Internal:
*Disunity In The Party
*Camps and Cabals
*Lawsuits
*Finance Gaps
External
*No Peace And National Cohesion
*Weak Economy
*Appalling Foreign Exchange
*Lawlessness
At the moment, challenges ahead of Samura Kamara are tough, but he looks sure to overcome them. Time is too short as everyday takes Sierra Leone closer to June 24, the day for the polls. The challenges are within and outside the party and APC’s presidential candidate need experienced and sincere men on his side for the right advice to turn things around. Despite signs and postures of unity, APC is still divided most times along regional and tribal lines.
Before the National Delegates’ Conference in February, this year, several groups were formed by different aspirants for the party’s flag. Ex-Chief of Staff, Dr Richard Conteh, former Minister of Defence, Alfred Paolo Conteh, ex-ministers of public works, Kemo Sesay, ex-Minister of Finance, Dr Kelfala Marrah, former Vice President, Chief Samuel Sam Sumana and Dr Samura Kamara himself among others. Each candidate has a group of hardliners as their support base in the party.
These ardent supporters went with the slogan that: “Either My Candidate or No APC.” This means, the supporters will vote for APC only if their candidate won the flag-bearer election.
By their utterances, the hardliners are completely clueless about the real purpose of an election. An election is to get the best among the rest. If one tries once and does not succeed, he can try several times. Countless number of politicians have faced similar situations, but have prevailed. Is this the message Kamara will convey to his former rivals for the flag? The answer is in the affirmative.
Kamara’s media team has to face the supporters of different camps to bring them together under one APC umbrella to fight the hard fight. Members of the defunct ‘BIG SIX” also should be engaged to imbibe a new ideology. Former Vice President, Chief Samuel Sam Sumana and Diana Konomani too must be engaged to fully participate in the campaigns for the party’s better future. The two politicians, despite facts to the contrary, still remain heavyweights in their homeland, Kono district in the East.
Dr Samura Kamara must also explore avenues to ends camps and cabals for APC to speak with one voice and in complete unison. Apart from ending disunity and cabalism or campism, the APC presidential candidate will also have to fight hard to end Lawsuits in the party. Uncontrollable litigations have the tendency to undermine peace and unity in the party.
Kamara himself has been a key victim of lawsuits to the extent that some APC members express doubt as to whether he would win June 24, 2023. It was the National Reformation Movement (NRM) who first took the party to court in January,2019 for constitutional reforms.
The case ended after their demands were met. As the party tries to rest and strategise, another legal battle started when Alfred Peter Conteh who led the US NRM Chapter sued the party on the grounds that the old executive had outlived their mandate, and must be dissolved and replaced with a new body after several months of proceedings. Such action did not however end lawsuits in the APC. Litigations and counter-litigations hallmark the APC for almost all its years of opposition. Conteh himself was dragged to court for contempt.
Matters were still in court when the party went to a convention in February, 2023 electing a substantive body to man the party’s affairs. Despite the convention, Conteh’s contention was still not resolved even after the new executive was elected. He still threatened to take the party to court arguing that the convention is illegal. It remains unclear whether Conteh will take the party again to court. Although Conteh, is a bit restrained, Francis Kai Gbondo was not.
Gbondo sued the party on the eve of the elections on the basis that those with cases to answer in the court should not contest the elections. For many APC members, the lawsuit was indirectly directed at Samura Kamara who has two cases to answer. He is battling with a corruption case presided over by Justice Adrian Fisher of the high court of Sierra Leone.
His name also found its way in the list of persons of interest at the defunct Commissions of Inquiry over an alleged failure to declare 30 vehicles meant for Ebola response. Gbondo’s suit bore fruits since Justice Hannah Bonnie slammed an injunction on the APC convention.
As a result of the injunction, armed men descended on the regional APC office in Makeni where the convention was supposed to take place. They left only after the injunction was reversed as government reportedly came under public pressure. The APC presidential candidate has been attending court all this while. He enjoyed respite only when events took a sudden twist. Justice Fisher announced in open court that Kamara’s case will continue after 14th July, this year, a date after the election.
It goes without saying that the case will continue if Kamara loses the election, and it ceases if he won. The Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991 provides for absolute immunity on a sitting President. No case, either civil or criminal, will be instituted or continued against him when he sits as President. The APC presidential candidate will enjoy this privilege only if he emerged victorious. Since an albatross hangs around Kamara’s neck, he should not renege on his campaigns or he and the party collapse together.
Kamara is still not yet free from legal suits since he will face Supreme Court this time on allegations of holding British citizenship. The new case was taken to court by senior party members, Paul Kamara and Coleson Turay challenging his candidacy. It is not clear whether the case has been stated for hearing, but many APC members say the case is far-fetched, and does not bother Samura at all.
The APC presidential candidate will go into the elections with a high degree of calm and composure to kick a weak SLPP out of power. To end irresponsible and thoughtless lawsuits in the party, three options must be adopted: either senior officials of the party show who is qualified to take the party to court by way of rules and regulations, or the court is treated as the last option when all internal grievance redress mechanisms have been exhausted. Above all, the party must do what is right to ward off court cases.
These measures will ensure that not every Jack and Jill takes the party to court after waking up from a deep sleep. After lawsuits, come the challenge of finance gaps. APC has been in opposition for five cumbersome years, and huge sums of money have been taken away from their politicians using commissions of inquiry, Anti-Corruption Commission and the courts by the current government.
The state has taken away estate of senior APC officials owing to adverse findings by the defunct commissions of inquiry without even sparing the dead. Property of late former Minister of Education has been taken away by SLPP government citing high level of corruption as justification. Government accused Dr Bah of using too much money in the Limkokwing college and must pay back.
Dr Bah’s relatives including his mother were forcefully removed from their house by armed men deployed there on government’s orders. The biggest irony, the college for which Dr Bah was punished is today benefitting SLPP government in no small measure. SLPP’s sons and daughters are today students and lecturers at the college prompting the question: where is Dr Bah’s corruption?
It is also the same with Momoh Conteh, late former Chairman of National Telecommunications Commission. Robust action was posthumously taken against him. His relatives were thrown out in the cold after SLPP government seized his house albeit unjustifiably owing to concocted and made up stories, opposition officials say.
Several former APC ministers also lost their money and estates. President Julius Maada Bio has received cheques amounting to tens of billions of Leones, money taken from APC politicians by the anti-graft agency. How can APC survive financially at the moment is one of the biggest questions. Even the judiciary has a slice of its own in the APC hardship.
The courts illegally removed 10 APC parliamentarians from the legislative house bringing about financial erosion from the party. Every member of parliament owes an obligation to their party to put money into the coffers.
They could not perform this duty after they were removed by the court contrary to the provisions of the Public Elections Act, 2012. Few incidents of corruption and fees paid to lawyers who represented former ministers in courts also stashed away good cash from the party. As the party’s presidential candidate, Samura Kamara must devise several ways to raise fund for the party as campaigns are very close.
Going with a cap in hand to APC disaporans and other well-wishers, fund raising dinners and carnivals could be few of the surest ways to bring money. Dr kamara dubbed as Sierra Leone’s next President also faces challenges outside the party with threats to peace and national cohesion being the most acute. The Bintumani-three Conference held in the early days of Bio’s presidency is a mere waste of money. The Human Rights and the Peace Commissions are mere white elephants.
They have nothing to protect the people’s rights and promote peace in a country that needs peace consolidation. The Independent Police Complaints Board is also trapped in a similar dance of destiny. Owing to their naked failures, citizens are intensifying calls for these institutions to be overhauled or closed permanently. They have failed the public and should not exist.
A vox pop recently conducted by this press indicated that one of Kamara’s priorities is the unification of the state. He must bring every village, town, district chiefdom and regions together so that good governance will prevail. He must bring together not only his tribesmen but other tribes to build and consolidate peace and national cohesion in the land.
He must teach SLPP guys how to govern a civilised and democratic state by ensuring that every man, as long as he posseses the right knowledge and skills matters in the governance project. But, it does not mean Kamara should compromise the enforcement of the law and the maintenance of peace.
He must strike with his sword on those who attempt to tear the country down using lawful means and support those who work for peace. Almost invariably, Sierra Leone’s economic situation poses a clear challenge for Samura Kamara.
Uncontrollable Inflation, poor investment climate, unfavourable terms of trade, balance of payment and budget deficits still threaten Sierra Leone. As an economic expert of high standing, Kamara is expected to turn ostensible economic threat into a big opportunity.
The people of Sierra Leone are fed up with wallowing in conditions of abject poverty and under-development. It is hoped that Kamara will bring the IMF, the World Bank and Commonwealth experience to bear on the economy for the betterment of Sierra Leoneans. The economic challenge appears closely interrelated to that of weak foreign exchange. The Bio regime will go down into the annals that it was the first to weaken the Leones currency than ever before.
This is the first time a US$100 is taking Le2, 300, 000 (two million, three hundred thousand Leones). It is such a huge sum with a negative impact on the economy. Poor exchange rate is bad but worse for a country that is non-productive.
Sierra Leone imports more than she exports, and only foreign currency mainly the US dollar that is used in international trade. The argument holds that as more money is used to buy goods outside the country, so will the prices continue to sky-rocket. Little wonder that prices of goods and services are spiraling out of control, and the authorities cannot keep situation in check.
In the short term, Samura Kamara will face the challenge of lawlessness from men within and outside his party. A blatant disregard of the law often manifest itself in the first week that follows the announcement of elections.
Supporters of the winning party always think that it is their turn to lord it over supporters of the losing party. They, most times, conduct themselves in high degree of recklessness and wanton destruction of lives and property knowing well that they will enjoy a field day at the end of the day. It happened in 2018 when former government officials became victims of thuggery claiming the lives of a few.
It is hoped that Kamara will deviate from such lawlessness and thuggery and uphold the rule of law. A popular argument holds that it is only when these challenges are overcome in the short run will sierra Leone inscribe on its banners: ‘PROSPERITY NOW AND FOREVER.’