The main opposition, All Peoples Congress (APC) will eventually die if it fails to put in place very strong leadership that will lead the party to victory in 2023.
The last two years have been difficult with the arrest and incarceration of top members of the party.
The ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) is inclined to using the security forces to subject the party to a reign of terror.
Allegations of corruption and terrorism made by top SLPP members against the APC are commonplace.
The mere survival of the party in such a democratic environment cannot even be guaranteed these days.
It has been robbed of its Parliamentary majority by a High Court that replaced nine of its MP’s with unelected ones.
The party and its senior members are also further threatened with seizure of their hard earned properties and a blanket ban on political activities as an outcome of the Commissions of Enquiry.
Former President Ernest Koroma has been vilified and intimidated to stay off from national politics. Last year, the President was stripped of his security details, and also denied of courtesies due a former Head of State especially when travelling in and out of the country.
A renegade group made up mostly of APC youths dubbed the National Reformation Movement (NRM) is embarking on a campaign of holding the party to ransom with the connivance of a famous SLPP lawyer, H.M. Gevao.
The APC renegade group hides behind the cloak of calling for reforms in the APC leading to a court injunction that restrained the party from holding a national delegates conference in PortLoko last year.
The case is still pending at the High Court of Sierra Leone even when some senior party supporters are calling for an out-of-court settlement.
No hope for the out-of-court settlement exists owing to what others refer to as political interference.
The NRM is calling for the exit of the Osman Yansaneh executive to make way for a brand new executive to steer the affairs of the party.
Many have dismissed the NRM as not genuine to what they are claiming to represent.
The horrible circumstances threaten the chances of the APC to come back in 2023.
The process of bringing in Chief Sam Sumana who is believed to have the wherewithal to restore sanity in the party is being delayed somewhere.
Many supporters are of the view that it is only Chief Sam Sumana that would stop President Bio from coming back for a second term in the 2023 polls, and halt the humiliation suffered by the APC in the hands of SLPP.
The leadership of the APC should move towards endorsing the membership of Chief Sam Sumana now or never.
The plan is to get him to quickly respond to the many challenges facing the party including continuous and sustained intimidation against its members.
The support base of the party in the North and West are intact and they are further cemented by the massive sackings and intimidations by the government.
The APC needs the Chief Sam Sumana-type now to salvage the party. The likes of Ambassador Yansaneh and others have grown old and weak to confront the militaristic leadership style of the ‘New Direction’ Government.
It is clear that the ‘New Direction’ would not be comfortable with a Sam Sumana leadership at this time.
An endorsement of Chief Sam Sumana, at any time from now, would definitely change the country’s body politic and the ‘New Direction’ is very much aware of this and would not want that to occur.
The ‘New Direction’ Government has got a lot of international cash flowing around, and there are reports that they would not hesitate to use cash on smaller parties to delay the 2023 elections.
Government is amassing huge wealth from domestic and international sources and this will, no doubt, equip them to face the APC headlong.
This advantage is also coupled with the unreserved support from the security forces that are currently massaged to favour the government.
It is only a strong and fearless leadership of Chief Sam Sumana that will bring a fundamental turning point to the APC will surely bounce back in 2023.
