The Acting Chairman of the National Grand Coalition (NGC), Jesmed Suma, has in an interview with the African Young Voices (AYV) television questioned their alliance with the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP).
According to the acting chairman, NGC polled the third highest number of votes in the 2018 and 2023 elections and subsequently entered into a progressive alliance with the SLPP administration, but that they as a party questioned the provisions of the alliance, especially having to do with appointment in the current administration.
He noted that the alliance is shaky at the moment since their expectations on appointment they agreed on have not been met.
Chairman Suma further noted that many sympathisers of NGC questioned the party’s resolve to enter into an alliance with the SLPP.
“This doubt is said to have stemmed from the fact that the party’s presidential candidate, Dr. Yumkella in the 2018 elections vehemently condemned both the SLPP and APC of being the issue with Sierra Leone concerning development.”
Suma emphasised that some executive members of the NGC including Alan Luke, Dr. Dennis Bright, and Nyamacoro Sillah, resigned weeks before the alliance was forged.
According to the executive members,leaders of the NGC forged the alliance due to their selfish and personal motives, adding that Yumkella and some other NGC members said the agreement was in the interest of the nation.
Since President Maada Bio of the SLPP was announced winner of the June 2023 elections, only Yumkella has been appointed by the administration.
It could be recalled that before the June 24 elections, the SLPP and the NGC signed an agreement which led to formation of an alliance.
According to Yumkella, he and President Julius Maada Bio worked together as members of the NPRC regime with a clear focus on developing Sierra Leone.
Yumkella said: “President Bio and I did not enter politics because we are happy. It is because we care about Sierra Leone. So, when President Bio told me to return to the SLPP party to join him in the transformation of our country, that opens invitation was genuine even though other sectors of the public were thinking otherwise.
“The only thing we have been talking about all this time is how we are going to consolidate our peace, hope, and national coherence in our beloved country. We are worried. We have lately seen division, whereas some people have started preaching hate, malice, and violence,” he climaxed.
Credit: Concord Times
