By Felix Sesay, Virginia, USA.
The burden of recruiting Sierra Leoneans to join the All Peoples Congress Party (APC) during the second half of the 1990’s in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area was like an albatross around Sidi’s neck .The political climate at home and abroad, at the time, pointed to the fact that the APC was under political life support. Sidi therefore realized an urgent need to resuscitate the APC by bringing in old and new members.
When I relocated to Virginia from Leeds, England in 1996, Sidie approached me twice, inviting me to join the ranks of the APC membership in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area. During our second meeting, I suggested to Sidi Sheriff (photo) that as an antidote to address the reluctance of Sierra Leoneans to join the APC, why not simply change the name of the party? Mr. Sheriff was not receptive to my suggestion. His disposition towards me suddenly changed to the point of hyperventilation and finally he said to me “that will NEVER happen!” Our meeting ended on a disturbing note.
However, Sidi never gave up on me. In fact, a few years later, he introduced me to his uncle, Dr. Abdulai Conteh. During a wrongful death suit filed in a Fairfax Circuit Court of Virginia, Dr. Conteh helped me secure the services of a key expert witness. I prevailed on that five year law suit.
I finally heeded the call to join APC during Ernest Koroma’s first fundraising event in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area. I got a phone call and the caller said “Felix, your boss is in town and we are having fundraising dinner for him.” As a former employee of Reliance Insurance Trust Corporation (RITCORP) and after seeing how Mr. Koroma’s dynamism transformed a budding RITCORP to one of the top two Insurance companies in Sierra Leone, I wasted no time to accept the invitation.
Thankfully, Mr. Sidi Sheriff has recently stoically set the record straight about the rebuilding of APC in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area after its collapse during the 1992 NPRC coup. I bear testimony for his aggressive recruiting efforts on behalf of the APC. Speaking for the reputation of Dr. Sylvia Blyden, Sidie made it clear that Dr. Blyden simply perceived as fact what she knew at the time about the rebuilding of APC in the 1990’s.
The author, Felix Sesay.
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