When President Joseph Saidu Momoh failed in governance, (19985-1992), he expressed an unreserved apology to the nation and was forgiven.
He made the apology at a time his regime had collapsed after a coup by the khaki boys of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) in April, 1992.
Those who witnessed history narrated that President Momoh had the opportunity for the restoring his regime through the force of arms owing to his close ties with then President of Nigeria, Ibrahim Babaginda.
But, he still remained apologetic to the people and allowed NPRC to rule for the country’s peace and stability since his policy of ‘economic emergency’ resulted into untold hardship and suffering.
Former President Koroma is however different from President Momoh in his statement of forgiveness he made to the nation upon his return from exile.
Instead of making an apology to the people, Koroma offered a blanket forgiveness as if he was the victim instead accepting the responsibility of a perpetrator.
Such statement, political analysts say, is hypocrisy to the highest order.
On his return to Sierra Leone, Ernest Koroma said he had forgiven the people of Sierra Leone as he had been wronged.
The question the people pose is who wrongs who? Is it the people that have wronged Ernest Koroma or Ernest Koroma has wronged the people?
For many Sierra Leoneans especially members, supporters and sympathisers of the opposition, All People’s Congress (APC), it is former President Koroma who has sinned against the people of Sierra Leone and must seek forgiveness from them.
Political analysts argue that Ernest Koroma failed the people of Sierra Leone right from the start to finish owing to a weak succession plan he puts in place.
A popular political view holds that successful leaders are those whose successors make sound achievements in governance by continuing the good legacies of their predecessors and improving the people’s welfare and livelihoods.
The people become happy under such leadership which they obey, cooperate with and pray for the predecessor for God’s blessings for giving them such a good leader.
Under quality leadership of the successor, the people forget quickly the wrongs of the predecessor and focus mainly on the common goal of national development.
It was the situation in the days of President Ahmed Tejan Kabba whose wrongs people forgot quickly owing to the success stories recorded by the Ernest Koroma regime although Ernest Koroma cannot take entire credit for it.
The European Union and other development partners as well as Samura Kamara, APC’s embattled presidential candidate can take credit for the achievements of the then APC regime.
Facts emanating from within the top cream of APC indicate that Samura Kamara was the architect of the Agendas for Change and Prosperity and knocked on doors for Ernest Koroma leveraging on his international clout and contact.
The Tejan Kabba regime committed atrocious crimes, killings, amputations, sexual slavery, forced marriages, looting, burning and various forms of human rights abuses through his armed militia, the Kamajors led by late Hinga Norman. Although his disbandment of the national army was one of the factors that led to his overthrow in May, 1997, Tejan Kabba desperately called for the restoration of democracy and constitutional rule regardless of the consequences.
It was clear that the death toll was heavy in the process and scars were etched on people’s minds, but turned to a new leaf immediately the Ernest Koroma regime was ushered in because of the regime’s effort in turning a sad story to a happy one through good roads, energy, free healthcare for pregnant women, lactating mothers and under-five children among other achievements.
It is a completely different story for Ernest Koroma whose successor laid the foundation for triblalism, regionalism, economic stagnation and under-development, abject poverty and suffering among others.
These factors negatively impacted on the popularity and credibility of former President Koroma who many people said his respect had been dragged to the dustbin for dining with the devils.
But, senior APC politicians remain indifferent to the situation, and say with dismay that Ernest Koroma is a master of his fate.
One of them, Kemo Sesay said Ernest Koroma was advised about a strong succession plan so that his legacies of national development could not be easily erased from the sands of time, but he chose his own path out of the politics of deception, and nemesis caught him
Sierra Leone and APC’s sad story today begins with Ernest Koroma and ends with him.
It all began in the last days of his rule when he was riding into the sunset. Ernest’s close associates had repeatedly argued that he was heading for a third term, a clear violation of the term-limit provided by section 46 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991.
The incomplete constitutional review during his regime, APC’s senior politicians said, was to tamper with the two-term clause to make it third-term or limitless meaning, a President could go as many times as possible as long as he gets the mandate of his party and enjoys the love and admiration of the people.
The attempt by senior APC politicians to stand in his way for a third term made him tread on a strange path.
Currently, APC’s senior APC politicians call on Ernest Koroma to take responsibility of the political mess the country is going through today because he trains and brings in President Bio again into the political limelight years after he steps down and leaves the shores of Sierra Leone.
While in opposition, President Koroma offered Bio all the political largesse rarely offered to an opposition leader.
Sources said Ernest Koroma provided diplomatic passport for Bio to ease his international travels, bought him a house in Freetown and attached him security details.
With Such opportunities and privileges, President Bio leader of then opposition, SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party0 now the ruling party forced, made his way through for a second chance to get the party’s flag although it is unconstitutional.
SLPP’s constitution, at that time, provides that a presidential candidate who contests once and loses the election should become ex-officio.
It was the said clause that caught former Vice President, Solomon Ekuma Berewa when he ran against former President Koroma in the 2007 presidential election.
Berewa stepped down from his presidential candidacy after the election, but Bio still held the forte after he lost the 2012 presidential election to Ernest Koroma, a clear disrespect for SLPP’s constitution.
A report by the Political Parties Regulation Commission after a probe into SLPP’s intra- political thuggery indicated that the continued imposition of Bio on the SLPP was the main cause.
With a strong commitment to the PAOPA ideology, Bio did not back out even when SLPP was falling apart as he reportedly got the backing of the former President.
Sierra Leoneans were shocked when Bio was declared winner of the 2018 presidential election, thus setting a new political stage for Sierra Leone.
State Lodge in Freetown, sources said, almost turned into a battlefield when Ernest Koroma signed the document for the announcement of the elections in favour of President Bio, although reports from the field noted that Samura Kamara was the winner.
Amid the conflict hanging over the political transition, Ernest Koroma went out of sight for several days and later surfaced at APC headquarters where he took responsibility for the shenanigans and gimmicks that led to the emergence of SLPP as the winning party.
To cool troubled waters, he assured disgruntled APC members and supporters that he would bring back the party to power in 2023, and that President Bio was a one-term President.
The people fell again for Ernest’s gimmick and trumpeted Bio’s one-term presidency in every nook and cranny of Sierra Leone forgetting that a drama was being acted underground.
The people saw the true person of Ernest Koroma when Bio won the elections again in 2023, and that time, he made himself the protagonist of a coup plot just to go out of the country so that people would forget about him.
In a audio widely circulated on several media platforms, Kemo Sesay said Ernest Koroma deceived and brainwashed them into believing that the international community was pushing for a “regime change.”
Disillusioned and disappointed, Kemo Sesay left the hall in tears as he feared Bio’s rule.
His fears then are today made real owing to the PAOPANIC and brutal rule displayed by the Bio regime which the opposition leader, Samura Kamara called an “ethnic militant cabal.”
A veteran APC politician who joined the party since his youth days sums up Ernest’s behaviour in one witty statement “Ernest Koroma brings problem to the party, and leave it in problem.”
So, Koroma must made a nation-wide apology but difficult to be accepted by the people until justice is done through the electoral justice initiative.