By Gibril Gbanabome Koroma
gkgkoroma@gmail.com
Sierra Leone’s Information and Communications Minister Honourable Alhaji Alpha Kanu has said in Freetown over the weekend that he does not have a "reckless ambition" in response to a reporter’s question as to whether the conferment on him of a honourary PhD in Political and Public affairs by an Indonesian university has any link to the rumour that he wants to be the next president of Sierra Leone.
"Did I tell you that? I do not have reckless ambition,the office of president has not yet been declared vacant and neither is that of the Vice President. Rumours are rumours, facts are sacred. I have never made such a declaration, " he said.
He added that he was simply honoured by Euclid university in Indonesia because of his work in public and political affairs over the years. Kanu was the first Minister of Public and Political Affairs when that Ministry was created a couple of years ago. The current holder of that position is his fellow Port Loko district (north of Sierra Leone) descendant Honourable Kemoh Sesay.
Kanu, a former mining engineer with a Masters degree in Geophysics from the University of Nottingham in the UK, however conceded that he had always wanted to have a Phd in emulation of his older brother the late Dr. Sheka Kanu who had a PhD in English from the University of Toronto in Canada and later became Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to Belgium and other EU countries including Germany in addition to later becoming Foreign Affairs Minister and Finance Minister back home.
Referring to his late brother, Alpha Kanu said he had always aspired to be like him. He also revealed that he actually started doing a PhD at Nottingham university but had to abandon it after two years to return home and contribute to national development. He became a mining engineer in the diamond mining district of Kono, eastern Sierra Leone,then became a businessman in the travel industry and finally went into politics which he described as his "homegoing" or final profession. He was at one time a member of Parliament representing a Port Loko district constituency before becoming Minister heading a couple of Ministries from 2007 to the present.
On his PhD from Euclid university, Kanu said it will serve as an impetus for him to continue his work as a politician diligently serving his country and nothing else. "I am the same Alpha Kanu," he told the reporters gathered around him at the Mary Kingsley Auditorium at Fourah Bay College where the conferment ceremony took place.
In his introductory remarks at the ceremony, the Public Outreach Coordinator at the Ministry of Information and Communications Abdulai Bayraytay described Euclid as a university with an international and intergovernmental status that is well recognized globally.
He said the ceremony was a special convocation in honour of Honourable Alpha Kanu an alumnus of Fourah Bay College and an exemplary public servant.
The Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone Professor Gbamanja said the university thought it fit to honour one of their own who has gone on to his serve the country well. The representative from Euclid university made similar remarks emphasizing the role played by Dr. Alpha Kanu in strengthening the relationship between Sierra Leone and Indonesia.
The conferment ceremony attracted people from all walks of life including cabinet ministers, diplomats, opposition party leaders, top civil servants and ordinary Sierra Leoneans from within and outside the country.
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