Ex-President, Ernest Bai Koroma and Samura Kamara, presidential candidate of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) battle it out for trust and integrity on the most controversial issue of June 24, 2023 elections. Ernest Koroma says the elections are over while Samura Kamara says “the elections are not yet over until it is over” as he stands for electoral justice.
The concept of Electoral Justice is to show the rightful winner of the elections and hold accountable those who undermine the electoral process.
According to the former President, Samura Kamara has secretly compromised with President Bio without consulting party elders. Koroma himself said he never knew about such meeting not until when he was informed by Samura himself.
The former President made a clean breast of himself during a private discussion with one of the strongest APC (All Peoples Congress) stalwarts know as M.S. Bangura hoping that it would remain secret and nothing else, but the cat was let out of the bag when discussion was brought within public domain by media means.
The former President seriously indicted Samura Kamara for compromising with President Bio and warned him against deceiving the people as he can fool them sometimes but not all the time.
As confident as he is, Koroma hopes and prays for a platform to be created where he, Samura and others can speak to the grassroots, and that will be the time the people would know who is fooling who?
According to Ernest Koroma, the APC presidential candidate seems to have deeply involved in double standards by telling the grassroots stories different from those he says to the diplomats.
On the other hand, the meeting between Samura Kamara and President, according to credible sources was facilitated by the former President himself via phone call to Samura informing him that Bio wanted to discuss with him. The former President, according to credible sources, called Samura Kamara at a time President Bio was seeking avenues to negotiate with the opposition.
Owing to great the respect Kamara had for his former boss, he went to see President Bio to seek a common ground on how to resolve the post-election stalemate. Credible sources say President Bio wanted the impasse to be resolved without intervention from outsiders while Samura opted for a peace deal to be brokered by the international community so that any agreement reached could be binding on the parties.
Many said it was Samura Kamara’s sincerity of intention and firmness of purpose that brought members of the international community to the mediation table which resulted into a Communique containing eight resolutions.
Two among the resolutions calling for an investigation of the alleged electoral irregularities and release of prisoners as well as discontinue politically motivated trials are the most important.
The probe has been completed, and 84 recommendations bordering on electoral reforms and accountability have been published and handed over to the government for implementation.
The implementation is a sine qua non for the success of the Bio regime as the United States, Europe and other parts of the world will have business with Sierra Leone only after the Tripartite Committee recommendations are put into action.
Bio’s greatest hope is the US$ 480m of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) fund which would be offered to Sierra Leone only after the implementation of the Tripartite Committee recommendations with the last four being the most dangerous.
They were hinged on establishing who won the election and bring to justice all those who conspired to undermine the June 24, 2023 electoral process regardless of whatever political party to which those perpetrators belong.
Recently, ten prisoners were set free by government in compliance with Resolution-4 of the October 18, 2024 Communiqué although over 300 remain unaccounted for. However, Political Analysts say there is a bright light flashing at the end of the tunnel owing to effort made to actualize the Communiqué.
The clash of facts by the two top APC personalities has left the grassroots wondering who should be trusted. Is it Ernest Koroma or Samura Kamara? Observers in the media and the public who have been closely monitoring the actions of Ernest Koroma about the 2018 political transition have insinuated that he is a traitor and a betrayer of the party despite his clean slate which he maintained for years.
They first looked at the relationship between Maada Bio and Ernest Koroma when the latter was in power.
Top APC members have accused the former President of empowering Bio by giving him huge sums of money on frequent occasions for only God knows why.
Koroma, according to credible sources, was kind enough to buy a house and Jeep for Bio and fund his campaigns without explaining why. When Ebola struck in May, 2014, ex-President Koroma was on record to have offered Bio about US$200, 000 to help sensitize his people about strategies to roll back the deadly virus although it was unclear whether the money was spent for the intended purpose.
Such offers mean Koroma was taming what many called a python that would swallow the party members one day when it matures, but he was heedless of all the warnings.
Consequently albeit sadly, Koroma staged what the people called a “stage-managed transition” hiding behind the cloak of regime change allegedly pronounced by the international community.
It was also reported that Samura Kamara overwhelmingly won the election, but Koroma prevailed on him to let Bio rule for a term and hand over power to the opposition in 2023.
The APC grassroots supporters were convinced of the one-term phenomenon especially when the former President reportedly assured them of bringing APC back to governance in 2023 but later turned out to be a mere hoax as Bio worked out all strategies to retain power while Koroma sat and watched with folded hands.
He was waiting to seek asylum in Nigeria fleeing from what he called “Bio’s persecution.”
Samura Kamara, on the other hand, is said to have close ties with South-Easterner who constitute SLPP’s support base.
Kamara spent a good part of his life in Bo, the southern city and took a wife from the Mende tribe.
He attended the Christ the King College, a sister school to Bo school, Bio’s Alma mater.
Samura Kamara also served President Bio when he was the military head of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) between 1992 and 1996.
When the Junta went out of power, then military Head of State, Bio went to the US and later UK where he lived for years before coming for elections in 2012 and 2018.
Samura Kamara however remained in Sierra Leone serving SLPP under late President Ahmed Tejan Kabba who handed him over to ex-President Koroma for continuation owing to what many said hard work, experience and expertise in managing economies in developing countries.
Besides, Samura Kamara was the one who met Bio for negotiation instead of Bio meeting him even he knew that he won the election by a wide margin.
What was discussed at such meeting is not made public except that media sources said such move led to the Tripartite Committee whose actions the people had been biting members of the ruling party.
But, the people of Sierra Leone especially the grassroots still wait to see where Samura’s meeting with Bio will take them to in the near future to see who is honest of the two: Ernest or Samura.