The tussle for flagbearer in the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has begun as the party nearly rounds up its second term, but it has none for now.
The model which the ruling party will adopt to choose a flag-bearer is not yet announced, but the questions of whether it could be by election or other means filters through the party’s rank and file.
The model could be doubtful as the party’s Chairman; Dr. Prince Harding has declared that the decision regarding who should be Sierra Leone’s next President rests with President Julius Maada Bio himself.
The decision for the presidency could be extended to the flag-bearership since no one becomes a President without first chosen as a flag-bearer by a political party.
Whether President Bio will decide as claimed by Prince Harding or the matter brought to the voters, political analysts argue, SLPP will still not have a flag-bearer as any one that emerges will be rejected by not only North-Western voters but also South-Eastern ones.
Public opinion holds that the current regime has done all what it could to make the party to fail in the next election.
Analysts have incessantly posed the question about who would be the best candidate to let SLPP retain power in 2028 since all men with clean slate work with the PAOPA regime which many see as the deadliest and most brutal since independence.
The brutality and deadly nature of the PAOPA regime is captured in a well-prepared document submitted to the international community by the opposition leader, Dr. Samura Kamara labelling the Bio regime as “an ethnic militant cabal.”
PAOPA’s rule, according to human rights agencies, is characterized by extra-judicial killings, rape, torture imposition of curfews, intimidation and creation of widespread terror tactics for which the international community is going after them.
With such a big slur on the ruling party’s image, the question bordering on who will be the unblemished SLPP politician to take the party’s flag still lingers.
This question is answered by the visible participation of Prince Harding, Alie Kabba, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Kandeh Yumkella, David Moinina Sengeh, Jacob Jusu Saffa, John Oponjo Benjamin, Dr John Tambie, Ernest Ndomahina and Mohamed Tunis among others. Observers in the media and the public hold the view that
any of these politicians would have been very good candidates for the party had they stayed away from the Bio regime.
Arguably, Mr Harding appears to be the most experienced in the SLPP but most visible politician in the Bio regime for which he could not be an ultimate choice for the people of Sierra Leone. He leads the party and also heads a government agency, and often takes hardline decision in defence of the party particularly when he insulted APC politicians as “mad men” and the international election observers as “academic dwarves.” He rained these insults on the two institutions when he suspected his darling party was going to lose the elections and blamed it on the election observers.
His warning against a transfer of power from SLPP to APC also makes Prince Harding a fiend and not a friend of Sierra Leoneans.
He was also recently roped in for murder, a factor which, according to an SLPP stalwart, Stephen Mambu made him surreptitiously and illegally chose President Bio for another term in a December convention in Bo city despite grievances held by SLPP members.
Apart from Prince Harding, the former Foreign Affairs Minister, Alie Kabba is also another hard choice to make because of his visible presence in the PAOPA regime.
In the 2018 elections, Kabba was the campaign strategist for Maada Bio although they have parted ways now owing to an unexplained reason.
He spent several years in the government and allegedly participated in most of PAOPA’s brutality that characterized their government on to date.
Kabba was also accused bearing a hand in the misappropriation of funds meant for the renovation of Sierra Leone’s Chancery in the United States.
Besides, Kabba was also said to have played an important role in the initiation and popularization of the “GREEN BOOK” which immensely contributed to the outbreak of Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war (1991-2002).
Since Kabba is not qualified, some SLPP members look up to Professor David Francis, the erudite man from Bradford University in the UK to lead them in 2028, but he too lacks a common touch with the masses. The old professor is elitist by looks.
He is also still negatively remembered for his GTT (Governance Transition Team) report, 2018 in which he highlighted issues of mistreatment of South-Easterners, tribalism and grave corruption evidenced by huge debts incurred by the past APC government which he called “a criminal racketeering enterprise” whose members, he said, should not go free. He recommended the setting up of a Judge-led Commissions of Inquiry to hold past government officials accountable with or without evidence as they were convicted prior to the probe.
Abundant evidence exists to show that the full implementation of this report has landed the country in its present state.
Ironically, the former Chief Minister who advocated the establishment of the tribunals was caught in the loot as seen in Africanist press publications.
Africanist Press, a US-based media organization, accused Prof. Francis of siphoning millions of dollars when he procured a US public relations firm to launder SLPP’s image abroad.
The former State House giant also entangled himself in procurement irregularities which he single-handedly undertook with help from his Kenema Boys. Local tabloids also accused him of accepting a US$1.5m bribe from a mining company for his own pockets. Consideration of huge reprisals from the APC may turn the SLPP members’ hearts and minds away from the old man. However, many say Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, by his looks, is a fine gentleman but working with President Bio has turned him into an enemy of the people. Sierra Leoneans saw firsthand how he was treated by Bombay Mosque Jamaat few years back when he went there for Friday prayers.
His tribe again could be another factor for an SLPP snub as South-Easterners seem no longer ready to entrust their party in the hands of another tribe owing to what they called a bitter experience they learned from late President Ahmed Tejan Kabba who transferred power to APC in November, 2007. Kabba’s move was seen as a clear sell-out of South-Easterners to North-Westerners.
What about the one-time UNIDO Director-general, Dr Kandeh Yumkella now head of a local energy and climate change agency who once fought for SLPP’s flag but failed.
He is also sure to fail this time owing to his regional background and for taking up appointment in PAOPA government. It can be safely argued that the
Bio regime is the least recognised since they rule without inauguration and congratulation from any state within the community of nations. Funding cuts, visa restriction/travel ban and other forms of punishments have been imposed on the current government owing to alleged votes stealing, and to ensure a smooth political transition from the ruling party to the main opposition, All People’s Congress. Many insinuate that the country could be sanctioned in the near future if the Bio regime continues its crackdown on the people of Sierra Leone. According to credible reports by local and international election observers, SLPP failed to make it in the June 24, 2023 polls for which a Tripartite Committee has investigated the alleged irregularities and presented its findings to government and international community for implementation.
If implemented to the letter, it would look like a big shot in the leg especially the four, out of the 80 recommendations, which hinges on establishing the rightful winner of the elections and holding accountable those who conspired to undermine the elections. According to recent reports online, the International Criminal Court, the judicial organ of the UN, closes in on 380 suspects in Sierra Leone including key APC politicians who played a role in rigging and human rights abuses. At the moment, SLPP has to work out a good homework for God to work out a miracle for them.