A Senior All People’s Congress (APC) politician and former parliamentarian has intimated Nightwatch Press that Samura Kamara is the next President of Sierra Leone either by ballot or Tripartite Committee recommendation.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the former parliamentarian who represented one of the constituencies in PortLoko district says Samura Kamara is the man the party knows for now and will not go for another candidate.
“Samura Kamara has established his popularity within and outside APC and has suffered too much for the party. He has been deprived twice of ruling the country. He lost the 2018 election and accepted and the 2023 election still remains in dispute,” the former lawmaker told Nightwatch Press.
The parliamentarian’s view on Samura Kamara’s popularity gains support from Chief Somano Kapen, former Chairman and Leader of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
With such popularity, there is no way Samura Kamara could be deprived of the party’s flag or APC remains in permanent opposition as once predicted by former Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa.
Other APC members, supporters and sympathisers also support the view that Samura Kamara would be given the party’s flag in the forthcoming national delegates’ conference slated to take place shortly if at all there will be an election.
Samura Kamara is APC’s presidential candidate for the 2018 and 2023 elections who has been reportedly deprived twice of his winning.
When asked about most of the flag-bearer aspirants who are seeking to be elected in the next APC convention, the former parliamentarian responds that Samura Kamara is the favourite.
It however remains doubtful whether Kamara would be elected again for the third time as the party’s constitution allows a presidential candidate to contest only twice.
On the other hand, some APC members hold the view that Samura Kamara has exhausted his chances of running as presidential candidate, and there is no way he could be elected for a third time while others are still on the queue.
Some APC members also fear that Samura Kamara if elected flag-bearer of the party, he would lose and let go as it is the case for the 2018 and 2023 elections.
Others say it is better off for the 2018 election, as 2023 presents the worse case scenario.
All reports of the election observation missions succinctly indicated that President Bio did not win the election, but Samura Kamara had been going easy with it as he is an easy-going man.
Majority of the APC grassroot members expect the international community to have intervened in Sierra Leone’s political situation to create a positive difference.
But, it is the view of many APC members that intervention by the international community would come only if they see strong actions on the ground.
But, Samura Kamara has always called on his supporters to trust God and look up to the international community since it is not yet over, until it is over.
In 2018, Kamara bowed to ECSL (Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone)’s declaration of then opposition candidate, Julius Maada Bio winner of the election owing to a ploy of a regime change scheme machinated by former President Ernest Koroma.
It is however a different case for 2023 since the election observation missions have condemned the electoral process as one that lacked integrity by all standards.
Samura Kamara also stands a good chance of becoming President of Sierra Leone if a power transfer from the ruling party to APC is based on the tripartite which is now before lawmakers for approval.
80 recommendations, known as the convergent, have been presented to the two political parties, the ruling SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) and the opposition, APC for full implementation.
The recommendations, if implemented, will bring about electoral reforms which ensures that Sierra Leone’s future elections are free, fair and credible.
Another set of recommendations known as the divergent five is much more crucial to the election probe and electoral justice.
Electoral Justice is an initiative floated by Dr. Samura Kamara to retrieve APC’s stolen victory in the June, 2023 electoral process.
The five recommendations which are reportedly at the desk of the UN Security Council will establish who win the 2023 election and ultimately seeks to bring about a smooth political transition. Samura Kamara being the presidential candidate is at the centre of the process as he is widely expected to take over state governance in line with evidence presented at the Tripartite Committee, a body set up to look into alleged electoral irregularities of the 2023 election.
Reports on the election probe hold that Samura Kamara got 57.15 percent of the votes cast in the 2023 elections while the incumbent candidate, President Bio got a little over 37%, making it difficult for the latter to win the election.
Although these findings are yet to be announced by either the Tripartite Committee or the international community, the great majority of the people of Sierra Leoneans especially the grassroot members stand with Samura Kamara in the struggle to take back APC’s victory.
With a good track record of national and global service, Sierra Leoneans see Samura Kamara as the only person who will build the foundation for clean politics.
Before he came to politics, Kamara is a well-respected technocrat who served at such revered global institutions as the IMF (International Monetary Fund), World Bank, United Nations and Commonwealth holding enviable positions there.
Samura Kamara was Chief Economics Officer at IMF and also one of the lead consultants at World Bank.
He managed Sierra Leone’s economy during difficult and turbulent moments in history. He was the Finance Secretary during the NPRC (National Provisional Ruling Council) regime (1992-1996) to help the khaki boys manage the economy well.
At that time, the coup leader, Captain Valentine Strasser and team lacked the required political and economic experience to run the country. With Samura Kamara however, the country’s economy is kept well afloat.
Samura Kamara continued to serve even after NPRC government handed over power to SLPP after the 1996 general elections which saw Ahmed Tejan Kabba President of Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone, under Tejan Kabba, was a war economy but Samura Kamara displayed his economic expertise to handle the country’s finances to the admiration of the international community.
When Kabba rode into the sunset in November, 2007, Samura Kamara was still Minister of Finance under a new President, Ernest Bai Koroma of the APC. Kamara made history when Sierra Leone was rated the fastest growing economy in the world in 2013, not until the Ebola epidemic reversed gains made over the years. The Ebola virus ravaged the economies of neighbouring Guinea and Liberia, and Sierra Leone was no exception.
He still remained the Finance Minister at the peak of Ebola where he managed the country’s economy to prevent an economic disaster.
In Koroma’s last days, Samura Kamara was made Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation where he navigated the international environment to promote national development objectives.
He takes credit for the Agendas for Change and Prosperity which he authored during the Koroma regime. The Agenda for Change was hallmarked by five main governance pillars: Energy, infrastructure, health, education and agriculture in which the APC government scored good points.
The economic success stories recorded during the past APC government established Samura Kamara as a man who knows how to manage the economies in developing African countries than any other Sierra Leonean politician at the moment.
With such great record of committed and unblemished service to the nation, Samura Kamara will ensure that people with the required competence, trust and integrity take up public offices so that the country can move from its current state of abject poverty and under-development to prosperity.
it is hoped that Sierra Leone will be made great again when Samura Kamara is made President, as the people’s slogan of NO SAMURA, NO APC echoes throughout the corners of Sierra Leone.