Sierra Leone’s main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) is weakened everyday as the anti-Samura Kamara species and their agents still remain active as they seek to pave the way for a successful second term for President Julius Maada Bio.
Effort made by Kamara who is the party’s presidential candidate is being derailed by in-fighters, an act that takes the party backwards in the struggle against tyranny and “stolen elections.”
At the moment, the dissidents still find it difficult to accept Samura Kamara’s leadership within the party owing to vaulting political ambitions. Sierra Leoneans were shocked and stunned by the actions of two recently elected APC parliamentarians who took their seats after the party leadership took a stand that no APC parliamentarian should work with Bio’s parliament.
Honourable Mohamed Bangura and Alfred Thompson were the two elected law makers who sold off APC to SLPP by flouting their party’s order. In a media interview, Bangura said he was a friend of President Julius Maada Bio, and that he was at liberty to support him. Bangura hopes to tap the political largesse by deriving huge financial rewards thinking that there is money in the coffers.
But, just two months, parliament has been closed down without anyone paid, and hope that they would be paid when parliament resumes is thin.
Government’s revenue base has been considerably weakened through protests and sits-at-homes compounded by funding cut by the international community. The two parliamentarians’ actions signify nothing other than hatred for Samura Kamara as they see him as a man who should not lead the party even when he waits for his restoration.
Owing to the penchant for wealth and power, the two parliamentarians had no alternative but to trample on decision taken by the party leadership so that Bio could be forced to publish the election results or accept a re-run. It is only when either one of the two actions is implemented can Sierra Leone takes back her democracy.
The in-fight continues even when it is clear that Kamara won the 2023 elections although it was stolen from him. Even when the international community: the EU, UN, US, UK, Common wealth and ECOWAS have snubbed Bio for “stolen elections,” APC detractors still embark on moves to end Kamara’s leadership even when they know that they would not succeed.
They issue fake threats that Samura must say good bye to APC if he fails to overturn the June polls at the end of six months. Most of the infighters are influential men and women in the party, and can easily brainwash grassroot members into believing that Samura Kamara is not the right man at the moment.
The propaganda machines are ready to spread false information that Kamara is too cold for the current situation failing to realise that his cool diplomacy is biting Bio’s government very hard. To them, Bio can be removed only by radicalism and not by peaceful and diplomatic means.
Since Samura Kamara is peaceful and diplomatic, Bio will remain President of Sierra Leone for another term, and that APC should prepare for 2028 provided the party’s constitution is not tampered with in the guise of a constitutional review process that is underway.
If it is tampered with, Bio’s second term will be extended to seven years by expunging the two-term limit from the constitution. In such a situation, APC should hope for 20230 and not 2028, and even that hope will be a Mickey Mouse as Bio has made it clear that he would not hand over power to APC. Only God knows what Bio means by this statement.
Bio is known for interfering or manipulating constitutions to suit his convenience. He did it in his party after he manipulated the party’s constitution to run for a third time and also rose to the post of Leader of the party. Bio will retain such leadership even after his tenure ends either now or at any time in the short or long run.
How a leader treats his own people is a clear indication of how he would treat others outside the party. Since Bio does not have respect for his party men, one should not talk about those outside it as he is sure of riding roughshod on them especially when APC supporters are pulling each other down.
At the moment, Maada Bio needs nothing other than the presidency and would stop at nothing in achieving this goal caring less whether Sierra Leone goes into war or not.
He has explored all options to achieve this goal, but it turned out to be difficult for him. Now, the last ploy is to demonise APC’s former presidential candidate, Kamara by rendering his actions ominous to his party members so that they could hate him.
Although Samura Kamara has been calling on his APC comrades, such calls have been quite difficult and painful as most wanted to go the other way, but the appeal for unity might lead to a change of course. Kamara however should not rest with confidence, bust must strive to build unity in the party so that evil forces cannot see light at the end of the tunnel.
Without unity, the party crumbles, and a dangerous situation wears in at a time APC members should work together to defend democracy. Without unity, the de facto ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) would be emboldened to a point madness since the party is ready to unleash danger to APC supporters anywhere, anytime. SLPP will strike when APC is asleep.
It was out of hatred that senior party members downplayed Kamara’s assassination attempt by police officers. The APC presidential candidate and his executive officials were shot at while in the party building trying to showcase their election results in the immediate post-election period.
A good number of APC men did not take strong action because the assassination was directed at a man they hate. Most would have rejoiced had police gunned down Kamara. Senior APC members also kept low profile when Samura Kamara was almost assassinated by an armed police officer deployed at Mile-38, few kilometres away from the country’s capital, Freetown.
A teargas canister which is highly flammable was fired at Kamara’s vehicle which would have caught fire if God had not intervened. The police officer was used to get rid of Samura Kamara lessen APC’s threat in the June polls.
The ex-APC presidential candidate and President awaiting was lucky enough when he rejected an advice to use the sea route to enter Sierra Leone. Senior APC members were also accused of treating Kamara’s attempted assassination with a pinch of salt out of hatred because they did not want to see his political existence in the party let alone becoming President of Sierra Leone.
With such disunity, Bio’s de facto government is coming down hard on APC politicians at all times with hope of achieving his mission. No gainsaying that Bio has been achieving all his missions through mass killings, indiscriminate arrest and detention, harassment and intimidation of opposition politicians, blatant abuse of human rights, terror tactics and regulation, in detail, all aspects of man’s life.
To get his mission accomplished, Bio seeks to crush anyone that stands his way. The propensity to hit the opposition party hard was showcased during last Monday’s protest in which those identified as APC members were gunned down. It happened in Moyeba community where four SLPP stalwarts mistaken as APC members were killed by police.
The killing which represents one of the most tragic situations for the government of President Julius Maada Bio is the latest in a series of killing sprees carried out by government since it was was illegally installed in June, 2023.
As pressure mounts on Bio, the police killers have gone back to the communities rendering apology to the deceased’s families. The army and police have got used to killing APC supporters and sympathisers in opposition strongholds and enjoy a field day.
It first happened in Rosengbe village in Tonkolili district where a police raid left one person dead and several property injured.
The next place the security forces continue their killing tactics was in Makeni where 20 people lost their lives in a police shoot out following the youth’s resistance to the transfer of an electricity generator from Makeni to Lungi town in Northern Sierra Leone.
Lunsar in PortLoko district also saw bloodbath when youth protested against the unlawful detention of a councillor who was helping them after the mines were shut down. The number of those who crumbled under the barrel of the gun could not be quantified. Other towns such as Tombo and Waterloo in the Western Rural district also saw killings.
For many Sierra Leoneans, Bio achieved most of these barbaric acts on the APC because the party was not a unifying force. They see Samura Kamara as the main cause of the disunity. Kamara’s hatred in the APC started in 2017 when former President Ernest Bai Koroma chose him in a flag-bearer convention held in Makeni city in Northeastern Sierra Leone.
28 senior party officials took part in the race except Dr Samura Kamara who stayed away. It was a time the old 1995 APC Constitution contained a selection clause that allowed the party’s leadership to select a flag-bearer and running mate where election did not work.
So be it for Samura Kamara and his running mate, Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah who were selected by former President Koroma, the party chairman at that time. The atmosphere in the hall was just too tough as each candidate with his supporters was poised to get the party’s flag.
For many APC members, Koroma’s action brought about disunity in the party with Samura Kamara as key target. Kamara who was a friend to many APC stalwarts owing to his technocracy became fiend overnight as many suspected of a shady deal between him and the former President.
He was not a career politician and even not among the flag-bearer aspirants, but how he came to be selected remained a big mystery.
However, the aspirants fought back by having less to do with him, and little wonder that many flag-bearer contenders abandoned him in the 2018 cut-throat campaign. They rejoiced with ecstasy when Bio was announced President of Sierra Leone with strong hope that Samura would not come again.
Throughout Kamara’s leadership, several splinter groups emerged within APC with NRM (National Reformation Movement) and ‘BIG SIX’ being the most potent. The NRM is a group of young APC members that came into existence after Kamara lost 2018 election to President Bio.
NRM’s aim, according to its members, was to democratise APC by effecting several reforms particularly doing away with the selection clause under which Kamara became flag-bearer. The Young guys sought legal suits and injunctions on the party to achieve their objective, and their demands were met.
The selection clause which was the most resented was expunged and replaced with election, and situation came under control after the party had danced to NRM’s tune.
But, the appearance of Alfred Peter Conteh on the political stage who ignited fresh legal battles against the party made many to raise eyebrows. By Conteh’s contention, it became clear that the NRM did not stand for democratic reforms, but to gain power through subtle and surreptitious means for their political god gathers who were working from behind the scenes.
Their aim is to see Samura Kamara out of the political scene although they know him for his clean slate. Like the NRM, the ‘BIG SIX’ which consists of Alfred Paolo Conteh, Alimamy Petito Koroma, Richard Conteh and others also do not want to see Kamara as flag-bearer after he lost 2018 elections.
However, in February, 2023, the delegates sent a loud and compelling message to the ‘BIG SIX’ and NRM by overwhelmingly electing Kamara as the party’s flag-bearer and Presidential candidate for June 24 elections.
He faced the incumbent President Bio in an open encounter and defeated him without a run off, but Bio still remains Sierra Leone’s President since he stole the elections. Instead of APC members coming together to confront a common enemy, the dissidents are busy fighting Samura Kamara thus paving the way for Bio’s second term amid unbearable economic hardship.
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