By Joseph Lamin Kamara
Former Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) 2012 presidential ticket candidate has launched an anthology of his newspaper writings in the column “Ponder My Thoughts”.
Andrew Keili, also an executive director at the engineering company, CEMATs, titled his book after the name of his column. The book is a compilation of articles on national issues, which were written and published in 2013 in newspaper syndication.
At the launch of his book o Friday, Keili said he started his newspaper writing 10 years before, when he was co-owner of Salone Times Newspaper of which he is now the sole proprietor.
“’Ponder My Thoughts’ is going to continue,” he said in an interview at the launch, at Kona Lodge in Freetown.
Keili studied Mining Engineering in United Kingdom and has been working in Sierra Leone for over 37 years now, serving as a national policy adviser in the cabinet of late Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
The columnist is a senior member of the main opposition SLPP and an Anglican Christian, and he said his writings were influenced by those backgrounds.
“This is a much needed initiative that accords Sierra Leoneans the opportunity to assess how effectively the governance architecture performs on daily basis. The lucid commentaries shed light on practical side of everyday life for various categories of Sierra Leoneans, bringing out the good, the bad and the ugly,” said Valnora Edwin, National Coordinator of Campaign for Good Governance, in her review of Ponder My Thoughts.
In his own review of the book, Julius Spencer, Managing Director of Premier Media and Proprietor of Premier News Newspaper, said, “Apart from being an engineer, Andrew is a politician and a prominent member of the main opposition party with an eye on the presidency of the country, and so one would have thought that his writing would have overtly or covertly political in nature, but this is not the case. Even though his political leanings feature in his column from time to time, his comments easily pass the test of fairness and his own party has not been spared criticism from time to time.”
Keili said members of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party had been praising “Ponder My Thoughts” because he had not allowed his political background to unfairly influence his articles.
His ambition to become president of Sierra Leone remains, and he says he will not choose a writing career over that.
Meanwhile, the mining engineer urged Sierra Leoneans to develop writing ability, as, he said, there were many issues to write about in the country.
Proceeds of Keili’s book sale at the launch were directed towards the Foundation for Children of Ebola Affected Medical Workers (FOCEM), of which he is a coordinator.
The foundation has branches in other parts of the world and it aims at providing medical, educational and other social cares for children of Sierra Leonean medical workers who died fighting Ebola.
(C) Politico 01/09/15
