FCC Acting Mayor Commends Theo Nicol’s Politics

Acting Mayor of the Freetown City Council Mayor, Alhaji Gibril I. B. Kanu, has described the politics played by Theo Nicol as the most decent politics played in the 21st century.

He described the politics of this era as not being played by tribe but by issues surrounding the capability of contenders to serve the municipality. Nevertheless, Mayor Kanu maintained that he is a native of Freetown; as a result he is going to contest the forth coming mayoral election for the Freetown City Council.  Furthermore he said the Mayor-ship of Freetown is a position meant to be occupied by those born and bred in Freetown and not just for a set of people who believed their surnames are the machine that is required for the betterment of the municipality rather than their performances and accountability.

He said he was under pressure from people of the Creole community for him not to contest the election because of his surname name, Kanu. He said even at this moment staff of the council are threatening to go on a sit down strike because of their two months salary backlog. He said since he took office in December, 2011, following the indictment by the ACC of the substantive Mayor, Herbert George Williams, he had been paying Council staff every month as early as the 26th or 28th.

He said just because he tried to change the financial structure of the Council the staff decided to join his tribalistic rivals to bring him down.

He said the staff had worked in the Council for five months without salary during the days of the former Mayor, but they did not raise any alarm because he is a Krio. He said since he chose to run for the position Theo Nicol is the only contender that has not thrown any personal attack on him. He said Nicol is one of the few politicians that discussed issues instead of throwing personal attacks on the private lives of their rivals. He stated that Nicol’s politics is a true reflection of his journalistic profession. Furthermore, he said it is this kind of example that must be set in the politics of Sierra Leone, if the country is to develop.

However, the Acting Mayor said he is contesting the election no matter what challenge he may face in the process.  He said if he wins it is the will of God. He said the people of Freetown wanted him as a savoir to become the Mayor. Like Nicol, he said he will never quarrel with anyone.  Alhaji Gibril Kanu said he is still writing his manifesto which he claims contains the best policies for the development of the Municipality of Freetown. He declared that when he is done, he will be ready to face his fellow contenders like Nicol, in particular, to appropriately debate on issues.

Finally, he admonished his fellow contenders for the mayor-ship of Freetown to desist from playing tribal politics and instead copy the admirable example of Theo Nicol.

Meanwhile, Theo Nicol himself is set to launch his manifesto tomorrow at the Congo Town School compound at 4 pm. He told AYV that he would tackle education, infrastructure, health and sanitation and lawlessness if given the opportunity to serve.