In a rather surprising revelation to this medium, to many people in the All People’s Congress (APC), former president Ernest Bai Koroma (EBK) is the party’s biggest problem. Instead of being a huge part of the party’s solutions to the hurdles it would have to surmount to ascend the high seat at State House since the advent of Julius Maada Bio and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), EBK, according to party executives and some grassroots members, has proven to be the catalyst and stoker of many of the problems that have assailed the APC since that fateful 2017 delegates convention in Makeni.
Towards the end of what has been touted as his illustrious record setting terms as state president, ranking members of the once united APC were seeing a sinking ship ahead of the 2018 elections and were scrambling for position and relevance in the post EBK era. Twenty-eight of them made their intentions known for the party’s position as flagbearer for the 2018 presidential and general elections.
As chairman of the delegates congress, EBK, the poster boy for democracy in Sierra Leone, would start the ball rolling in what has resulted to the division in the leadership cadre of the party by not allowing for true democracy to prevail in the APC by personally handpicking little known Dr Samura M.W. Kamara as flagbearer over twenty-seven others, many of whom he had reportedly made to believe he would either choose or made promises to that effect not limited to Foh, Alpha Kanu, John Bangura, and others.
This undemocratic selection of Dr. Samura Kamara over the other flagbearer hopefuls led to a massive walk-out on the former president’s handpicked successor, leading to the now famous question by some members of the disappointed flagbearer hopefuls: “U Sabi Am”, a question directed at the rest of the APC and indeed the country on how well people knew the little known doctor of economics.
Although Dr. Samura Kamara’s selection would result to a legal drama involving the National Reformation Movement of the APC that led to the selection clause being discarded for an election of the flagbearer, Ernest Bai Koroma continued in his confusing role as a divisive figure in the APC by not taking an active part in Dr Samura and Chernor Maju Bah’s campaign trail. As the one and only successful APC president in postwar Sierra Leone, EBK was expected to play a massive role as crowd puller on the APC campaign trail, something that was to guaranty a successful third term for the APC at State House and head of government.
Unfortunately, after selecting Dr. Samura and Chernor, EBK was accused of abandoning his chosen successors in an alleged regime change deal between him and the eventual winner of the 2018 presidential election, Julius Maada Bio. EBK is accused of selecting and imposing Dr Samura Kamara on the APC and people of Sierra Leone because he was confident that he would not be able to defeat Maada Bio in the polls. The same allegation of regime change was levied against the late Ahmed Tejan Kabbah after he reportedly orchestrated to have Solomon Berewa up against EBK, a pairing he believed the latter would win.
The division that was created when EBK bypassed ranking party stalwarts for the little know technocrat has been blamed for all the disunity that has plagued the APC since 2018; a disunity that has continued to morph depending on the issue of contention, be it electoral justice or returning to parliament after the discredited 2023 presidential vote tallying and announcement by the electoral commissioner Mohamed Konneh.
At the end of the day, despite the obvious rift in the party created by the snubbing of the twenty-seven other flagbearer hopefuls, many of whom had seen the 2018 election as their time to shine, members and supporters voted in huge numbers for Dr Samura Kamara, leading to a run-off election that was eventually won by Maada Bio and the SLPP.
To many party stalwarts, EBK’s betrayal of APC values and the future of the party in state governance started with his “bromance” with Maada Bio, who had returned to the country making his intentions known for wanting to return to the top as Head of State. In his ranting and raving against EBK concerning the Ebola funds and going as far as blocking the presidential motorcade, Maada Bio was never sanctioned or taken to task by the president or state, a lack of action that caused many in the APC to believe that EBK encourage Maada Bio to the point where he was acting as de facto president even before the end of EBK’s last and final tenure.
According to a ranking APC stalwart, “When Maada Bio started showing his true colours after winning in 2018 especially when he ordered for the commissions of inquiry EBK was not bothered by this. He did nothing to stop Bio throwing the party into disarray as a strategy of the SLPP to keep us in a state of disunity while they make progress. We have been on that tailspin ever since. After orchestrating what we believe to be a regime change, the same that Kabbah had done for EBK with regards Solo B., there was the expectation that Maada Bio would look the other way in terms of going after former administration members for corruption. Surprisingly EBK sat aside and did nothing to influence or remind Bio of what he had done for him while in opposition up to winning the election, all this while Bio and David Francis referred to the APC as a ‘criminal racketeering enterprise’.”
Some members of the APC grassroots who say they are disappointed by the divisive role they see former president Bai Koroma playing since he left the Office of the President, lamented that “EBK sat around while some of us faced justice and paid fines, lost properties, returned stolen money to government coffers while some of us served jail terms.” Realistically all those mentioned in the White Paper for prosecution reportedly had their passports seized resulting to them being “imprisoned” in the country without actually going to jail.
Despite all that happened between 2018 and 2023 to show that Maada Bio was not who he had led EBK to believe he was, at the APC delegates’ congress for the 2023 presidential and general elections, EBK once again managed the affairs as convention chair. Although that congress went on with an election instead of a selection of the APC flagbearer, Dr Samura Kamara was elected with the highest delegates’ votes ever for a flagbearer contender in APC history. While history was on the side of Samura Kamara, EBK was not up to the task as he again failed to be a champion of Samura Kamara’s by not taking an active part on the campaign trail.
“When EBK failed to champion Dr. Samura and Chericoco’s campaign for 2023 after the party had overwhelmingly elected them to represent the party setting such a delegates record, we started seeing him as the reason for all the divisions in the party. The man who remains the biggest draw card for the party as former state president failed to play his role to use his power and influence to secure a victory for us. After the people decided to vote the SLPP out of power, EBK became rather quiet during the fight for electoral justice going as far as saying Samura Kamara should tell his supporters the truth about electoral justice, hinting that it was a failed experiment or wasteful hope. Despite the fact that 70 per cent of the RRFs we collected from the polling stations we had access to showed that we had won the elections, EBK did nothing to champion this cause but was busy gallivanting as ‘elections or democracy champion’ while democracy was being hijacked by the incumbent party. Despite the stolen mandate this regime is operating under EBK has been very quiet. The fact that he is in Nigeria today in exile without trying to come home and face the music in the court of law is also a waste to the APC because the party could use his power, connections and influence to position itself either in the fight for electoral justice or the 2028 elections. There were lots of betrayals in that 2023 elections and EBK played a huge part in the divisions that have continued to plague the APC, starting with that 2017 congress in Makeni. The fact that he did nothing about our stolen votes but instead focused on embarrassing Dr. Samura says that EBK did not appreciate the party that made him First Gentleman,” the grassroots APC members stated.
As the APC continues to wallow in the mud and mire of internal strife, not limited to the divisive and often confusing role of the party’s last successful presidential candidate, there is the widespread belief among party faithful that EBK is no longer as powerful and influential as he should have been and that the party is making too much out of his power to influence votes.
“If EBK was so important to the APC winning elections then he has failed us twice, in 2018 and 2023, to do just that. I think we put way too much stock on how necessary EBK is to us winning 2028. If he continues in his divisive role as former head of state, then we don’t see how he can be useful. Where was his influence in 2018 and 2023? That stated we can manage on our own without the negative influence of the former party leader and state president,” an APC stalwart concluded. Lonta!