By Idriss Balogun Tejan
“After I would have become the leader of the APC, two years before the elections, the whole world would already know that APC would constitue the next government,” Dr Ibrahim Bangura told the DIB Ladies For Change at an evening event on Friday, July 2nd, at his Wilberforce office in Freetown.
His words didn’t merely resonate; they also reaffirmed a truth long known but rarely stated: his APC roots run deeper than most can claim, and his legacy is unmatched.
As the leading All Peoples Congress (APC) aspirant asserted: ‘There is no comrade of his generation who outranks me in the APC. Not in history, not in loyalty, and certainly not in lived experience. “Bangura further made the point that his seniority is not defined by age. It is etched into the very origins of his identity and, much more importantly, in his active service to the party. And he is right. Many of those claiming entitlement to the APC leadership joined in either in 2002, when the party started showing signs of a rebound from the delibilitating persecution by National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC); or around 2007 when the party’s electoral victory was already palpable. Well before that, before 1996, Dr Ibrahim Bangura, in his teenage years, was well underway in active service in the APC.
Unlike many of his contemporaries and contenders, Dr. Bangura was not introduced to the APC; he was born into it. Before he could walk, he was already being carried into party offices and campaign grounds by his father, the revered ML Bangura, a towering figure in the party’s history. His mother, Fatmata Baldeh of blessed memory, gave him life, but it was the APC that gave him purpose. And so, from infancy, Dr. Bangura was immersed in the rhythms of party politics, becoming the favoured child among his father’s comrades from whom he learnt about the inner workings of the party and with whom he has built a bond that remains unbroken.
In the Bangura household, APC membership was not optional. It was identity. ML Bangura ensured that every family member held a party card. Their allegiance was documented, deliberate, and enduring. During one of the several moments of conscientisation of his son, ML Bangura once lamented the looting of the APC office during the NPRC coup. The pain was not for the damage inflicted to building but for the loss of historical records that chronicled the party’s journey and its loyal members. That history lives on in Dr. Ibrahim Bangura.
His political consciousness was forged in fire because he lived through the persecution of APC members following the 1992 coup. He saw and bore the pain not as a distant observer but as a child of the struggle. His claim to seniority is, therefore, not rhetorical. Rather, it is rooted in generational sacrifice and institutional memory.
That, juxtaposed with his academic pedigree, spanning Oxford, Amsterdam, and Leipzig underscore his remarkable candidature to lead the APC. Even more worthnoting, is the current toxicity of the politics of Sierra Leone, the thuggish and violent posture of the incumbent, judged by the leadership they have elected few days ago; and how delicate it would be to maintain peace and stability in the run up to, and post 2028 elections.
“With the kind of people they have elected, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party have shown what they are poised for. The APC should demonstrate to Sierra Leone that we are the better party by the leadership we elect,” Bangura said.
Clearly, and as he puts it to the DIB Ladies For Change, ‘Sierra Leone needs a leader who is level – headed but decisive and firm to take this country on the path of progress.’
With his level his credibility both at the community and international levels and his experience, whether by his engagement with ex-combatants in Sierra Leone or in guiding electoral violence prevention across Africa and beyond, Dr. Bangura understands how to achieve peace, justice, and institutional reform even when others poise for violence.
The quiet confidence surrounding Dr. Bangura is no accident. It has been methodically earned because he has done his assignment. His candidacy is thus not a gamble; it is a synthesis of technical acumen, ethical leadership, enduring trust, and the capacity to lead and deliver for Sierra Leone.
No doubt, Dr. Ibrahim Bangura is a symbol of Sierra Leone’s unrealized promise who oozes with the potential of a statesman determined to heal, unite, and build back better.
Let the delegates elect Dr Ibrahim Bangura to liberate the APC and reposition the country for progress.
