Before 2007 and 2018, All People’s Congress (APC) had a vibrant Public Relations (PR) wing run by Alpha Kanu, Cornelius Deveaux, Abdulai Bayraytay, Ajibu Jalloh and others. Issues and policies of the party were clearly articulated and information brought on time to the public.
However, the current team of APC’s publicity secretaries is not in constant touch with the party’s grassroot in terms of information sharing leaving them to seek news from the grapevine. Most times, they turn to the bloggers to quench their thirst for information regardless of the truth value.
Issues of the Tripartite Committee, threats from the PAOPA regime to the people of Sierra Leone, SLPP’s tagging of APC as a party of terrorists and insurrectionists, massive killings and intimidation of APC members, supporters and sympathisers among other issues affecting the party should trigger effective communication and public relations spectacles if APC’s PR team really means business.
In the days of Alpha Kanu and others, the public especially APC members, supporters and sympathisers got accurate and adequate information about what went on in the political landscape. With correct information, the grassroot supporters were made ambassadors of the party since information is power and could defend the party anywhere anytime.
The old team of communication officers was also respected for successfully taking on SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) on national issues either in governance or opposition.
When SLPP was the party in power between 1996 and 2007, the People of Sierra Leone saw how former Publicity Secretary, Alpha Kanu dealt with SLPP on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), a post-war initiative to cut down the impact of poverty on the people of Sierra Leone. Then SLPP spokesman, Victor Reider could withstand Alpha Kanu’s firepower.
The eloquent and fearless orator also successfully challenged then ruling party on several governance issues by exposing their weaknesses, and such oratory led to the emergence of APC as the winning party in the 2007 elections after 15 years in the political wilderness.
Mr Kanu, with his communication team, also vigorously communicated to the public about policies and programmes when APC took over state governance.
Effective communication and public relations also continued after APC left power with erstwhile Publicity Secretary, Cornelius Deveaux at the helm.
Once the party went into opposition in 2007, Deveaux put up a justifiable defence for the party especially at a time the commission of inquiry was in high gear.
It was Deveaux who took a tough stance that no former APC minister and government official as well as President and Vice President should appear before the tribunal since it was not properly formed.
In the formation of the commission, government allegedly violated several provisions of the constitution especially section 150 which requires the Rules of Court Committee to draw up rules for the regulation of the practice and procedure of the tribunals.
Again, the constitutional instruments which establish the commissions, according to legal experts, are faulty with Deveaux referring to them as “Kangaroo-styled Commissions of Inquiry.” The agile Publicity Secretary also propagated the “Sacred Cow” phenomenon when the Bio regime attempted to shield those ministers of South-Eastern background for the very crimes that were looked into by the ad hoc tribunals.
The propagation of the “Sacred Cow” notion was taken a step further by another outstanding APC Spokesman, Karmoh Kabba who described such act as another form “selective justice and protectionism.”
These long-running debates and criticisms against the government went a long way in reducing SLPP’s seemingly bad politics against the APC, and that is the nature of communication APC members and supporters wanted to see and it was hoped that the next crop of publicity secretaries would tread on the same path, but there was a sudden twist.
Instead of taking on the ruling party on the aforementioned thorny issues, the current PR team chooses to go to bed with politicians of the ruling party either out of utmost hypocrisy or personal gains. It is clear that, from the outset, the current PR team has woefully failed to communicate on the ongoing election probe by the Tripartite Committee, an omission that keeps the people in the dark.
Knowing fully well that the election investigation will not favour the government, almost all processes were kept in secret as media presence was restricted except few press conferences held by the APC.
Information that flows from the press conferences again is insufficient as the key representative at the Tripartite Committee, Dr Kaifala Marrah always admonishes the people of Sierra Leone especially APC supporters from preempting the outcome of the investigation.
The low information flow from the Tripartite Committee has been attributed to weak links in APC’s PR wing as they ought to have strongly called for sufficient media coverage on the investigation and gives out accurate and adequate information to the public.
The election probe, according to observers in the media and the public, is a public activity and there is no way access to the Tripartite Committee by journalists is restricted.
After a meeting on the 19th June, this year in which the opposition leader, Dr Samura Kamara and the Chief Minister, Dr David Moinina Sengeh delivered speeches in respect of the work done so far by the Tripartite Committee, SLPP spokesmen took over the entire media landscape while APC public relations officers are in slumber.
Their speeches showed that the June 24, 2023 election were over and that the people of Sierra Leone should now look forward to 2028 election when another general election will be held.
Publicity Secretary for the main opposition, Sidi Yayah Tunis who heads the PR wing of APC makes no attempt to counter claims by SLPP information officers who many see as spin doctors of the ruling party.
As a way of image laundering, Mr Tunis recently appeared at AVY television on a discussion programme about the June election, but again his appearance is a big disaster for the APC.
It is a rare moment for a party spokesman to legitimise the wrong doing of an opposing political party especially when the peace of the state is at stake.
Sounding sympathetic with the SLPP than his own political party, the APC spokesman seemingly accepted that indeed the ruling party connived with ECSL (Electoral Commission Sierra Leone) to commit irregularities in the June 24, 2023 election but stated that similar malpractices were also committed in the 2007 and 2012 general elections through his party (APC) came to power.
He therefore argues that “if there should be a rerun for 2023 election, there should also be a rerun of the election of 2007 and 2012.”
Such statement portrayed the APC Spokesman as one not acting in the interest of his party and some members even called for his immediate resignation as they alleged a sell-out.
Some APC members and supporters even see Tunis statements as an amplification of assurances made by President Julius Maada Bio during a meeting with his supporters in the Southern city of Bo.
The APC PR wing also failed to respond to most of the threats issued by the PAOPA regime to the APC particularly the bullet-for-bullet notion as well as the intimidation and harassment of APC politicians.
A senior opposition politician, name withheld for fear of reprisals, who is quite au fait with SLPP’s politics, over the years, told this press that if it were SLPP on the edge, they would invited media coverage on the election investigation with the aim of branding APC politicians as electoral thieves.
He compared the election investigation to the corruption probe carried out by the SLPP government by way of a judge-led commission of inquiry five years ago in which there was huge media coverage than ever before.
The public broadcaster, SLBC (Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation), AYV (African Young Voices) television stations, the press, radio, social media bloggers were at the tribunals to report to the world that APC politicians are ‘BIG ANYAMPEES’ even before they were convicted.
The AYAMPISM syndrome was first trumpeted by in a GTT (Governance Transition Team) report authored by what many called SLPP hardliners including former Chief Minister, Professor David Francis.
The GTT report also described the APC government as a “criminal racketeering enterprise” and such branding went far and wide by the use of media power which APC has always overlooked.
The people wait to see if Sidi Yayah Tunis and others would be brought in for anti-party activities for willful blindness and protecting another party other than theirs.