By Joseph A, Kamanda

The existing political leadership skirmishes between the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party and its home grown boys, the National Reformation Movement (NRM), secretly backed by few ill-motivated senior APC party members, calling on the incumbent national executive to hands off and surrender all party affairs to the young people of the most constructive nationalism political organization, is rendering every opportunity at risk the APC party could lay hands on to win the presidential elections in 2013. And if such moves are further tolerated by leaders of the APC party it would be done at the disadvantage of the chances of the APC, looking at the present state of affairs in governance.

The proposed replacement of the serving APC executive by inexperience NRM boys is generating concerns as a key national issue affecting all and sundry, judging from the fact that the APC party as a political entity, owe it to every Sierra Leonean and has in fact brought to the fore so many critical and thought provoking questions as whether the so-called rebel NRM boys actually have what it takes to manage and run the affairs of the APC amidst trials and tribulations being faced by the party.

And in the wake of persistent ruling party and government intimidation strategies, resilient opposition APC leaders including the National Chairman and Leader, former president Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, Secretary General, Alhaji Ambassador Dr Osman Foday Yansanneh, Deputy Leader and Chairman, Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray and the entire members of the present embattled APC executive have continue to consolidate their firm sustenance in running the daily affairs of the APC party, while most young party members including NRM boys are taking cover elsewhere. Take the self-imposed exiled APC National Publicity Secretary, Cornelius Deavoux who fled from threats from Police arrest, while his comrades are languishing in prison. Is that what the NRM rebel boys and their allies call loyalty to the APC?

Whereas at now most of the opportunistic APC youngsters have either jumped ship and defeated to other political organizations in search of jobs including other social material fortunes. Others have even gone ahead and secured well-paid jobs from the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party SLPP class, not to talk of good number of young APC Members of Parliament who are busy playing double standards against their own political brothers and sisters’ interests, all for want of favour and material wealth, while the old folks still maintains their grounds despite series of Criminal Investigations Department and Anti-Corruption Commission invites to them and other cabinet position holders in the last Koroma led APC government.

A stance for which the present APC executive deserves commendations from across the party for its continuous resistant against politically motivated blackmails from the tribal and regionally tainted Government Transition Report authored by absconded Bradford University Prof. David John Francis and team of extremists, harassments, intimidation precipitated by the Commissions of Inquiries all geared towards rendering the APC unpopular and powerless in opposition. Moreover the SLPP government has constantly incarcerated prominent APC supporters and members including innocent former Freetown Mayor Herbert George Williams and the part’s Western Area Publicity Abu Bakarr Darammy for crime they didn’t commit.

Yet one wonders as to what have the NRM membership and their allies have been doing about all of these as so called loyal APC party members, if actually they meant well and are moving towards redeeming the party from the claws of the Bio led SLPP dictatorship? So what exactly had the NRM and their covert operators wanted to do? Was their malicious pushed court action against the APC meant well for any leadership role in the party, are some of the critical questions they collectively need to reply to before the public could even start entertaining them for any leadership confidence in the APC. For all people and the entire membership of the APC party are concerned about and have come to realized now is that young leaders in the present SLPP government have failed the people of Sierra Leone as categorically stated by president at the recent cabinet retreat and the APC as a responsible opposition party of constructive nationalism records does not deserves to be a victim of such fate.

And to the point of power changing hands in the APC, nobody is in doubts, or under estimating the NRM factor as a strong political factor, even though they are going asunder by the hours. Concerns herein are that whether the already disintegrated NRM and their allies have the courage and resilient to withstand the present heat from president Dr Julius Maada Bio led ruling SLPP hegemony? They took the APC party leadership and the entire executive to court with a politically motivated injunction for ‘failure’ to democratically conduct lower level elections of national, regional and districts officers, which ended up restraining the party’s meeting for the proposed approval of the reviewed APC December 5^th, 1995 Constitution. The matter has resulted to adjournments after the other despite ruling SLPP party legal backings from a sitting Member of Parliament, lawyer Hon. Hindolo Moiwo Ngavao and team, with the single approval of Sheridan alone against the democratic wishes of the entire membership of the movement.

While in court battling with their political godfathers, the NRM appears to have completely fallen apart based on principles that have to do with shifting their very loyalties from the APC and the ruling SLPP which most of the movement’s membership kicked against a proposal suggested by one of their senior secrete revolutionary Comrades-Hon. Amb. Dr Alpha Bakarr Sahid Khanu. Like rouges falling off their graces, NRM boys could not speak to political betrayal proposals by former minister of various sectors during former president Koroma administration and a National Publicity Secretary of the APC party, who off late aspired for the flag bearer position of the APC. Hon. Amb. Alhaji Dr Khanu’s sell out suggestions to the NRM boys to work with the ruling despotic SLPP government against the APC, instantly disintegrated the ambitious young politicians, who were left with no alternatives but with much desperations, dashed to No. 11 Old Railway Line in Freetown and registered their utmost dissatisfactions regarding the issue to the national secretariat, and appropriately informed Amb. Dr Yansanneh that Amb. Khanu was actually trying to divert their attentions from their democratic reformation agendas of the APC party to that of covertly siding with the failed SLPP junta regime.

The malicious conspiracy against APC party Chairman and Leader former president Koroma then finally backfired as the fervent Wesleyan Christian always says, ‘No Weapon Fashioned against Me Shall Prosper.’ The popular and strong Christian maxim has always been with former president Koroma; before he became president, during his presidency and even afterwards. Dr Khanu and his divisive allies should now bow their heads in shame, put on their thinking caps, prepare themselves for party unity and pave a smooth path to victory come 2023 as a divided house can hardly stand. As there is always victory for the APC in their struggle.

So, shame on the exposed NRM leader Sheridan and his deceitful mentor Hon. Amb. Alhaji Dr Khanu for betraying the democratic reformation course of the APC by the NRM, in support of the oppressive SLPP regime against the APC for financial handouts probably coming from the presidency through him. Are these the calibre of people that want to take over the affairs of the APC by all means? No way to the ‘Khan’s version of paopa’ in the APC party, as  more secretes await to be let out by prodigal NRM boys who have vowed to name more traitors from within that have been trying to maliciously reverse gains made by the APC party and its leadership.

Moreover, the fact that NRM boys lack the required experiences to handle their own internal dynamics of their own affairs was the very reason why Dr Khanu exploited the opportunity to persuade the NRM Chairman Sheridan and other people he had wanted to mislead into political lost course. So they must therefore team up now with their senior comrades at the National Secretariat who have all what is take to handle party affairs, and speak with one voice, withdraw the injunction matter, resort to an out of court settlement and prepare a new schedule for a national delegate conference to democratically elect a new executive that can take the APC party to the much anticipated 2023 presidential and general elections.

Considering the present trend of inefficient manner of service delivery to the anger of president Bio himself, over the lack of the requisite capacities of his boys to effectively deliver on their various mandates in their Ministries Departments and Agencies across the entire governance spectrum, the NRM eagerness to replace the older members and leaders of the APC party is being seen as a disastrous moves within and outside party circles. President Bio and development partners aware of the facts that most of the people presently handling national development and administrative issues are incompetent, which is why they have since April 2018 to date they could not achieve much in their various offices. And similar fate will befall the APC if the NRM succeeds in replacing the serving executive, which most well meaning Sierra Leoneans would not want to see happen at all.

In as much as no one doubts the zeal of young people but the party can’t afford to make such mistakes to place key positions of trust in the hands on inexperience people as records have it  that most of those given the opportunities to prove themselves have fallen below the expectations of the present governments. So NRM must give a bit of respite to their APC leaders to prepare them well for leadership positions, rather than dashing into mad rushes and in the end start failing us again like what we are now experiencing from incompetent SLPP boys who are poorly handling state governance issues under the leadership of president Bio.

To that end, the serving national executive of the main opposition APC must continuously sustain the running of the affairs of the party instead of encouraging incompetent distractions from inexperience jokers.