Since he was ushered onto the public stage in a very public way after he was selected as flagbearer for the All People’s Congress (APC) in 2018, Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara has not had any good advice.
This, according to people in and out of the APC, has been his Achilles’ heel. This wrong advice has also seen the doctor of economics failing to live up to expectation, especially when it comes to addressing the public.
At occasions when the public was expecting to hear something encouraging or pointing to a place of hope, Dr Samura Kamara has continued to fail to address critical issues bordering on the resolution of the impasse that has stalled economic activities and continue to threaten peace and national cohesion.
The first wrong advice that Dr Samura Kamara received according to APC supporters was to accept his selection as flagbearer despite the negative backlash the announcement received.
Was Dr Samura Kamara given the right advice he would have had his attention drawn to the fact that his selection had divided the party with other flagbearer hopefuls retreating to their camps with their supporters to boot.
In the heat of the polarity that resulted from Ernest Bai Koroma selecting Dr Samura Kamara, he was advised to bypass many well-known and capable members of the party to choose Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah as his running mate.
The selection it was hoped would prevent the Fullahs from overwhelmingly voting for the SLPP, who had chosen Dr Juldeh Jalloh as Maada Bio’s running mate.
The fear was that if the APC fielded another running mate other than someone from the Fullah ethnic group their vote would be split on the side of the SLPP.
Despite the obvious divisions in the party including the party’s choice of a flagbearer, Dr Samura Kamara made an impressive showing against Julius Maada Bio. Unfortunately that election result was much contested as the 24 June result; however, for the sake of peace, he was advised to accept the result.
The petition to have the dispute heard in a court of law was only addressed last year, four years after the petition was made.
After four disastrous years under the New Direction regime that promised to take the fight to corruption by civil servant, Dr Samura Kamara was again advised to seek the party’s flag. While there were many men who were capable to lead the party, Dr Kamara was prevailed upon to seek the flag. After getting elected we were informed that Dr Samura Kamara had the intention of asking Chief Sam Sumana to be his running mate.
Unfortunately he was advised to stick with Chernor Maju Bah despite the fact that everyone was looking up to him naming Sam Sumana. This would have resolved the issue the people in Kono had with the makeup of the APC executive, which would have guaranteed the APC all the C4C votes. But that didn’t happen and look at where we are today as a result.
Dr Samura Kamara continues to receive bad advice after it became public that the incumbent didn’t or couldn’t have won the 24 June presidential vote. At a time the people of Sierra Leone are looking up to Dr Samura Kamara for decisive leadership and keeping the incumbent on his toes, he keeps doing things that gives people the impression that he has resolved the election impasse with the SLPP.
The advice to stay out of governance while it seems noble is really not a sound advice. Although the courts have shown that they are biased, deciding to handle the elections dispute out of the courts is also not sound. Short of these two avenues there is no other legal way to resolve this impasse short of taking the protest to the streets.
The biggest letdown according to disappointed APC supporters is the speech that Dr Samura Kamara made two days ago. While we know that this speech was really a veiled response to the audio by Adebayor where he accused Dr Samura Kamara of holding secret meetings with the SLPP unbeknownst to the party or his supporters, the speech failed to address critical issues to the people’s expectations.
Once again we see that even Dr Samura Kamara’s speechwriters are out of touch with what the people really care about. The people want to know what will happen at the dialogue. They also want to know what will happen after the dialogue if the APC’s demands are not fully met. But the speech skirted issues, repeated what the public already know about an electoral coup by the incumbent, but still failing to even give ultimatums to the ruling party government and the president.
Much like the speech by Samura Kamara after the APC National Secretary General, Lansana Dumbuya Esq was assaulted by state security officers at the State Lodge checkpoint, this speech also failed to address what the people really wanted to hear.
FORUM NEWS has been reliably informed that Dr Samura Kamara is once again being advised to seek the party’s flag for the 2028 elections cycle. This advice obviously came from those who would benefit from his attempt, which we don’t expect to amount to anything as the party is already looking for the next leader after Samura Kamara.
Good advice for Dr Samura Kamara would be for him to do all in his power to resolve this 24 June 2023 elections issue, failing which he should be thinking about retirement to his home village, or wherever he plans on retiring to. This is good advice.
