You may want to describe the election of Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara as bold steps by the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) in challenge Government, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the judiciary in their failed and selective anti-corruption fight. It is not deliberate, not even a challenge to law and order, but a mere acceptance of the democratic will of the majority of Sierra Leoneans who recently voted Dr Samura Kamara as their leader and flagbearer of the APC for June polls, notwithstanding the long-delayed court cases. Dr Samura Kamara who has in the last few years been dragged from here and there by the ACC court for his alleged involvement in financial misappropriation of public funds meant for the renovation of the Sierra Leone Permanent Mission’s chancery building in New York, has on several court hearings been distanced by witnesses as one with no hands in financial dealings in the implementation of the diplomatic mission project. But he is continued to be delayed in court for reasons best known to government and the ACC as if a plot is set for him and his party. Now Dr Samura Kamara is no longer the man he was before, but the leader and the APC presidential candidate for the approaching elections. His elections to the peak of national politics by the APC automatically change his status and must be duly treated respectfully. Let along to continue to press ACC court matters against him which will be counterproductive and will ends up earning public and global sympathy.
Thus, government take it easy moving gradually into the electioneering process proper.
With such situation at hands as a government, the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) ACC crusade can be best described as a lost political plot. Lost in the sense that the SLPP strategy designed principally to destabilize its rival APC has failed due to delay and probable denial of justice, onto the emergence of one of their biggest political catches has been elevated to higher heights as a national leader and presidential candidate of the APC, making him untouchable. Touching Samura Kamara now will raise alarm and draw the attention of the international community to the messy political situation in the country.
So, there was need for Government to have delayed matters allegedly involving opposition APC politicians, especially that of Dr Samura Kamara and other prominent ones. That is uncalled for, knowing fully well that justice delayed is justice denied, even though one expects the ACC and other courts to have passed judgements on all political matters long ago. But since they are deliberately bent on using the pending court cases and the entire judiciary as their major weapons against opposition politicians up to last weekend elections of Dr Samura Kamara as the APC leader and front runner for the June polls, then their moves at targeting Kamara can be seen as failed and lost plot. That is why delay is dangerous at the very detriments of its plotters.
The strategy though it delayed but couldn’t reverse the APC and Dr Samura Kamara from getting active take in the democratic process under the existing circumstance, wherein he has been elected as the APC leader and presidential candidate, leaving the judiciary with no alternative but throw the matter out of court as opined by many legal scholars. Others also hold the views that all government is expected to do now in the best interest of peace, national unity and stability is to declare such cases null and void to prevent unnecessary confusion. One firm opinion is that any attempt by the court to continue to call on the APC standard bearer for probity will mess the peaceful waters across the country, considering Samura Kamara being the choice of APC party. He is certainly no longer what he used to be before but the leader of the APC, which is why government and the Sierra Leone judiciary must be careful in dealing with such delicate political situation not to undermine the peace and stability of the country. Also, any intimidation move against him will be considered by the international community and other moral guarantors of the country’s democratic process as deliberate moves by government and the ruling SLPP to limit the democratic and political space for the participation of the main opposition APC. The more reasons it is thus suggestive that the judiciary annul all court matters against Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara and others without further delays.
Moreover, critical concerns and questions that are being raised in series of public discussions countrywide since Dr Samura Kamara last weekend election as the APC leader and flag bearer are that the SLPP has paid itself with deliberate delays in dispensing justice, which has cost them one of their major political targets.
Was the case against Samura Kamara a true a corruption case, or a political motivated cooked matter against APC and its politicians, to limit their participations in the democratic processes in the governance of the country? If true, then Dr Samura Kamara indeed has a case to answer, then why the delays by the judiciary to pass judgement? We look forward to hearing from the appropriate authorities with the right answers. Or was the matter just strategized to enable Bio alone to run in the June race? These concerns require urgent answers from the Sierra Leone Judiciary as strategic part of the democratic accountability processes.
Nevertheless, what is clear in all of these is that the APC party would not in any way allow their leader and presidential candidate to be prevented from taking part in the June elections, because of politically motivated Anti-Corruption Commission court case. A case that is deliberately delayed simply because the ruling SLPP is using it as a political capital to constantly intimidate Dr Samura Kamara and the APC. That of course won’t work any longer as development partners will surely not want any limitation in the political and democratic space in the country. All they expect the Government of Sierra Leone and democratic institutions to do is to open wider space for the full participations of all political entities and make the elections very much competitive.
Therefore, any attempt at personality of Dr Samura Kamara in the name of ACC court case among others will be consider as a direct attack at the APC party and its entire membership across the country and the world over. So, design another strategy for you have lost this plot.
