The ancestors and indeed all those great men and women, as well as the young people or youth, who have lost their lives struggling for the unity, peace and good progress of the All People’s Congress (APC) party, and ultimately for Sierra Leone, must be shaking in their graves to hear that the party’s current interim body that emerged out of relative obscurity to consolidate its affairs towards the 2023 elections have closed ranks and embraced peace and unity once more.The party’s caretaker body the Interim Transitional Governance Committee (ITGC) mandated in April this year by the High Court of Sierra Leone under the ruling of Justice Adrian Fisher to run the affairs of the party till it elects a new executive body, has been swimming on rough tides due to bitter rancour and disunity that have bedevilled its family members over the last four years since it lost the reins of governance in 2018.
The ITGC’s chairman Alfred Peter Conteh and the secretary Hon. Abdul Kargbo with their various camps have been working like enemies, who could hardly come to terms on issues bordering on the good and progress of the party.
However, few days ago, precisely on 31 August this year, the ITGC issued a press release stating that “the standoff within the ITGC has been amicably resolved’ and that “the peace and reconciliation was struck through the mediation of the APC Peace Facilitators, Senior Party Stakeholders and the Big Six”.
The release, signed by both the chairman and the secretary of the ITGC, also states that “in furtherance of the spirit of cohesiveness, the ITGC is working to review outstanding issues for the good of the party, adding that it “also wishes to provide assurances to the party membership that goodwill now exists within” their ranks and that all outstanding processes and requirements that will take their party to conventions “are now fully on course to deliver victory in June 2023”.
Well this new development sounds impressive and good to hear for all peace-loving APC supporters and well-wishers. However it has been proven that one good action today or at a point in time does not necessarily mean that state of affairs would remain so or be positive all the time. In any case, fairness, peace, oneness are Godly attributes that humanity and progress cherish more than injustice, anarchy and disunity. So the APC with its offspring the ITGC must conform to peace and unity as the right step and direction that will take them to the Promised Land, as this paper once espoused in the following article it published some months ago when the party’s rank and file decided to resolve their differences and beefing for the better. That article, which meanwhile concludes our piece of advice to the APC/ITGC, reads:
APC: A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
One swallow does not make a summer but the recent moves being made by the executive and flagbearer aspirants of the All People’s Congress (APC) party can best be described as a step in the right direction.
The party secretariat has just issued a press release stating that the party will in August -September this year conduct a convention to elect a total of 700 executive members from among its constituents across the country.
According to the press release, the party will elect 20 members for the National Youth League, 20 members for the Women’s Wing and five delegates for each constituency totalling 660 members representing the party’s 132 constituencies. This move was enhanced by a recent High Court order calling on the executive to hold its delegates’ conference to adopt the party’s new draft constitution, although this delegates’ conference should exclude certain members from the old and current executive of the party; in other words, they should be disenfranchised.
Another noble move by the executive and other big guns of the APC is that contenders of the party flag-bearer position – like the BIG SIX and Dr Samura Mathieu Wilson Kamara – have decided to unite and close ranks, avoid character assassination and smearing of one another but to see eye to eye and forge ahead for the good of the party and its supporters.
Although more forces, cracks or wounds are yet to be mended to get all onboard in order to democratically and peacefully elect a flagbearer for the 2023 national elections, the fact that they have decided to stop the war-war, close ranks and go for a national delegates’ conference, is a move in the right direction. It is said a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Therefore, these first moves towards restoring sanity to the party have been greatly applauded by a majority of APC supporters or party sympathisers as well as other peace-loving Sierra Leoneans.
The big guns of the APC should always bear in mind that unity brings success; that success would certainly elude them if they continue to maintain acrimony and draw daggers at each other; that a divided house would eventually crash and burn, and that it is only unity that would help them to stand firm and keep high spirits in suffering and in joy.
Another point the party members should not be oblivious of is that they are in the opposition realm hence they have a common contender to contend with come the 2023 general and presidential elections.
Party members, especially those vying for the flagbearer position of the party, should bear in mind that it is only one person among the lot that would emerge as flagbearer for the party at the end of the day. Whether they like it or not, whoever the Lord has destined to lead would lead. All of them should regard themselves as great men and women since greatness comes in various ways, some of which are outlined by the great philosopher and dramatist, William Shakespeare, who says: “Some are born great, others achieve greatness and some have greatness trusted upon them.”
So, men like Hon. Amb. Alimamy Petito Koroma, Dr Richard Conteh, Dr Kaifala Marah, Major (Rtd) Alfred Palo Conteh, Lawyer Abubakar Kalokoh, Alhaji Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay, Chief Alhaji Sam-Sumana and Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara, among others, should know that the greatest men are the simplest and that they should try their level best to act like gentlemen and true leaders. A good leader, they say, must be a river to his people, and that good things come to those who wait, hence they must be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love. They should not act like some people whose minds are like concrete – all mixed up and permanently set.
The 2023 general and presidential election is approaching the APC and indeed all the political parties and people of this country, a time when the electorate of Sierra Leone will surely go to the polls again to elect their representatives and national leader or president. Who the people will elect to serve them is not ours to tell, but it is certain that the people, whose intelligence should not be underrated, would vote in their choice when the time is up for election, be it the primaries or the local, general and presidential elections.
At this juncture, Forum would like all, particularly the APC executive and leaders, to know that a wise man is not one who does not make mistakes but he who learns from his mistakes.
