By Alhaji Haruna Sani
“People want change, and they need someone they can trust to deliver a positive transformation of Sierra Leone. I believe the time has come for me to step up.
I believe that I can bring our party and our people together and lead our country to meet this challenge,”Omrie Golley, former Ambassador to South Korea was on January 21, 2023 officially declaring to run for the flagbearer position of the All People’s Congress (APC) Party.
“I am therefore announcing today that I am standing to be the flagbearer for the APC, and the next President of Sierra Leone. I have been with the APC since the early 1990s. I have supported the party in good times and in difficult times”.
Omrie Golley promised to continue supporting the values of the party and have great respect for his brothers and sisters who have already declared their candidacy for flagbearer in the APC.
The former Ambassador made his declaration in the Southern District town of Pujehun where he was welcomed in a grand style by thousands of APC supporters, most of whom were direct beneficiaries of his nation-wide agriculture project.
The occasion was not only graced by APC stakeholders in Pujehun District and the Southern Region, but also by senior members of the party at national level.
Abassador Omrie Golley said it was a privilege and honour to be in Pujehun – the place he called home – to speak with his people who have a great desire for change.
He said two decades ago, in the darkest times in Sierra Leone, he put himself at great personal risk to help bring peace to the country before he served as an Ambassador for the nation.
He said as Ambassador he worked to strengthen the fragile peace the country’s had won by securing investment and resource for development and building Sierra Leone’s reputation across the world.
“I then established agricultural projects across all corners of our country to support and educate our people in modern farming techniques that deliver food security,” Ambassador Golley noted.
He said it was time for him to announce that the time has come for him to take a more central role in building a better future for Sierra Leone, adding that in days and years to come, fellow citizens and their children, even their grandchildren, will look back on that hour and day, and recognise it as the point when Sierra Leone finally demanded the future it deserved.
The Ambassador said the task facing this generation of leaders is not to make promises, maintaining that the challenge is not to allow a small minority to grow wealthy by the efforts of millions of hard-working honest people.
The international Lawyer promised a new energy, a new hope and a new optimism that will transform Sierra Leone and make the kind of change everyone want to see in reality
“You know that I am an experienced peacemaker and unifier. I will end the division in our party and bring people together. I will unite North and South, Muslim and Christian. I will bring all our tribes and factions together. There is a reason that my campaign message is ‘Forward Together,” Ambassador Golley noted.
He advised that unity is the most important quality required of the APC flagbearer, stating that only if the APC is united they can defeat the current President.
As President, I will build on this experience to transform agriculture in Sierra Leone, making the most of our God-given advantages to achieve food security and end the widespread hunger of our people.
Ambassador Golley promised to tackle endemic corruption in our society and ensure that the mining of natural resources benefits all, not just a small few.
“And instead of just preaching from afar, I have made personal sacrifices, used my own resources, my own skills, my own two hands to start building that future”.
Speaking at the event in Pujehun District Party Head Office, Chairman of the event Hon. Charles Rogers of the APC welcomed Omrie Golley who he said has energized the APC in Pujehun District.
He said during the rebel war, Golley left his comfort zone in England and travel to Sierra Leone to trek in the forest to persuade the leadership of the rebel to give chance to peace.
He said Golley was later jailed for no just reason until Former President Koroma appointed him Ambassador to South Korea.
Rogers noted that as Ambassador, Golley was the pioneer of the tallest building in the country before he launched his nationwide agriculture product.
Vetran APC supporter, Hon. Amara Adikali Kamara noted that it was unique to see Sierra Leoneans from all corners of the country united to register their support for Ambassaor Omrie Golley.
He said Omrie Golley is a man with national flavour who has zero tolerance for corruption, regionalism, nepotism, tribalism and partisan politics.
“Omrie Golley has helped the APC when the party was in dire need. He was a leading pioneer of peace who during the rebel war helped the APC with over One Hundred Dollars to run the party’s activities,” he explained.
Other speakers included former Minister of Transport and Aviation, Hon. Balogun Koroma, Issa Soko Tarawally, youth representative, Ms. Cecilia Ngobeh, senior APC stakeholder, and Councillor Zainab Mansaray of ward 247, all of them applauded Golley’s tremendous showcase of nationalism.