By Mohamed Kakay
(The name APC was given to the party by a Mandingo man called Alhaji Muctarr Kallay; APC National Chairman Hon. Minkailu Mansaray is a Fullah while his Deputy, Ambassador Alhaji Osman Foday Yansaneh is a minority Susu by tribe, and so what? In this 21st Century and the era of AI, I am flabbergasted and dumbfounded to hear someone mentioning tribalism as a yardstick for electing an APC party presidential candidate.
Former President Ernest Bai Koroma is from the Loko minority tribe from the north. Also, Dr. Samura Kamara and Dr. Richard Konteh are Lokos from Karena District, North. Despite their tribe being a minority in the North, they were voted for in the 2023 Delegates Conference not entirely by the delegates from their tribes but by a percentage representation of all the delegates who were assembled as National Delegates. Dr. Samura emerged as Flagbearer and Dr. Konteh was the runner-up while Dr. Kaifala Marah also from a minority tribe, the Kurankos came third.
In fact, President Ernest Koroma wasn’t supported by the top Temnes from Bombali District, including lawyers Hon. Eddie Turay, Hon. Dr. Moses Sesay and Hon. Serry Kamal simply because, according to Hon. Serry Kamal, they needed a “Full-blooded Thaimneh” to lead the APC and not a Loko man like Ernest Koroma.
No single tribe; no matter their size and number, can make any APC Flagbearer becomes President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. That Presidential Candidate must have the full support of other tribe members. Democracy is a game of numbers and not of any single tribe. Tribalism must not be given any space in the modern-day APC party.
In 1996, the SLPP elected late President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabba, from the minority Mandingo tribe as their party’s Presidential Flagbearer on two occasions and he won on both occasions to become a two- term President of the Republic of Sierra. Given the circumstances the APC finds itself, what is wrong with some people in the APC Party that are insisting that it must either be a Limba or Temne Flagbearer for them to throw their unflinching support to the party? It is best now for the APC to decide on a Flagbearer from any of the minority tribes and they of the majority tribes, Temne and Limba must ensure their total support because they have for a very long time enjoyed support from these minorities and this time round, it should be their turn to render their loyalties and unquestionable supports. Like is has always been maintained, when the minority wins, the majority will come to benefit.
A deep retrospect into the history of the party will tell that the name A.P.C. was given to the party by a Mandingo man called Alhaji Muctarr Kallay – after a very popular pain killer tablet All Pain Cure (A.P.C.) tablet. President Siaka Stevens as a way of consolidating the party’s hold on the north brought in two Vice Presidents; one from the Temne majority tribe and the other from the Loko minority tribe in the persons of Sorie Ibrahim Koroma and Christian Alusine Kamara-Taylor respectively. Whether the duo were true-blooded members of the tribes they claimed is for another discussion, but the fact remains that they were recruited as representatives of those tribes based on needs and influence in the estimation of Siaka Stevens. Sorie Ibrahim Koroma popularly referred to as S.I. Koroma being fierce political megalomaniac dominated the APC at all levels with his grassroots approach thereby making him endearing to the masses, but underneath, it had become clear that he had used the Temne tribal card, to reach that level of popularity but that he was not truly blue-blooded Temne and indeed, before his death, after he was undermined by his so-called brothers in Port Loko where he had all his investments and helped in opening up the district and the township of Port Loko to a standard that was competing with other major district headquarter towns in the country, leading to his denial to be the successor of President Siaka Stevens and a Limba Soldier with no idea about governance and the intrigues of political power was pronounced and endorsed in the person of Joseph Saidu Momoh. Sorie Ibrahim Koroma later on, before his demise, had to admit to this powerful tribal intrigue and openly declared his true tribal identity as a Mandingo from the town of Karina in the Biriwa Chiefdom in the Bombali District.
What this episode in the APC party shows is that whether a candidate hails from the majority or the minority does not matter. However, there is a clear point of reference that a blue-blooded candidate from Limba majority tribe that is claiming to be owners of the APC proved a disaster for the APC. Joseph Saidu Momoh failed the APC party and Sierra Leone and he was magnanimous in accepting that gross administrative failures. This Limba claim of ownership of the APC party emanates from Siaka Stevens claims to be a Limba from Bafodia in the Koinadugu District. It was a tactic to stranglehold the party’s surrendering to the Temnes represented erroneously by S.I. Koroma apparently for some obvious reasons. Stevens later on laid a maternal claim as a Mende when he declared the country a one party state in 1978. This political schism by Siaka Stevens using tribal identification for him was to keep the country united.
This however came to a crescendo under Joseph Saidu Momoh from the majority Limba who did not make any further move to consolidate that unity approach but rather moved to transforming the country into an ethnically identified entity that established the Limba ‘Ekutay’ culture and tradition as a means to gaining political favour. The whole system was therefore transformed as such within which the struggle for self-assertion and aggrandizement overrode the actual business of running the country as a state not as a conclave. So a tested candidate from the Majority tribe with full support from all the minority tribes woefully failed both party and country. The repercussion of that is out there for all to see. There is therefore every reason now for the APC to strongly support a candidate from the minority tribes and by all indications, those propping up from these minority tribes have proven records of dedicated membership to the APC party, service to the party and nation, proofs of honesty, discipline, transparency, accountability and integrity and certainly so, they have proved to be popular with the grassroots supporters of the party and the general populace of Sierra Leone.
Therefore, whether a flagbearer aspirant is from a majority or minority tribe does not matter as the party is called ALL PEOPLES CONGRESS.