By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
It is Chinua Achebe who notes in his novel, “A Man of the People”, that you must show respect to today’s king so that others will accord you that same respect when you too become a king tomorrow. That’s truly true in its truthfulness!
But in the All People’s Congress (APC), it appears as if some of those who are now aspiring to lead that glorious political party have nurtured their own armies of Mammy-Cussers with the aim of either frightening their opponents to silence or to freeze any form of decent and progressive intra-party discourses. But as Achebe says, “He who will hold another down in the mud must stay in the mud to keep him down.” So true! And I hold the view that if a person accepts an invitation from a pig for a wrestling contest inside its pigsty; that person cannot convince me that s/he is not at par with that pig!
My point is: those APC presidential aspirants (or would-be presidential aspirants) on whose behalf some uncouth party faithful are now Mammy-Cussing, without them openly disassociating themselves from those Mammy-Cussers, are just telling us how crude their inner characters are. At times, politicians make Freudian slips through the utterances or behaviours of their adherents and surrogates! As Achebe states, “We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own.”
But there are some APC presidential aspirants, or would-be presidential aspirants, who want to trample upon the humanity of their “Comrades” and still believe that their so-called moral uprightness, or political correctness, is undamaged. As I always write, Sierra Leone is a small country where we all know ourselves somehow—or at least most Sierra Leoneans know about most Sierra Leoneans who know about most Sierra Leoneans both at home and abroad. I have spoken with countless decent and upright Sierra Leoneans who have worked with some of these APC presidential aspirants or would-be presidential aspirants; who have worked around them; who have worked for them, and who have worked against them. And their candid opinions on some of these aspirants are as appalling as they are damaging both to Sierra Leone as a nation or APC as a political party.
But the problem with the APC is that it appears to be now known for throwing away the gems in dustbins and keeping the chaffs as treasures. At present, the party seems to be entering into a state of willful complexity and self-entrapment due to unnecessary displays of damaged egos and personality deformities. Instead of provoking healthy debates that will move the party towards winning the 2028 general elections; uncouthness has been yanked from the gutters and flung on the tables of Marine House at Old Railway Line, Brookfields, in Freetown! What are now painfully painful are the conscious attempts by some factions, within APC-dom, to replace intellectual decency with rudeness and lewdness on social media!
I have never seen a political party that uses its combative energy on trivialities than on issues that will assure it of clinching political power in the next general elections. And I have never heard of a political party, in opposition, whose members are keen on destroying each other and giving ammunition to their opponents than the current APC. At present, the APC appears to be the sick man of Sierra Leone instead of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) on whose watchful watch majority of Sierra Leoneans are twice worse off today than they were seven years ago!
In my opinionated opinion, methinks the main problem with the APC is plainly a failure of leadership—both from those currently at its rudder and some of those who are now aspiring to be its future leaders. As I see it, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the APC as a political party. No Sierra Leonean should be ashamed of being associated with the APC. The APC problem, if you like, is the seemingly inability of its leaders (including some of its presidential aspirants or would-be presidential aspirants) to be role models of political correctness! It is funnily funny for someone to be putting up a gentleman’s demeanor while acquiescing to his faithful and surrogates’ rudeness and lewdness on social media!
Now, what appears to be sadly sad is the factual fact that some APC presidential aspirants, or would-be presidential aspirants, gauge their seemingly popularity on how many bloggers they can marshal in their fold and how intense the Mammy-Cusses of their opponents are on social media. How the APC, as a political party, reach this point of degeneracy is what is still beating my imagination and sense of moral decency. How does the APC allow itself to be overtaken by mediocrity and political incorrectness? And how does the APC intend to govern Sierra Leone at the rate at which it is now scaring away some of its decent and well-focused intellectuals and strategists?
I think Niccolò Machiavelli has answered those questions in his seminal book: “The Prince”. He notes that, “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a [leader] is to look at the men he has around him.” I always love to love this quote simply because it resonates with some APC presidential aspirants, or some would-be presidential aspirants, who want to take over the APC rudder. Just a casual glance at some of them, one realises that they have Berlin-walled (another One Dropian coinage, please) themselves with deadwood, stick-in-the-muds, compulsive and pathological liars, cheats, the no-do-gooders, sycophants, and those who are self-centered than partisan. A leader who surrounds himself with unserious people cannot be taken seriously because one can’t be too serious in his own unseriousness!
What is now happening in the APC reminds me of the fabled Oxford University professor who walks in the rain covering his head with his walking stick and uses his folded umbrella as the walking stick! It seems to me that what appears to be commonly uncommon now in the APC is commonsense! So, let commonsense prevail in the interest of the party’s interests!
It is on that note that I will end today’s One Dropian dropping with a quote from Chinua Achebe (for the last time today) which says, “A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness”. This is just another way of saying that you must show respect to today’s king so that others will accord you that same respect when you too become a king tomorrow.
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