By Allieu S. Tunkara
Court orders are sacred and should not be flouted. Flouting them may bring terrible consequences on defaulters. Chairman and Leader of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) Former President Ernest Bai Koroma and his Secretary-General, Foday Osman Yansaneh seem to be more powerful than the judiciary and the law.
The two politicians have flouted court orders and do away with it. Justice Adrian Fischer’s verdict almost two months ago barred the two personalities from taking active part in APC’s politics. The two were barred alongside over 100 members of the party.
The ban was handed down after APC lost an appeal it lodged with the Appeals Court. The matter emanated from the High Court of Sierra Leone where Alfred Peter Conteh APC (All People’s Congress) member in the diaspora filed a lawsuit against the party’s executive.
The litigant argued that the Ernest Koroma-led executive has ridden into the sunset, and must give way to a new one. Indeed the executive’s mandate expired since the previous year. Frequent extensions and postponements owing to COVID-19 prevalence prolonged its life.
Owing to the long stay, Ernest Bai Koroma and cronies thought it was legal for them to be there. The executive came to realise that they are overdue only when they are dragged to court. After months of hearings, the High Court handed down a verdict in favour of the litigant, Alfred Peter Conteh.
The verdict was also upheld by the Appeals Court. Going strictly by the terms of the ruling, the life of the Koroma-led executive must have come to an end now. The verdict restrained Koroma Yansaneh and over 100 APC members from taking active part in the internal politics of APC.
Since the verdict was handed down, executive members have made little effort to implement what is required of them. The party’s constitution which was supposed to have been adopted remains as it is. Reliable sources say no structure or arrangement is being done within the party that portrayed APC as a party ready for an election.
But, the most shameful part of the drama, Foday Yansaneh still performs normal functions of the secretariat despite the court verdict. Mr Yansaneh is a man who many APC members say he is not ready to go. His boss Ernest Koroma also treads on the same path. Despite media reports portraying the former President as man who is tired of manning the party, Ernest Koroma is not inclined to give way to a new party chairman.
Almost all recent meetings of the party were held in Makeni under his auspices. Nothing goes on in the party for now without directives from the former President. His promises of leaving the party are mere rhetorics meant to throw dust in the eyes of APC members.
Almost two weeks, the former President while in a burial ceremony, addressed APC supporters that he would ensure that the party gets the leadership that would take it to a convention in the near future. Some clueless APC members were ecstatic and jubilant. They trusted every statement made by the former President.
The unwary APC supporters never knew that politicians are not meant to be trusted all the time. An insider source in the APC has intimated this press that the two figures have held the party to ransom under watch of party stalwarts.
While explaining the former President’s trickery, the source made constant reference to the Ernest’s political machinations in 2017 that led to the emergence of Dr Samura Kamara as the party’s flag-bearer.
The source made it clear that the selection of Dr Samura Kamara was not to bring victory to the APC, but to manage a smooth and successful transition of power from APC to SLPP.
The source says that Dr Samura Kamara is a pure academic but not a real politician. He is one of the most erudite ministers in the Koroma-led government, but calm and docile.
It was his docility that made him a protagonist of 2018 elections. Former President Koroma knew too well that the likes of Kemo Sesay, Alpha Kanu and other radical politicians would not help a successful transition.
It would have been to his great detriment had he selected or elected any of them. The former President, according to the source, began the move to install Samura Kamara as flag-bearer when he pressed for a ‘Selection Clause’ in the 1995 APC Constitution.
He cleverly dribbled age-old politicians and scored a dangerous lone goal in the northern capital of Makeni where a sham convention was held.
The goal was, the source said, an off-side, but there was no referee to disallow it. It was accepted although with pain and horror. APC politicians were carried away by promises of the former President that he would never leave APC in the political wilderness.
President Koroma assured them that he would work hard to ensure that APC remains in power in 2018. Despite the fine promises, APC is out, and former government officials continue to face threats and humiliation. Some APC members are not sure whether an interim body that would conduct long-awaited and much-expected lower level elections is in place.
Having an interim body in place was a requirement of the court. The executive was ordered to set up an interim body that would conduct lower level elections and take the party to convention.
The source went on to state that it was only former President Koroma that continues to consolidate a transition even after he leaves power. The source also stated that former President Kabba never took part in such machination. He lived a quiet life after he left power, and allowed state governance to carry on.
Ernest’s tactical manipulation of APC in recent times has become one of the greatest topics for discussion. Others say the former President has a skeleton in the cupboard-corruption trial. Since he wants to his head above waters, he would not hesitate to do Bio’s bidding for a second term.
Former Attorney-General and party stalwart, Dr Abdulai Osman Conteh was made head of the interim body. Dr Conteh is one of Sierra Leone’s legal luminaries and key framers of the 1991 Constitution. His unprecedented academic brilliance remains one of the country’s lingering histories.
Dr Conteh has been in the courtroom for years including one of the world’s finest jurisdictions. He has presided over in the Appeals Court of the Bahamas in the United States.
That notwithstanding, the enviable records Dr Conteh earned does not qualify him for the current politics. Courtroom politics is different from the field of national or intra-party politics especially Sierra Leone where a new comer is required to dig deep.
Dr Abdulai Conteh has found it extremely difficult, almost impossible, to set things right in the party after he was made a de facto head of an interim body. Sierra Leone’s political terrain is not for him to navigate; he has been out of active politics for years. Many APC members have opined that it is a way of derailing the trail of the party’s progress towards elections.