In a speech delivered at the inaugural press conference of the APC Parliamentary Group, the party’s National Deputy Chairman, Alhaji Osman Foday Yansanneh, gave answers to many burning issues members of the public had been complaining the main opposition was quiet on.
As a responsible government is waiting, Yansanneh said the All Peoples Congress – APC is prepared to be responsible in their reaction to burning national issues.
Concerning the tripartite process, the APC deputy chairman said the party knows why the Committee came into being although some people have been downplaying the role it could play in taking corrective measures to address issues of national concern.
“The Tripartite Committee is a collective agreement to salvage this country from chaos…we cannot underrate such a very important agreement intended to bring peace to this country. The process will be transparent…at the end of the day the people of Sierra Leone will be appreciative of the deliberations in the Tripartite Committee,” he assured.
On several occasions, ranking members of the SLPP, including Dr Prince Harding and president Bio, have informed their party members and indeed the main opposition that they will not hand power over to the APC party.
Responding, Alhaji Foday Yansanneh said, “This is undemocratic. If someone says that in the APC we will immediately correct him. But that’s what they (the SLPP) think. So even if we were to win an election, you (SLPP) will definitely refuse,” adding that it will call for or incite chaos.
At a retreat in Bo where several Paramount Chiefs were crowned by the president, he made a now notorious speech where he threatened citizens calling for a protest action on June 19 that they will be met “bullet for bullet”, Yansanneh said the APC’s reaction is an alternative to what the president had to say.
“The country is going through the throes of a savage economic situation created by them (SLPP party government). But instead of taking corrective measures, you are challenging people to come with bullet and you will answer with bullet. (That is a) most unfortunate statement. But we are going to disregard such a statement,” the APC Deputy Chairman stated.
Giving a short historical backdrop to the present electoral impasse, Yansanneh said in 1967 the APC won the first democratic election in sub-Saharan Africa, following which the party elect was chased out of power by the military. However, the APC was restored back to power 13 months later in another military coup.
“We don’t want that to happen here. The Dove Edwin Commission of Inquiry said the APC won the election (1967). This committee might say APC won. What if they say so, what will they (SLPP) do?” he asked rhetorically.
The Deputy APC Chairman said people should understand the position the APC is presently in, adding that people are naturally worried that after the tripartite process there is going to be chaos across the country.
“We can assure our people that there will be no chaos. People say ‘wan han bangul nor dey coz noise’. It takes two to tango (so) we are not going to follow them,” Yansanneh assured party supporters and the nation.
He said as a party the SLPP has never won the majority in any election in this country, which is why they introduced the PR system of election to manipulate voting in key or strategic districts to ensure that they achieve such a feat.
Alhaji Yansanneh said that in the 2018 elections, the APC won 68 seats to the SLPP’s 49 in the House, but in order to get a majority, which Maada Bio failed to achieve as the winning presidential candidate, the SLPP working with security people brutally kicked members of the APC out of the Well before the vote, which was conducted in their absence that resulted to Dr Abass Bundu being installed as Speaker.
Commenting on the PR system the Bio led regime used to ensure a majority in this Sixth Parliament, Alhaji Yansanneh said while the PR system is good in the hands of people that are democratic, in the hands of the SLPP it was used in a calculated way to bypass democracy.
As the party responsible for starting undemocratic processes or developments in the country, the APC party chairman said in 1971 the SLPP wanted a one party system of government, but going into the election, the people of Sierra Leone didn’t trust them but did so the APC, which they elected to rule.
That system, which was the mood across West Africa at the time because of the rise of military coups, was introduced by Pa Sheki after we became a Republic. The choice, he went on, was between military regimes or single party civilian dictatorships.
“Now the mood has changed about democracy since the 90s…we ensure that we follow due process in whatever we are doing,” he added, making reference to the recent election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House in which there were several rounds of votes by all Members of Parliament, in contrast to how Dr Bundu was elected. Yansanneh asked why is it that the SLPP as a party don’t want to follow due process, saying that the APC has not wanted Chief Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Konneh and his team of commissioners to be in power at the ECSL while the Tripartite Committee investigation was on going.
“They insisted that he should be there. Konneh had no business to be there. They said we should go as far back as 2007, 2012 and 2018. These elections were concluded at the Supreme Court. As far as we are concerned they are done deals,” Yansanneh clarified.
He posited that the APC has a problem with all the election management bodies, calling them institutions that had been compromised and bought over by the SLPP led government. They include the ONS, SLP, RSLAF, ECSL, PPRC, SSL, and NCRA.
Commenting on people that left but wanted to come back to the APC, Yansanneh reminded the public about the APC Secretary General’s words that the door is open for re-admission for all who left the party either voluntarily or via expulsion, saying: “They are welcome to come back.”
Speaking on hate speech and the arrest of ranking and other partisans, the APC chairman said while they had responded to one of the provisions of the 8 Point Resolution between the parties, the SLPP failed to address them, stating that the APC is against indiscriminate detention, which he labelled as intimidation meant to keep people from saying what they wanted to say.
The APC, he said, is not prepared to set the country ablaze and is prepared to follow due process by abiding by the Constitution, noting: “But when you want to manipulate your way to power, you disregard such.”
He went on that Sierra Leone is not like Senegal, Tanzania and Malawi because the judiciary in those countries are prepared to speak the truth. He said all the institutions of integrity are “all under the thumb of Maada Bio”. The difference between us and the aforementioned countries he went on is that those countries have strong institutions, not strongmen.
