The Deputy Publicity Secretary of the APC, Pope Kamara is now officially on record to have clarified that the EU & US Ambassadors have categorically confirmed to the party’s leadership that there will be a no re-run of the 23rd June 2023 elections.Be it as it may, the indications are that time, energies and resources should no longer be wasted on further propaganda commentaries and mind-catching audios and videos that builds castle of hope in the air for a re-run of the June 24, 2023. It must now be crystal clear now to the APC party membership, in particular, those in the extreme right supporting Dr. Samura Kamara at all cost for a return to accept this as a fact and a reality to now return to the basics of reorganizing the party in readiness for the 2028 elections.
Those in the so-called International Community on whom the party and its short-sighted leaders and supporters have heaped hopes on must now come to the reality that those people are just hypocritical and that they are only serious about acting positively on matters that are of economic, political and military interests to them. They should now understand how international geopolitics operates in the face of national interests relative to specific countries. It was this too much over dependence on the international community that gave the leeway to the SLPP to play ball over the APC in the months leading to and during the elections.
There are no free, fair and transparent elections anywhere in the world. Even the United States of America (USA), which prides herself as the beacon of democracy has had her own fair share of turbulence in the aftermath of elections. It was only their strong systems and processes which they have and they hold sacred that have micro-managed their escalations. But things came up to a crescendo for that “Father of Global Democracy” when former President and now Presidential Candidate for the Republican Party for the November 2023 elections, Donald J. Trump challenged that status quo with claims that his victory was stolen in favour of President Joe Biden; a situation that automatically changed the political climate of the USA and drove a huge wedge into the latent unity of that federal country. The current political conundrum in that country is the raison détre for the deep division and heightened tension the country is currently grappling with, the consequence of which almost led to the assassination of Donald Trump during one of his campaign rallies.
The APC party should have known that the USA, given that radical challenge by Donald Trump and other attendant events that followed, has lost the moral ground to question elections credibility and fairness anywhere. That was why President Julius Maada Bio was audacious enough to take the challenge to them, right in their backyard to say what he said to further expose the hypocrisy inherent in their western style of global political arrangements.
The APC must deviate from that policy of reliance on international support to get victory. It must do the needful at home. It must play the politics its membership and the people of Sierra Leone are akin to at this moment in time. It must be positively radical in its actions and if it should win power, it must prove its positive determination in that direction. The APC must set itself in motion to bring a radical and focused leadership that is committed and determined to answer to the call and demands of his party, especially that which is aspired for by the party’s growing radical youthful population.
This is more the reason why Dr. Samura Kamara having had his bite at the leadership pie as flagbearer for two two consecutive times, and giving his age and giving his manifested inability to respond to the call of this radical majority of his party; and in the struggles of the APC to win power, must bow out now to give way to a radically transformative leadership. The days of marginalization and gerontocratic governance in the APC and the attendant dominance of power by older folks (D Pas) and the infantilization (‘borborlization’) of the young and determined politicians in the APC must end now at this moment when the party is at a critical crossroads.
Dr. Samura Kamara, giving his own inaction and indecisive character as a leader who has contested for power twice, has lost the confidence and trust of most APCians and indeed majority of the party’s admirers and sympathisers. Like President Joe Biden in the USA who has gracefully stepped down and out of the Democratic Party’s Presidential race for reasons associated with his age and his demonstrated mental incongruity thereby easing the stress of causing unnecessary cracks and deep divisions in his party, so it is expected of Dr. Samura Kamara in order to maintain his integrity.
The mind game he and his followers have been playing around the Tripartite Committee and its subsequent recommendations aimed at keeping his stranglehold on the party’s leadership has slammed at his face. This is simply because what he arm-twisted the APC representatives at the Tripartite Committee to do was a complete nonstarter. His sought for sympathy has since died along with his inertia to have taken advantage of situations that were not in favour of the APC and his chances to win the elections. He first nonchalantly endorsed the manipulated Voter Identification Cards and then he failed to provide leadership to forestall the ECSL from conducting the elections on 23rd June, 2023 by not doing anything palpable in response to this bogus 72-hours ultimatum.
Whatever may have influenced these and many more indecisions, Dr. Samura Kamara has not come out to explain to his party Comrades. Up to date, he has not explained to his party the rational and the outcome of his clandestine meeting allegedly coordinated by the Catholic Archbishop with the President at a certain undisclosed location in Freetown. No wonder, it is being muted widely that he may have been compromised by his Catholicism and religious fraternity with President Julius Maada Bio.
However, besides Dr. Samura’s apparent determination to continue hanging on to the leadership of the APC party; which is a dangerous powder keg that has the possibility of exploding and damaging the APC deep from the centre, another major bottleneck in achieving a democratically cohesive party in the forward march to possibly winning the 2028 elections, is the conundrum of the move by a certain ethnic groups to assert hegemony over the party to appear as if the APC party is an inheritance to them. The Limbanization, Temnezation and Lokonization of the party has dwarfed the existence, contributions and sacrifices of other tribes mainly in the North and North-west much to their dissatisfaction and deep chagrin. By all indications so far, this move, if insisted on, will have a debilitating effect on the cohesion and chance of victory of the party in 2028.
This time round, the APC should follow its mission and vision, not the selfish interests of a group of desperados. The APC should look to the leadership qualities and abilities of the likes of Dr. Kaifala Marah, Hon. Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah, Dr. Richard Conteh, Mr. Alimamy Petito Koroma, Palo Conteh and Alhaji Chief Samuel Sam-Sumana.
In the struggles of the APC, there is victory for us all, but thus victory or a debilitating loss for a third time will depend on a new leadership when Dr. Samura Kamara shall have gracefully stepped out of the flagbearer race.
