A lot of concerned partisans representing the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) are calling for the party’s leader Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara and his executive to step down and make way for a fresh team that will lead the party to higher heights and reclaim the Presidency.
According to them there is a serious leadership vacuum in the APC that if allowed to continue until the next cycle of elections as preached by the sitting government, slated for 2028, the fear is that the APC without a solid leader will be routed again thereby giving credence to the talk by the president and even Dr Alex Prince Harding that the SLPP will not hand power over to the APC.
Many believe that this statement does not mean that Bio will seek a third term but that the next president after him will be another SLPP partisan. And with how Bio has consolidated power under a very quiet APC executive, even going as far as capturing all the election management bodies and state security agencies, there is no telling that their boast that they will not hand power over to the APC will not become a reality.
Meanwhile, APC executive members say apart from all his great leadership qualities, Dr Samura Kamara is too quiet and not equal to the task of taking on the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government head on. They say the APC needs a firebrand leader in the make and mould of Economic Freedom Fighters’ Julius Malema of South Africa who is not afraid of being arrested and spending time in police and CID cells. Dr Samura Kamara they said is not up to the task.
They pointed out Bio’s tenacity and aggressive approach to State House making mention of how he even went as far as blocking the presidential motorcade of former President Ernest Bai Koroma on the way to commissioning a power supply transformer at Peacock Farm Wellington Freetown, an action many said would have been considered as treason in the days of Siaka Stevens, even today under Bio.
Dr Samura Kamara and his executive started playing into Bio and his Paopa strategy, they continued, when he accepted defeat in the 2018 polls. The highly suspected win has been called ‘a stage managed regime change’ with accusations and allegations made against former United Kingdom High Commissioner Guy Warrington and former President Koroma, who they mainly blame for creating and encouraging Bio for what he has become in the nation’s body politic.
After accepting Bio’s 2018 victory the stage was set for the commissions of inquiry that led to the White Paper that saw many APC stalwarts in jail, losing properties and spending huge sums on court cases. This distraction tactic created by the Paopa regime worked as even Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, Dr Samura Kamara and some dearly departed APC partisans lost their properties and made to give an account of their stewardship of public money during their time in leadership.
Dr Samura Kamara, the APC stalwarts confided in FORUM NEWS, wants the presidency on a silver platter without any struggles. They said he avoids confronting the regime for fear of causing a bloodshed that he expects would result from such frontal verbal assault on the SLPP regime. Adding to his many leadership foibles the APC leader has been unable to provide any rebuttal to Bio and his leadership team’s many excesses.
The current APC regime has been quiet while president Bio continues to consolidate his power base which he hopes to ensure by handing power over to another SLPP partisan, with the ultimate aim of avoiding a commission of inquiry just as he has done.
The party we are being told needs someone without a baggage. Someone without any baggage the SLPP or Bio led regime can or will end up using against him. He should be well known and liked by the party’s grassroots, be able to expose flaws in the current ruling party government, and debunking any lies or fake news. The new APC leader and his executive should also be able to assure and reassure members, supporters, the nation and the international community of better days on the way for Sierra Leone under his leadership that will be subjected to the constitutional order and the rule of law.
To demonstrate his magnanimity the new APC leader is expected to be willing to work with all opposition parties by incorporating some of their ideas and professionals in his government thereby fostering peace and national cohesion.
Finally he will be expected to have the greatest regard for the rule of law and should have no skeletons in his closet.
The concerned APC big guns further informed that if the APC allows the current executive and leader to continue until the 2028 election, they expect for president Bio and Prince Harding’s prediction to be prophetic and the insinuation by president Bio that for a very long time only one party ruled the nation to become a Final Solution for the SLPP: a twenty year SLPP hold on the Office of the President.
