By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
The nightmarish thought of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) “stealing” the General Elections in 2028 should, by now, have frightened members of the All People’s Congress (APC) into unity.
But it seems to me that some so-called “stakeholders” (you can read fifth columnists) in the APC are always ready to sell-out their party to the SLPP if they are not given the party’s leadership on a silver tray despite their age, shady character, and political pendulousness.
Sierra Leone today, according to one Reggie Cole in an article posted on several WhatsApp fora on 22 August 2024, “finds itself in chaos—economically crippled, politically fractured, and socially volatile.” This is so because of the willful failure of the APC, as the main opposition party inside and outside Parliament, to provide a well-structured and credible alternative to the unpalatable economic and political dishes which the Bio-led administration has been ramming down the throats of majority of Sierra Leoneans.
Since 2018 to date, the leadership of the APC has not shown any appetite for political power. It has not provided the expected checks and balances required to nurture the Tree of Democracy in a democracy. It appears to have been transformed itself into a “Few People’s Congress” or “Some People’s Congress” instead of the All People’s Congress. And the APC, as a political party, seems to have lost compassion for its “grassroots” because of the unnecessary and pointless intra-party shenanigans and squabbles which is draining its energy to fight the SLPP.
As I see it, it appears as if the APC is yet to actually visualize the direction it wants to take towards attaining political power in 2028. Once again, as it was in the aftermath of the 2018 General Elections so it now seems to be. The party is split right in the middle between two obstinate factions which are now engaged in a war of words on social media with mutual uncouthness! One faction now believes in “Electoral Justice” without giving any clear defined definitions(s) of what “Electoral Justice” is; how it should be fought and achieved, and what the end result(s) should be when it would have been dispensed—if it ever would.
And the other faction, now sarcastically being referred to as “Agenda 2028”, believes that the APC should now be preparing for the next General Elections as the 2023 elections are “done and dusted”. But this faction appears to be leaving a lot of unanswered questions in its trail—creating many rooms for suspicions. If this faction believes that the last elections are now history; then it has to present a workable blueprint on how the party should move ahead.
Now, what I think should be the way forward with the two factions is a synthesis of “Electoral Justice” and “Agenda 2028”. While the APC will be seeking “electoral justice”, it should also be preparing for the next general elections in the event that the “electoral justice” is delayed, denied, or elusive. Mind you, the APC 2022 Constitution gives guidelines on how the party should conduct itself in the event that it loses a Presidential Election and how it should prepare itself for the next elections.
Again, for the sake of an “Ataya Base” or “Long Bench” argument, let me play the devil’s advocate here. Logically, to seek for an “electoral justice” means the APC, as a party, will have to finally make use of the Law Courts (even if reluctantly) to coerce the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) to produce the raw data of the 2023 elections. What happens if, after filing for “electoral justice”, the Chief Justice takes six months to assign a Judge to the case; and the Judge takes two years to sit on the case, and after three years the Judge delivers his/her judgment?
And, besides, experience has taught some of us that Dr Samura Kamara doesn’t have the stomach to ask APC supporters and sympathisers to take to the streets to demand for an “electoral justice”. He is so gentle that he won’t even ask them for a sit-at-home civil disobedience in demand for an “electoral justice”. And the Tripartite Committee, where the APC should have actually demanded “electoral justice” without which it would not have participated in that seemingly Report-signing charade at State House, ended without any meaningful meaning to the APC!
It is my opinionated opinion that what is actually the problem with, and in, the APC is neither the seeking for an “electoral justice” nor Agenda 2028 but the archaic belief in self-entitlement held by some “stakeholders” who strongly believe that without them at the rudder, the APC ship must always be berthed at the quay of opposition!
I can still not comprehend why it is still difficult for some “stakeholders” (you can still read fifth columnists) to accept the fact that what the APC needs now is a leader who has all what it takes to win a national election. It doesn’t matter if one’s grandfather or father was one of those who toted blocks or cements to build the APC headquarters at Brookfields, as long as that “stakeholder” is divisive by nature and has a scandals-filled character; s/he should not be given the chance to lead the party.
And why is it difficult for some “stakeholders” to accept that they themselves are liabilities to the APC’s cause than assets? Why are some “stakeholders” refusing to accept that they are not destined to lead the APC to national elections evidenced by intra-party events from 2017 unto 2022? And why are some “stakeholders” so spiteful of their “comrades” whose only crime for such spitefulness is to be competitors for the party’s Flagbearership?
As the clichéd cliché goes, “a house divided cannot stand”. The APC has to coalesce into a united front to take on the ruling SLPP whether through the fight for an “electoral justice” or Agenda 2028. So, if this is to happen, the party has to engage in genuine reconciliation, restructure itself structurally, and a get itself a leader that cannot be blackmailed by, or prone to blackmail to, the Bio-led administration.
And finally, the current APC media and communication outfits are too loose, uncoordinated, factionalized, and in most cases unprofessionally unprofessional! The party has to find a way to morph all these propagandistic energies into becoming more APC-centric than their current Flagbearer-centeredness. And, least I forget, the APC “grassroots” have to tone down their anti-intellectual rhetoric!
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