The embattled main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party has moved on despite the spanner put in its works and the several huddles it has to go through to get at the stage it is.
Just few days ago, the party’s newly draft constitution, which had serious controversies fuelled by its members, was scrutinised and endorsed by the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC). So the party has been given the green light to forge ahead with its agenda of assuming state power.
Hence early this week, the party’s National Advisory Council (NAC) met to adopt the constitution and insisted that no amount of distraction would prevent it from forging ahead to assuming state power come the 2023 elections.
In that meeting, which took place in Makeni, former President Ernest Bai Koroma, in his capacity as leader and chairman of the APC, declared that the party would adopt the new constitution and set the stage to move on unabated to the battlefield of the 2023 general elections.
“The interest of the APC is bigger than all of our various aspirations more so that the 2023 elections are just around the corner,” the APC Chairman said, adding that party members should be more united than ever before if they are to win the 2023 general elections.
The several objections to the new draft constitution tabled before the PPRC by some party members including Olayinka Sylvia Blyden was the latest among series of obstacles put in its way to frustrate its efforts at successfully contesting the upcoming 2023 Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Council elections.
Indeed, the APC has continued to shoot itself in the foot with somehow incessant squabbles over constitutionality, reform and democratic rights.
Since the party lost the 2018 national elections, its members have gone berserk with a lot of internal rows and divisive politics that continue to eat the fabric or the flesh of the party year in year out.
Latest among the several internal wrangling in the party was the case of several objections put forward against the new constitution drafted by the party and approved in a recent delegates conference or convention held last year in Makeni where the said constitution was discussed, amended and approved by the delegates to serve as the party’s new and accepted guidepost or bible with which to take the party into the 2023 electoral race.
Even with the latest green light given to the party to forge ahead by the PPRC, some other party members are still busy finding bones to pick with the party structure, administration and other aspects in their quest to kill the spirits of the party’s leadership and, by extension, its support bases across the country.
Really, one would have thought that these long run restructuring, objections, issues and other squabbles within the party were out to bring about sanity and meaningful democratic reforms in the party. However, it is increasingly and clearly turning out to be just a way of putting a spoke in the wheel of the smooth run or preparation of the party towards the 2023 elections.
Otherwise, intransigent members or reformists in the party would have seen reasons to have shelved a lot of their objections to allow the party to gradually, but thoroughly, organize itself internally and focus on the real battle of challenging the status quo of the irregular and flawed governance trajectory Sierra Leone as a nation is going through in this day and age.
Having been okayed by the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) to adopt its new constitution after a long tussle over constitutional and leadership reforms, especially since it lost the 2018 Presidential election to the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), the APC is now expected to continue to lay the ground for a smooth convention where it will peacefully elect its party standard bearer for the 2023 presidential elections.
The party big guns must exhibit the tenets of sage leadership. They must do the right thing in order to take advantage of the times in the political and socio-economic conditions of Sierra Leone if they want to show themselves as fit and capable to liberate Sierra Leone from its political mess and economic backwardness. The APC should take advantage of the times; for he who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son (Prov10:15).
It is therefore essential that the APC as a government in waiting fix up themselves most appropriately. It is said when preparation meets opportunity a breakthrough occurs. When the time is up for election of a flag-bearer, whoever is competent and eligible to man the affairs of the party or serve as flag-bearer for the party – regardless of region or ethnicity and whether he or she is from the south, east, north or west – should be voted for or elected to serve the party and the nation.
So, all interested individuals in the party should lay their cards on the table; they should be honest about their feelings and intensions to achieve a healthy, viable and beneficial outcome in the convention for the good of the party and by extension the nation.
But if party members or authorities decide to do otherwise, it is a straw in the wind that means wrong decisions would be made, adoption of the draft constitution would be affected and ineffectual outcome for the party would be the resulting circumstance.
It is essential to note that all won’t be the same or support the same thing or person at the same time. Of course, if everything was blue, we won’t be able to tell the difference of the sky from the earth.
Differences in political and national affairs will always exist, but differences must be solved peacefully. The APC must take in its hands its own destiny. Party members must think of new and innovative way to strengthen the APC.
A party becomes weak and misdirected when its leadership fails to dream and overwhelmingly embraces the cultures of blame game, accusations, and character assassination, which are enemies of success or victory at the individual and collective level.
So, the APC authorities and other stakeholders must work together to build a better party that could transform Sierra Leone for the better.
Therefore, since the party has been given the green light to adopt its constitution and forge ahead, it is essential that all leaders and members of the party shelve their differences and genuinely work towards giving the people of Sierra Leone an alternative governance blueprint that would redeem the nation from the abyss of political and economic downturn the nation is in.
Forum hopes to see a better opposition or a shadow government in waiting to spur good governance from the sitting government and let the people enjoy the wealth of their homeland.
