Flag bearer hopeful for the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and former United Nations envoy, Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella (KKY) has in a tribute to the former PPRC Chair, described him as “a great and honourable man”.
Speaking to Awoko, Dr. Yumkella further acclaimed the former Judge of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone, the late Hon. Justice Tolla Thompson as “an upright man full of integrity” and who served his country also with diligence and commitment for the national good. “I was quick to realize these fine patriotic and nationalistic traits in the man during the short time I came to know him,” Dr. Yumkella stated.
He recalled between January and June this year, when a certain burning issue in the SLPP was tabled before the late PPRC Chairman. He recalled the dexterity with which the legal luminary dealt with the matter, admitting that it went far beyond his expectation.
“I first thought he would not be able to handle the matter at that level, after listening to both parties. But he dealt with it in a way that saw both aggrieved parties accepting with no conditions. He rather shifted responsibility to the parties concerned to ensure that democracy works within the SLPP,” Dr. Yumkella recalled, adding that to a greater extent, he executed his role beyond partisan considerations.
“This is a man that I personally admired, for his patience and time to listen to aggrieved sides of a political party; time that he should have used to rest given his age and length of service. But he sacrificed more to ensure that peace and democracy prevail within and among democratic institutions of the land he so much loved,” the SLPP Flag bearer hopeful maintained.
He added that since the time of putting the issue to rest, he had always found time to visit the former PPRC Chairman “to tap from his experience, and I will enjoy his healthy political debates in which he manifested some amount of neutrality based on the fact that he was holding a public office and his duty was to serve humanity and the country with impartiality. This made him earn my respect and I believe the respects of many politicians and registered political parties in the country,” Kandeh Yumkella pointed out.
Dr. Yumkella also mentioned that despite he is in and out of the country, he quietly followed the activities of the PPRC and even though some members of political parties were being recalcitrant and stubborn over intra party issues, he will always try to negotiate for a win-win situation.
He maintained that he had been very frank with colleague politicians in this discuss. “I will tell them to their face that political parties are not social clubs for self-aggrandizement, but institutions of people from various backgrounds and cultures who have the same vision and ideology to bring change and better the lives of their compatriots.”
The SLPP Flag bearer aspirant went on to refer to the PPRC as “the fundamental building block of democracy in the Sierra Leone” and urged the President Ernest Bai Koroma in particular, to read the PPRC Act “very carefully” before making his choice to replace the honourable Justice Tolla Thompson.
He emphasized, “I am urging the President on this because Sierra Leoneans will want to see a successor who believes in democratic pluralism and fair democratic processes and one that is incorruptible and impartial,” the SLPP strongman concluded.
By Ade Campbell
Monday October 10, 2016
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