By Joseph Kamanda

The leading candidate in the run for the position of Women’s Leader of the All People’s Congress (APC) -USA, Madam Maria Yanni has promised that if she wins, she will help women make a big difference in the party and Mama Sierra Leone. Madam Yanni promised that under her rule, she will provide great authority, influence, and responsibility for other women in the All People’s Congress and the diaspora.

Those who know her have intimated this press that she is a great fan and promoter of women’s empowerment and development.

Many people I canvassed to learn who would be the most fitting women’s leader pointed Madam Maria Yanni out as the most ideal and suitable woman to occupy the chair. The reasons given are that she is good at promoting gender issues and she is the most educated and experienced candidate who does not only understand the issues at stake but has the ability to implement them for the benefit of women and the APC  in general.

Madam Yanni is a fighter for causes. She acquired that ability from her late father, Mr. Mitchel Yanni, a war veteran of the Second World War, who was a pilot in the Royal British Airforce and bombed the Germans, French, Italians and even Normandy. Mr. Yanni became a staunch APC stalwart even before the era of President Siaka Stevens. He threw himself into service for the APC  as soon as the party was founded in the early 60s when he returned from working in Nigeria, having been introduced to the party by her uncle, Hon. Allieu Muctarr Kallay .

Maria grew up to admire her father who loved the APC and fought for the party during its trials in Sierra Leone. He became a household name in the APC, was a member of the National Advisory Council (NAC) and was liked by the party grassroots and vanguard, helping to galvanize APC members in Moyamba and Bo Districts and turning down persistent appeals then by Prime Minister Sir Albert Margai to join the SLPP. Pa Yanni was arrested and detained at Pademba Road Prisons by the Albert Margai SLPP government many times. They used to flood his cell with water to neck level to drown him. Maria suffered the persecution with her father.

With such a background, Maria is therefore more than qualified to serve the APC-USA as Women’s Leader.

Like her late father, Maria Yanni is a very strong fighter and under her rule as APC Women’s Leader she plans to fight for and promote women to help them gain equality with their male counterparts. But though she will be promoting women’s rights, she has the ability to work across gender lines to forge a cohesive unit between the female and male members of the party.

Maria Yanni is indeed no stranger to the APC and the party’s causes. She has an impressive record of long service to the APC and has been a committed and dedicated worker for the APC, since she joined the party in 1980. She was the first Women’s Leader of APC Ohio Chapter and is currently APC-USA Women’s Leader Vice-Chair 2, working with Madam Mariama Lowe Bangura. She has also served the Chapter in various executive positions including twice being the Assistant Organizing Secretary and first Women’s Leader.

Maria Yanni enjoys so much confidence within the APC Party in general that in 2017, she was invited to Sierra Leone to contest for the parliamentary seat at Bumpeh Chiefdom in Constituency 094, Rotifunk. However, the political wave was insurmountable and instead the then President Ernest Bai Koroma to work in the APC Government’s Oversight Committee.

It can be seen from Maria Yanni’s illustrious career within the APC that she is the most qualified to become the next women’s leader for APC-USA.