The All People’s Congress (APC) stands united behind its decision to boycott participating in government, the party also seems united behind the man people are calling ‘the President’, Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara.
But don’t let the fight to steer the nation’s elections management away from its dominance by the executive branch of government fool you that all is well in the leadership class of the APC party.
Reliable sources in and close to the APC leadership have said talks are being held around the future leadership class of the party’s, away from the Samura Kamara-Chernor Maju Bah team. Having tried and failed to secure an indisputable victory against the Bio-Juldeh Jalloh duo twice, the party’s stalwarts have put a nail in the coffin of the leadership team that has dominated affairs in the party since 2018.
For the APC, age seems to be a deciding factor in the leadership class going forward. Many a party stalwart that are keen on assuming control of the party are still young, when compared to the likes of Samura Kamara, Minkailu Mansaray and Osman Foday Yansanneh among others.
As the scramble for positions post-Dr Samura Kamara heats up, power will definitely shift, with the east playing a huge role and having a greater influence in the leadership makeup of the party.
Partisans are not expected to fail seeing the logic in shifting the party’s focus from elsewhere to the east. Kono has been a king maker district with the region’s party, C4C, being the difference in who wins the presidency since 2018. The party’s shift in focus from the APC to the SLPP is being cited as one of the reasons the main opposition lost the 2018 and 2023 elections. Had Kono been on board for the APC, it wouldn’t have been easy for the presidential results to be easily manipulated by the electoral commission. But the people of Kono felt slighted by the APC executive for not having any of their sons or daughters in the leadership of the party, with their son Chief Sam Sumana the most disappointed.
If the party was not forced to reconsider the Samura Kamara-Chernor Maju Bah ticket under the watchful gaze of its Bombali hegemon, then naturally there would have been a Sam Sumana – Samura Kamara ticket similar to the Obama-Biden ticket that saw the older man serving under the younger. The former is present president of the US having waited what seems an eternity under Hilary Clinton’s leadership of the party and Donald Trump’s disastrous first term that polarized the people and nation.
It is generally agreed that the APC was hoodwinked into electing Chernor and Dr Samura after Bio announced amid growing speculation and calls that he does so, that Dr Juldeh Jalloh was his number two. By forcing the party to choose Samura and Maju over Sam Sumana and Samura Kamara, they were misled into doing as expected in favour of the SLPP.
Even Dr Samura Kamara after the 24 June elections result announcement reportedly admitted that he had wanted to consider Chief Sam for a running mate as the team would have been more formidable than the Bio-Juldeh Jalloh team.
Today the biggest talk in the APC is to plan away from its current leadership class and to focus on the Sam Sumana – Kelfala Marrah ticket that will surely come out of the east. The duo stands the chance more than Samura and Maju Bah would have to clinch the presidency from the unwilling hands of the SLPP regime under president Bio.
After settling the electoral stalemate that has gripped the nation and render whatever it does useless as our international supporters have withheld critical support to the government to function normally despite under such opposing times, there is the expectation that the APC leadership debacle will take untold and unimaginable proportions.
The time has come for the APC to stop considering sentiments and name recognition party politics and for the party to take its leadership corps back to the grassroots from whence it came. The obvious shift will be to the east, which is the new APC political powerhouse in Sierra Leone after Samura Kamara would have exhausted his time trying to win the APC flag and the presidency of the state.
The time has come for cooler heads to prevail and do things in the interest of the party and people.
To the east, APC, to the east!
Should the APC miss this again, the party will be in opposition. This is also heads up for Chief Sam Sumana. People in the east are more secure voting for someone from the east than anywhere else in Sierra Leone.
The people in the east have many cultural and linguistic similarities with those of the southeast, more so than those in the north looking to those from the west.
APC should look east, or continue to look without.
