The time honoured adage of he who fails to prepare, prepares to fail is very much relevant to the APC (All People’s Congress)’s current predicament. APC is the country’s main opposition in parliament. The party has administered this country twice between 2007 and 2018.
It is the party the people of Sierra Leone is looking forward to for redemption after close to three years of suffering.
But, signs are already clear that the people’s expectation of redemption is farcical owing to the plethora of court matters the party continues to face. At the time APC must be preparing to take back State House, the party is always in the precincts of law courts for litigations.
Litigations always go with injunctions in political matters. So be it, for the main opposition. The party has faced series of injunctions that are quietly damaging its chances of coming back to state governance in 2023. The number of cases APC currently battles with in the law courts signals the party’s defeat in two years’ time.
The intra-political crisis in the APC has even prompted stalwarts of the ruling SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) to say they do not foresee a run-off. They are highly confident that SLPP would be defeated hands down in the first ballot. The whole process is about APC defeating itself through sustained litigations against the party.
Alfred Peter Conteh, a Sierra Leonean based in the United States recently dragged APC to court after the party had just reeled of the suffocating effect of the NRM (National Reformation Movement) injunction. Conteh wanted the Ernest-Koroma executive to go after its mandate had expired few months ago.
Investigation conducted by this press has shown that Conteh’s injunction was incited by many key party stalwarts that wanted to see the APC remains in opposition for the next five years. Of all injunctions, the latest injunction has seemed to be the most potent and disturbing.
It is an indefinite injunction restraining the APC from embarking on any party activity till the outcome of the hearing. The court’s injunction came just after APC had released a timeline for various political activities between April and May, this year.
By the timeline, APC should now be conducting lower level elections in constituencies, towns, districts and others as well elections for the presidential candidate.
The Conduct of the elections would ensure that the party put in place the right officials in their right places so that it could pose a formidable challenge to the ruling SLPP in 2023.
Instead of planning for the impending battle, the APC is busy masquerading in the law courts with matters that take them backwards.
As Conteh’s case is pending, no one could tell how long the matter would drag on before the court allows APC to put its house in order. On the opposite side, SLPP is busy conducting its lower level elections unhindered.
The party is currently conducting its primaries in various towns and districts in the country. It is preparing for the retention of power in 2023 against all odds. The 2023 elections would not have been easy ride for SLPP, but the APC is softening the ground for the incumbent.
Despite the violence that is characterising SLPP in recent times, the party is well positioned for the elections. At the height of tense political battle, there is a closely-guarded secret.
A credible insider source within the APC has anonymously told this press that key APC officials are inciting the litigations to destabilise the party. The officials are determined to see that APC lose the elections in 2023 to ensure an uninterrupted continuation of an SLPP political dominance. Fighting to ensure that SLPP remains in governance after 2023 is not free. It is a fight for redemption from corruption trials.
It is clear that after the New Direction Government came to power in 2018, a number of corruption allegations were made against the former government. The allegations are corruption allegations that portrayed former government officials as monsters that were sucking dry the country’s economy.
To fit into the allegations, a quasi-tribunal in the form of Commissions of Inquiry was set up to look into the activities of the past government. Sierra Leone is a country that still struggles with the problem of low literacy standards as mere allegation of corruption against any government official is seen as a guilty verdict handed down by a court of law.
The same situation was applied to the former government officials as most Sierra Leoneans saw them as ambassadors of corruption when the allegations were slammed against them. The names of prominent men have found their way into a ‘White Paper’ which government is determined to enforce at all cost.
With the exception of a few, past government officials had been banned from traveling without obtaining permission from the Office of the Attorney-General. These officials have one fear: the fear of being roped in for corruption offences in the not too distant future.
Threats have come from government that those whose findings are of a criminal nature would be referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation and prosecution. This fear has made those former government officials to prefer a sell-out of the party to facing the courts. They have already defeated themselves before they even face the court.
It is a tacit acceptance of wrong doings while they were in governance. It is also a move of discrediting the strength of those who once voted them into positions of trust. Despite the people’s determination to resist government on their behalf, former government officials still continue their timid posture.
They firmly believe that allowing the SLPP to go for a second term would free them from the albatrosses that hang around their necks. Sources have also told this press that Chairman and Leader of the party, former President Ernest Bai Koroma is completely clueless about the conspiracy in the party.
Grassroot supporters of the APC have told this press that the actions of the party leadership are enough to invite suspicion of a political collusion with government. The youths have suspected a sell-out of the APC to the SLPP so that the latter would go for a second-term.
The youths have however threatened that a day would come when they would resist the actions of their leaders by taking to the streets. An APC youth, Alimamy Kamara who spoke to this medium also made reference to the discomfort the NRM case brought to the party since January, 2019.
Kamara said the euphoria generated in PortLoko for the adoption of the reviewed APC constitution turned into sadness when an injunction emanated from the court to stop it.
Kamara expressed sympathy for those who have travelled from faraway countries to witness the ceremony. The NRM’s injunction had two causes: the retention of the ‘Selection Clause’ in the Constitution and the over-stay of the current executive in power.
The ‘Selection Clause’ confers power on the Party leadership to choose candidates of their choice to represent the party in elections including the flag-bearer. Other members of the party have accused government of fuelling the litigations in the APC to weaken the party’s potential to bounce back to power in 2023.
The allegation also holds that SLPP is fuelling the court matters to face a weak opposition in the 2023 polls. Kamara went on to state that it is only the technique of litigations that would save the SLPP from a shameful defeat. He said most of the promises made by the New Direction Government had remained unfulfilled to date.
He pointed out the problems of poor electricity, weak economy, hunger and starvation that continue to cripple the chances of SLPP in the ballot box. The people of Sierra Leone, kamara says, are fed up with the maladministration of the current regime adding that they are ready to vote the party out.
Voting the party out as Kamara claimed would have been an easy work over considering government’s failings.
But, the main opposition, APC is making it hard through litigations. Until APC extricates itself from the quagmire (lawsuits), talk of victory for the APC is far-fetched.
Time is no longer in its favour.