The unexpected de facto switch from the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) to the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has raised questions about Alpha Khan’s trustworthiness.
Alpha Khan is also popularly known as the Apprentice, a name he adopted to convince Sierra Leoneans that he had received the requisite political tutorials from former President Koroma for state governance.
The Apprentice was completely clueless that even he was made flag bearer, his chance of becoming President is faint considering a celebrated resolution that is gaining ground in contemporary global politics.
The resolution is no one party stays in power for a prolonged period which is a cause of bloody revolutions, civil disobedience and unrest, deviant behaviours and most importantly the outbreak of armed struggles.
The 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone stands as a glowing testimony.
Also, the Apprentice’s frustration over his failure to secure the Presidency of Sierra Leone clearly isolated him from a society riddled with political disappointments.
He did not ponder the rifts between late President Tejan Kabba and Solomon Berewa as well as that of late President Siaka Stevens and S.I. Koroma.
The sudden move has caused Sierra Leoneans urging President Bio not to trust Alpha Khan despite the President’s approach towards a broad based government of national unity.
The public views the Apprentice’s move as a tactical one to avoid the wrath of the current dispensation especially issues bothering with accountability especially in the management of public funds.
He is successful in that direction since he is the only former APC minister currently tapping into the luxuries of the ruling SLPP.
Khan’s name is not on the list of ministers that faced the just concluded Commissions of Inquiry to render an account of how they supervised their respective ministries.
Similarly, the Apprentice does not face a lingering five-year ban on holding public office in Sierra Leone owing to perceived widespread corruption by the Koroma regime.
The five-year ban and other prevailing circumstances if granted are fertile grounds the Apprentice hope to exploit in his favour to get the APC flagbearer ticket and ultimately occupy the Presidency.
But, such dreams of political machinations would hardly come to reality in the face of a formidable and robust APC resistance to the five-year ban.
It has been trumpeted among certain circles that that Alpha Khan is secretly financing the National Reformation Movement, a loose consortium of inexperienced youths determined to hold the party to ransom.
The apprentice pitched tent with his home party, the APC because he was not made flag-bearer although he enjoyed a lot privileges that due a party stalwart.
During the hay days of the APC, the Apprentice was one of the most respected personalities within the ranks of the party arguably owing to his unparalleled oratory which many Sierra Leoneans refer to as propaganda tactics.
Apart from his lengthy years of his membership into the House of Sierra Leone Parliament, the Apprentice served the APC in three sensitive ministries namely: Ministry of Presidential and Public Affairs, Ministry of Mines and Mineral, Minister of Information and Communications and later Adviser to President and Ambassador-at-Large.
The last post placed the Apprentice in a class of his own as he enjoys supervisory power over all ministries and advise the President accordingly.
The Apprentice also a beneficiary of Le 100,000,000 (one hundred million Leones) from the APC government that landed him in the Prestigious Harvard University in the US where he pursued a course in Strategic Leadership.
While in this enviable capacities of government service, Alpha Khan struggled with credibility problems since a cross section of Sierra Leoneans saw him as a celebrated liar and chief propagandist.
Some Sierra Leoneans, apparently hypocrites and sycophants provided an eclectic defence of mere allegations meant to smear the Apprentice’s personality.
However, the weakness of their defence became clear when the Apprentice misinformed Sierra Leoneans about the a 20% growth projection of Sierra Leone economy by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Sierra Leoneans were taken aback with such a bogus statement as it did not reflect the reality on the ground.
The Apprentice’s statement portray Sierra Leone as a nation with a buoyant economy where the majority should not scratch their heads for their daily bread.
However, the exact opposite was happening in Sierra Leone as a great majority of Sierra Leoneans were going to bed with hunger at the time of the IMF projection.
Other basic necessities to make life worth living were virtually absent. No gainsaying the people wallowed in abject poverty at the time.
Back to the Apprentice’s unreliability in the country’s political landscape.
In the race towards the flagbearer ticket, Alpha Khan was a well-known confidant of former President Koroma. The latter is always thrilled by the former in his public speeches neatly spiced with imageries, hyperboles and rhetorics.
During the connubial bliss of former President Koroma’s daughter, the Apprentice witnessed the ceremony playing the role of the greatest comedian the world has never known.
In his public appearances, Alpha Khan would always hail the former President as the ‘Filed Marshal,’ the ‘Conqueror’ and most notably ‘Keblai,’ the traditional title of Bai Bureh, a famous traditional ruler who championed the course of the Early Resistance Movement in Sierra Leone.
The Apprentice, though a geologist by virtue of an M.Sc. degree in Geo-Physics he proudly acquired from Oxford University in the UK, he could be mistaken for a language philosopher, a quality he banks on to turn every Situation in his favour.
Indeed, he has succeeded in turning the SLPP fortunes to his favour, most likely, at the expense of his party.
No one can rule out the fact that the Apprentice may divulge critical APC strategies to the Green Land as he was a key campaign strategist in the APC especially in the 2007 and 2012 elections and is aware of every step taken to win an elections.
Very close to 2018, the Apprentice, being an incredibly, graceful dancer, danced very well when he learned that President Bio would be made an SLPP flag bearer in coming weeks.
“ The SLPP has scored an own goal if Bio is made a flag bearer,” the Apprentice said in one of his campaign trips.
The statement there connotes that President Julius Maada Bio would impossibly secure a presidential victory for the SLPP.
The statement became viral and swept through the entire country.
Key SLPP figures bought the Khan’s idea that the President would not secure them the much desired victory and trumpeted it to various communities in Sierra Leone.
But, President Bio knowing fully what he wanted, doggedly went with zeal and passion, remained steadfast, endured the heat of the day and the cold of the night and emerged stronger man.
Today, the apprentice is with him as a strategic Adviser, Social Mobiliser and food Gatherer.
The objectives that took him to SLPP are ostensible, but there is a latent one which remains a closely-guarded secret.
The latent objective, is to see that President Julius Maada Bio avenge for him by devastating the chances of any APC flag bearer becoming President of Sierra Leone.
If President Bio succeeds in that covert objective, Alpha Khan would be his loyal friend, but if he fails, Alpha Khan would discontinue his friendship and return to his root-the APC.
It is only time that tells the future of Alpha Khan in the SLPP.