Dr. Abdul Karim Koroma (pictured), one of Sierra Leone’s most distinguished sons, passed away at a Freetown hospital yesterday, July 1.
It was a gigantic shock for most people, including me. As usual, I sent him a Whatsapp message on June 28 seeking advice on something. After a few hours the reply came:
" Gibril, I am currently in hospital, sick. Will contact when I am ok."
Little did I know that was his final goodbye to me. I never heard from him again until t saw the announcement of his death in a Whatsapp forum.
Dr. AKK was a role model and source of inspiration for many of us from Tonkolili district. For a long time he was the most prominent and lone Tonkolili voice among successive APC ministers. He appeared to be aware of this huge responsibility and did everything in his power to help his people but he also helped many other Sierra Leoneans from all ethnic groups and all regions. He was also one of the best Education ministers Sierra Leone has ever had. He shone in every ministry he was assigned including Foreign Affairs.
He had a brilliant academic career from Magburaka Secondary School for Boys, just a few miles his home town of Mabonto,(where he was born in 1944) to the Sierra Leone Grammar School (sixth form) and Fourah Bay College and the university of Southampton where he specialised in International Affairs.
Korthor (elder brother in Temne) AKK never stole a penny from the people of Sierra Leone, one of the very few former ministers that was never accused or indicted for corruption.
That was why he was brave enough to write a widely read book titled Agony of a Nation, a visceral exposure of the underbelly of APC corruption and putrefaction. He was supervising the publication of a revised and update edition of this book when he was taken away by the Maker.
In one of our many telephone conversations covering almost everything about Sierra Leone, the name of a former president came up.
" Gibril, that fellow is a big thief. I knew him quite well in and out of government. But he was not like that when I was teaching him at the Magburaka secondary school for Boys. He has changed quite a lot. "Orkaye, wan." (He is a thief, I tell you."
Rest in perfect peace, Korthor AKK.
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