The use of invectives against the All People’s Congress (APC) flag-bearer favourite, Chief Sam Sumana is negatively impacting the party. The APC, a party that has produced three unique and quality heads of states in the country is being portrayed negatively both nationally and internationally.
The negative portrayal of the APC has been closely linked to the Adebayor, a man widely seen as man of the moment in the country’s body politic. The name Adebayor is now a household one in Sierra Leone, and the owner of the name has generated and commanded a large following.
Intermittent waves of unrest and turbulence that the country has seen quite recently traced its roots to his pronouncements. Most Sierra Leoneans have not hesitated to say Adebayor is a preeminent object of a hit-man squad owing to his potential to cause, incite and fan the flames of conflict in a post-conflict state.
It is widely reported that Adebayor is a Sierra Leone resident in the European country of Holland, a country he has sojourned for years. Adebayor has, no doubt, lately reduced the country’s important personalities to mere objects of invectives, ridicule and laughing stocks.
To many Sierra Leoneans, he is a hero saying it is the man’s own way of fighting for democracy as well as the rights, liberties and freedoms of the oppressed and the defenceless. Hardly a day passes without logging on to Adebayor to listen to the vulgar or foul languages against his victims.
A great many Sierra Leoneans loathe at the manner Adebayor has been championing the fight or the defence for democracy and people’s rights in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is well reputed for its observance of moral principles adored and cherished by other African nations. Adebayor however has trampled and ridden roughshod on Africa’s long cherished moral code of conduct which has been a source of customary behaviour, guidance and direction for society.
Former Vice President and APC flag-bearer favourite, Chief Sam Sumana has become a victim of Adebayor’s rantings and abuse tactics. Squads which have emerged within the APC have been accused to have built up close ties with Adebayor to humiliate Chief Sam. As usual, Chief Sam Sumana who is widely known to have displayed qualities of patience and restraint in the face of heated provocation is also doing the same at a time Adebayor is invisibly roaring from afar.
Chief Sam undoubtedly believes that he who controls his temper in the face of provocation surely controls situation. As a former and future leader, he believes that one of the main qualities of leadership is learning to handle a situation before it becomes a crisis. Chief Sam is tactically handling a would-be chaotic and crisis-laden situation within the APC so that the party could make gains in the near future.
Many flag-bearers have shown up, but the former Vice President, Chief Sam and Dr Samura Kamara remain two main dominant forces in the race. The choice for the flag-bearer within the APC in 2023 is either Dr Samura Kamara or Chief Sam Sumana, and the APC seems to have divided along those lines, but those divisions should not be allowed to negatively impact the party.
The divisions, by all indications, polarise the APC and makes it vulnerable to Chaos, a situation that will undermine and defeat its position of bouncing back to power.
However, some APC stalwarts have come to agree with Chief Sam that invectives do not help the party; it only succeeds in taking it backwards. An APC stalwart, name withheld, has told this press that he does not care who is chosen as flag-bearer of the party noting that all what he wants to see is victory for the APC.
He says Chief Sam and Dr Samura are bonafide members of the party and he supports whoever emerges as candidate for the party.
“If Samura wins the flag-bearer race, I am Samura; and if on the other hand, Sam Sumana wins the flag-bearer race, I am Sam Sumana,” he said.
This view held by the APC supporter is a liberal one, and it befits a liberal democracy like ours in Sierra Leone. At this point, he says, the APC must not bow to regional and tribal considerations, adding that such would just succeed in tearing the party aside.
He called on colleague APC members not to be carried away by divisive politics, but to unite and speak with one voice at the polls so that the party bounces back to power in 2023. But, other supporters and sympathisers of the party do not share the view. To them, the race is about one candidate emerging at the helm.
Regional, tribal and other sentiments still remain the factors that condition their political lives. It is undoubtedly clear that when such sentiments boomerang and become uncontrollable, politics degenerate to polemics.
Regional and tribal divide, most political commentators say, is bad for an opposition party that hopes to bounce back to power in a very short period. Other political hardliners still see Chief Sam as a man who should not take the center stage at this time considering that he has left the party to form his.
Social media platforms especially facebook is replete with images that depict the acrimony between Chief Sam Sumana and the former President.
The aim, according to liberal APC supporters, is to ensure a negative portrayal of Chief Sam that he was responsible for the defeat of the APC in the 2018 polls. But, it is safe to say that Chief Sam’s second coming to the APC seems to have overshadowed his first departure. His coming restored hope in the APC that the party would surely make impressive inroads in the Kono heartland.
Some social and political commentators have also argued that the Sam Sumana factor should not be overlooked in the country’s body politic. Kono, they argue, where APC recorded high number of votes in 2007 is a swing district, and the APC is aware of the heavy losses the party suffered in 2018 following the departure of Chief Sam.
Pieces of advice have been offered that if Chief Sam is not made a flag-bearer, he must be encouraged to stay in the party to courageously fight so that the party can make fortunes again.
As the party seems engulfed over the flag-bearer race, those outside the APC have called on party stalwarts to ensure that unity prevails within the party. They hope that with unity, victory for the party is assured, and it would come; come what may.
Several interviews and investigations conducted by this paper have shown that top party officials have had and they still have fear in an event Chief Sam became President of Sierra Leone.
The fear, according to a credible source, lies in the utterances which most of them have made against Chief Sam on the eve of his expulsion from the party and the eventual sacking from office of the Vice President. Many party officials, at that time, accused the former Vice President to have lied about his faith, fomented violence and involved in anti-party activities.
Many within the APC thought that Chief Sam would never darken the walls of the APC again, but to their greatest amazement, the Chief is back with pump and pageantry to ensure that the APC is back again at the helm of state power.
Before President Koroma became President in 2007, the APC has been out of power since 1992 following a coup d’état staged by soldiers of the then Sierra Leone Army who quickly organised themselves into the National Provisional Ruling Council.
The APC spent 15 years before it came back to power with former President Koroma as Head of State. An APC veteran has told this press that former President was not alone in the fight to bring back the APC to power.
Several personalities play a key role with Chief Sam Sumana as one of the dominant personalities. He is a man who was said to have come, seen and conquered the situation, and made a difference. That difference is seen in the good roads network the country has seen, Free Health Care Policy, reliable electricity and other achievements that can be ascribed to the party.
Chief Sam could take partial credit for the achievements recorded by the APC in the state of Sierra Leone. Those political achievements largely endeared the APC to the people of Sierra Leone so much that people never thought of seeing the back of APC from power.
An experienced APC politician (name withheld) has also told this press that the acrimony within the APC started few months back when the National Advisory Council (NAC), the highest decision-making body of the party decided to endorse Chief Sam unconditionally.
The unconditional endorsement the Chief within the APC fold came after the former Vice President reconciled with the former President in a colorful and symbolic manner in the northern Headquaters of Makeni.
Following the acceptance of Chief Sam, NAC has been hailed for such a wise decision considering that the weight, respect and values the Chief would bring to the party are deciding factors for victory.
APC has taken a different dimension since Chief Sam came to the party as he had been working for peace and reconciliation throughout.
One of the issues he never let rest within the party is the conflict between APC and the breakaway group, the National Reformation Movement (NRM). Since his return, the APC-NRM conflict is being settled for the better, and in the interest of the APC.
Signs are crystal clear that the conflict between the two entities is coming to an end, and it is half-way through. Considering the strides taken by the flag-bearer favourite, he has won the love and admiration of many APC stalwarts and grassroot supporters.
One of Chief Sam’s greatest admirers is the erstwhile Presidential Spokesman, Abdulai Bayraytay. Mr Bayraytay, an eminent and distinguished academic at the University of Sierra Leone formed part of the Public Relations and Communication machine of the APC during the Presidency of former President Koroma.
The Former University lecturer expressed love and admiration for Chief Sam when he got the news that Chief Sam has been officially called back home. Mr Bayraytay referred to Chief Sam as a fine gentleman that is willing to work in the interest of the party, and he called on APC stalwarts and supporters to throw their weight behind the Chief so that APC can make a massive second coming.
As he made the rally call, Mr Bayraytay assured APC and Sierra Leoneans that he would soon come back home to help in the campaign. By his statements, Bayraytay reposes confidence in Chief Sam Sumana, and promised to throw his weight behind him should he emerge as flag-bearer.
He says he has nothing personal against him, from the time he was made Vice President on to the time of his removal from the party and the Office of the Vice President. The general message for the APC is simple, loud, clear, and that message is that of unity, love, tolerance and utmost cooperation.
The people of Sierra Leone seem ready and very much determined to effect a change of governance in Sierra Leone through the polls. The most suitable replacement for now is the APC, but that can only be possible in a united and cohesive APC. If APC fails to unite, he says, they will have to wait for another term of five years.
The focus must not be at the region or tribe of an individual, but the ascension of APC to power so that the mistakes of the past could be rectified.