A good number of APC (All People’s Congress) politicians would say Samura Kamara was not a politician but a technocrat.
Samura Kamara is the presidential candidate for the opposition, All People’s Congress party (APC) who many saw as the winner, but Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) declared the incumbent, Julius Maada Bio winner, prompting  a huge and lingering controversy. The APC candidate Samura Kamara rejected the results and called on his party members to resist, but most them let it go and look forward to 2028 election as they see Samura as one that is not au fait with the intricacies of national politics.
They have always wanted him to step down, take the back seat and watch the unfolding political events, but Samura Kamara decided to fight alone.
He denounced the use of matchete or cutlasses in the struggle to take back the party’s victory, stressing that some fights require.
Current trends in the struggle to bring back APC’s stolen victory has proved that Samura Kamara is a combination of technocracy and politics as he has halted the normal and smooth operation of the country, Sierra Leone.
Currently
In the field of politics, Samura Kamara is called ‘OFORYEH MINTHA’ which means, in Themne, Samura is dangerous and unchallengeable.
He has demonstrated such quality within and outside the party since the announcement of the June 24, 2023 election results.
By his actions, he has shown members of the two political parties that he is a strong man among men, and can successfully take on any politician in Sierra Leone.
Samura Kamara first started of by maintaining a high level of integrity, probity and professionalism in several capacities in which he has served.
To date, Samura Kamara is among few APC politicians who is not found culpable of any corruption offence despite the sensitive institutions in which he has served. Kamara has worked at Commonwealth, World Bank,  IMF and among others.
As a result of the 2023 election, nothing goes on within the APC at the moment.
No registration of new members, no meetings, no conferences and no internal elections as the post-election gridlock still looms. Even APC’s lower-level elections which were ongoing have come to a sudden halt without explanation from any of the party’s executive officials, a move that keeps the grassroot majority in the dark.
As the party’s activities abruptly put on hold, several discussions and debates have been centred on the cause, implying the question why it happens.
Majority of the APC members say the party is quiet because shortage of finances which used to stream into the party’s purse. The grassroot members who form the bulk of the party membership are not impressed with actions of the executive officials and have stopped their financial contributions to the party.
Others say APC’s state of affairs is the result of actions brought to the court by party members against members.
It however remains unclear who brought who to court.
Owing to pains of deceptive politics inflicted on the people, the vast majority of APC’s grassroot members have also stopped their moral support to the party by boycotting meetings and conferences.
The so-called “mammoth meeting” recently called by the party’s executive was not mammoth since it was boycotted by the vast majority of APC grassroot members. Only a handful of APC supporters attended the meeting at the Brima Attouga Stadium in Eastern Freetown.
The meeting itself did not end well as the party’s scribe, Lansana Dumbuya was arrested, handcuffed and bundled into Pa Demba Road prison facilities in Freetown. It was during the same meeting that an APC politician, Zainab Sheriff too was picked up and placed behind bars where she still remains to date.
Such sad occurrences means that all is not well with the APC although politicians bury their heads in the sand and pretend that all is well.
With his tiny pen which he considers mightier than the pen, Samura Kamara has also frustrated every attempt by Ernest Koroma and others to keep the party under siege.
From the outset, former President Koroma had set out to maintain a permanent grip on the party by selecting or handpicking those that should man the party’s affairs till he passes away.
The former head of state began such move decades ago when he machinated the injection of the selection clause in the party’s constitution. The cause in question gives him the power, as the party’s Chairman and Leader, to choose executive officials of the party including the flag-bearer.
He used the selection clause on Samura Kamara in 2017 and worked well although he did not want to see Samura Kamara in the seat of the presidency.
Koroma hopes that such powers of selection and autocratic rule will continue, and that he would prevail on Samura Kamara to let go the victory even if he wins the election 100 times.
He also hopes that his influence on party members will continue without end.
But, the hope has evaporated since Samura Kamara has taken a tough stance towards the 2023 election with the mantra slated in Krio parlance that “WUSAI WE HOLD, NAR DAE WE HOLD” meaning he, Samura Kamara and his people maintain their position of rejecting 2023 election results.
To bolster his stance, Kamara forms and leads the Electoral Justice Movement (EJM), a mechanism through which he hopes to retrieve APC’s “stolen victory.”
The EJM consists of able men and women who are educating the people as to why they should not accept 2023 election.
The message on electoral justice has gone too far, cutting across tribes and regions and consequently enjoying huge following among the APC grassroot.
Samura Kamara’s popular support within the grassroot members and supporters has quashed Ernest Koroma’s popularity quite too far.
The former head of state, by all standards, is a pale shadow of his glorious former self because he fails to stand with the people at the time they need him most.
Ernest is the only former President who is constantly being accused of working against his party after power.
He also stands accused of selling APC’s victory twice to the ruling party.
In a widely circulated audio on media platforms, Kemo Sesay, a former parliamentarian and minister narrated how Ernest Koroma initiated and ignited the transfer of power to SLPP in the aftermath of the 2018 election in his fabricated and fake “regime change” scheme.
He is further accused of working from behind the scenes to ensure that the 2023 electoral outcome is forgotten and the people look up to 2028 election whose APC’s hope of winning remains faint.
While in exile in Nigeria, the former head of state declared that the 2023 election was over and that the people should brace upfor the 2028 polls.
He blames every bad step that leads APC’s defeat on Samura Kamara who he referred to as the least prepared candidate at the time he selected him.
Such statement prompted the question of why did he select Samura Kamara’s to run for the country’s top job when he knew he was not the right man.
It is clear, many pepe say that his move is to derail APC’s Chances in the ballot box.
The embattled Chief Electoral Commissioner, Edmond Alpha is widely known for what many his bias and prejudice against the APC.
He is quoted saying that 2028 election will not be different from 2023 in which the election results were announced before the counting was completed.
It was also alleged that the results of Northwest region was never counted.
Owing to APC’s imbroglio, the party’s elders led by former parliamentarian and minister, Ibrahim Ben Kargbo moved a motion to reach Samura Kamara for a meeting of compromise for unity. In response to the letter of invitation, Samura Kamara said he would accept to sit with the party’s elders at the meeting only if the topic for discussion is about bringing back APC’s stolen mandate.
The meeting, from that point, did not materialise because the elders had wanted Samura Kamara to give up the struggle for the reclamation of APC’s victory. Currently, nobody, not even ECSL (Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone) will tell whether there will be an election or not in 2028.
All what the people are doing is a mere guess work. If there is no election, there will be no registration. Even the much-trumpeted 2026 census will not hold under this current condition into which Samura Kamara has plunged the country with his pen.
The people are asking how can there be another election when 2023 election results are yet to be announced.
It is crystal clear that the people will not take part in the purported election if the June, 2023 election is not accounted for.
The people will not go to registration centres, let alone polling stations and centres, fearing the recurrence of the same rigging as once bitten twice shy.
Others who hold different view are pondering the source of money to hold the elections.
He holds the ruling Sierra People’s Party (SLPP) under siege by invoking tough measures from the international community to ensure that no election in Sierra Leone is rigged again in coming yerars.
Samura’s first move was to invite President Julius Maada Bio to the Agreement for National Unity (ANU) which the President signed and launched . The APC presidential candidate, at the time of signing, was smiling which means diplomacy at work.
He was also tactical enough to get the document launched at State House in the presence of development partners.
SLPPÂ politicians, after the launching, were carried away by thinking that everything was over forgetting that it was not over until it was over.
They took over the media (print, electronic and social media) to educate the people that the post-election gridlock had been solved. They informed the people that Samura’s signature on the ANU meant he had endorsed the presidency of Julius Maada Bio.
The development partners also played a part by using the MCC (Millennium Challenge Corporation) fund of 480m to lure SLPP to the peace table.
To date the MCC money still remains in the United States’ coffers.
Former United States Ambassador, David Reimer made it clear that Sierra Leone had passed almost all governance benchmarks for the disbursement of the fund but for the free and fair election rubric.
Ambassador Reimer further claimed that the election was not free and fair and had to be investigated with a view to proffer findings and recommendations. When the issue of election probe was raised, President Julius Maada Bio nominated his Vice President Juldeh Jalloh to head the election investigation committee.
But, the move was rejected by the US Ambassador arguing that one cannot be a player and a referee at the same time.
Amid the bantering, the Tripartite Committee came into being, and work had been completed with 85 recommendations due for full implementation.
The move is not enough as Samura Kamara continues to engage the diplomatic community to increase pressure on the Bio regime to hand over power.
Perhaps, Samura’s continued appeals to the international community has led to fresh actions seen in the isolation of President Bio.
Owing to the rigged 2023 election, Sierra Leone is being left out of the international stage where important issues are discussed.
The country is not invited to important international conferences where issues of development, security, human rights and the rule of law are discussed.
Bio was however allowed to attend the UN conference since it is a free-for-all platform for presidents of sovereign states.
Every sovereign state has a seat at the UN and heads of states could occupy their seats at their own volition.
The only action taken against the President as a way of isolation was to trim the size of his entourage.
Samura Kamara’s appeals to the international community is also triggering court action against human rights abusers in Bio’s government.
Recently, a team from the International Criminal Court (ICC) held a conference at Raddison Blu where issues relating to the prosecution of perpetrators of human rights were discussed.
The court, if established, will operate on the principles of cooperation and complementary.
The judicial principles stated that where the state fails to prosecute human rights abusers, the ICC has the right to come in and the state is bound to cooperate. The Vienna Convention on the Law of treaty does not allow states to invoke domestic law to evade a treaty.
Sanctions in the form of aid cut were also imposed on Sierra Leone following a unanimous vote by EU parliamentarians. The spate of punitive measures against the Bio regime continues as Samura kamara intensifies his calls.