By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Every time I think about what is, at present, happening within and outside the All People’s Congress (APC); what comes to mind is the Abraham Lincoln’s fabled man “who murdered both his parents, and then, when sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan”. The APC is the creator of its current woes.
I have always refused to accept the assumption that it is the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) that is currently responsible for what is happening to, or within, the APC. The truth is: the SLPP has never taken the APC to court for its internal wrangling nor lodged any complaint against it to the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) with the aim of crippling it. It is the APC stalwarts themselves who have been engaged in egotistical warfare and appear to be tacitly planning to give President Julius Maada Bio a second term by default!
Some have been acting as fifth columnists for the SLPP, while others are playing Job’s comforters (For those who are not au fait with English idioms; it means people who aggravate distress under the guise of giving comfort.). And you and I know of the Krio adage that says, “if ose nor sell you; trit nor go buy you.”
But it appears as if some of the party’s stalwarts are so self-centered that they are ready to facilitate the APC’s defeat in next year’s elections if they are not given the flagbearer torch for the 2023 Presidential Election. And the dishonest thing about them is that they are quick to tell us about what they have done for the APC but not what the party has done for them or what they have benefited from the party. And it is no secret that some of these same stalwarts were no better off than church mice before they were given opportunities by former President Ernest Bai Koroma.
In my opinionated opinion, all the current negative “isms”, the by-elections violence and attempted riggings, the harassments and intimidations of APC supporters by the Bio-led administration, the chronic hardships and sufferings of majority of the people of Sierra Leone, and the half-assed policies of the SLPP government wouldn’t have happened, or would be happening, if the former APC flagbearer contenders had acted in good faith in the post-Makeni Convention evolution of the party.
But they, most of them, acted in bad faith. And this is why the APC is where it is today. If they had adopted the Christianly language of turning the other cheek, not sticking out their tongues or fingers in obscene gestures, but offering handshakes of reconciliation (to paraphrase Wole Soyinka) to the Dr Samura Kamara-Hon. Chericoco presidential ticket; the party wouldn’t have been where it is today.
Apart from Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara who is using the Law Courts and Twitter to defend the APC and throw punches at the SLPP government for its maladministration and constitutional bullying; or Dr Richard Konteh who has been fearlessly fearless in foraying into SLPP strongholds to propagate the APC’s ideology and present the party as the only alternative for national unity and progress; or Dr Kelfala Marah who has still not lost hope that the APC can beat the incumbent SLPP hands down if it is well organized; or Alfred Palo Conteh who has shown that he is ready to match the SLPP fire for fire and would protect the APC 2023 votes if even Rome would have to burn to ashes, the rest have been overtly and covertly engaged in anti-party activities.
And since the formation of the APC over five decades ago to date, Victor Bockarie Foh and Alpha Kanu have exhibited the most shameful anti-party activities with unashamed alacrity. For Alimamy Petito Koroma, “President Bio is a compassionate leader.” And he appears to be playing the proverbial Krio boy who is secretly praying for his father’s death so that he will inherit his shoes. And it is sadly sad that the APC still has undeclared Victor Fohs and Alpha Kanus, and even the passively passive Petitos, within the gates of No.11A Old Railway Line, Brookfields, in Freetown!
And what about the prodigal sons and daughters who left the APC to form their own party, only to return to fight and sabotage those who never left the APC? And some of these prodigals are now pretending to be more APCian than Siaka Stevens or Sorie Ibrahim (SI) Koroma! Even the 21-man Interim Transitional Governance Committee (ITGC) is now being sabotaged by some of the very APCians whose advocacies and activisms fathered its being.
As I see it, the greatest threat to the survival of the APC is the APC stalwarts themselves. This is a fact which is being acknowledged by the former Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Nations and Publisher of the online Cocorioko newsmagazine, Ambassador Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu, who, in a recent article titled “Will The Burnt Child Dread The Fire?”, alleges that, “Britain effected regime change in Sierra Leone [in 2018] and succeeded because we were busy fighting for flagbearership. Those who wanted to be flagbearers fought each other to a standstill and when Dr Samura Kamara and [Hon.] Chericoco were chosen, it angered them and they are still fighting the party to bring it down.” And they are still not only flinging spanners in the works of the party; some are still fighting Dr Samura Kamara even though contemporary events are showing that he is the man of the moment! And the only man to beat in 2023.
So, in a nutshell, all what the APC needs to do now is to close ranks and re-nurture party unity. That means every well-meaning APCian must put their shoulders to the wheel with the cardinal aim of out-balloting the monstrous SLPP in 2023! And where there is unity, says Publilius Syrus the Latin writer, there is always victory. And this Syrus-ian (so to One Drop-nize) mantra was seen last Saturday in the by-elections in Tonkolili; Port Loko; Falaba and Karen Districts where the APC made statements that it was hyper-ready to retake State House in 2023!
Yes, at times, we have to remove the specks from our own eyes so that we could have the morality to do same to our brothers’ eyes! And we have to be brutally brutal with the truth if we want to be honestly honest with ourselves.
And frankly, now that I have unburdened this burden, I’m feeling “like a man who has been helped to lower a heavy load from off his head….Yes… I feel light-headed like one who has completed all his tasks and is gay and free to go…”, to quote Chinua Achebe’s “Anthills of the Savannah”.
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