Since President Julius Maada Bio’s first visit to Kambia District where he visited the home of the Leader of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) in Parliament, Hon. Alhaji Dr. Kandoh Kolleh Yumkella (KKY) and asked him to return to the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), the NGC leader has reportedly not been the same again.

In reply to the president’s request for him to return to his late father’s party, Hon. Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella told the president that: “ar ol word” (a Krio phrase meaning I will get back to you).

Since then, many Sierra Leoneans have been speculating that the NGC Leader in Parliament is about to jump ship from his current party to the SLPP where his late father was one of the founding fathers.

There are strong indications that President Bio is desperate to bring back KKY to the SLPP because he needs the northern votes in the 2023 elections, considering that the NGC Leader hailed from a ruling house in Kychom, Kambia District. There are other speculations that if he agrees to join the SLPP, President Bio is thinking of making him his running mate for the 2023 presidential election.

But what makes the whole issue delicate for KKY is the fact that in Parliament where he is the Chairman of the Political Affairs Committee, he has severally sided with the All Peoples Congress (APC) leadership on many Bills that the SLPP had wanted to pass without scrutiny. There is also another speculation from the main opposition side that if he joins the APC, he might be considered a possible candidate for the APC running mate slot.

From the look of things, KKY is yet to choose between the SLPP and APC, as most of his supporters believe he will never leave the NGC which he helped to form from scratch.

It could be recalled that on 22nd August 2015, Dr. Yumkella returned home to Sierra Leone and made his intention known to join the SLPP’s 2018 push to return to governance. But on 3rd July 2017, he publicly announced his decision to suspend his bid to contest for the presidency under the SLPP. He said that the SLPP was under “mis-leadership” and had lost its focus and credibility. He then announced that he was joining forces with other credible Sierra Leoneans to establish a National Grand Coalition.

The NGC registered with the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) and was granted its formal license on 18th October 2018. After he was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate for the March 2018 presidential and general elections, Hon. Dr. Kandeh Yumkella asked Sierra Leoneans in his acceptance speech to remember that “both the APC and the opposition SLPP have cumulatively been in power for almost 56 years, referring to them as twins – Alhasan and Alusine, otherwise meaning that they are birds of the same feathers”.

He furthered that, “whilst the APC has excelled in bringing the country to its knees in the last ten years under President Ernest Koroma led administration, the SLPP has eminently distinguished itself by transforming itself in this century into the most naked and offensive tribal political party in the history of our country. Given the track record and legacy of these two so-called traditional parties, I call on you to deeply examine your consciences and agree that the APC and SLPP have both failed this nation”.