Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie – the Delegates’ Choice

Concord Times (Freetown)

20 June 2011

opinion

Freetown — The long awaited 2011 National Delegates Conference of the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) is expected to convene in the next couple of weeks following the resolution of an impasse that stalled the process since March this year. Delegates from across the country will converge on the Western Area to make a critical decision – elect the appropriate person to be their flag bearer in next year’s presidential election.

Considering how difficult it is to wrest power from an incumbent, it is imperative that delegates take cognizance of certain exceptional attributes that will attract the electorate and increase the party’s chances of bouncing back in 2012.

Among the 19 aspirants is the venerable Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie, a distinguished academic and accomplished entrepreneur whose exemplary performance in service delivery to the nation has earned him accolades worthy of a role model.

Television viewers may by now have had a grasp of his remarkable achievements as the longest serving Education Minister in the country’s history. A stunning documentary providing insight into his rich profile is presently been shown on the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation television.

It captures efforts by Sir Milton Margai’s SLPP in attaining independence in 1961, Dr. Wurie’s family and political background, his academic strides from pre-primary school to present day, his enviable academic credentials and why among the rest he possess everything to be the ultimate choice of delegates for the coveted position. What a fascinating stuff!

It is no gainsaying that Dr. Wurie has immense pedigree as far as the SLPP is concerned. From the rebirth of the party in 1996 that culminated in the symbolic planting of the palm tree at the citadel of learning in Sierra Leone, Fourah Bay College, in 1996 to date, Dr. Wurie’s pivotal role in enhancing the well-being of the party cannot be overemphasized.

He was first elected as a parliamentarian under the then Proportional Representation (PR) system as he was fourteenth on the SLPP list at the time.

He could have stayed on in parliament to ably represent his native Port Loko. But erstwhile president Tejan Kabba sensed the potential in him to serve the entire country especially in the education sector which yearned for thorough overhauling after being ruined by the decade-long war.

It was a gigantic challenge that Dr. Wurie accepted to surmount. Tejan Kabba was proved right when by the end of his tenure in office the education sector witnessed a massive turnaround.

Dr. Wurie’s approach was holistic, catering for all tiers of the sector – from pre-primary to tertiary/university. It was during this period of transformation that more children accessed school more than any time in our history; it was during this period that we had more children taking public examinations (NPSE, BECE WASSCE); it was during this period that we had polytechnics to develop the country’s middle level manpower; it was during this period that we had two universities; it was during this period that the girl child was well catered for with a view to increasing their enrolment in schools, it was during this period that Untrained and Unqualified teachers had the opportunity to be trained through distance learning wherever they resided; it was during this period that every chiefdom in the country was provided with a secondary school; it was during this period that all destroyed educational infrastructure were rehabilitated; it was during

this period that university/tertiary students benefited the highest from Government Grant-In-Aid; it was during this period that respectability was restored to the teaching profession through improved conditions of service; it was during this period that we had fewer and far between strikes by teachers and lecturers; indeed, this was the period of glory for the education sector as we slowly gravitated toward accomplishing the Millennium Development Goal on Education.

That Dr. Wurie achieved this feat as a minister there is every indication that he can efficiently carry the mantle of leadership in the country.

Another attribute of Dr. Wurie that the documentary brought out is his religious blend. Though a devout Muslim, he attended mainly Christian schools starting with the Band of Hope School then to the St. Anthony’s Primary School before proceeding to the great Bo School (Government Secondary School, Bo), established for the sons and nominees of Paramount Chiefs, and then did his Sixth Form at the Sierra Leone Grammar School owned by the Anglican Mission. His friends jokingly refer to him as a ‘Chris-Mus’ (Christian Muslim).

Also pointed out in the documentary is the incontestable fact that Dr. Wurie is a true national character. While his parents hail from the North in Port Loko district, he was born in the Western Area and attended school in the Southern province. He worked assiduously to promote education in the East.

The decade Dr. Wurie was at the helm of affairs at the Education Ministry (1997-2007) has been referred to by analysts and political commentators as the decade of education. Delegates of the SLPP who will be coming down to Freetown to make that crucial decision in the not too distant future now know clearly that Dr. Wurie possesses all the qualities they are looking out for in a sellable flag bearer.

They must take a look at that brilliant documentary titled ‘Delegates’ Choice’.

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