They say “all good things come to an end”, that everything runs their normal course until the end comes.
This notwithstanding, supporters of the All People’s Congress (APC) party and observers of our political process have said that Dr Samura Kamara has reached his Waterloo and that the party should be making moves to identify its next leader in preparation for 2028. They wanted to know if the current electoral impasse in the country continues until 2028, who will be the APC’s presidential candidate and running mate?
‘Surely we cannot or should not expect for Dr Samura Kamara to want to take a third attempt at the presidency. He has reached his Waterloo and should be prepared for retirement on St Helena, or in his particular case, Mambolo. He has tried to do the honourable thing but maybe the time is not right for him to be president. If it was he should have been by now. The fact that he is advanced in age should also be a serious factor to consider for 2028. If even we get a rerun of the 24 June elections, the APC should by now be doing the groundwork to identify the party’s next new leadership corps away from Samura Kamara and Bai Koroma. We boast of being the party of 1000 Alpha Khans so let us start showing that by letting power shift from time to time. Samura Kamara has run his course, it is time we look for someone to take over from here,’ they said.
The village of Waterloo became famous worldwide as the place French General Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated before being exiled to St Helena. The expression relates to someone who had made a great run at something but who at the end failed to proceed beyond that point.
Samura Kamara has tried, two times now, to win the presidency. After spending tens of thousands of US dollars on electioneering in 2018 and recently on 24 June 2023 and failing to win the presidency on a free and fair bases, his supporters say it is time for him to see wisdom in stepping out of the way to make way for a fresh executive that will finally defeat the SLPP, even if they try stealing the elections. The APC people are calling on Dr Samura Kamara not to repeat Koroma’s mistake by trying to impose his way on the next set of party executives.
‘Our party executives should know that we expect them to be like national executives. We expect for change to happen after every five or ten years if the president wins a second term. But after you have served as president and leader of the state and party, you should not be trying to become the dictator in the party you were not allowed to be in the national government. Any leader worthy of his salt would never try to be president for life. He or she would ensure that their legacies live on by the people they empowered and their plans and actions that are still making an impact even after they had left the national scene. What legacy is Dr Samura Kamara looking to leave with the APC? This is what we hope he is considering as he tries to change how our presidential elections are won especially by the incumbent,’ they posited.
The APC partisans say since Samura Kamara became much more prominent after he was selected by Ernest Bai Koroma to lead the party into the 2018 elections, he has failed to defeat the SLPP, going as far as saying that ‘even if we are able either do a rerun of 24 June presidential elections or the ECSL releases the actual elections data per polling station, Dr Samura Kamara should be seriously considering retiring and making room for others to lead the party’.
The main opposition supporters suggested that Samura Kamara’s leadership of the APC has been fraught with court cases and a lack of unity among the rank and file of the party. Even after he was elected flagbearer for the second time, people within the party were still trying to bring court cases against him and the party. Although he had been set aside for the sake of continuity, partisans say the role of the former state and party president, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, is still too overpowering which they claim has affected Dr Kamara’s popularity.
‘Dr Samura was never given the opportunity to be the party’s sole and undisputed leader. He was and still is very much under Bai Koroma’s influence. If he wasn’t under Koroma’s influence and if he was serious to chart his own course away from Koroma’s influence, then the people would have reacted positively to him. Although he is the party’s current leader, power is still being transmitted from Bombali, not Mambolo. What we are trying to avert here going forward is for Dr Samura Kamara to have a positive influence on the next set of party leaders, not the kind of influence EBK has had on him and the current leadership class. After these disastrous elections result, we believe that Dr Samura Kamara has reached his Waterloo, and it is time he steps aside for us as a party to focus on working on our unity as a party. The lack of unity can be traced to our leadership, who continue to have a negative influence on this party of hero-worshippers!’ they concluded.
