Politics is a platform for rendering service to the nation, but the aim is often maimed when political are congested by people with wrong intention. The intention is to amass wealth for themselves, families and their generations.
The mad rush for wealth is not peculiar to only one political party: it goes across the political spectrum, and, most times, those with wrong intention showcases the deepest loyalty.
Their saint-like appearances is the biggest camouflage, but such sinister cover-up is soon laid bare when the going gets tough. Loyal politicians are known not when their party is in governance but when it is in opposition. When the tough breeze starts to hit, some may run away when power change hands, and others stay in, but take the back seat on matters of national importance as well as those that directly or indirectly affect their parties.
Again, those who stay put solicit or accept money, gains or favour from ruling parties to turn blind eye on weaknesses or excesses of the ruling party even at the detriment of their political party.
Once the bribe land in their hands, rogue politicians are quick to deny and call for proof of the allegations knowing fully well that it would be difficult to prove. The surreptitious manner by which the bribes are collected make it cumbersome for even a seasoned criminal investigator to get down to the crux let alone ordinary supporters in political parties.
Deeply entrenched into intra-party campism, they quickly degenerate into polemics riddled with claims and counter-claims. In the process, the real argument is lost, and old politicians get back to their cocoons and enclaves only to surface one day when another opportunity for corruption arises.
Such is how low senior politicians of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) have descended at a time the party needs them most. Some APC big names have popped up in a corruption scandal that has formed one of the hottest for discussions among the public.
Big names have been accused of receiving US$2m (approximately Le4 trillion) from the ruling Sierra Leone’s Party (SLPP) for parliamentarians, mayors, chairmen and councillors to take their seats in the legislative house and councils.
The bribe came before the Common-wealth dialogue was held, and was a move for Bio to have his way after a rigged election. Working APC’s elected men and women portrays Sierra Leone as a nation that enjoys peace, unity and national cohesion so that investors could be attracted.
SLPP, all along, has hoped that once APC law makers and councillors take their seats, the much-needed US$450m under the MCC (Millenium Challenge Corporation) compact will land on the President’s desk and several anti-APC bills would be passed into laws. Access to the compact would have also triggered the United Kingdom, United States, European Union and other inter-governmental institutions to pour money into Sierra Leone’s economy for Bio to hit the ground running amid political controversies.
The lives of APC politicians were on the cutting edge as money has changed hands, but the parliamentarians and councilors still continued their boycott. A ray of hope however crystalised when Commonwealth, AU and ECOWAS mediators jetted into Sierra Leone to broker a peace deal between SLPP and APC.
The three-day mediation culminated into a communique signed by the two sides to the conflict and one of the main clauses is for APC to end its non-participation in state governance. As if in compliance with the communique, APC’s 54 parliamentarians will take the oath of office today in the walls of the legislative house as councillors, chairmen and mayors have already taken theirs.
The opposition politicians have gone to parliament and councils but there is a conundrum: SLPP’s expectation of getting funds from the international community has ended in failure. The US, UK, EU, World Bank and IMF has not wavered in their funding cut and travel restrictions.
The firm stance was reaffirmed days gone by when the US issued a press statement pressing on the need to set up the cross-party committee as provided for by the communique to investigate the alleged June election fraud.
America says they are ready to support the committee financially and morally. Recommendations are sure to follow the investigation with either a re-count or rerun which is highly expected.
It will be a defeat for the SLPP if the votes are re-counted but a crushing defeat in the face of an economic crunch if a rerun is recommended and endorsed.
But, for sure, Bio will not go in for a rerun no matter what may come as he faces pressure from within his own SLPP. Almost two month ago, a staunch SLPP member, Kutubu Koroma issued a threat to Bio regarding his intimate relationship with former President Ernest Bai Koroma.
“President Bio, it is high time you told us whether SLPP won the election or not . We will run you out of office if you come closer to former President Koroma,” Kutubu warned President Bio in a widely circulated audio.
If Bio successfully dismisses recommendation for a rerun, he would remain on the driving seat for another five years but fear of bad legislations, human rights abuse, terror campaign and widespread killings still reigns. The scars in people’s minds about Bio’s five years still remain fresh.
A popular argument holds that Bio is eyeing the review of the five-year term so that it becomes seven years instead of five years. If he succeeds, the people of Sierra Leone should not expect the election in 2028 but 2030.
Again, observers in the media and the public also fear that transfer of power from SLPP to APC in 2030 would be difficult as the chances of Bio tampering again with the two-term clause to make it limitless are high.
He would conduct the election and hardly lose as long as he is in power.
Many holds doubt that Bio should not be trusted as long as state power has been entrusted to him. On the election eve, he promised to open the political space and he would not kill again, but still killed during and after the election.
His promise to the international community that he would ensure a free, fair and peaceful election was also left unfulfilled. 2018 election is one of the most brutal events ever seen in the country’s recent history as it was the first for live rounds and teargas canister to be fired during voting.
It was also the first polls where a presidential candidate and executive officials were almost assassinated in daylight with no one held to account. The shoot out and killing at the APC office in Freetown is the latest in the stream of lethal actions embarked on By the Bio regime during the past five years.
Any hope that Bio’s government would stop the brutal crackdown on opposition politicians and supporters if allowed to go for another five years is farcical and far-fetched.
By virtue of SLPP’s rule, Bio has a plan, and that plan is to maintain a hold on power for a period which nobody knows when it would come to an end with oppression and intimidation being the main tool to achieve such mission.
Position taken by SLPP Chairman, Dr Prince Harding that his party would never hand over power to APC is a testament to Bio’s intention of a permanent rule. The adage that nothing happens without a reason has been operationalised: the alleged corruption of APC officials weakened the party in their struggle against what many referred to as Bio’s tyranny.
The struggle to take back what genuinely belongs to them has been buried deep in the waters of bribery leaving clueless grassroot members swimming in the perilous sea of terror.