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| Alie Kabba |
The question has been asked, and fairly so,
about what managerial skills does Alie Kabba possess to become the next
President of Sierra Leone. This is a question that should be asked of any
potential candidate whose name is put forward for the presidency of our beloved
country. However, for us in Collective Action for Peace and Progress (CAPP-SL),
we would rather ask the question: What LEADERSHIP skills does Alie Kabba or any
other candidate for the presidency of Sierra Leone have to aspire to that high
office. Our reason for asking the question this way is simple: We do not need a
manager at the helm of affairs in our country; we need a leader! By that I mean
a leader who can guide and inspire competent managers/technocrats to handle
various sectors of the administration and hold those managers accountable for
their stewardship. Managers, in this sense, are ministers and senior officials
entrusted with the responsibility to oversee and direct the day-to-day affairs
of government.
We
want a visionary and patriotic leader with a passion for nation building, not a
manager who awards contracts to his cronies and makes them sacred cows or
untouchables. We perceive the President to be above management and, therefore,
capable of holding accountable his managers who fall out of line in delivering
on the President’s strategic plan for nation building. In sum, although
management ability is an important criterion for the presidency, it is not the
ultimate determinator. What is required of the man or woman who occupies
the highest office of the land is VISION, STRATEGIC THINKING, SELFLESSNESS,
DECISIVENESS AND LOVE FOR COUNTRY AND PEOPLE; the man or woman who puts country
and people first above all.
Alie
Kabba is first and foremost a visionary leader and fighter for ordinary people
yearning for opportunity and dignity, but the man’s record also clearly shows
that he is an astute manager when it comes to organizing and managing people
and resources. So in responding to the question whether Alie is a good manager
in the context of the leadership of Sierra Leone, we have to look at a bigger
picture. A great leader is one with a vision to take a country to a place it
has not been before, the Promised Land, if you will; one who dreams of bringing
about transformational change to his people, a change that has been long
awaited but never fulfilled, a change for good that goes beyond cosmetic
surgery and drops in an ocean to one that is inspired by the collective will of
the people to change society in its totality, from abject poverty and squalor
to one that improves the standard of living for all citizens. We in CAPP-SL
firmly believe that Alie is that kind of leader.
Our
man is, in fact, both a leader and manager. Alie is Executive Director
for one of the largest and most successful African organizations in the United
States -- the United African Organization (UAO). He has been the CEO of UAO for
more than ten years. During this period, he has, almost single-handedly
developed UAO from its very humble beginnings as an unknown entity to a vibrant
organization that is recognized across America and courted by lawmakers and
advocacy groups.
With
Alie at the helm, UAO has grown to be a strong voice for social justice and
equal opportunity. The organization is fiscally sound with a steadily
increasing budget and staff as well as the power to leverage policymakers on positions
and matters germane to the interests of Africans. UAO’s annual Chicago African
Summit is the premier forum of its kind wherein key elected officials at the
City, State and Federal levels participate to engage with constituents; and
policy advocates, scholars, community organizers and allies convene to discuss
issues and priorities for community development and empowerment.
Through
the work of UAO, the profile of African immigrants in the State of Illinois is
higher than ever before. Our brothers and sisters in Illinois now have access
to more opportunities than their counterparts in other parts of the United
States.
Alie
Kabba’s stature as a leader is recognized in multiple arenas in the US.
He has had a stellar career as Public Service Administrator with the
State of Illinois, where he headed a program with more than $300 million budget
before transitioning into his role as head of UAO. Last year, in
appreciation of his dynamic leadership of UAO, he was awarded a fellowship by a
high profile foundation in the United States that gave him the opportunity to
travel around the US and the world to learn, empower and motivate other leaders
to organize and build their communities. He is the recipient of several
awards for his distinguished leadership roles, and he has been named among the
top 100 black leaders in the US. This is not a small achievement for our
own Sierra Leonean brother from Koindu to receive such accolades!
For
more than ten years Alie has devoted his life to organizing African communities,
and he has been a leading force in several campaigns to push for major
legislative victories on behalf of millions of undocumented and legal
immigrants in the US. He has also testified in the Congress of the United
States of America on issues affecting immigrant communities from Africa, Asia,
Latin America and the Caribbean.
President
Obama was not a manager before he became a US Senator and then President of the
United States. He was a community organizer, just like our very own Alie Kabba,
in the same great city where our man Alie has been knocking on doors and
inspiring his community for a long time. So, my fellow Sierra Leoneans, let our
managers run our companies and make our private sector viable and competitive,
and let us look for and support a visionary leader to build our nation that we
call Sierra Leone. That man, we believe, is none other than the man himself,
Comrade Alie Kabba.
In
the coming weeks and months we shall be tracing the footsteps (and footprints)
of Alie Kabba from the dusty roads of Koindu to the tarmac of the Windy City of
Chicago. So stay tuned for Part 2!
Author:
Bobby
Gboyor, Washington, DC
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