A top level ruling SLPP official has reportedly called the party under the leadership of President Julius Maada Bio as “Mende SLPP”. The gaff has reportedly caused quite a stir in the ruling party, with many partisans from the other tribes in the party calling for the official to publically apologise.
Our sources told Nightwatch that after the ending of the one party state, political parties in Sierra Leone used to behave amicably to each other. When one was in power, they would help the other who was in opposition. Governments in power are expected to assist opposition parties especially in preparation for and during elections.
A lot of people used to be in shock at how bold Julius Maada Bio was in addressing leadership lapses as exhibited by the APC government when he was in opposition. He was so bold he was invited to speak at Chatham House. Surprising to most Sierra Leoneans was when towards the end if his tenure President Ernest Bai Koroma was routinely seen with Bio of the opposition, even taking him along to conferences. It is rumoured that the former president used to assist the former military head of state financially during that time. The president then was working out a change in regime that obviously involved the then SLPP ex-officio. Maada Bio had ran and narrowly lost the 2012 elections.
According to sources in New Direction the narrative of an incumbent regime assisting the one in opposition changed with the coming of Julius Maada Bio as president. They informed this medium that after winning the 2018 race, the president called for commissions of inquiry into how the past government handled the finances of the state. The commissions weren’t expected by the past government officials. Also, if someone wasn’t part of PAOPA, he wouldn’t get a job in government. The fact of the matter is if you weren’t from Kenema or Bo it was almost impossible for you to get a government posting.
Under the dispensation of the forceful PAOPA ideology that morphed out of the original meaning of the acronym – proactive actions on poverty alleviation – even getting a government job under President Bio’s term usually means you are Mende.
Confiding in this medium non Mende members of the ruling party establishment have said if the SLPP is indeed a Mende party then the party does not need the other tribes.
But we know that the Mendes alone cannot win the presidential elections. Are they telling us that they don’t need the Limba, Fullah, Kono, Temne members of the party? One tribe cannot win an election in Sierra Leone. This calling the party a Mende SLPP has not gone down well with other tribes. They feel marginalised for belonging to other tribes in the SLPP, we were informed.
Top SLPP officials belonging to other tribes that spoke to this medium said because of their positions in the party’s structure they will at present hold their peace while watching the tribal cabal in the party walk President Bio into the first one term presidency in post war Sierra Leone.
The president, we are told, stands the greatest chance of losing the 2023 elections by allowing tribalists in the party to foment dissent in the rank at such a critical juncture in the elections cycle. And should the ruling party government continue in this vein, which is said to be already causing great divisions in the party, the strong partisans said the SLPP under President Bio should forget winning the north-eastern votes.
The people of the northeast we are told have woken up and gotten back to their senses, adding that if high ranking SLPP officials can call the regime under President Julius Maada Bio as “Mende SLPP” then ‘we should all go where we are welcomed’.
They said this will form the basis of many people that will be leaving the SLPP for the APC after hearing what the APC will be saying in the coming weeks. We were informed that after the APC flagbearer would have spoken and spoken the language of reconciliation then the whole nation’s body politic is expected to tow the line behind him.
‘One thing we know is that if this is a Mende SLPP then the SLPP is sure to lose the 24 June elections. Not only is the party risking the chance of losing the northeast, they also stand the chance of losing Kono despite what assurances they might have been misled to believe by a certain party leader in Kono. Even if President Bio goes to Kono fifty times a day, he won’t be able to make any change in how the people see the SLPP under PAOPA. That word “Mende SLPP” has ruined and destroyed the president’s chances of making a great gain in Kono and the northeast. Whoever said those words must apologise. He or she must do so publically,’ said a member of the ruling party from one of the smaller tribes.
Nightwatch Press has been in the front calling for a politics of delivering on campaign promises instead of leaning on narrow visions that put one tribe above the other. After tribal politics then what? Are we to expect for all tribes to go where they are originally from? Tribalism has no role to play in modern democratic states, where the current narrative is to use a nation’s population complement in the work of nation building, not sidelining whole districts and tribes and regions for one tribe to dominate.