What has the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) done since 2023 for the party to be confident that it will win the upcoming 2028 multitier elections? This was the question that was discussed by ranking members of the SLPP executives who say the party should not even bother itself preparing to be re-elected, advising that the party should instead be preparing for a smooth transition.
Since 2018 the governance story of the ruling SLPP has been nothing but disappointing. None of the party’s grand promises sworn on oath to God and the people can be considered successfully kept and or implemented. From the touted fight against corruption, the blocking of financial leakages, to the free quality education, and second term promise to Feed Salone, the narrative has been one of available funding in the midst of unaccountable spending of public funds for their unintended purposes.
As political parties prepare for their lower level and elections for executive positions, the SLPP executives advised their party not to worry itself with making preparations for a continuation of all things as they are, going further that they shouldn’t even think about winning in 2028.
“Go back to 2018. What have we done as a party government for the people and this country? We have betrayed the trust the people had reposed in us to fix things by the way we have gone about in government since 2018. Everyone knows, even in our party strongholds that we haven’t done anything. It is not that we don’t want to go for a third term; no political party goes into an election to lose, not especially when you are the incumbent party. But the confidence to win comes from you stating what you have accomplished since the last election for the people to consider you for possible re-election. We can see that presently even in the SLPP we don’t want to continue with president Julius Maada Bio. Therefore all talks of winning 2028, ‘after we na we’, ‘three-peat’ and all that is a big joke,” the SLPP executives informed this medium.
The SLPP stalwarts reminded the general public and their partisans that although they are staunch SLPP members and supporters they are forced to admit that during the past government administration headed by the All People’s Congress (APC) party government they benefitted greatly as a result of the APC’s outlook when it comes to hiring qualified citizens from anywhere in the country.
“Times have been hard throughout but under Ernest Bai Koroma regime we managed. The suffering and hardship were not as widespread as they are being felt now. Although things were hard we could still afford to buy a bag of rice and other essential commodities. But at present, since 2018, there isn’t one SLPP supporter that you will ask that will speak the truth but end up saying that he or she wants for president Bio or anyone from the SLPP to continue as head of state. What plans or actions do we have, what promises can we make that we haven’t made for us to convince the voters to re-elect the SLPP because now that we are in power we are finding it hard or difficult to afford a meal a day,” the top SLPP executives disclosed.
All across the country desperate citizens go through stress and all manner of embarrassment just to provide for a meal a day for them and their dependents. The situation keeps getting out of hand because of the lack of uniformity in prices that have resulted to many goods and services to be beyond the reach and or affordability of most homes.
“The state of the national economy is worse than we think and even know. We can safely say that since 2018 the people of Sierra Leone have become poorer than they were. The state of peace and national cohesion is sorely lacking. None of our promises to the people have materialised to the point where we can even debate them with the main opposition. We have nothing to write home about which is the reason we are advising all level headed thinking people in the party to be honest and admit with the rest of the party that we have failed the people and it would be an insult to expect for the people to forget their misery and the hardships and difficulties of the past years under president Bio and once again vote for the SLPP. The party shouldn’t even waste its time thinking that we will win again in 2028. You can fool some people sometime but you can’t fool all the people all the time. This adage applies to where we are as the SLPP today. The party should not invest in a third SLPP term as head of state,” the staunch SLPP executives warned the rest of the executives and grassroots.
If the APC were a credible opposition the SLPP executives say the party has enough goodies on the SLPP that they can use to shame and expose the party for its governance failures since 2018.
“There is so much. Let us see: from the speaker Bundu affair to the removal of 10 duly elected APC parliamentarians in 2018, from the shooting of protesting civilians to the extrajudicial killings at Pademba Road Prison to the failures of the anticorruption and financial leakages fight, from the issues that besotted the free quality education to the bloating of the government wage bill, from the passing of bad laws aimed at restricting the people and limiting their freedoms to the cocaine saga involving the wanted Dutch cocaine smuggler that is rumoured to be married to the president’s daughter.
The APC can go as far as making a political song out of that one. The SLPP executives should know that not even rigging is going to save us this time around because for the 2028 elections the people are determined as they are not fighting for the APC but for the soul of the country and our democracy. We are therefore advising our party people to be planning for a smooth transition in 2028 in readiness to get to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth in peace,” the SLPP executives concluded. Lonta!