The All People’s Congress, one of the oldest in the country was founded with very strong structure catering for the views and aspirations of the youths, women, veterans and many other facets in the society.
Its founding fathers that mainly included Siaka P. Stevens and many others were inspired by their resolve not to allow independence before elections, but elections after independence.
Siaka Stevens and his team were conscious that before Sierra Leone attains independence, it was necessary to sort out a number of issues with the British, our then colonial masters.
His abandoning of the 1961 Lancaster House Conference which was to usher in Independence to the country was what later culminated to the formation of the All People’s Congress (APC) party that later won the 1967 general elections, but only came to power in 1968.
The vision of the APC was crafted along the aspirations of the grassroots people.
Its various structures such as Youth League, Women’s Wing and others were highly representative of the views of the categories of individual groups about how the party should be governed.
Up to 2007 there was not a time when a single individual or group of people had attempted to hold the party to ransom and do whatever they wanted because some amount of power has been bestowed on them by the party.
People like Siaka Stevens, S.I. Koroma and many others always had consultations and believed in the ideas and aspirations of the various groups (Youth League, Women’s League) and the grassroots people.
The vision of the party has always been sync with the common man, mainly traders and other trade union groups.
These groups had always been training ground for people who will later take up future positions in the party.
Things started falling apart when Ernest Bai Koroma won the court case over Eddie Turay and others and subsequently became President for two terms.
Ernest Koroma and his cohorts succeeded in holding the party to ransom thereby eroding the well organized structures of the party i.e. the Youth League and Women’s Congress are no longer working for the good of the party but for their selfish interests.
It is hard nowadays to countenance the vibrancy of these groups for the future of the party.
Leaders of the Youth League and the Women’s Congress were handpicked by the current executive and this explains why they could not take on the current executive of the party even when things have fallen apart.
The APC-led government that worked very hard to create infrastructures across the country provided Energy, Free Health Care Scheme and many other developments in the last ten years, lost the March 2018 elections just because a single man and his cohorts had chosen to manipulate the party structures to their whims and caprices.
Many including the trustees of the party have failed to fight back to ensure that the aspirations of the true founders is protected and secured.
The few like Jengo Stevens, Eddie Turay and others who attempted to challenge the autocratic tendencies of Ernest Koroma and his cohorts, were not able to resist to the end.
Having been sent to the wilderness, the same Ernest Koroma and his cohorts are up again to their old tricks to continue to manipulate the structures of the party for their own selfish interests.
Even though they are aware that the SLPP-led government is planning to use their tainted corruption character to put them out of politics come 2023 elections, they would not listen.
They would not heed to the several calls for them to take the back seat and provide the necessary support to the younger folks.
They are short sighted and could not see what is ahead of them in the COI report and how that will damage their political career.
Ernest Koroma’s continued hold on power at the party level is against many including the SLPP and he should listen and take the back seat and enjoy his retirement.
If information contained in a recent article indicating that Ernest Koroma wants the APC to go to Convention much earlier is anything to go by, then Koroma must now have started listening to calls for him and his cohorts to step down.
Koroma and his cohorts stepping down will do them more good than the party.
They should not use the party as a cover up shield against what the Bio government wants to unleash on them in the name of corruption.
The survival of the party is more important than the survival of any other person in the party.
The APC has very strong potentials to win the 2023 elections if only Ernest Koroma and his cohorts take the back seat, if not the party is set for doom.