His supporters say Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana is the stone that the All Peoples Congress (APC) builders refused although he stands the greatest chance of defeating any Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) presidential candidate. Chief Sam’s supporters have claimed that his refusal by the powers that be in the APC is partly responsible for the two presidential election losses to the ruling SLPP.
Supporters of the former vice president of Sierra Leone say he does have his faults going as far as saying no one is perfect. However, although there is no perfection in humanity, we do expect for our leaders to be perfect, which expectation continues to disappoint us as indeed our leaders have all proven to be humans, not God.
According to people who support the one time second gentleman of the Republic, of all the potential APC flagbearers no one is as popular with both APC and SLPP grassroots as Sam Sumana, vice president in the President Ernest Bai Koroma regime.
The story of Sam Sumana’s removal from office, his leading of the C4C party and his return to the APC fold is not new to the people of Sierra Leone. His supporters say Sam Sumana’s return to the APC should have been taken as a good omen, adding that those resisting his full acceptance and pardon are allegedly the ones who plotted his un-ceremonial and unconstitutional removal from office. His removal, they furthered, did not and has not dented his popularity with the masses.
As a grassroots politician, Sam Sumana is comfortably at home with the struggling masses, and it is for this large segment of our population and voting bloc that he cares for, whose economic and social conditions he is committed to change for the better. Political pundits have suggested that being a well-liked and respected politician from the east of the country with close ties to the southeast, Chief Sam is the best APC candidate or the candidate with the greatest potential of securing huge votes from the south-eastern stronghold of the ruling SLPP.
It is without a doubt that Chief Sam has political weight. He proved this when he led the C4C to parliament and thereby introducing new and dynamic individuals to our body politic not limited to Honourable Emerson Saa Lamina. Pundits have argued that the majority of C4C votes went to president Bio last year because of the way the APC executives were treating Chief Sam, furthering that the people of Kono and the east felt embarrassed and insulted by the way the party was treating the returning prodigal politician.
In our present political dispensation, Kono and the eastern region represent a swing district, whose votes are crucial to the success or failure of any presidential aspirant or person seeking public office.
It must be recalled that ranking members of the ruling SLPP including the head of state have severally said that they will not hand power back to the APC, which fact they established last year after elections observers and others say the opposition candidate must have won the presidential elections which results the chief electoral commissioner has been accused of manipulating to give the incumbent a winning advantage. Observers of our political process have inferred that the SLPP and president Bio don’t see, respect or fear anyone in the main opposition they would trust to pass the presidential baton, except Sam Sumana.
It must be noted that while he was still in the opposition, president Julius Maada Bio championed Chief Sam Sumana’s cause especially on his unconstitutional removal from office, the benefits due him, his restitution and the provision of state sanctioned security detail. Although he might have said this to win the hearts and votes of the people from the east but he nonetheless acknowledged his admiration and respect for the erstwhile vice president.
After two unsuccessful tries, the main opposition APC came out losers of the presidential race despite the huge popularity of the former flagbearer and presidential candidate, who garnered the most delegates’ votes in the history of the APC delegates’ conference. The reason for those losses, according to Chief Sam’s supporters, is because the party decided to make a decision on whom to be their frontrunners based on emotions and petty differences instead of choosing a team with the best chances of wrestling victory and State House from the grips of the SLPP and president Julius Maada Bio.
Meanwhile Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana has been the stone that the APC builders continue to refuse to their detriment and continued languishing in the opposition wilderness. He has been rejected, ignored, disrespected, embarrassed, and sometimes vilified. Yet the political heavyweight is still patient with the party, going as far as trying to mend broken bridges with individuals who might have had a hand in his earlier removal from office all in the hope of letting bygones be bygones in the interest of the party and the struggling people of Sierra Leone.
The APC executive and rank and file are being advised to reconsider their attitude to the Chief, and consider his relevance to the party reclaiming State House. Had the party’s executives and members listened to godly advice Chief Sam and Samura Kamara would have been a formidable team that the SLPP wouldn’t have been able to trounce in the polls. But now we will never know.
However, unlike other potential flagbearers for the 2028 presidential election, Sam Sumana holds a very special place in the memory of scores of Sierra Leoneans from all across the country he empowered during his time as the nation’s second gentleman. As VP, Sam Sumana supported many struggling business people, students, religious groups, heads of civil society and nongovernmental organisations, media houses, sporting groups, struggling and established artists, drivers, market women, youth groups, down to the average man and woman on the street.
As flagbearer for the APC in the 2028 elections the party is poised to trump the ruling SLPP and their presidential candidate, even if he happens to be president Bio. The chief is well-known, loved and respected in the southeast. Because the Kono people share a lot of linguistic and cultural similarities with the people of the southeast especially the Mendes many of them are not uncomfortable with the idea of voting for Sam Sumana. Many of them say they don’t need much convincing to vote for Chief Sam, admitting that under his leadership they are confident that their condition will improve.
The APC executive and rank and file must therefore set aside petty differences, grievances, rivalries, jealousy and make decisions on leadership based on the party’s best chances of winning. At present none of those who have made their intentions known for the party’s flag, neither the ones who secretly nurse the ambition, come close to the level of popularity and respect the people of Sierra Leone and the southeast have for Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana.
Therefore as the APC prepares for lower level (2026) and the general elections (2028), the advice is once again being given: Don’t forget Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana! He is still as popular today across the country as he was during his time as vice president and head of the C4C. Lonta!