Friday September 30, 2005
The Secretary-General of the Sierra Leoneans Avocate For Progress Party , Mr. John Kanu, has called for President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to bow out of the political scene gracefully without interfering in the succession battle.
READ THE STATEMENT BELOW
With all due respect to the office of the Sierra Leone Presidency, The Sierra Leoneans Advocate for Progress Party wishes to register, in the strongest terms, that the outgoing President of Sierra Leone, Ahmad Tejan Kabba, bow out of the Sierra Leone politics gracefully without being perceived to manipulate his succession either by design or by remote control. With the 2007 decisive elections just around the corner, which patriotic Sierra Leonean will not stop to ponder the reason behind the president’s feet-dragging in the setting up of the Political Party Registration Commission: the body which is constitutionally empowered to register political parties in the country? In fact if the president were well intentioned, why would he establish the National Electoral Commission long before the Political Party Registration Commission? Why not simultaneously or the latter before the former?
While we wish to register our appreciation to the out-going politicians for a job half done, we do want to appeal to the out-going president that when the time of their generation of leadership is up, anything done to renew their tenure will not only be futile, but it might boomerang as well. It is certainly an old-fashioned reasoning that once a child is always a child. We are still left to wonder as to why the old-time politicians should harbor the parochial mentality that Sierra Leoneans will never outgrow past mistakes, ignorance, sycophancy and myopic reasoning. In fact the current constitution, which was drafted by these same corps of politicians mainly to protect their hidden agendas, should be revisited and purged of all the clauses of manipulation. Let us use common sense here: how independent is an Independent Electoral Commission or Political Party Registration Commission when their members are appointed by a partisan president and approved by a single-party-dominated parliament? How is this different from a one party dictatorship?
Fellow Sierra Leoneans, be rest assured that we, as a truly patriotic party, have opted to stand up to the challenge to effect a generation change. Inasmuch as we do not underestimate the magnitude of the task, we do believe that, with our shoulders to the wheel, it is doable. What Sierra Leoneans should realize is that these out-going politicians obviously lack the political will, courage, know-how and energy to move the country from its current state. They might be well intentioned but they just cannot do the Herculean job. If we allow them to linger around, we will certainly not expect anything different from our current plight and thus we would not be able to break loose from the vicious circle of underdevelopment with all of its attendant ramifications.
John Kanu
Secretary-General
Sierra Leoneans Advocate for Progress Party
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (001)857-492-2200
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