One of the leading challengers of President Julius Maada Bio for the 2023 flag-bearer of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party, Stephen Sahr Mambu, has said in Freetown that there is no democracy in the SLPP. He said the President has succeeded in imposing full dictatorship on the SLPP, which is completely unacceptable in democratic rule.
Stephen Sahr Mambu said that based on his observation of President Bio’s handling of the party’s internal political dynamics and the shifting of legal democratic rule of procedures, he has left with no options but to believe that there is total dictatorship instead of the democracy in the SLPP they fought for as a party.
Speaking an interview with Forum in Freetown, Stephen Sahr Mambu said all the gains that were recorded by the past two governments in consolidating democracy in Sierra Leone, as well as at party levels, have been reversed and to some extent destroyed by President Bio in little less than five years.
“No progress has been made in developing and promoting our democracy in Sierra Leone and dictatorship needs to be left behind by President Bio,” he urged, adding that Sierra Leone and Sierra Leoneans have graduated far from the expectations of being governed by a dictator.
Stephen Sahr Mambu reiterated his popular and continued call for a new SLPP flag-bearer convention, and described the December 2021 delegates’ conference held in Bo, during which the SLPP National Chairman, Dr Prince Alex Harding, nominated President Bio for the party’s flag-bearer position as ‘immoral’, ‘illegal’ and ‘unconstitutional’.
He said President Bio’s “nomination is not in conformity with the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone”, hence described the whole exercise as “selection”, clearly pointing out that the conference was not held for the election of a flag-bearer but national officials.
Stephen Sahr Mambu disclosed that even cabinet ministers and Members of Parliament within the Bio government have problems with his selection at the December Bo convention.
He re-echoed calls for a new flag-bearer conference where all aspirants will be given the opportunity to present their policies to delegates and the general members of the SLPP party, adding that what took place in Bo “is not right”, which is why the SLPP needed another convention and “if that fails I will take another action”.
Asked which actions he would take against his party, Stephen Sahr Mambu stopped short of disclosing his next plans and decided to keep his hands close to his chest.
He said that there are so many other challengers who are yet to raise their democratic voices against Bio’s unconstitutional nomination and imposition on the SLPP as the 2023 flag-bearer.
“I personally believe that if the SLPP have a new flag-bearer, we cannot continue to do the wrong things all the time and the constitution must be respected as the supreme laws of the state,” he said, and sternly warned against the rampant tribalism in the Bio-led SLPP government which he said “is the biggest disturbance that is affecting the progress and development” of the country. “We all have to be very proud of being Sierra Leoneans,” the national patriot said, adding: “Tribalism is destroying the country.”
Asked if he would accept a well-paid job offered from by the government, Stephen Sahr Mambu replied: “No job offer will honour the legacies of my father and if I am called by Bio I will take it as an honour.”
About his level of trust and confidence in the judicial and legal system of the country, Stephen Sahr Mambu said: “The judiciary is a bit better now.”
He expressed fervent hope that President Bio would surely call for another convention since the Bo confab was never hosted for the nomination or selection of a flag-bearer, adding that he would want it to be recorded in history that President Bio indeed restored democracy in the SLPP by creating a level-playing field for all flag-bearer aspirants. He said there are other people who want to present their policies and must be given the chance to do so.
However efforts throughout last week by Forum in trying to reach the SLPP National Publicity Secretary, Lahai Lawrence Leema, for his party’s side of the story proved futile as the paper went to press.
