It is often said, ‘don’t cry over spilled milk’. The morale of this expression is that ‘what’s done is done’ and we should accept it and just move on. This is surely one way of looking at things and life in general, especially with what is currently taking place in our national governance.

But the status quo can never be accepted as the way when there are more than one thousand ways to skin a cat.

Therefore, when we pinpoint things and take a particular or specific look, we then begin to see that instead of accepting that ‘it is what it is,’ or that ‘things are what they are’ we should instead look at ways of preventing another or future spills instead of always having to deal with the spill whenever it happens.

Concerned supporters and members of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) of the last internationally recognised government of Sierra Leone representing the 5^th Parliament who confided in FORUMNEWS-SL.COM have blamed the reason for the APC’s current issues including their presidential election defeat on what they described as “The Bombali Hegemony”.

Hegemony is described as the political domination, especially the leadership or domination of one state over the others in a group.

The people believe that there is a hegemon in the APC whose influence in the global community is not questioned, but whose role in the country’s body politic has been anything but negative. The hegemon has convinced all and sundry, and many have made him feel that this is reciprocal, that power should not leave his locale for any other part of the country. All decisions and influence must come from this one location and anyone trying to shift the party’s powerbase or stronghold from there to elsewhere is looked at askance and resisted by the hegemon’s supporters in the party.

‘We have inherited a problem as a party that we are not willing to admit and so find ways to see it as a problem for which solutions should be proffered. We have a problem with people not wanting to vacate national leadership and make way for others in the party to step up to the fore and showcase their leadership and other God-given abilities for the cause of nation building. There is an insistence in the APC that power should revolve around Bombali and should not shift to other parts of the country as is the global practice of democratic societies. If a political party does not allow power to shift with the leadership executive of the party, then we tend to create a hegemon whose sole ambition it is to maintain a grip on power going into the future. But we can see how this refusal to let go since 2018 has left the APC in the current situation it is in today. Had the party listen to the voices of reasoning the APC would have been the party government in power, even if the SLPP was accused of broad daylight robbery they wouldn’t have been able to win 24 June 2023. But failing to listen to the people has led to where the nation is at today, on the brink of a one party state,’ they said.

The concerned citizens say the APC has allowed for one man to so dominate the party’s activities that it has become almost a cardinal sin in the APC to want to do anything without first making a trip to Bombali. They said for the APC party to grow power has to follow the current executive, who should also show some leadership pizazz by creating and directing their platform for national development.

‘For example, in 1996 the Sierra Leone People’s Party – SLPP power base was in the Kambia axis from whence came men like Tejan Kabba, Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella – KKY, Alimamy Petito Koroma and Amb Osman Foday Yansanneh. However, after his tenure, power was allowed to shift from Pa Kabbah in the North-West to the South-East under Solomon Ekuma Berewa. Again, after Solo B. we can now see that the SLPP power base has shifted to Tihun, Bonthe Island, Southern Sierra Leone. But since 2018 power in the APC has not been allowed to leave the Bombali axis, for which influence the people have said the old executive keeps playing with the future gains of the party by trying to subjugate power and be the giver of such largesse. This is the real reason the APC has failed to make any serious electoral gains since Ernest Bai Koroma single handedly selected Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara as the new party leader – power is still in Bombali.’

‘Instead of doing anything different, Koroma’s 2018 APC leadership decision was allowed to be repeated in 2023 against the better advice and suggestion of sound political observers. He selected Kamara because he knew he can influence him and Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah Chericoco to continue his political agenda forward. Koroma also knew that both men were willing for Bombali to remain the APC party’s new Mecca while they are in the leadership seat. If you remember, anything these guys wanted to do they had to go to Bombali; even for the past elections these guys were busy shuttling between Freetown and Bombali instead of focusing on campaigning, all in the name of hero worshipping. Had power been allowed to shift from Bombali to Mambolo or any other location the party wouldn’t have made the same leadership decision that continues to affect them today, even at the polls,’ the staunch APC activists hinted.

According to the aggrieved APC supporters the party’s National Reformation Movement had started the campaign for power to be allowed to shift from one personality to another and one region to another. They saw the need for a change in leadership going forward as in a proper democratic order or party. This way whenever we have a leadership shift in the party, we should expect for power to shift to that location and for people in that location to be encouraged that if a son or daughter of theirs could rise to such national prominence then anyone born in that location can also be what they want to be when they grow up.

‘Imagine how many people Ernest Bai Koroma has influenced in Makeni, Bombali since 24 March 2002? Today you feel a sense of everything is possible when you enter Makeni. This is the kind of influence we were hoping our national leaders would encourage nationwide as we try to grow our national human resources capacity. But if power stays in one axis then the others will suffer a dearth of public leadership from their location. The Republican Party in the United States of America will be behind Donald Trump through thick and thin as long as he is their party head. But if Trump loses to another Republican then power is allowed to shift to his or her state.’

‘The refusal by the APC party for power to shift is what led to the people of Kono going it alone. The APC was not willing to see that Kono is the next power base. The people of Kono were expecting for power to shift from Bombali to Koidu after the 2012 elections. Even if Sam Sumana was not president, power was expected to have shifted eastwards. For the past two elections, 2018 and 2023, Kono has been the swing district that gives power to the executive. President Bio’s whole strategy agenda last term was to steer the APC away from Chief Sam Sumana hence Kono. And the APC gave in to his strategy. We see the C4C not returning to the APC as the NGC did for the SLPP. They both went to the SLPP because power has shifted to Kono. Instead of seeing the wisdom in a presidential team of an easterner and north-westerner that would have countered the ruling incumbents, the power hungry and hegemons in the APC party insisted on the relevance of Bombali over all other areas in the country. Had Sam Sumana and Dr Samura Kamara been the flagbearer and running mate respectively the SLPP would have had a very hard time stealing the elections,’ they opined.

Since the APC leadership failed to see how sensible it was to have Chief Sam and Dr Kamara taking on Bio and Juldeh Jalloh, they allowed their narrow regional prejudice to get in the way of a national agenda. Several people in Kono also took part in the sidelining of Chief Sam including what happened during the delegates’ convention for a continuation of the Bombali agenda by maintaining a second try at the presidency for the duo that lost in 2018.

‘We believe that had the APC seen the wisdom in allowing influence and power in the party to move with the new executive then we would not have been in the position we are in today with a president having a stolen mandate. A Sam Sumana – Dr Samura Kamara ticket would have been a formidable team that Bio and Juldeh wouldn’t have defeated for the second time. Even if Bio and the SLPP had tried to steal the election, with Chief Sam and Dr Kamara that would have been impossible. It is very important for parties to have shifts in their power bases; this helps the future leadership trajectory of the party. If not, we will always have a situation where a former president of the state and party and all his supporters in the party are refusing and making it impossible for any other individual to challenge their leader’s continued relevance to the party’s objectives. This was what happened to Chief Sam and this is why the SLPP is still at State House, despite how they got there,’ they said.

The APC members say the nation has a serious leadership deficit for which the old executives and the “bra you borbor dae oh” mentality can be blamed.

‘Hegemons are selfish people whose entire agenda is based on maintaining the status quo hence their grip on and relevance to power. Power must be allowed to shift, or it becomes too heavy to wield or carry alone,’ the APC members concluded.

Credit: Jerry Saccoh Kai-Lewis