Resolving our elections issues is surely taking long and is surely no longer on the table.
It has been over ninety (90) days since president Julius Maada Bio was announced winner of the 24th June, 2023 presidential elections, and yet supporters of the All People’s Congress -APC are saying Mr. Julius Maada Bio is still masquerading as president despite calls for him to step aside or have his electoral commissioner do the needful.
According to party supporters, resolving Sierra Leone’s disputed 24th June, 2023 elections announcement stalemate seems to be going too slow for many of them in the main opposition. The people in the party believe that dialogue is not going to work, that it is a con being employed by the incumbent regime to deflate the ambition of people that might want to protest the announced presidential results.
They and their social media superhero, Adebayor are calling for the party to employ the next stage of their boycott strategy, which is running or open street battles with the state to show that the people are willing to risk all in the aim of protecting and safeguarding the nation’s democratic credentials.
It must be recalled that in their decision to boycott the government of Sierra Leone, the APC said it would at first depend on dialogue to resolve the impasse. The time limit was six months. We are already at the halfway mark without any clear indication that the APC’s demands will be met or that ‘President’ Bio would allow a rerun, which he regularly says he would win.
But while the dialogue is going on, we see that Mr. Bio is waxing lyrical about winning the elections. Members of the APC say if he is convinced he won the elections, why is he still calling for dialogue? If so, why does not the president proceed with his government, minus the APC?
There is no trust for president Bio and the SLPP that they will do as agreed in these discussions, especially that the party and incumbent are known for using the courts to stifle opposition disagreement with the ruling party’s agenda. The APC should not allow itself to be tied to the court system as cases scheduled against the government of Sierra Leone go through long and unnecessary periods between sittings; that is, if they are ever scheduled. The matter between the auditors general and the government, including the case that was brought after the disputed 2018 elections that the court finally addressed last year, four years after the fact, are not encouraging that things will be resolved amicably once they get discussed, as in a dialogue or in a court case.
Adebayor and his supporters are calling for the party to start planning to unleash the second phase of the protest action; street protests that would pit the aggrieved voters of Sierra Leone who said they voted for change against the forceful Paopa government that is insisting it won an election that the overwhelming majority of those that observed the day say they clearly lost.
Adebayor’s supporters say we the people of Sierra Leone are considered cowards by others in the region and continent because the average Sierra Leonean will be ready to kill his compatriot in a fight on the street because he accused the other of being a thief, but ask them to come to the street to protest they would say no, that they will be shot on the streets by the police or soldiers. So we are willing to kill our fellows but unwilling to die for the country, said one of the disappointed citizens that spoke to FORUM NEWS.
Despite calls to wait for the dialogue to mature, the incumbent regime has gone ahead with appointing a cabinet, had a state opening of the Sixth Parliament and is courting photo opportunities with any government or agency, all in the hope of lending credibility to the regime and its heads of government’s ministries, departments, and agencies –MDAs. It is doing this while at the same time calling for dialogue with the APC and the international community, they said.
Like the king in that famous childhood story that walked around naked after being convinced that he was wearing clothes made from gold thread, although he was naked, members of the APC executive that spoke to this medium said ‘president’ Bio, because his friends have refused to speak the truth to him that he lost the election, is becoming emboldened by the day that he won the election freely, credibly and fairly. He has gotten so caught up in this electoral lie that he even alleged that the United States government asked him to stop the counting, in the midst of the count, right in the US, that land of freedom of speech where people are not too scared to speak out against a president and his government. That our president would be so bold as to speak against the US, in the US, but is jittery about the people of Sierra Leone being as bold as him saying he lost the election without losing a job, life or limb.
Although Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara is the consummate diplomat, his people in the APC party are saying his demeanour or candour is not what is needed for a stubborn customer as ‘president’ Bio and the forceful paopa sect of the SLPP.
By engaging in dialogue and tying themselves to such means of resolving the results impasse, his detractors in the party say Dr Samura Kamara has given Mr. Bio the confidence that he will operate his second term under the same electoral cloud he ‘won’ the 2018 elections.
The supporters of the APC and Adebayor that spoke to this press that called themselves ‘the real government of Sierra Leone’, are calling on the citizens of Sierra Leone not to wait for dialogue that will not produce anything, but to openly challenge the SLPP dominated government by running street battles.
In an audio attributed to the Sierra Leone Peoples Party –SLPP’s number one public nemesis, Adebayor, the right to protest advocate is openly in support of the APC now employing the running street protests part of their boycott of government. The time for talking has been exhausted and a bigger call that would once again put the citizenry at odds with state security, who are known for shooting before asking, or doing so based on orders from above, is now in the offing.
It must be recalled that throughout his disputed first term, the president Bio led government of Sierra Leone committed some atrocities against protesters who were allegedly encouraged by Adebayor onto the streets in protest against a planned or unexpected action from the government. Citizens out to protest were gunned down by gun totting state security officers at Lunsar, Tombo, Mile 91, Makeni, Koidu, at Pademba Road Prison, on 10th August 2022 and recently as 11th September, 2023.
Many people in the APC are of the opinion that the Samura Kamara-Chernor Maju Bah ticket is once again considering dialogue and possibly retuning with their tails between their legs to the courts even after the 2018 dispute was finally responded to last year 2022 by the judiciary, who failed to schedule the case for hearing.
Members of the APC have said that there will be no end in sight to this elections dispute if the party continues to play president Bio’s games that will see him complete his second term while the APC is still seeking people to help resolve the impasse.
The time for talking, they say, should end in December. Anything after December will be decided on the basis of running street battles with the elections stealing government of Sierra Leone that has been captured by the SLPP and Maada Bio.
The days for dialogue, they said, is coming to a close. They do not see an end to this electoral dispute ‘if we do things the Paopa way!’
CREDIT: SACCOH LEWIS
