By Mabinty M. Kamara
Alhaji Mohamed Alpha Kallon, the newly-elected deputy Leader of the Sierra Leone People’s Party has promised to canvas and win votes in Bombali district northern Sierra Leone for his party. The district has mostly voted against the SLPP.
The politician and businessman said as a northerner with strong background in the east and a good interpersonal relationship with his people in his two home districts of Bombali and Kono he was sure to get his northern people to support his party to win a parliamentary seat at least.
Kallon told Politico that he joined national politics in the 90s and that he has held executive positions in the SLPP in Bombali district as chairman for constituency 034 in 2013, served as acting regional chairman for the north for four years in the absence of Dr. Abass Bundu. He said he also served in the Elder’s Council in the northern region which, according to him, made him “better understand the political dynamics of both his party and the country”.
Kallon said, “I am in the driving seat now and I am going to work with everybody. I will make sure to talk to my northern colleagues to support the SLPP. I know that’s a bit hard because the APC has its stronghold in the North, but with me being where I am, I’m sure I will get the desired support there in terms of winning parliamentary seats”.
Speaking on his plans to make the party vibrant, he said together with his boss, Dr. Prince Alex Harding they will ensure that the young people of the party become self-reliant by creating job opportunities and access to financial services. As a farmer cultivating rice in his hometown, he said he has over 150 women and youths employed on the farm on contract. “When you go to other countries, you see political parties taking their own responsibilities like creating employment for their people. They don’t leave that to just the government. The political parties mobilize people and employ their members especially the youth and give micro-credit and training to their women so that they can sustain themselves,” he said.
Kallon added that: “I want them to be self-reliant; we cannot use them as thugs to perpetuate political violence. It is very easy to achieve. Right now, I have created employment for over 200 people in Bombali district in the Addax bio-energy company. Guards from my security company are there.”
He also called on other people within the party to help in creating jobs to support their party members.
Kallon said the strategy to win the 2023 elections is something he will not divulge to the public but that they are still strategizing, “we know that our opponents the APC, are currently disorganized and we want to keep them at bay and disorganized as they are. We don’t wish them any bad luck, but we want to keep them at bay like that, let them continue to be disorganized.”
He warned all to remain peaceful and focused, saying that “election is just a means to select our leaders and not to fight to get our leaders.”
Kallon was elected Deputy Leader of the party in the just concluded party convention held in Bo on the 29th and 30th of December 2021.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (10/01/22)
