Finally, the political fog in which Hon. Dr Alhaji Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella aka KKY, the leader of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) in the House of Parliament, has been hiding in all the last five years has cleared. And the people of Sierra Leone have now seen the true character of KKY.
By forming a so-called “strategic alliance” with the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), KKY has not only sold his soul to the devil (figuratively) but explicitly endorsed the misrule and grand corruption of the government of President Julius Maada Bio. He has finally told the people of Sierra Leone that the only thing that is consistent about him is his inconsistency. He has now made it loud and clear that he has only been concerned, all this while, with putting his own political interests first than those of the country. And he has also shown that his words, promises, and even his name cannot, and should not, be trusted anymore!
But we, in The Nationalist Newspaper, will be surprised if most Sierra Leoneans are surprised at the chameleonic nature of the NGC leader. Those who were with him at Njala University, in his student days, will not be surprised because the way and manner in which he conducted himself in students’ politics then was nothing to write home about. His current deceit, indecisiveness, and lack of empathy for those he leads are some of the characteristics he exhibited whilst he was a student at Njala University. And for those who don’t know: Kandeh Yumkella allegedly became the first Students’ Union president at Njala University to be impeached for alleged financial impropriety!
Hon. Dr Alhaji Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella aka KKY, the leader of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) in parliament, has always appeared to be a two-tongued unprincipled politician who loves playing to the gallery. In his “Acceptance Speech” as the presidential candidate for the NGC for the 2018 Presidential Election; he unequivocally stated that, “…the SLPP has eminently distinguished itself by transforming itself in this century into the most naked and offensive tribal political party in the history of our country”. And as a sort of postscript to his fake anti-traditional parties stance; he noted that, “…. When you have fought so hard to get back on your feet, don’t ever go back to the very same APC and SLPP parties who knocked you down …”
So by going back to the SLPP, which has “knocked” down majority of Sierra Leoneans with the cudgel of misrule, grand corruption (as highlighted by the various Audit Reports by Audit Service Sierra Leone), consistent human rights violations, and the continuous bastardizations of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone; KKY has not only eaten back his vomit but also showed that he is an opportunist who wants to grab political power at all cost!
But President Bio, who has shown to be a sort of great manipulator, knows that KKY has always been attracted to the trappings of political power just like how insects are to lighted bulbs. Little wonder that his acceptance into the SLPP’s fold last Sunday, at the Bintumani Conference Centre at Aberdeen in Freetown, in a so-called “strategic alliance” launching had all the hallmarks of the biblical fable of the Prodigal Son. And the exaggerated fanfare that accompanied that re-entry was shamefully shameful in a shameful way!
Indeed, KKY is a sort of Prodigal Son who has now been pitied by President Bio and his SLPP not because he needs to be pitied but because he has willingly presented himself as a tool to be used in this year’s presidential election. He appears to be the lost sheep who has sheepishly found his way back to the goat-stead but who might be taken to the abattoir, after June 24, because the herder may hold the thought that he might stray again into the wild.
But it is sadly sad that Hon. Dr Alhaji Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella has gone back to “the most naked and offensive tribal political party in the history of our country (in his own words)”. It is tragically tragic that the NGC leader in parliament, after having “fought so hard to get back on [his] feet”, has gone back to the very same SLPP which spat at his mother’s face and shut the party’s gates at his own face—making him looked like a bull in china shop! And it is funnily funny that KKY will now be one of the proxies of President Bio and his SLPP in the June 24 general elections.
We, in The Nationalist Newspaper, believe that the so-called “strategic alliance” between the SLPP and NGC is going to be one of the grandest political deceits committed against the people of Sierra Leone. We hold the standpoint that President Bio wants to use what is left of the NGC and presents it to both Sierra Leone and the international community that if voted in June this year, the next SLPP government would be different.
The Nationalist Newspaper will end this editorial by telling both President Bio and KKY that it will be fruitless, and even pointless, to try to fatten an emaciated cow at the eleventh hour on “Luma”.