By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
My Krio relatives would have said, “Dis tin full me mot” in relation to the Communiqué that was fathered by the mediated Dialogue of October 16 to18 this year, between the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the All People’s Congress (APC), at the Bintumani Hotel in Freetown.
But even when one is short of words, or words refusing to come out from one’s mouth because of shock or fright, there will come a time when one will be able to find the short, or lost, words to express one’s thought process or processes.
I have deliberately refused to comment on that Communiqué simply because I regard it as a worthless document full of hidden betrayals beautified with high-sounding nonsensical phrases and wordplays. So, it is one of those dead horses that do not need any flagellation from me because it would be an effort in futility!
After the 2018 and 2023 presidential debacles of Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara; it now appears that he is not destined to be the man of the moment (s) in the APC and outside that party. It is my opinionated opinion that he seems to have missed countless opportunities, during the run-up to and after the June 24 general elections in 2023, which would have presented him as a decisive political figure and the kind of leader which the APC is known for or has been craving for after the departure of former President Ernest Bai Koroma at its rudder. His occasional unguarded gaffes and untailored playfulness, in situations where a little sternness would have scored him and his party major political gains against the SLPP, are indicators that Dr Samura Kamara doesn’t seem to appreciate the seriousness that goes with being the leader of the APC at very crucial moments.
But whatever one may say, or write, about Dr Samura Kamara; he will never be robbed of the fact that he has played his own role to the best of his educational ability and work experience which history and fate predestined for him. So, it is now left with him to make the best decision that will be in the best interest for him, his family, the APC, and Sierra Leone.
Now to the crux of today’s One Dropian dropping: the notion that another APC generation must rise. On this, I will premise my argument on a quote from Chinua Achebe’s book, “There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra”, which says that: “Every generation must recognize and embrace the task it is peculiarly designed by history and by providence to perform.” This is what all the key players, or so-called key players, and presumed key players in the APC should think about to know whether their time is yet to come; their time has come, or their time has passed in the political theatre both at party and national levels.
Politics, in my opinionated opinion, is generational. And for me, one political generation should begin from the start of a struggle, or the setting of a political agenda, unto the era when the aims and objectives of that struggle are achieved, or when the political agenda is fully implemented. Narrowing down this generational notion to the APC as a political entity; the first generation started with the late Siaka P. Stevens and ended with the late Joseph Saidu Momoh. And the second generation started with former President Koroma and should end with Dr Samura Kamara’s two presidential debacles. So, now, a third generation must rise from the ashes of the last two presidential debacles!
But it should be noted that there is always going to be some in-betweens and fragments from one political generation to the next. But these in-betweens and fragments should get it at the front of their minds (they might forget it easily if they get it at the back) that they should only serve as facilitators for the smooth transition to the next generation. They must not think of becoming the leaders of the next generation.
But I will never argue that the leadership of the APC in the last six years has failed in every sphere of political leadership. They did what they did under extreme difficult circumstances. They experimented with new ideas and strategies. But it appears that those ideas and strategies didn’t work for the APC simply because they were, and still are, very un-APCian in their methodologies! And besides, the current APC leadership doesn’t seem to have the political stamina to match-up the youthful crop of SLPP front-liners simply because either their hands are tied or they have been subjected to intricate blackmail by the Bio-led government. So, it will be honourable for them to facilitate the smooth transition to the next generation if they truly love the APC as they always say they do.
One of the realistic realities for the APC is that it needs to clear its current swamp of sellouts and saboteurs. It has to replace them with a crop of skeletons-less party ideologues who have never been tainted by all the “shitty-ness” (is this another One Dropian dropped word?) with which SLPP leaders have been painting past and current APC leaders with.
The APC needs a leadership with brains and balls, and with the audacious audacity to confront the monstrosities which are personified in the Bio-led government. It needs a leadership that cannot be blackmailed by the SLPP; a leadership that will match-up the SLPP man-to-man in the alleys, on the streets, and even in the gutters! And the APC is badly in need of fresh and new breed of ideologues whose political capital and integrity cannot be questioned!
As I see it, the APC is now at a crossroads. It has to take the road that was not taken in 2018 and 2023. It has to go back to its ideological roots. And all those who, since 2018 to 2023, have been the key players, or so-called key players, and presumed key players should now do an introspective introspection of themselves so as to advise themselves on whether their time has passed in the political theatre or not.
As Achebe notes, “Every generation must recognize and embrace the task it is peculiarly designed by history and by providence to perform.” Indeed. The current generation of APC leaders should recognize and embrace the task of transitioning the APC to a new generation. Maybe, that is the cardinal task “history and providence peculiarly [have] designed” for them to perform! So, they should do it without rancor; without any form of hullaballoo, and without any fight!
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