The incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Julius Maada Bio-led government has thrust the nation into economic mess with hardship, suffering and misery.
A liberator is highly needed to redeem this nation from the economic misappropriation the SLPP and Bio has in the last five years placed Sierra Leone in which an alternative political administrative such as the All People’s Congress (APC) and Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara are expected to address immediately as soon as he is elected as president of the country.
In view of the yearn for a remedial situation, APC members and supporters remain somehow hopeful of hearing message of consolations and hopes from their leader but realized that Dr Samura Kamara didn’t show up at the first ever news conference hosted by the party in Freetown. He was expected to add his voice to the popular and loud calls for condemnations of recent intimidations of the APC National Secretary General Lansana Dumbuya and others by guards of President Bio, on orders of the presidency. To the dismay of APC followers, that didn’t happen, which has precipitated serious concerns from members expressing fears of their safety amid growing tendencies of intimidations by the government and its political operatives; the more reasons APC members and supporters are urging their leader and flagbearer for the June 24th polls, Dr Samura Kamara, to in the first instance start acting fast now moving forward in the best interest of his party members and the country.
The APC vehemently trusted that responsibility with guaranteed support to its new leader and presidential candidate for the June 24 elections, Dr Samura Kamara, at their National Delegates’ Conference in Makeni.
Starting from that date when he was democratically elected and officially declared as the standard bearer of the APC for the 2023 presidential race, much is expected of Dr Samura Kamara, going forward, instead of him keeping a low profile, avoiding his constituents and former fellow aspirants. That is unimaginable! And like the president-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who has called on his fellow aspirants to work as a team and rebuild their country, Dr Samura Kamara is therefore expected to have earlier closed ranks with all former rivals right from there and called them to work as a Team APC for collective victory. Dr Samura Kamara should wake up from his deepest slumber by now and show signs of readiness to liberate Sierra Leoneans and the APC from the clutches of Bio’s five years of despotic rule, economic mismanagement, ignorance and misery.
It is barely over a week now since Dr Samura Kamara was duly elected as the standard bearer of the APC. It is the anticipation that at this time around he should engage all former contestants into a productive dialogue to map out the way forward for his presidential bidding to unshackle the APC party and Sierra Leone from tyranny and economic mess.
However, to the disappointment of the multitude of traditional APC loyalists including members and supporters, Dr Samura Kamara chose to boycott the party’s first news conference hosted on Tuesday 28 February 2023 at the National Secretariat, Old Railway Line, Brookfields. His presence alone should have produced the much-desired impact on the way forward to address the anomalies and excesses of the presidential guards with regard the treatments they meted out on the National Secretary General, Lansana Dumbuya Esq. Mahmud Tarawallie’s driver, Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, her driver, former AIG Karo Kamara and others who were unlawfully arrested and detained on orders from President Bio.
Coupled with that, there are delays in naming his running mate and APC vice presidential candidate for the June polls, which also has huge tendencies of impeding progress in the party. No doubt that Dr Samura Kamara had once told party supporters that he is a “technocrat and not a politician”, though the APC has come this far in grooming him into a seasoned politician. And this time around he has been designated a politician thus must act as a techno-politician and do the needful moving forward in record time. He is not only a standard bearer of the party; he is also the National Leader of the APC.
Therefore, much is really expected of him in terms of delivery, unification of the party especially, with losers in the flagship race considering what APC members have been through in the last five year under the tyranny of Bio. By now, he should be consolidating ties and linkages with other APC heavyweights in preparedness to face Bio and democratically unseat him in June.
Except if he might want to run alone, but if not then he should be naming his running mate now and start talking to all his fellow former flagbearer aspirants, making sure he is confident enough of their collective support on the campaign trail. Every vote or support is equally important to the aspiration of the APC especially for the approaching presidential elections, for time is certainly not on the side of the APC.
The APC has been in governance hibernation for five years. The whistle has been blown for another political battle for State House. Readiness and willingness go together along with his strongest team to the campaign trail. It is time for Dr Samura Kamara to fully integrate himself with members of his party especially grassroots supporters, popular and very influential APC politicians with the wherewithal to earn the party the much-needed victory come June.
The other day in the press conference, supporters were thrilled, some throwing unflinching support for Hon. Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah aka Chericoco in the absence of other intending running mate hopefuls. The delay in naming a running mate will and gradually exterminates the appetite of APC supporters. By virtue of your background as veteran civil/public servant, with vast experience in the public administration of this very country and other nations, you know very well who the most competent vice-presidential candidate hopeful on your list is.
It is better Dr Samura Kamara name his running mate now, mend fences with others and move the APC into top gear presidential campaign trail.
The APC declared Samura Kamara as another Prophet Moses (Musa) to take them and the entire populace to the Promised Land (State House). That determination should not be thwarted by any act of cowardice or complexity or delay. He needs to act tough, courageously and more responsibly moving forward, for the people behind have well resolved than ever before to stand by him and support him to presidency. So Samura must move on, as public trust demands rapid and quick response.
The judicial orders delayed the APC convention which was well known by all and sundry. Since the convention came out successfully, elected officers of the party are expected to graciously execute their duties and responsibilities without delay.
Groundwork is therefore necessary for any engagement. We are sure the APC is well prepared for any eventuality. They are fully prepared to work within the ambit of the laws of the country.
Keeping mute is not a solution to the problem but treading on dangerous ground with unjustifiable diligence is.
Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara must now sow the seed of determination, flourish it with the water of his effort to take his party, the indomitable and un-cowed APC, to State House. Nothing much is expected from him but the determination to liberate his people from the abject poverty and suffering imposed on them by the Bio regime.
Forum would like Dr Samura Kamara to know that Sierra Leoneans are all ears; they want to hear from the horse’s mouth who the APC running mate is and that would likely be the vice president of their beloved nation.
