Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 1 Peter 3:9
For any house that is divided, no matter what they do, that division will be the cause for that house not ever getting what they truly desire. This is where members of the main opposition, All People’s Congress – APC, find themselves.
The party is trying to progress in the midst of a peace deficit, which always brings them back to square one.
Just after the announcement of the incumbent as the winner of the 24th June, 2023, presidential elections that was stolen from the people, the Bio led government called for unity as the APC had decided as a party not to take part in the running of the government in the House of Representatives – the Parliament, and the city and town councils including not taking the matter to the courts citing a biased judiciary that is more willing to work on orders from above than from the dictates of the rule of law.
When the APC refused their peace overtures, the ruling party government turned to the Peace Commission. The end of the Commission’s backroom meetings resulted to the Bintumani peace conference that saw the SLPP, the APC and members of the international community including our development partners, ECOWAS, the AU, the EU, the US, the UK, and the Commonwealth, coming together to chart a way forward.
The peace conference ended with the SLPP and APC signing a communiqué that made certain demands of both parties aimed at resolving the electoral impasse. Part of the deal included the APC politicians returning to the House and all town and city councils. This the APC did with speed as many of their elected politicians especially the first timers were desperate enough to get to the House or councils to start earning a living wage. Part of the deal in the communiqué calls on the ruling party government to pay the returning APC politicians their backlog pay for the time they had spent out of government in protest of the announcement of Julius Maada Bio as winner of the 2023 presidential elections.
Meanwhile, no sooner had the ink dried on the signatures of Dr Samura Kamara and Dr David Moinina Sengeh of the APC and SLPP respectively, aggrieved members of the APC started accusing Samura Kamara of selling out and being paid by the SLPP to sign the document.
But on the other hand, Dr Samura Kamara was smiling in those pictures because he knew that the communiqué was a trap and he was more in shock that the SLPP hadn’t seen that before their Chief Minister put pen to paper.
In the main, APC supporters were upset that their politicians had agreed to return to Parliament and the town and city councils because the ruling SLPP was not showing any sign of fulfilling their end of the deal. Months after they returned to the House, etc., APC parliamentarians and councillors are yet to be paid.
This led APC supporters to ask this of their representatives: “Will you pay someone for work they didn’t do from taxpayers’ money?”
The end result of this short sighted return to take part in the running of the government of Sierra Leone is that the main opposition is not working as an opposition in the interest of the party and nation. The ruling party government is busy making inroads into the APC because there is no unity in the ranks. The ruling party government is exploiting this kink in the APC’s design to their advantage.
The people of Sierra Leone representing all tribes, regions and parties believe in the APC, they know that the party is a grassroots institution and the only party that has shown that it is interested in doing the people’s work based on the many infrastructural and other developments that took place during the 11 year tenure of President Ernest Bai Koroma.
But it seems as if the APC Members of the Sixth Parliament are more concerned with their personal interest, which they have put above the party’s and country’s because instead of opposing the ruling party government they are busy supporting them. The reason for this is because there are many SLPP sympathisers in the current APC Members of Parliament.
Because they were elected to Parliament through the PR system of election they don’t see themselves as being accountable to their party supporters that voted them into the House and councils. They see themselves as being accountable to the party that selects them for the people to vote for. They consider the party more important than the voters who they see as a people that would vote for anyone the party selects.
The new breed of APC politicians of the House and councils only listen to the party’s hierarchy instead of the voters as it is the party that selects them for the people to elect through their votes. It follows that since it is the party that selects them their entire focus is on pleasing the party’s big shots.
Sadly, supporters of the APC have complained that the party’s big shots are also SLPP sympathisers as many of them have ties and connections to the ruling party. It should be noted that despite their shameless sympathy of the ruling party government these so-called big shots have benefitted a lot from the APC who is responsible for all the properties, wealth and name they have made since they first stepped on the scene of public leadership.
Since they have benefitted so much from the APC, why should they need to sell out to the SLPP against the party that made them? No matter how much the ruling party offers them, the party supporters are saying that they will never get as much as they would get if they focus on working together to get the APC to be the next government of Sierra Leone.
All the infighting for power within the APC should not happen as the only logical solution would be for the party to unite and rally behind one person to take the party to victory. The APC has the human resources including many people who are presidential material to accomplish this.
The party should sit down together and let bygones be bygones, get back to the drawing board and put the party and nation’s interest above their personal ambitions because the people of Sierra Leone believes in the party to rescue them from the past years of division, insecurity and severe hardships that everyone regardless of political party or tribe is experiencing.
For there to be victory and for the party to sing its “Victory Song”, unity is sacrosanct. Stop collecting brown envelops and unify for the sake of the party and country. With unity you will be able to get much more than the pittance you are being given to keep the SLPP in power.