By Hassan Osman Kargbo
The people of Sierra Leone are still wondering about what the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara (JFK) means that: The Next All People’s Congress (APC) National Delegate Congress (NDC) won’t be business as usual.
But, if we took him by his words one could be tempted to say that the APC party conventions were full of discrepancies that had led the party not to be in governance since the 2012 elections the party last won general elections in the country.
It is not a secret that the 2018 National Delegate Conference –NDC in Makeni was marred with a lot of controversies around it that led former President Ernest Bai Koroma to select Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara as the party’s flagbearer of the 2018 elections.
In addition, Dr Samura Kamara lost the 2018 presidential elections to the current president Julius Maada Bio which many things that Dr Samura Kamara lost the election because some of his party hierarchy undermined him and fast forward to the 2023 general elections, Dr Samura Kamara was also the presidential aspirant for the APC party but he also lost the elections though there were lots of discrepancies before, during and after the elections that led to the APC and other Civil Societies Organizations to reject the result that was announced by the chairman of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone ECSL, Mohamed Konneh.
The rejection of the 2023 general elections led to form of the tripartite committee to look at the elections activities in the country. But, it is also not a secret that the end of the tripartite committee was a big loss for the people and nation of Sierra Leone.
And for the side of the government it was a win-win situation for president Maada Bio and his Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) led government as it appears that he will continue on and get to finish his hard won second term presidential mandate despite the widespread belief and assumption that he didn’t really win the people’s mandate to rule.
However, after all these ups and downs from the past two elections JFK has taken to his official X wall and other social media handles and empathized that there won’t be business as usual in the APC National Delegate Conference which many party supported things that its will commence in 2026 in the country.
His statement will serve as wake up call to Dr. Samura Kamara and other members that may want to be a presidential aspirant for the party in the 2028 June to ensure that they put things together if they want to lead the party to victory come 2028 elections.
Rumours have it that Dr. Samura Kamara still want to be flagbearer of APC party come 2028, but if he didn’t becomes the party’s presidential aspirants he could be one of the biggest losers in the history of Sierra Leone polities. The APC party has been in disarray ever since Dr Samura Kamara was selected by former President Ernest Bai Koroma. The doctor’s tenure at the top of the party’s hierarchy was not a smooth one as members regularly battled each other much to the dismay of the public. Throughout the whole electioneering process, the APC boycott of government, the dialogue, the communiqué and tripartite process, the party has been in serious disarray.
Staunch members of the APC still believe that they were the legitimate winners of the 24 June 2023 presidential elections and feel robbed by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone and the Tripartite Committee whose mandate they had mistakenly believed was to resolve the presidential election result impasse. Until what is next for the APC, JFK had spoken and the rest of his party members should take it very serious as we approach the APC National Delegate Convention which may happens sometime in 2026.
