President Julius Maada Bio may be deceived again into banking on the popularity of former President Koroma failing to realise that Samura Kamara is far more popular.
The votes of 2018 and 2023 elections project Samura Kamara’s popularity than other politician in Sierra Leone at the moment.
Bio’s hope is to see the former President playing another prank for SLPP as 2028 election draws near, but the people doubt the objective he wants to achieve.
However, current political trends have proved the notion of Ernest Koroma’s popularity at this time as a figment of the imagination and a vagary of reasoning. In terms of political popularity within the borders of Sierra Leone, Ernest Koroma is no match to Samura Kamara although SLPP politicians especially President Bio may think the other way. But, observers in the public and the media subscribes to the notion that Samura Kamara is politically weighty.
Even Chief Somano Kapen, a top-notch politician who once served SLPP in the highest post of chairman and leader has once observed that “Samura Kamara is currently the most popular politician within the All People’s Congress (APC) party) whether you like or not.”
Chief Kapen further emphasised that yesterday was Ernest Koroma, and today it is Samura Kamara and tomorrow could be another person. Kapen’s notion could be precisely interpreted to mean that today belongs to Samura Kamara, an unsung hero of the APC. Quite recently, APC elders including Ibrahim Ben Kargbo appealed to Samura Kamara to hold a meeting with them. Their appeal came after suggestions that they should meet Samura Kamara if the APC is party is to move on.
In response, Samura Kamara wrote them that he was willing to sit and discuss with them, but the discussion should be centered on the fight for electoral justice and nothing else. The response is shocking to the elders in such a way that they decide to devise another strategy and it remains whether the meeting has taken place.
To date, none of the APC elders are certain about Samura Kamara’s whereabouts, a source of worry for them.
Samura Kamara became popular owing to the exercise of patience and self-restraint for the peace and stability of Sierra Leone in the aftermath of the 2023 general elections.
Although everybody knows that he is the winner of the June, 2023 elections by virtue of credible election reports and evidence presented at the Tripartite Committee, he comports himself from the outset and call on his supporters to tread on the same path.
Reports by local and international observation missions indicated that the election was marred with “mathematical inaccuracies” and “statistical inconsistencies” so much that it was difficult for a genuine winner to emerge. Documentary evidence tendered by Samura Kamara before the Tripartite Committee by way of RRFs (Result Reconciliation Forms) projected Samura Kaamara winner of the elections.
The RRFs indicated a 57.15% of the total votes in the June, 2023 election giving him a first-round victory as such figure surpassed the 55% constitutional threshold provided for by Sierra Leone’s constitution, the country’s most supreme law.
Samura Kamara has however comported himself throughout the waiting period as he looks up to the international community for intervention for the sanitisation of politics in Sierra Leone.
He has always cautioned his people to act within the confines of the law and that the struggle to retrieve APC’s stolen victory is a “marathon race” and that is why not all can see the end of the game. He also called on his people to trust God and that wonders will soon happen in Sierra Leone.
“Have faith in God as not all fight requires cutlasses and machetes but wisdom,” he advised his people while adding that they should refrain from incitements and all other forms of violence that can take this nation backward.
Samura Kamara also displayed calm and good demeanour even when he came under attacks directed at him by state security forces.
The gun attacks at Mile-38 few kilometres away from the capital city, Freetown and the party headquarters are scenes in which Samura Kamara had provided leadership by stopping his men from retaliation.
Teargas canisters and live rounds were also fired at APC members and supporters while Samura Kamara was trying to enter Freetown after he was elected flag-bearer of APC at a delegates’ conference in Makeni.
Kamara, a man of peace, ensured that peace prevailed, situation went normal and no one was hurt. His only action in the struggle to take back the people’s “stolen mandate” is the formation of the Electoral Justice Movement (EJM), a splinter group within the APC, struggling to ensure that the rightful winner of the June, 2023 election is announced and those who played a role in rigging the election are humbled in courts of law.
The move is no witch-hunting, but a framework to correct the errors of the past so that Sierra Leone’s future elections would be free, fair and credible. The EJM has taken deep root in the country’s body politic as the people are being sensitised on the need for correcting the wrongs associated with 2023 elections before thinking about 2028.
Samura Kamara’s popularity also lies in absolute trust in the international community and respect for international obligations. On the international front, Samura Kamara has always appealed to the international community to compel the Bio regime to peacefully hand over power since he is not the winner of the elections.
Recently, he appealed to the Senegalese president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye after his election as ECOWAS Chairman to intervene into Sierra Leone’s situation to restore democratic order. Democracy, all over the world, is the best form of government for the protection of human rights, respect for the rule of law and promotion of national development.
Abundant evidence exists to show that democratic African countries in the 1970s and 80s have delivered to their people while autocratic states have failed. In West Africa, ECOWAS has played a lead role in ensuring democratic governance and development.
The sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS was created in May, 1975 to maintain peace, democracy and good governance in West Africa, and it has recorded success stories in Sierra Leone in 1998 and the Gambia in 2016.
In December, 2016, ECOWAS threatened to intervene in the Gambia after President Yayah Jammeh refused to step down after losing the presidential election. Feraing ECOWAS’s military might, Jammeh gave up power and sought asylum in Equatorial Guinea.
In March, 1998, the world watched when ECOWAS under, General Sani Abacha, restored democracy in Sierra Leone by kicking out the military regime, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) through the force of arms. ECOWAS made such strategic achievements with the backing of the United Nations.
It however remains unclear, at the moment, when President Faye would go into action in partnership with the United Nations and other inter-governmental bodies to restore democracy in Sierra Leone as Samura Kamara continues to wait for God’s time.
Through patience, the people support Samura Kamara. His popularity is also showcased by the people’s refusal to take part in APC’s activities. The recent “mammoth meeting” called by the APC’s executive was snubbed by the people to send a clear message that they wanted to see their leader at State House.
The people have also withheld their financial contributions from the party until Samura Kamara takes over. Such actions constitute a big message to the Bio regime that Samura Kamara is a man of the moment.
Without any doubt, Ernest Koroma’s political popularity started to dwindle the day he chose Samura Kamara in the 2017 National Delegates’ Conference in the Northern town of Makeni in a run up to 2018 election.
The selection of Samura Kamara signaled the quiet end of the Koroma regime as the people had switched loyalty to Samura Kamara even before leaving Makeni. Samura Kamara was abandoned by top politicians during campains and rallies but the grassroot stood up with him and made his way.
Although his election victory was robbed by the ruling party, he remains hopeful of getting back and such patience is the main root of his political popularity within Sierra Leone and beyond.