By Angelica Adama Mansaray
In an effort to save democracy and restore sanity to our electoral processes grassroots members and supporters of the APC have said they don’t and will not accept president Bio as president as they had voted for a new leadership at State House on June 24, 2023.
Speaking to nightwatch newspaper over the weekend grassroots supporters of the APC and others have said if the APC executive either openly or secretly accepts Bio as president, ‘then the APC grassroots together with likeminded people consider it unfortunate’, adding that they are sticking with Dr Samura Kamara to not only safeguard democracy but to also save the country by restoring the 2023 votes to the presidential candidate of their choosing.
They said they decided to vote against president Bio because the incumbent failed to fulfil his manifesto promises and for the loss of lives across the country of protesting civilians while trying to exercise their right to free speech and peaceful protest aimed at exposing how the people truly feel about Bio’s performance.
‘We the grassroots APC supporters and in solidarity with grassroots Sierra Leoneans don’t see eye to eye with the APC executive even if they side with the ruling party government by endorsing and accepting Bio’s presidential election victory. Since 2018 to date we have come to experience extreme levels of hardships and difficulties, being denied our freedom of speech to express our disappointments with the regime’s plans and actions as protesting citizens have been gunned down by armed state security personnel across the country. Therefore if the APC executive is planning to accept the presidency of Maada Bio we consider it unfortunate as such a decision will not be consistent with why we voted for change. The expected decision by the APC executive to endorse president Bio is not reflective of the will of the people of Sierra Leone,’ said a member of the APC grassroots that spoke to this medium.
The fight, they continued, is bigger than APC, SLPP, president Bio and Dr Samura Kamara as it is aimed at restoring democracy in the country so that never again will the people be robbed of their ballots and denied having the candidate of their choice. The grassroots of the APC is in solidarity with other Sierra Leoneans from across the country and the world that voted expecting relief from five years of economic stagnation and public sector supported and sanctioned violence, corruption, and other vices that have made it difficult to make a success of our mortally wounded economy.
It must be recalled that president Bio and his then finance minister Jacob Jusu Saffa had openly stated that no one can fix the Sierra Leone economy. Sierra Leoneans hence deserve the leadership of a head of state that can bring relief to our ailing economy by the introduction of sound plans, actions and policies, and Dr Samura Kamara is one such person as he is a doctor of economic. Therefore siding with Dr Samura Kamara during the fight for the Office of the President is the only way to get rid of the nonperforming incumbent regime and start the process of reversing the damage done to our nation and people.
‘Unfortunately despite us voting to replace Bio in June last year we were denied this hope by the announcement by the electoral commission that Dr Samura Kamara had lost the election. The chief electoral commissioner that is also the chief returning officer at the ECSL manipulated our votes in favour of his boss and head of his party government. The people that died across the country deserve to be remembered based on how we voted. The vote to replace president Bio is also to ensure that justice is delivered to the dead protesters and their loved ones. This is also why we support and side with Dr Samura Kamara in his efforts to rescue democracy and put an end to impunity,’ said another of the citizens that spoke to nightwatch.
Therefore if the elders of the APC have forgotten the hardships and sufferings of the past five years coupled with the violence perpetrated against protesting civilians and other Sierra Leoneans, if they have forgotten how they have been treated by the Maada Bio led government, if they have forgotten how the president won his second term, then the APC executive MUST consider it their duty to allow the president another term to completely dominate and capture the citizens and our public institutions.
‘By siding with and in support of Dr Samura Kamara we are hopeful of his eventual ascension to the Office of the President as head of state. This will restore hope in the voting public that their votes were respected and counted. We the grassroots supporters of the APC and Dr Samura Kamara will not accept Bio’s electoral victory, even if our executives do. We stand by Dr Samura Kamara in his fight to safeguard democracy and bring an end to state sponsored killings and other forms of violence and the introduction of plans and policies to fix our broken economy.
The rumour that the president will send his representative to meet with the APC executive aimed at the latter accepting and so endorse president Bio’s June 2023 presidential victory is rather unfortunate as the grassroots is with Dr Samura Kamara. Over the next five years we will love to see our economy fixed, see people freely expressing their views and opinions on how the state is being governed, see an end to unbridled violence by state security people against protesting civilians, see the return of peace, law and order. This is what we believe will happen under the leadership or presidency of Dr Samura Kamara,’ the grassroots assured.