Author: Ibrahim Whyte Sesay, New York, USA In breaking news that has blitzed social media and lit discussion forums all over cyber world, Alie Kabba, the Executive Director and CEO of one of the largest and most successful African organizations in the United States, the United African organization (UAO), has joined the race to become the flag-bearer of the SLPP. In a town hall meeting in College Park, Maryland, USA, Kabba declared that he would run a campaign that is based on ideas and vision, and not of insults and the impugnation of the characters of opponents. “At this point in time, when our beloved country is literally struggling for its life under the horrific assaults of Ebola, grinding poverty, bad governance, and a youthful generation scarred and traumatized by joblessness and hopelessness, why should I attack my patriotic fellow SLPP aspirants, who are fighting to give succor to the country? The SLPP did not bring Sierra Leone down to its knees. That inglorious distinction belongs to APC. For me to lambast my SLPP compatriots and give a free pass to the APC authors of our current travails will be an act of political idiocy and cowardice,” Kabba explained with calm emphasis. Alie Kabba is one of the most storied student leaders in the annals of student activism in Sierra Leone, for his courage in shaking a defiant fist at the one-party APC dictatorship in the eighties. As president of the Fourah Bay College Students Union, he led demonstrations against the statist rot that President Siaka Stevens was presiding over. APC’s retaliation was swift and brutal, and Alie Kabba, along with other students, was jailed at Pademba Prison and swiftly expelled from the university without his degree. With determination and fortitude however, he was able to get undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Ghana, University of Nigeria and University of Illinois at Chicago. Alie has not only worked to advance the cause of his fellow Africans in the United States, but has also consistently and altruistically helped his people in Sierra Leone, a fact he humbly tried to downplay when I interviewed him. When asked about his efforts in his home town of Koindu, or his construction of a library in Kenema Secondary School, or buying musical instruments for his beloved Bo School, Alie said that he was just grateful to these communities and institutions for nurturing him in his youth. One of the positions that Alie has vowed action on, should he become president, is to empower the districts to have the fiscal and legislative mandate to take over functions that the central government is currently so incompetently exercising. He plans to devolve power responsibility from the center to the districts, in an effort to make government serve the people better and more efficiently. He decries the ever-growing power of the presidency, which he blames for the loss of accountability. He plans to cut the presidency to size, reduce its powers, and empower Parliament so that the president will become a servant, and not an emperor, of the people. “Mine will be a government of democratic accountability, and not the unbridled concentration of power in the presidency,” Alie asserted. Alie bemoans the fact that Sierra Leone spends about 15.1% of its GDP on healthcare, one of the highest in the world, with nothing to show for it, as is being so tragically shown in the current Ebola tragedy. Apart from his plans to pursue a robust policy of building hospitals and health centers at the town and chiefdom levels, he plans to encourage private health entrepreneurs-Sierra Leoneans and foreign nationals- to participate fully in the healthcare sector through tax breaks, grants, and other incentives. He believes that the mining of the country’s natural resources has only benefited a few well- connected people and left places like Kono and the Rutile mining area an ecological wasteland. He intends to revisit the mining contracts, and if these contracts are found to be predatory or corrupt, or not adding value to the country’s economic development, he plans to institute a transparent review process. “I would rather prefer the country’s resources stayed in the ground for the next generation, than allow a few ravenous and corrupt individuals and gangsters to suck them dry and line their pockets at the country’s expense,” he said. He plans to revamp the moribund education sector and ramp up vocational and technical schools to teach auto and diesel mechanics, consumer electronics, plumbing, HVAC, electricity, agricultural tech, road maintenance, and other technical trades to help unemployed youths find jobs, or through government loans, become self-employed. He hopes to scrap the corrupt and nepotist granting of scholarships that leaves hundreds of thousands of deserving students frustrated. “I will canvass our international partners and use our own resources, and work with the banks to set up a system of government-guaranteed educational loans to all students who have been admitted to college. The current system is a mess, and we will no longer hold our kids hostage to this dysfunctional educational system.” He has massive plans to ramp up agriculture and establish a farmers’ bank to support our rice, cacao and coffee farmers, and to work with them to establish a system for them to get fair pricing for their produce, and a support system for the farmers to get easy access to farm machinery and fertilizer. Alie believes that these measures will revitalize agriculture again, and he hopes that the increased produce will play a critical role in the free lunch program for school children he plans to implement as President. Alie also plans to bring a measure of justice to Sierra Leoneans who have not been given full voting and citizenship rights. “Sierra Leoneans of Lebanese descents, who were born here and whose families have lived in Sierra Leone for generations, should have full citizenship with full rights and responsibilities. I believe Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora should have the right to vote whether they choose to exercise it or not. Some politicians have been playing games with these so-called sensitive issues for a long time. As President, I will work to pass legislation that will grant full citizenship to all Sierra Leoneans of Lebanese descent and a Diaspora Voting Right Act to ensure that all Sierra Leoneans participate fully in our democracy. Lets work together to build an inclusive and just society for all of us – everyone in…no one out!” he asserted. When asked to name the two most important infrastructural developments he hopes to realize if elected, Alie answered with confidence: “Electricity and the railway are interchangeably numbers one and two. Without a reliable source of electricity, Sierra Leone will never develop. We have to find a source of reliable electricity or we will never be able to build the factories to produce the goods to grow the economy and create jobs; and we will not be able to attract foreign investment. As for the railway, we need it urgently. Without the railway, agricultural produce will rot in the fields and our country will never be truly connected. APC destroyed the railway. SLPP will bring back the railway!If elected, I will start the railway and put down those first rails, and leave a template for future presidents to work on and complete this great task.” This is Alie Kabba, a candidate with a clear vision of where he plans to take the country. Author: Ibrahim Whyte Sesay, New York, USA
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 16:16:05 +0000
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