By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
In his classic novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, one of America’s greatest novelists, Mark Twain who is sometimes being referred to as the “Father of American Literature” because of his enormous contributions to that genre, portrays a sort of magical realism in which the protagonist, Tom Sawyer, is given the rare privilege of attending his own funeral.
Unlike Tom Sawyer, who is hiding with Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper in the unused gallery at the St. Petersburg church while his own funeral service is taking place below; the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has overtly written its own obituary and making preparations for its funeral by proposing that in 2028 a party which wins 70% of the vote cast would slice 70% of Ministries and Departments from the governance cake while the party that secures 30% of the vote would make do with the remaining 30% crumbs.
For the SLPP to even propose such a would-be power-sharing arrangement with the APC is in itself ‘Obituaristic’ (another One Dropian coinage) both in thought and advocacy! It is, definitely, an indication that the SLPP is now convinced that it would lose political power in 2028. And to stick around the corridors of power and to prevent its current henchmen from being brought to book for their present supposedly economic crimes and past unspeakable human rights abuses meted out on citizens in Makeni, Lunsar, Tonko Limba, Mile-91, Tombo and Freetown; they are now proposing a “system” whose workability is unworkable!
The question now is: why would a Victor willingly share his loot with the Vanquished if there are no hidden money tricks? How would the seemingly holier-than-thou President Julius Maada Bio share political power with people whom he has once referred to as “terrorists”? How would the SLPP former National Chairman, Dr Prince Harding, sit at the same table with those whom he had once referred to as “mad people”? And would the Gambian-born First Lady, Fatima Bio, allow her SLPP “true Sierra Leoneans” to be in the same Cabinet Room with citizens whose biological parents were not economic refugees in Sierra Leone? If these three eminent and revered SLPP personalities, whose words appear to have widen the political chasms in Sierra Leone and create so much hurt and resentments, would swallow their words and remorsefully apologize to the rank and file of the APC in the spirit of true reconciliation; then I might un-pinch some of the pinched salt from that proposed power-sharing proposal.
And the argument that such a power-sharing arrangement would prevent political tension and forge national unity is like believing that if Israel withdraws from the Occupied Territories the Palestinians will automatically forget about the “Nakba” (Means “catastrophe” in the Arabic language.) of 1948 and 1967. It is realistically real that as long as there are still political strongholds in Sierra Leone; there will always be post-election conflicts even if there are consolation prizes for the last political party to cross the white line. As long as President Bio and his hangers-on seem to still hold on to the view that the colonialists divided Sierra Leone into “Temneland”, “Mendeland”, “Limbaland”, and other tribal lands; there will always be suspicions among and between Sierra Leoneans especially from those who do not share the “work ethics” of a sitting Head of State. And as long as politics is seen as the shortest path to unexplained wealth in Sierra Leone; there will always be the scramble for the scarce state resources which will lead to conflicts between members and supporters of the APC and SLPP in their strongholds.
I don’t believe that opposition parties will only contribute meaningfully to national development if they are also knifing and forking the national cake with the ruling party. This will make a sort of “Dan Dogo” of the principle of checks and balances. It will also take accountability and transparency to the abattoir. And besides, in every general election, the APC presents a manifesto that is completely different from the SLPP’s proposed programmes. So, what will the Thirty-Percenters be doing in a government whose programmes they vehemently opposed few months before they are co-opted?
President Bio and the Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Segepoh Thomas, know that what they are now proposing is like recommending Lucifer to be the Co-Chairman of Heaven. That’s why they appear to have yanked two of their once in a blue moon vociferous hired hands from the Wallace-Johnson Street choir to do the dirty job as usual. The so-called Civil Society activist, who professes to believe in “governance reform”, and the Goatee PhD Doctor (the tautology is deliberately deliberate here) have been given the SLPP-ian hymn book from which they are now singing from.
Each time the Governance Reformer and the Goatee PhD Doctor appear on television or are invited on radio programmes the two will, unashamedly, sing the hymns selected for them by the Wallace-Johnson Street organist. What has always been tragically comical about these two “opinion framers” (the sarcasm is uncouthly intended here—you could even take it as an Adebayor-nized comment!) is the factual fact that they always hibernate every time the SLPP appears to be engaged in weakening the pillars of Democracy, or perpetrating and perpetuating human rights abuses, but are suddenly hyper-active each time the SLPP seems to have a job for them!
The SLPP’s proposed power-sharing proposal seems to be the sequel to “The Adventures of Julius Maada Bio” with the Governance Reformer and the Goatee PhD Doctor being the government’s versions of Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper respectively! It has become coincidentally coincidental that whenever the Bio-led administration proposes anything; such proposal would likely find acolytes in the Governance Reformer and the Goatee PhD Doctor. Well, I’m not insinuating anything; let’s just say telepathy might be real after all!
But that telepathy is not telepathic with a senior member of the APC, Payamba Minkailu Koroma, who has argued that the SLPP’s proposed proposal would “further weaken citizen representation, which is already compromised by the current Proportional Representation system”. We can talk about by-partisan collaboration on national development and security issues—that’s fine by me. But proposing a power-sharing arrangement between two political parties that are completely different in ideology and governance style is like proposing that Donald Trump should control the West Wing of the White House while Joe Biden the East Wing!
One of the reasons for Sierra Leone’s present woes is not the Winner Takes All or First Past The Post system; it is the indecency exhibited by our national leaders on issues which a little decency will be sufficient! Democratic values will be strengthened in Sierra Leone not by a power-sharing system but when those wielding political power show respect for democratic tenets, promote equal rights and justice, and do not make governance look like a gathering of the tribe!
medsankoh@yahoo.com/+232-76-611-986