By:Mohamed M. Sesay (Lucky)
It has indeed pleased President Julius Maada Bio to recompense Honorable Alusine Kanneh as the Chief Immigration Officer for his ineffaceable services to the nation.
Honorable Alusine Kanneh is a native of Tunkia Chiefdom with specificity of Gwegbema Tunkia who diligently served the Fifth Parliament in various capacities including the Deputy Chief Whip of the Fifth Parliament and the Chairman on the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs which the Immigration Office falls under.
Honorable Alusine Kanneh holds a degree in Public Sector Management from the University of Norway and a Master’s degree in Leadership and Governance from the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM). He has also worked with the Norwegian Immigration Services.
Honorable Alusine Kanneh’s political Sojourn was premised on his quest to fulfil his passion to render services to humanity. The People’s Honorable Alusine Kanneh was called upon by the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to come and represent his people of Constituency 013 representing Nomo and Tunkia Chiefdoms for two consecutive terms with indelible development footprints in the constituency.
During the Fifth Parliament (2018-2023), Hon. Kanneh deliberated in almost every debate leading to the enactment of over eighty progressive new laws including the 2022 Employment Act.
Heeding to that clarion call from the Party, Honorable Alusine Kanneh was left with no option but to abandon his comfort zone of Norway and come to Sierra Leone to represent his people of Constituency 013 under the unfavorable leadership of President Ernest Bai Koroma in 2012. With all the hostility of the APC rulership towards taking development to the South-East in 2012, Honorable Alusine Kanneh placed importance on the interest of his constituents which helped him to navigate through the Fourth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone under the leadership of S.B.B Dumbuya.
Honorable Alusine Kanneh’s enviable representation of his people compelled the SLPP leadership to give him another safe sailing to represent his people in the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.
The unmatched exhibition of leadership qualities of the newly crowned Chief Immigration Officer obliged the leadership of the Fifth Parliament to appoint Honorable Alusine Kanneh as the Deputy Chief Whip of the Fifth Parliament, and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs. That appointment was a supervisory leadership he held throughout the Fifth Parliament wherein, the Sierra Leone Police, the Immigration Offices, the Sierra Leone Correctional Centers across the country and other security agencies, were under his auspices for parliamentary oversight and supervision.
Honorable Alusine Kanneh was directly manned with the responsibilities as the Chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee to provide advice and recommend to all the offices that fall under Internal Affairs Committee for an outstanding performance across the above-mentioned institutions.
Thus, President Julius Maada indeed acted the wisest wisdom to appoint Honorable Alusine Kanneh as the New Chief Immigration Officer due to his avalanche of experience in the office of Chief Immigration Officer. There is not even an atom of doubt that Honorable Alusine Kanneh has the required qualifications and resume to transform the Immigration Offices to the satiation of the nation.
As Chief Immigration Officer (CIO), Hon. Kanneh would supersede the issuance of the country’s passport and other traveling documents which is infamous for being in the wrong hands. He might be under pressure too to review the unfavorable Net page passport agreement that promised services that it is not rendering despite a high cost in foreign currency.
Among his job portfolios is that of the issuance of visa, and resident permits for foreign workers and regulating the movement of people in and out of the country.
In a brief chat, Hon. Kanneh said that an assessment of the institution will be done and is to be followed by legislative and other reforms that will make the institution meet the high expectations of the public.