By Osman Kargbo
The one-time leading politician in the Ernest Bai Koroma-led APC government has heaped several accusations against the government he served for good 11 years and the party he dwelt in for decades, saying the APC disappointed him.Alpha Kanu, the swing politician, who is presently serving in the government of the man and leader he negated as less capable to serve this nation as president, was yesterday Monday 28 February 2022 over the air using rhetoric in trying to explain his disappointment with the party and government he enjoyed and benefited from for more than a decade.
“I did not disappoint the APC. If you want to know who disappointed who, ask the APC. I did everything I could for the APC. I was the best advocator for the APC; I put in everything I had to advocate for the APC. I was at the frontline, the back, in the middle and on the sidelines. I was the overseer. I saw it all, to serve the APC,” Alpha Kanu, the SLPP’s recently appointed Resident Minister for northwest, said at the Good Morning Salone Talk show programme of Radio Democracy 98.1.
But how disappointed was Alpha Kanu when he had well paid job as Minister of Presidential and Public Affairs, Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Minister of Political and Public Affairs, Minister of Information and Communication and later Adviser to the President.
The former strongman of the APC vented out his disappointment in saying that the only person who would have been able to succeed in winning the 2018 presidential election under the APC ticket was him.
He expatiated on what he told the APC prior to the party choosing a standard bearer for the 2018 presidential polls. “I don’t want to sound immodest,” he intimated. “I said without me APC would not win. I said it on TV and I said it on radio. I was surprised that they didn’t choose me to serve as the 2018 presidential aspirant. After which I was completely marginalised.”
Alpha Khan sang a song with deep meaning in the Temne language that says: “If you have two girlfriends or wives and one decides to hate you, and the other is showing interest, you would go to the other one who loves you”, which is what he has done between the APC and the SLPP.
He said he was systematically marginalised and sidelined by the party he had worked and suffered for over the years. And since he was left to “rust” by his APC party, he had no alternative but to join or go to his other wife or girlfriend, which is the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP).
“So I decided to sit down quietly and was called upon by the President to serve the state in NaCOVERC in the fight against COVID-19,” he said, adding: “I did not search for the job. And if the President decided again to promote me to serve as Resident Minister for northwest, I see no reason I should not serve my nation. I am simply serving the state; not the SLPP. My serving the SLPP-led government is answering to a call for national duty, although I am still a member of the APC.”
Alpha Khan also denied ever criticising President Julius Maada Bio as being less capable compared to Dr Ernest Bai Koroma to rule or lead Sierra Leone as President.
However he said what freaked him more about President Bio was the Free Quality Education flagship programme of his government, which he related to the philosophical saying of the Greek Philosopher Aristotle, saying: “If you have a vision for one year, plant grass (rice); if you have a vision for ten years, plant trees and if you have a vision for lifetime, educate the children.”
Responding to the question about plans for his district, the Resident Minister said: “It is the SLPP government that has plans.” According to him, he is only working to promote the plans of the government as a team player playing from the wings of the field.
Talking about developments the government has so far registered in his district since the SLPP assumed the reins of power, Alpha Khan said: “President Bio has done a lot for us in Port Loko. In 2012, he used our sister as his running mate; in 2018 he used our brother Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh as his running mate; so you can see that President Bio has love for us.”
Minister Khan said his district of Port Loko has been seeing and experiencing “good amount of interventions and developments” under the leadership of President Bio and VP Juldeh Jalloh in the last four years or so.
He added that the SLPP and the APC should not yet be compared in terms of delivering developments since the former has been in office for just four years while the latter was in office for 11 years.
Alpha Khan, who was trying to hide behind his finger about his intentions of joining the SLPP to canvass votes in the upcoming general elections, said it should be noted that he is now an “old man”, when the question of returning to the APC and helping them in their campaign was put forth to him. But when the same question was put to him regarding the SLPP, he said he was still undecided whether or not he would join the SLPP campaign team in his district. He further said Port Loko is his territory and no one could play a game well more than he does on the political field of that district.
However, it is a matter of time, it will be dawned on the winger Alpha Kanu, who enjoyed the Ernest Bai Koroma-led government for good 11 years serving in various capacities as Minister of Presidential and Public Affairs, Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Minister of Political and Public Affairs, Minister of Information and Communication and later Adviser to the President.
