By Cornelius Oguntola Melvin Deveaux
As a committed member of the All People’s Congress (APC), I write with deep concern that our party is once again drifting toward the same mistakes that cost us dearly in 2023. With extensions lapsing, court filings surfacing, and regulatory maneuvers hanging over us, Sierra Leone’s largest opposition party risks sliding into another cycle of paralysis and mistrust.
The long‑delayed constituency elections finally took place last Saturday, and for a brief moment, many of us felt renewed hope. Through the ballot box, members reaffirmed their faith in internal democracy. Yes, there were skirmishes that may lead to petitions or re‑runs, but the APC looked alive, moving forward. Yet even before the dust settled, a darker storm began to gather.
Within twenty‑four hours, social media was awash with documents alleging that our Port Loko District Chairman, Comrade Alie Suma, had filed papers at the High Court seeking judicial relief. A closer look revealed that the motion was based on an affidavit sworn months earlier, in May. Its sudden release timed after the constituency elections and as the extension granted by the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) nears expiration without a National Delegates Conference (NDC), feels calculated. To many of us, it looks like a deliberate attempt to derail progress. The timing is no accident. It feels like sabotage.
For those of us who care about the APC’s survival, these distractions are dangerous. They deepen divisions, divert attention from the urgent task of convening an NDC, and erode public confidence in our ability to avoid the deliberate missteps that cost us the 2023 elections. At the heart of this crisis is a constitutional ambiguity: the tension between expiration of tenure and formal dissolution.
Our March 2022 Constitution prescribes a fixed three‑year mandate for national officers under Article 52(a)(b). It extends the same to regional, diaspora, district, constituency, and ward executives. Yet Article 17(d) requires that dissolution and election of national officers occur at the NDC. Similarly, Articles 24(h) and 21(c) demand the dissolution of organs such as the National Advisory Committee (NAC) and National Executive Committee (NEC) at the NDC.
In practice, tenure expires automatically; the mandate lapses by passage of time. Dissolution, however, is a deliberate act of the NDC. This dual framework, and the silence on what happens when tenure lapses without an NDC, has created a dangerous procedural gap. Unless the Constitution is amended, it will be a recurring menace.
When the executive’s three‑year mandate expired in February, the PPRC intervened. Its extension was legal, meant to prevent paralysis, but politically fraught. The Commission gave six months, warning that if no NDC was convened, leadership would pass to Hon. Abdul Kargbo, Leader of the Parliamentary Group. Yet here we are, with the deadline looming, no NDC in sight, and court filings threatening further delay.
Whispers abound that Alhaji Osman Yansaneh, the de facto chairman, is behind these maneuvers to prolong his stay. His perceived closeness to the ruling SLPP, family members securing jobs under SLPP rule, photographs of him dining with SLPP Chairman Jimmy Batillo Songa, fuels suspicion among some members that he may be the insider slowing the APC’s march toward renewal.
His supporters have said it is not true. But in politics, perception often matters more than fact, and this perception is corrosive. If it carries an element of truth, then he desires to fracture party unity and leave the party vulnerable as much as it was made dysfunctional before the 2023 elections.
Some have called for an interim body to steer the party. On paper, it sounds neat. In reality, it would be chaos. Who qualifies? Who decides? How is legitimacy secured? Far from resolving the crisis, such an arrangement would deepen confusion and factionalism. Justice Fisher’s 2022 ruling that created the Interim Transition Governing Committee (ITGC) was a one‑off judicial remedy, not a precedent. The PPRC cannot replicate that function under its mandate. Similarly, elevating Hon. Kargbo outside constitutional provisions would undermine party autonomy and invite injunctions.
Our constitution, though silent on what happens when tenure expires without an NDC, does provide a pathway. Article 25 establishes the Elders’ Council as the conscience of the party, empowered to mediate disputes and guide us in moments of uncertainty. Unlike an interim executive imposed by the PPRC, the Elders’ Council derives legitimacy from our own constitution.
This is where the APC must turn. Not to courts. Not to regulatory improvisation. Not to factional maneuvering. The cycles of delay and intrigue have already cost us dearly. If we fail to act right now, we risk replaying the betrayal of 2023. If we succeed, we can restore confidence, heal divisions, and prove ourselves worthy of leading Sierra Leone into a democratic future.
This is not just a procedural fix—it is a principle. Political parties must govern themselves, even under regulatory oversight. Extension respects autonomy; substitution strips us of our right to self‑determination. For Sierra Leone’s democracy to thrive, opposition parties must manage their internal affairs within constitutional bounds.
At this crossroads, we must choose between fast-tracking the pace to an NDC and to drift further into cycles of extension, court cases, and interim arrangements
The APC cannot afford another cycle of delay, suspicion, and improvisation. Every extension, every court filing, every maneuver that postpones the NDC chips away at our credibility as a viable alternative to the SLPP. The constitution already provides a compass: the Elders’ Council. It is this body—not the courts, not regulatory substitution—that must rise to guide us through uncertainty and ensure the transparent convening of the NDC.
If the Elders fail to act, history will not simply repeat itself; it will condemn the APC to irrelevance. But if they seize their constitutional authority, they can restore confidence, heal divisions, and prove that the APC is capable of leading Sierra Leone into a democratic future. The choice is stark, and the moment is urgent. Elders of the APC, the responsibility rests with you. Lead now, or watch the party drift into betrayal once again.
