Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella was not appointed as a Cabinet Minister but to many, he is the biggest of the winners in the post-Elections appointments of His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio.

This piece takes a look at the appointment.

Section 56(2)(b) of the Sierra Leone Constitution says that any person who has “contested and lost as a candidate in the general election immediately preceding his nomination for appointment” is immediately disqualified from being appointed as a Cabinet Minister or Deputy Minister.

This constitutional dictate is the reason why the APC party’s Honourable Diana Finda Konomanyi was not appointed as a Minister between 2007 to 2012. Although she had worked very hard for the 2007 APC Victory but Madam Diana had contested for Parliament in the 2007 General Elections and lost. She thus was disqualified for the entire 5 years until after the next General Elections of 2012. However, she was easily appointed after the 2012 Elections and she became the most powerful female Cabinet Minister in the Ernest Bai Koroma government until the APC lost the 2018 Elections.

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This is the same situation that Honourable Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella finds himself today. He has contested for Parliament but lost in the just concluded 2023 Elections which swept President Bio in a formidable re-election to State House.

Although Yumkella lost the parliamentary elections, his role in increasing the number of votes of the President and ensuring there was no need for a Run-Off Elections meant he was widely expected to play a key role in the Second Term of President Maada Bio but in which capacity, was not known as he was disqualified from being appointed as a Cabinet Minister.

Last Saturday’s announcement of the rest of Cabinet Ministers and Other Appointments gave the answer.

A formidable local & international platform has been created for the Honourable Gentleman from Kambia District as the Chairman of newly created Presidential Initiative for Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security.

He is not a Cabinet Minister but the appointment reportedly goes with the protocol status of a Cabinet Rank meaning he gets to enjoy all the privileges and protocols due to a sitting Cabinet Minister.

When the appointments are looked at, it emerges to many observers that Hon. Dr. Kandeh Yumkella is actually the biggest winner in all the post-Elections appointments of President Maada Bio so far.

Not just because of the very vast reach of the three sectors under the Initiative but because though expansive, they are areas in which Yumkella is very comfortable and will find it easy to operate within despite how formidable they appear.

The man now heading the Presidential Initiative for critical global issues of Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security, has worked in global roles that make him a prime candidate to manage such an initiative and produce results.

He was at the UN as an Under Secretary to the UN Secretary General where he chaired and served as CEO for Renewable Energy Initiatives which of course dealt with Climate Change too.

He has chaired, led many meetings and raised tremendous funds for Agricultural Developments globally when he was at UNIDO as the Director General.

Finally, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella has been given an appointment where he fixes his own times and schedules. He can work flexibly within three critical sectors whilst on his own terms and at his own pace.

The greatest aspect about such a platform is that it gives him a lot of laxity to run things locally and internationally at his own pace and with his own discretion. He is not tied down to running a Ministry like Ministers have to do daily on a 9am to 5pm basis. He can do what he likes, when he likes and how he likes. It is not a typical 9am to 5pm job.

It is one of the greatest jobs ever given to a Sierra Leone politician and it is going to be interesting to watch it all unfold.

Let me end by extending Congratulations to the Honourable Gentleman from Kambia District. Cheers.