By Mohamed Kakay
I was one of those who believed former President Ernest Bai Koroma should have hands off active party politics and settled down peacefully and respectfully as a senior statesman ready to give advice to the incoming administrator as and when he is needed. To my dismay, the former Chairman and Leader failed to step down from his party position.
It could be recalled that, in an interview conducted by BBC’s Umaru Fofana in 2018, former President Koroma promised religiously that he would step down as chairman and leader of his APC party in three months after that elections.
I was still held in limbo as to what held the former president into active party politics until when the current National Deputy Chairman of the APC Party, Ambassador Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh made it public that it was he and other well-meaning party comrades who prevailed upon the former president not to relinquish his position as the party still needs his service and experience.
To me, that reason didn’t make much sense at all, knowing very well the caliber of people inside the party, the absence of former President shouldn’t make much difference.
It has now become evidently clear to me and may be many others that without the personal intervention of former President Ernest Bai Koroma in the affairs of the APC Party, there will be no end in sight in resolving the perennial internal division which has the tendency of throwing the party into political oblivion for several decades.
At the moment, there’s no central authority or individual who commands authority or someone who has that command and control of respect within the party. The party is in chaos with and seriously divided with each Flagbearer having their own campaign team; and none is listening to the other as a way forward for the party based on consensus. “Mammy-cuss” and dissection of each other’s integrity and character is now the order of the day. No elder is spared, and given the fluidity of the situation, no elder is considered genuine. For these, it is a moment to collect and assure from the flagbearer aspirants whose senses have been drowned in the stupendous expenditure of cash that some of them are never used to, all in the name of outdoing one another either with the elders or perceived delegates or influencers of potential delegates. Also, the Flagbearers and party’s leadership are not seeing eye-to-eye all because of distrust and the suspicion that they are unfair and may want to conduct an unfair and manipulated delegates’ conference election to choose a flagbearer/leader. The party offices in all 16 political districts are mere caricatures of themselves with little or functionality.
Meanwhile, the 2018 and 2023 Flagbearer, Dr. Samura Kamara is chasing the wind with his electoral justice agenda while the National Chairman and other members are working towards 2028 multitier elections. Samura Kamara is fully aware that what he is telling his bunch of supporters of the possibility of an electoral justice which to him means he assuming the reigns of the Presidency is impossible, he is holding to that air bubble agenda as a way of withholding votes from his supporters as a chip to determine the convention’s outcome or the outcome of the subsequent 2028 elections.
The recent trip to Nigeria by some high-profiled members of the party including, Hon. Minkailu Mansaray, Ambassador Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh, Lawyer Lansana Dumbuya and Sidi Yayah Tunis is a clear testimony of the former President Ernest Koroma centrality in determining the way forward of the APC party. The visit also highlights that the former Chairman and Leader, is still the man-in-charge of the party. Nothing happens without his tacit approval or concurrence.
In conclusion, let it be known that without the personal intervention of former President Koroma, the party will never taste the sweetness of peace. Mark these words!