|
Koroma heads for Addis Ababa |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 30 January 2008 |
 Among those travelling with President Ernest Bai Koroma is the leader of the Sierra Leone Parliament, Hon. Momoh Pujeh, a man who has been described by political analysts as one of the most resourceful members of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party.
It is therefore expected that this particular delegation to the AU will achieve worthwhile results for the benefit of Sierra Leone just because men like Momoh Pujeh will be sitting side by side with President Ernest Bai Koroma and offer his honest advise and counsel.
The loaded agenda of the African Heads of States in Addis Ababa which includes a look at the problems of the aftermaths of a heatedly contested election in Kenya, President Koroma himself who has recently successfully concluded a general election in Sierra Leone would lend support to the restoration of peace so that the real problems of Kenya can be looked into in a constructive and peaceful manner.
There is little doubt that President Koroma would make a significant contribution to this year’s AU agenda as experience has shown that he has always meaningfully participated in other important meetings of Heads of States.
His first meeting with Heads of States took place recently when he attended the ECOWAS summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where his contribution to the debates at that August meeting resulted into West African countries uniting to fight criminality in the sub-region.
Shortly after that, President Koroma took part in the Commonwealth Heads of States conference at Uganda where he met the Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II when he was granted audience by Her Majesty the Queen due largely to the fact that he was the latest democratically elected leader to attend the Commonwealth conference in private audience with the Queen.
Moreover, President Ernest Bai Koroma’s performance at the Commonwealth earned Sierra Leone much respect for which the Royal Family and the government of the United Kingdom have extended an invitation for the new Head of State to hold discussions with various components of the British society where he would be privileged to introduce his agenda for turning Sierra Leone around and secure the necessary funding that it entails.
For more than thirty years now, some African Heads of States have been wishing for an invitation from Her Majesty and head of the Commonwealth and never had that privilege.
President Koroma, in his first three months in office has clinched a royal concession that has eluded other Heads of States for the past thirty years. This is what we mean by spectacular success.
At the AU Summit, President Koroma who has already recommended an illustrious son of the soil, Dr. Abdulai O. Conteh, for the position of Secretary General of the AU, leaves no room for doubt that the government, under his leadership, means business and Addis Ababa is the place for that business.
The recommendation of President Koroma is rumoured to have received widespread support among other African Heads of States for a Sierra Leonean to head the African Union for the first time since its inception in 1963.
It can be recalled that it was during the APC era and through the recommendation of the then Head of State, Dr. Siaka Probyn Stevens that a Sierra Leonean, Dr. Abass Chernor Bundu, became Secretary General of ECOWAS.
If President Koroma succeeds in transforming Dr. Abdulai O. Conteh as Secretary General of the AU in his next summit at Addis Ababa, Sierra Leone would have had the single honour of having headed two important secretariats in the African continent, the ECOWAS Secretariat and the AU Secretariat.
President Koroma himself has said over and over that failure in not in his dictionary and therefore not an option. It is hoped that his new bid to put Sierra Leone on top of the AU will bear fruit when an illustrious son of Sierra Leone, Dr. Abdulai O. Conteh, becomes the next Secretary General of the AU.
|
Gallery 
