DECEPTIONS; DISTORTIONS AND DISTRACTIONS GALORE!! BUT THIS COUNTRY HAS TO MOVE ON.

By: Winstanley R. Bankole. Johnson

In the heat of our Rebel War Years emerged one particular Newspaper headline which asked: “Do REBELS HAVE TAILS”?  It was a deliberate blight by the marauders and fomenters of that carnage on “the people of Freetown” (if you get my drift). It was intended to deceive and distort the facts about the war to the “people from outside Freetown” through a stream of propaganda calculated not only to distract the focus of the suffering masses on the real causes of the war, but also to fast-track its impact of the capital so that “the people of Freetown would also taste the bitterness of the war”.

Well, in typical “journalese”, deceptions and distortions of facts to ensure distractions among the gullible are not uncommon, and recently evidence of that emerged in a the “Nightwatch Newspaper” headline of 14^th October which screamed: “DR. Samura Kamara Step Down Now!” .

The storyline accompanying that headline was a lengthy commentary asserting that  (a). There will be no re-run of the June 2023 elections or (b) ECOMISIL deployment and (c). extoled the virtues of Hon. Chernoh Ramadan Maju Bah for recently turning over possession of the keys to the office of Deputy Leader of the All Peoples’ Congress (APC) Party to the Party’s National Secretary Genera Mr. Lansana Dunbuya. It is for the latter purpose that the Newspaper was now harping for Dr. Samura Kamara to do likewise. Well to me by the Editor’s failing to substantiate their assertions about a “no elections re-run” or “no ECOMISIL deployment” with documentary evidences of such facts from our local and International Moral Guarantors (IMG) including UNECOWAS, it was clearly a deliberate attempt to deceive the public with distorted information that the June 24^th 023 elections are over. But not so fast Mate because Dr. Samura Kamara intends taking this fight for justice right up to the finishing line. As Scripture says: “Whosoever that puts a hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom harvests” (Luke 9:62).

To the current APC National Executive, Hon. Chernoh Bah’s gesture was a symbolic relinquishment of his position as Deputy Leader. What however the “Nightwatch Newspaper” story deliberately failed to tell us its readers was that It was Dr. Samura Kamara that had long set the precedent by voluntarily vacating his office as Leader of the Party since 27^th December 2023, thus pre-empting surprises by his bunch of his detractors who had convened an emergency meeting of the Party’s National Advisory Council (NAC) last 27^th Dec to manipulate him into subservience going forward.  But they goofed, because it was at that meeting Dr.  Samura Kamara tactfully reminded them that his continued relevance to the party and the electorate isn’t hinged on the title of “Leader”, but only as a “Flag bearer”, which was the same position he held prior to the 2018 Presidential elections when he wasn’t “Leader” of the Party.

It has to be noted that beyond its symbolism, the gesture and fanfare attendant upon Hon. Bah’s handing over of keys to the Deputy Leader’s office was unnecessary. As if to be “washing the Party’s dirty linens in public” that act spoke loudly to a climate of uncertainty and intra-party discord, yet again intended to deceive, distort and distract the rank and file of the APC Party about the real issues on the ground insofar as resolution of the June 24^th 2023 elections are concerned. The entire world knows – especially our local and International Moral Guarantors (IMG) to wit: National Elections Watch (NEW) Independent National Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC), United Nations (UN) and ECOWAS, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth of Nations and the  European Union – are far from over or being done and dusted with, in the absence of certified disaggregated results from the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone (ECSL). That is standard practice and it cannot be wavered or compromised in this case.

Disingenuous

The events of last week culminating in the fracas around the Party’s headquarters during the visit of our IMG also evidence insinuations of deceptions, distortions and distractions.  Each and every one in the current APC National Executive full well know that there has been no love lost between the Party and the National Security Sector since 2018 when we lost political power – whether acting as a corporate organ or agents of it. They also know too well that per standard SLPP policy, all APC Party members are not true Sierra Leoneans and that under no circumstances will the SLPP Party ever relinquish or cede political power to the APC.

So it was most disingenuous of them (I mean all of them in the current APC Party National Executive) to have dispatched a request letter to the Police in advance of the visitation of the IMG to the Party headquarters, well knowing that what happened was predictable. Predictable because the only reason why anyone or group would request for Police presence is to mitigate risks to assets and persons which the Police as custodians of peace and security are obligated to do by law. How they do it – and as was seen on that day – is purely discretional on their own assessments, estimations and assumptions and for which they cannot be blamed.

Manipulations

By the Police invite letter the Secretariat misconstrued and distorted the peaceful intentions of the party protesters and also implicitly deceived the public, culminating into a kind of distraction from their real intentions. But in the ensuing skirmishes, several facts were inadvertently laid bare:

1. The Police reaction as usual was highhanded, leading to the abrupt disruption of school and business activities within the Brookfields area
2. The visiting UNECOWAS delegation were treated to first hand/real time experience of government’s political intolerance, meaning the messages of the protesters were effectively conveyed
3. A conspiracy of the current National Executive of the APC Party with the SLPP to continue to undermine and disrupt the resilience of Dr. Samura Kamara to reclaim an electoral victory that he (like myself) genuinely believes he won and awaiting closure of from international arbitrations.

Honestly if point three (3) above was not on the cards, the Deputy Public Relations Officer of the APC Party would not have sent out a voice note admonishing supporters against any form of demonstration in support and defense of democracy prior to the arrival of the UNECOWAS team. To have done so was to have implicitly directed the Police to discourage intending protesters.  Incidentally it is sad that on the issuance of such a simple letter and the purpose for it to the police, much confusion hinging on disarray within the Public Relations wing of the party emerged. In the event, peaceful protesters were dispersed and several of them arrested by the Police, probably acting on the admonition of the APC PRO (2) Pope Kamara, as their own response to quell rising tempers.

Political Judases

Even if the APC National Executive and SLPP are not in cahoots to undermine Dr. Samura Kamara, Police refusal for him to see and empathize with the detainees, allegedely on “orders from above”, whilst grating same privilege to Osman Yansanneh and Co to do so later on the same purpose speaks to a wider conspiracy between them and the SLPP to douse Dr. Samura Kamara’s dual political pursuits for “Electoral Justice” and a “re-run” of the still inconclusive June 2023 elections.  That denial by the Police of someone as high-profiled as Dr. Samura Kamara to even visit and or plead on behalf of those arrested, is to me an extension of a plot to whittle down his political relevance to within the rank and file of the APC.   And that to me is a surreptitious manipulation by the entire Executive of the Party that to all intents and purposes want to see him out of the way so that the present governance outfit can continue in power in fulfillment of their Agenda 2028?

If my memory serves me right, apart from the story of Moses on the brink of the Promised Land in Biblical days, this is the very first time in modern politics that the entire Executive an opposition political party that has come so close to winning power, condescended to exert so much bad energy to join with their opponent to scuttle such a golden opportunity and betray the aspirations of their entire membership.  Or would I be right to describe the entire current Executive arm of the APC Party as “Political Judases”?

Caveat

But here’s a caveat for the entire current APC Executives: The droves of APC supporters arrested were or are of the same ideologues or progeny of thousands more that had suffered various forms of brutalization and deprivation of lives and properties in the last six years of SLPP rule. A number of them are blood relations to some of those in the past and current APC Executives. They had seen in the impending visit of the IMG delegation the rare  opportunity to register old grievances in addition to drawing global attention to the present unconstitutional arrangement passing off as a government for the past sixteen months, and on a mandate that the IMG and chiefly the present US Ambassador have reiterated does not exist.

It was in the hope that their cries would be heard this last time that they trooped to their own Party Headquarters – not with arms and ammunitions or sticks and stones and machetes – but and peacefully with simple placards, only for them to have experienced the greatest political betrayal in contemporary Sierra Leone politics by the very people the voted into office. Because of that experience, it would be a sad mistake for this present APC Executives to ever believe that their future rallying cries to them to mobilize support for the APC will ever be heeded again after such a betrayal.

Self-Inflicted

I have always known that the SLPP can be resilient in their political pursuits to obliterate the APC Party from our national polity. That has been their goal even before attaining power in 2018 and they did not hide it.  But honestly not for once has it ever occoured to me that instead of the SLPP having a hand in it, the destruction of the APC Party will be self-inflicted. And this is exactly what is playing out within Camp APC without the SLPP Party having a finger in it. In a nutshell, the very fabric of the APC Party is now being destroyed, through a betrayal by the very Executive comprising mean men and women in whom the party rank and file had reposed their confidence to safeguard their political interests. Men and women that now appear to have sacrificed their ranks, status, possessions and what was left of their eroding integrity on an altar of blatant corruption and political inexpediency. And as if on a “Quid-Pro-Quo” (something-for- something) basis, it is looking like the arrangement is: “Ignore the International Community. Drop all charges of corruption against us from the Commissions of Inquiry and we will allow the SLPP to complete a second term in office”.

Abysmal

Truth be told the performance of the Party Chairman Minkailu Mansaray (and his entire Executive) during their meeting with the IMG was abysmal, and it exposed them Big Time. It also lent credence to a conclusion of public suspicions of their possible sell-out to SLPP, as well as opening them up to serious questions about their overall commitment to Dr. Samura Kamara’s principled stances both on “Elections re-run” and attainment of “Electoral Justice”.  Yes it is true that the delegates were not here to determine on elections re-run or not, or whether or not ECOMISIL are to be deployed, but they were not here to allow the present administration to continue in office without a legal mandate either!!! So it was puerile for the “Nightwatch Newspaper” to have categorically denounced Dr. Samura Kamara and calling for him to step down on both grounds without substantiating them.

Minkailu’s  copious references to Sierra Leone’s recent MCC Compact achievement, the pending National Census and the 2028 elections were as incongruent, irrelevant, off tangent and completely out of scope from the issues at hand as that of a beautician attempting to change the hairstyle of a Vulture. The scoping references of the visiting IMG were restricted to updates on the implementation of the eighty-four (84) points arising from the Resolution No. 3 of the Tripartite Committee and also on Resolution No. 4 specifically dealing with accountability for detained and missing persons. Issues that would lead them to arrive at recommendations for this country’s political trajectory.

The visiting IMG delegates were not here to listen to Minkailu’s campaign messages for the SLPP, but that was exactly what ensued. And that sad fact exposed the indifference of the entire APC Executive to the welfare of the APC Party and its millions of supporters who defied all odds to cast their ballots on June 24^th last year. Even though the IMG Team Lead was redirecting courses to elicit progress on the implementation of recommendations from Minkailu, none of the other members on Team APC attempted to add value. Obviously their reactions were intentional, and in the hope that whatever is passing off now for a government should be allowed to remain on seat till Year 2028. But I await to see that happen for the very first time in global politics, for an administration to continue in governance without a political mandate. As far as I and millions of Sierra Leoneans are concerned, the June 24^th 2023 elections will never – and should never be declared over until those who told us that those results were inconsistent, inaccurate, irregular and unacceptable, have now decide to alter course and render them valid sixteen months later.

Pussy-Footing

But perhaps I should close with a few pieces of advice for our IMG.

Left to our own means and devices our current political impasse would have ended and this administration attained cruising altitude long ago. But it was all of you (our local and International Moral Guarantors to wit: National Elections Watch (NEW) Independent National Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC), United Nations (UN) and ECOWAS, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth of Nations and the European Union) who told us in as many words that the elections were not credible and that those who undermined democracy should serve time for that. Worse still the American Ambassador was categorical too that there are no results for the June 24^th 2023 elections. If so on what basis then does the present political administration draw its mandate?

A clear sixteen months and counting we have been waiting impatiently waiting for your recommendations. Meantime our country is moribund. Nothing is moving on the economic sphere beyond grants and financial pledges. Inflation is hitting the roofs and the recent 2024 Appropriation Act has added more weight on an already overtaxed population. Our situation is so hopeless that leading Civil Society activists are now openly begging for regular employment. You all claim not recognize this political administration but you are accepting accreditations from her emissaries, further fuelling a climate of deceptions, distortions and distractions. So I honestly think it’s about time you ended your “forked-tongue” diplomacy or political pussy-footing and deliver the long awaited recommendations pertaining to the dual recommendations for “Electoral Reforms and Electoral Justice”. This country has to move on. So I will recommend that priority consideration be given to the release of the “International Criminal Court Indictment List”, which no doubt will reflect names from across the political divide because no single political party could have succeeded in undermining democracy as perfectly as we have witnessed in this country. Once that list is out the rest of the other jigsaw pieces will easily fall into place to reveal the political trajectory for this country.

Meantime please update citizens with a definite timeline for the deployment of ECOMISIL to this country.