When President Julius Maada Bio publicly extended to Hon. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella an olive branch to return to SLPP and join forces with him to build Sierra Leone, the President’s action demonstrated an act of brotherhood and national unity.

The President did what he did in good faith, because he genuinely believed, as he humbly admitted at the Yumkella’s compound in Juba months later, that neither he nor Dr. Yumkella or any single leader is capable of building the Sierra Leone that her people deserve. That admission of fact was honesty and excellent leadership.

The truth indeed is that no single person can lead any nation to prosperity without the support of other leaders. Dr. Yumkella also believed President Bio’s assessment of the type of leadership and political cohesion that we need in Sierra Leone to transform the lives of its people and their communities.

It is important to clarify that although President Bio was cognizant of the fact that KKY was the leader of NGC in Parliament and a pivotal stakeholder of that party, his invitation was limited to KKY. In usual circumstances in sub-Saharan Africa and other nations where opportunities are few and the executive arm of government is powerful, such invitees neither “ol wod”—buying time to think things through—nor hesitate to accept the honor to serve their country at the blink of an eye. However, being an exemplary, selfless leader, Dr. Yumkella chose to carry along NGC and his constituents by proposing a strategic alliance to President Bio and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) that would include joining forces with NGC to build and foster national unity.

Dr. Yumkella’s “ol wod” took as long as we have been waiting because of two very important reasons. First, such high level discussions with the President and a well-established political party like SLPP require plenty of time and careful dialogue. Second, KKY was fully aware of and highly respected the fact that the NGC Party had to first give a mandate to form an alliance. Thankfully, the supreme and highest decision-making authority of that Party—the National Delegates Conference—gave the mandate for NGC to pursue a strategic alliance with any political party.

It would interest the public to be reminded that NGC was given a similar mandate to form the Conference of Progressive Political Parties (CoPPP) with opposition parties, including the APC. The four NGC executives who resigned (only two were members of the NGC National Executive Committee—NEC), were very involved and highly interested in seeing CoPPP succeed in that direction. Unfortunately, CoPPP failed because the largest party in that consortium did not understand or agree to the idea of national unity. That is one of many characteristics that set President Bio and KKY apart from the leadership across the aisle, hence how and why SLPP and NGC have been able to progress with the transformative strategic alliance.

The SLPP—NGC Strategic Alliance will soon reveal what it is and what it means to and for Sierra Leone. The alliance will seek to unite our divisive country by bringing together the North and South. It will ensure fair representation in our body politics by embracing the practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The alliance will address the most important issues to Sierra Leoneans, like the economy and social cohesion. While KKY and NGC are committed to complementing and improving the good works of President Bio and his administration in human development and other areas, President Bio and SLPP are in willing position to receive new ideas that will expand development, create more jobs, increase accountability, safeguard our people with sustainable peace, and build a national unity government for all Sierra Leoneans.