ APC bipolarity.

Debunking the excuse, again, and again: The idea that the mighty Nelson Mandela, formed a coalition with the brutally racist, whites-only and aptly named National Party of South Africa, in the interest of South African progress, is deeply offensive to the great man’s memory, African ambition and most importantly, South African Black victims of apartheid.

An opposition is a vital component of democracy, even one as nascent as Sierra Leone’s, to apply pressure and hold government to account. If Yumkella wanted to affect change in Sierra Leone, the original NGC was the best position to do so. The minute you destroyed your own party to join the ruling party of five years, you are announcing to the world that you have you have no problem with their stewardship and have reached a consensus on ideology and policy. So Yumkella and the NGC fool no one.

The fact of the matter remains this. If there is any one person worthy of celebrating within original NGC ranks, it is without a question, the impeccable Dr Dennis Bright. He went to prison for his beliefs while Yumkella played blind to grotesque human rights abuses committed by the friends he’s now returned to. Dennis Bright quit the NGC the minute he identified ideological discord. He did so without joining another political party in anger because he believed in the NGC he thought he joined. He’s maintained a dignified silence since that publicised departure. Class.

Everything, every small sign of a shoot, has withered within the last five years; the economy is so bad, the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, a PhD holder himself, absconded months ago. But Dr Yumkella without an ounce of curiosity, is resolute in the Jesus-complex of positioning himself as the missing jigsaw to make the SLPP tick. Phantasmagoria. Meaning: fuck it, you look it up and do with it what you wish.

Absolutely not. It cannot be far-fetched a summation to say Yunkella never left the SLPP. When it was revealed the president pardoned a convicted killer, Yumkella in his superior intellect made the excuse, that those around Bio should have briefed him better. As if it is not a president’s primary responsibility to acquaint himself thoroughly with his brief. That sort of overt excuse for a blatant wrong, without criticising, is called fishing for an approach. And Bio duly obliged him.

Sorry, the NGC’ and Yumkella’s re-coupling with the SLPP is not for the country, but a lazy political calculation to sustain their careers.

Bitterly disappointing, all that hope has turned out giving succour to the view held by many people, that politically, Sierra Leone is short on leadership.

(C) Rasta