By: Mohamed Dauda Kamara
Fourah Bay College, known for its nickname “the Anthens of West Africa,” is currently awash by an ingrained political tension, leading to a fierce decline in students’ unionism.
Following the administration’s announcement for a Students’ Union election for April, the Black family is stormed by a political divide, after they unveiled their candidate, Samuel Turay on the 1st March, 2023.
The unveiling of Samuel Turay, an engineering student, led into a riot on campus among loyal black members, who are against Samuel’s candidacy. According to facts gathered by Daily Scope, the political in-fight among the Black Family is between members of Kylmax and Auradicals.
The Kymax Club has produced their own candidate, Claudius Taylor, a law student, marketing him to the students’ populace.
The decision by Kylmax to produce their own candidate is opposed to the monopoly of Auradicals in producing SU-candidates. For the past three to four years, Auradicals has been the only entity producing candidates that ended up being elected as presidents.
Joseph Vandy (not his real name) a black member disclosed to Daily Scope that Kylmax has been influenced against Auradicals, who are traditionally described as the “political academy” on FBC campus.
Auradicals, which was founded in 1973 by a group of fearless students on Mount Aureole, has been producing SU-Presidents for the past five decades within the Black Family.
“It’s a traditional right imposed on the Auradicals to produce SU-Presidents. It’s the political academy that grooms students on campus for political activities. We unravel brilliant students, who have potentials, and we build and make them very powerful,” a staunch member of Auradicals revealed.
The Black family, comprising more than ten clubs on FBC campus, is the general entity that promotes the ‘African ideology’ – a practice that had been existence since the 1970s.
Moses Sheriff (not his real name) told Daily Scope that the decision of the Black Family to choose Samuel Turay, came from their gods, saying Samuel’s candidacy is irreversible.
“No one has ever boycotted this process. One must go through deliberation before representing the family,” he also stressed.
On the contrary, a Kylmax member accused the outgoing President, Alfred Micah Sesay, of selfishly running the students’ Union government, centralizing his leadership among his cabal. This, according to him, ignited the growing need to end Auradicals’ monopoly in selecting candidates for the Black family.
Alfred Micah Sesay, the outgoing President, was nominated by the Auradicals after series of deliberation in 2023. But Alfred denied the allegations, saying that the allegations are born out of “malice” against him.
Speaking on the political tensions within the Black Family, Alfred M. Sesay expressed his sincere willingness and commitment in building unity among students on campus, asserting that the BlacK Family wanted the Samuel Turay at all cost.
Meanwhile, the White Family has unveiled their SU-candidate, Rashid Gbondo, a law student on Wednesday in the heat of the sun as he was cheered by students, who were neatly dressed in white.
Rashid Gbondo, was once a member of the Sierra Leone Debating Council, who left the debating hub and took an oath for the Black family, a decision that was contrary to the values and constitution of the SLDC-FBC. Rashid then betrayed the Black family for the White Family, after he was initiated into the Liberals Brotherhood in 2023.
Gbondo’s fearless decision prompted a harsh display on FBC campus, as a fight broke out between the Black and the White Family.
Lux Ibrahim Sorgoh, a member of the Liberals Brotherhood, exclaimed Gbondo’s competency to lead the students of FBC, asserting that their candidate has an enriched political track record, which put him ahead of his opponents.
The White entity, dominated by north-westerners, has been struggling to rule students’ politics since President Julius Maada Bio was elected in 2018. Politics on FBC campus is allegedly linked to the country’s National Politics, as Jonathan Quee, a neutral student, revealed.
Jonathan, grimacing at the ideologies of both Black and White, asserted that FBC politics has been influenced by external factors, referring these factors to the country’s national political parties: the Sierra Leone People’s Party and the All People’s Congress.
“Students, their quest to achieve power, make a lot promises during elections, but fail to fulfill these promises. No sooner a student takes the seat of presidency; he only cares about himself and his club members in order to enrich themselves. For five years now, I’ve been doing an investigative research on the past SU presidents, no sooner they relieved from office. they are seen with different cars,” he laments..
Jonathan narrates the discriminatory treatments neutral students face on FBC campus during elections, saying neutral students hardly win elections if they’re not backed by either Black or White.
In the 1970s, Hindoloh Tyre, a former SU-President, led a protest against Siaka Stevens’ one-party system during convocation at Fourah Bay College, vehemently opposing Stevens’ bad governance, and booing at him during his speech.
Year-old Lamin Geavao,who was a student at the time, described the incident as a peaceful protest to oppose Stevens’ ‘brute force’ dictatorship. He argued that FBC has met its decline in recent years, a decline that is infused by National politics.
“Our days were quite different. We spoke in one voice, and went against anyone who opposed our decision to protest against Stevens. We stood behind buildings and held our secret meetings prior to the protest, which disdained Stevens’ leadership. Students’ unionism was a sense of oneness, regardless of your origin. But FBC is quite different now,” he stated.
