KKY’s theory on why corruption in Sierra Leone (and nearly all of Africa) has festered – he dubbed the “Garden of Eden Syndrome”.

The explanation for the perplexing poverty in a country like Sierra Leone in spite of its abundant natural wealth, according to Hon. Kandeh Yumkella (KKY) who was probably the most successful and most world-famous Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); and who then regularly travelled around the world and hobnobbed with the global elite of the richest and most powerful people on planet earth – is the “Garden of Eden Syndrome”.

“They soon realized that their salaries couldn’t upkeep their predatory and pernicious lifestyles; so they resorted to corruption, and exploitation of the poor”: KKY punched; diagnosing as Sierra Leone’s bane the political culture of “elitism”; and “‘ba nya fake ee'” (ostentation, and pretentiousness); and Garden of Eden Syndrome.

I pointed out to the hope which the Ben Kaifala-led Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) presents – in earning high rankings from Transparency International, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which positions Sierra Leone to get for the first time $600,000,000 (six hundred million dollars GRANT) from the United States Government MCC programme; and asked KKY whether he would help the SLPP-led government of Retired Brigadier Maada Bio to lobby the US government for the $600million.

Even today, while KKY appears to be just an ordinary parliamentary in tiny Sierra Leone, the global elite still seek him out for his Obama-like erudition and resonance; his leadership abilities in the realm of sustainable energy especially: KKY is the only black man in the International Energy Agency, the leading think tank on sustainable energy issues.

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