26 March, 2008

Raymond Bai Kamara, Freetown

Yayah Kalokoh Declares For Mayor

Yayah Kalokoh decalres for Mayor

“We are all Sierra Leoneans - let us come together in unity and one voice to build a better metropolis through commitment, attitudinal change and transparency.” These are the words of Yayah Kalokoh, one of the latest of Sierra Leoneans living abroad (USA) that has shown interest in the contest for Mayor in the Freetown municipality.

In a press conference held at the APC party office on Wednesday 19th March, 2008, Kalokoh told the media that, it is His Excellency, Ernest Bai Koroma that called upon Sierra Leoneans living in the Diaspora to come and join fellow Sierra Leoneans in the transformation of the country, and that he has decided to return home in response to the call of the President.

Kalokoh said for over two decades he has been studying and working at home and abroad.

In highlighting his professional experience, he included his eight years of service in the USA as a Naval officer and a veteran of international military campaigns in the Middle East and the entire Gulf region, and also experience as a financial analyst. He said that he is currently a budget analyst at the USA Department of Commerce, Census Bureau Elections Office, Virginia, USA. According to him, he has completed a series of professional studies for example, Appropriations Law, Accounting, Budgeting, and US Military Leadership.

According to Kalokoh the above credentials are instruments that will greatly help him to deliver for the people of Sierra Leone. He said for him charity must begin at home and therefore whatever be ones success abroad, home must be the major recipient of that success. This is his motivation and it has made him to immediately respond to President Koroma’s call. He said the USA needs his experience but strongly believes that Sierra Leoneans need him more.

Kalokoh said he his here to serve and to contribute the much needed transformation of the country. He said Sierra Leone needs not only robust changes but also a new vision and a thinking that will enable it regain and blend its past with its present so that a very fine future will be built. This will go along way in reaching its goals of the new millennium. Articulately, Kalokoh highlighted some of the challenges we are facing in the 21st century and that these challenges require a new vision and thinking especially after a senseless war that put a match to the lives of every Sierra Leonean. He said the Freetown City Council needs not only qualified and experienced people but more people with the required vision and above all, passion.

When elected Mayor of this historical, great and noble city, he promises to work very hard in ensuring accountability, and to be effective in the equitable distribution of the resources of the municipality to all its constituents.

He promised that officials he will make it incumbent upon officials to correctly dispense their duties and obligations properly. He said transparency and competition are the hallmark of socio-economic development of every great nation. This will lead to a result which has the potential to provide jobs. He said as in the private sector, ascension to the position of Mayor must be highly competitive for every Sierra Leonean and the people be given the chance to freely choose the person that will honestly serve them  in that office.

He said as the capital city of Sierra Leone, Freetown needs genuine strategies for its socio-economic liberation. For us to make it greater than its current status, he said, we should not only be demanding what it can do for us but we must rigorously think what all of us can do together to make her better.

“I look forward to head a Freetown City Council together to make her better matched with other cities of the world,” Kalokoh urged. “As Mayor, I will not only want to work hard to change the culture of complacency, but more importantly to repair and redesign the landscape of Freetown and it’s environ for the maintenance of its natural beauty,” Kalokoh stated with confidence. Kalokoh said if given the opportunity, he will not be doing his work alone but be doing it with all of Sierra Leone. He said he will use his international influence to reinstate the lost values of the Freetown municipality.

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