It has been told to FORUM that there is an open rivalry going on in the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) that has led to the president plainly saying that no one will be able to choose the next SLPP leader except the party. This has raised speculation that the president will not be that influential in who gets to succeed him, as is the usual tradition with exiting presidents.
In expectation of president Bio making an early exit, there is a scramble for power in the ruling party government of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). The fight has been brewing since it became evident that Julius Maada Bio cannot seek further terms if he completes this second term.
There is also widespread speculation that Bio will not be able to complete his second term in light of the tripartite process not being over.
In a speech delivered by first lady Fatima Bio in the US state of Texas recently, she considered it rude and ungrateful for certain men in the party to be scrambling to replace her husband instead of focusing on fulfilling president Bio’s Big Five Game Changer agenda.
She said the focus for the second term is on delivering the president’s second term manifesto. There is the belief that no matter how they beat the gun at the end of the day Julius Maada Bio will have a huge say on who succeeds him and may get to handpick his successor.
Meanwhile party insiders say the frontrunners happen to be Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, Alie Kabba, Brima Swarray, Batilo Songa, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, David Moinina Sengeh and David Francis. Vice president Juldeh Jalloh is said to not be showing any active signs or interest in ascending to the office of the president after his boss either makes a much expected early exit or miraculously completes his second term.
For Yumkella he is seen as the top of the pile for his past experience. However, many partisans have praised the chief minister Sengeh that he is clean and does not have a sordid past in public administration. For Batilo Songa he is said to have taken the fall for Prince Harding at a time when it was ripe for him to take over from Dr Harding. For his betrayal of the president’s trust the professor is not high on the pecking order although he cannot be counted out. The other young men on the list are seen as young upstarts without the requisite knowledge and connections.
While VP Juldeh’s lack of interest may just end up being speculation, key ruling partisans say he has several issues militating against his prospects: the historic relationship between presidents and vice presidents in Sierra Leone as no vice president in the history of the nation has been able to succeed a president after his tenure. The history is one of the presidents either naming a successor over the vice president or the vice president getting axed from his position. A second issue that stands in VP Juldeh Jalloh’s way is the tribal cabal in the SLPP that will not want to see a member of the Fullah ethnic group taking over the reins of the party.
In the midst of the speculations as to who will take over from the embattled Julius Maada Bio, his wife the first lady was also mentioned as someone that could make a fine flagbearer. Although this speculation became a point of laughter and some ridicule, the first lady has shown herself quite capable. In her short time coming into the public’s attention as the flagbearer’s and ultimately the president’s wife she has been able to transform herself and her image by changing the way people view a first lady in Sierra Leone and the world, her advocacy on behalf of girls and women (Hands Off Our Girls; We Are Equal) and her roles in the end of child marriage in Sierra Leone with the enactment of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and the Gender and Women’s Empowerment Act (GEWE Act).
Besides the first lady no other female member of the party or present government were mentioned as possible frontrunners for the SLPP top spot after Maada Bio.
Meanwhile, sources in the SLPP hierarchy say president Julius Maada Bio’s time at the top of the party and government of Sierra Leone is not tenable, calling it shaky in light of the continued tripartite process which is awaiting the judgement of the process from the international community led by a retired female judge and another female UN representative to the Tripartite Committee.
Strong SLPP stalwarts have said president Bio might get to leave the presidency much sooner than expected, going as far as saying that the president might either be talked into calling for an early election or accepting the APC’s demand for a runoff under the auspices of ECOWAS, which would set the stage to seeing people prosecuted for manipulating the June 2023 presidential election result. Many citizens are in support of this option as they say prosecution of those complicit in manipulating the votes to give the incumbent an advantage will set a good example of deterrence to would be elections thieves of the future.
The scenario of a runoff will be an embarrassment for the president as it would imply that he knowingly accepted an advantage which would make him susceptible to litigation or prosecution as the decision to manipulate the electoral process is a crime for which not even the president is immune as it is not an act done in service to the country. It is actually a disservice to the nation, which action must be met by the full force or weight of the law.
The third way out for president Bio, according to SLPP top guns, will be based on eventual access to the disaggregated voting data showing that indeed Dr. Samura Kamara had won the presidential elections and Maada Bio is forced to hand over power as per the constitution, the first candidate to reach the 55 per cent threshold is declared winner. Many SLPP stalwarts and current members of the party’s leadership including in the House of Parliament have said Dr. Samura Kamara is the actual winner based on the chief electoral commissioner’s continued refusal to hand over the demanded raw voting data.
Meanwhile all three options point to president Bio taking an early exit, which will be an embarrassing exit for him which people in the ruling party say would limit or diminish his authority to influence who takes over the party’s leadership from him.
Regardless, the scramble is on in the SLPP to replace Julius Maada Bio as people in the party have predicted his early exit which would be a first in the history of the nation, going as far as saying the party will not want to be associated with such a record of having the first president to be deposed from power based on an elections audit.
Many people in the party say the Maada Bios have been a destructive and divisive force in the party accused of riding roughshod over compatriots and the party’s constitution and for always wanting to have their way even if it’s against the rule of law or established procedures. They said the Bios views the presidency or presidential power in light of Maada Bio’s rule as a junta leader, which is completely autocratic or dictatorial.
Many SLPP top executives have said the party would like to put the shameful episode of the Maada Bios behind them and regret not listening to a warning or advice from late President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah not to allow Maada Bio access to the top of the party’s leadership.
Julius Maada Bio’s episode at the top of the party’s hierarchy according to many should never be allowed to happen again, as the party is now looking for a flagbearer and leader that is responsive to the people he leads and does all in his power to always satisfy the people and the grassroots members of the party and the country.
