By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Is it an epiphany? Well, sort of. Most—if not all—aspiring 2028 presidential candidates of the All People’s Congress (APC) are now, though slyly, seeking the blessing and support of the former APC Leader and ex-President, Ernest Bai Koroma (“EBK” for those who like abbreviations), through cajolery of some sorts.
When Dr Ibrahim Bangura announced his intention to be the APC mascot for the would-be 2028 Presidential Election, most of his flagbearer competitors tagged him as “The Ernest Bai Koroma Candidate” simply because most of his early acolytes were, and still are, unapologetic Koromaists (another early One Dropian coinage). And the manner in which they and their supporters did it, both in the Traditional and on Social Media, had a sort of leprous connotations attached to it. And they also made their speculations looked, and sounded, as if associating with EBK was one of the cardinal sins of the APC’s religious religiosity!
But when Dr Bangura was asked in his first media interview with the Liberty Online TV few weeks ago if he was EBK’s preferred APC 2028 presidential candidate, he replied with icy sarcasm: “Which aspiring APC presidential flagbearer will not want the blessing and support of former President Ernest Bai Koroma?”
And he was, and still is, right! Recent developments within the APC are pointing to the prime pointer that the blessing and support of EBK could be influentially influential in deciding who becomes the APC 2028 presidential candidate after the 2026 National Delegates’ Conference. Just like how it will be extremely difficult for the would-be 2028 presidential candidate of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to disassociate himself from the messy disastrous policies of the Bio-led administration; so it will be catastrophic for any would-be 2028 presidential candidate of the APC not to associate his would-be campaign with EBK’s legacies.
And also, it is now dawning on most of the APC flagbearer aspirants that it might only be EBK who could speak to his newfound Nigerian millionaire friends, or with his current or former colleagues in Africa, to raise millions of United States’ dollars to bankroll an APC 2028 presidential campaign. I might be wrong; but I don’t think any of the current flagbearer aspirants (probably, with the exception of “Jagaban”) has the ability to raise, let say, US$10 million without any outside support to fund their would-be presidential campaign. The truth is: you and I know that some of these APC flagbearer aspirants are little bit better off than church mice and are little known outside Sierra Leone let alone has any foreign networks to attract outside funding.
Even if, after the 2026 National Delegates’ Conference, the APC elects an unblemished popular candidate complete with a Soviet Union era-like propaganda machine; it will still need a war chest to match up the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP)’s unhindered access to state resources. By 2028, the APC would have been in opposition for about ten years and this means most of its stalwarts will have big holes in their pockets or will be operating reddish bank accounts—if they still have any.
And unlike other political parties in Africa that have assets from which they collect huge annual rents, most of the buildings own by the APC countrywide are being used by the party either as headquarters or offices; so they are not generating rents. And monthly dues collected from Members of Parliament, Mayors, District Council Chairmen, Councillors, and ordinary members cannot even run the party’s headquarters in Freetown effectively for two weeks let alone run a nationwide presidential campaign. So, it follows that international financing of some sorts is needed to oil the spinning political wheels.
And besides, presidential elections in West Africa are no longer local. Political parties and their presidential candidates are always looking out for foreign finances and influences. President Julius Maada Bio’s 2018 “victory” and John Mahama’s December 2024 second inning in Ghana are just two of the few examples of how regional blocks could influence outcomes of elections in West Africa.
And this is where EBK’s ECOWAS and AU networks will be handily handy for the APC 2028 presidential campaign! The former APC leader and ex-president’s seemingly exile in Nigeria appears to be more of a blessing than the expected torment which the Bio-led government thought it would bring to him. His villa in Abuja, the Nigerian administrative capital, now seems to be a sort of Temple Mount (or Al-Aqsa Mosque if you are a Muslim) to former Nigerian Presidents and multi-millionaires. It is said that to celebrate his birthday last year, about four Nigerian millionaires figuratively threw down the dice to know who should be the lucky person to foot the bill for his birthday party. So, from a post-2018 APC pariah; EBK now appears to be the must-go-to man!
Suddenly, EBK’s democratic and economic legacies are now in vogue within APC-dom. It is now surprisingly surprising to see some aspiring APC flagbearers, who before now were distancing themselves from everything associated with EBK except the appointments or opportunities given to them by the former President, posing with practised smiles with original copies of the latest book on EBKs legacies titled, “Legacy of Leadership”. Others are now openly praising his “developmental works across the nation”. And some are also now acknowledging EBK’s mentorship from whom they are claiming to have learnt “valuable lessons in leadership” and are promising to “continue his legacy” if elected APC 2028 presidential candidate and eventually President of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
And EBK’s phone is now reportedly being inundated with incessant calls from some aspiring APC flagbearers who, before now, had pretended to have lost his cellphone number. They are now calling him to book an appointment with him so that they will have the privileged privilege to take photographs with him so that they will happily return to Sierra Leone to grandstand!
So, now the stone which most of the APC flagbearer aspirants had rejected post-2018 is the same stone they are now trying to make one of the head cornerstones of their campaigns. They might have realised that EBK, despite now a seemingly exile in Nigeria, still wields considerable influence within the APC. Just few phone calls and promises from him to delegates might tilt the scale in favour of his favoured candidate. That explains the seemingly mad rush by some APC flagbearer aspirants to associate with the EBK-ian franchise.
medsankoh@yahoo.com/+232-76-611-986