It was the Lord Jesus Christ commenting on His adversary the devil that said, ‘A house divided cannot stand.’
According to sources in the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), there is a serious rift in the party that poses a threat to the party’s chances in future elections. There is widespread discontent within the party with many supporters and other partisans feeling neglected, overlooked and stepped on.
Allowed to continue, the current divisions in the ruling SLPP will leave the party so divided that it would require any future leader to perform a miracle to piece together. Going on like this, they are convinced that SLPP will not survive as they cannot stand as a united party under one ideology.
Discontentment has reached fever pitch with many SLPP stalwarts no longer feeling the need to keep quiet all in the name of presenting a unified front. Many confided in this medium that to continue keeping quiet would mean sudden death for their ambitions, and a few steps from the poorhouse.
Since the PAOPA train left the station in 2018, many SLPP stalwarts said they were displeased with how the chief executive has been hiring and firing people without any concern for how this will affect their families and their obligations to provide for the many people that look up to them. Many said they had been left in a position that in reality is affecting how well they can even take care of their own persons. Many said they put up a show of having it all in public while they suffer in silence.
Thesituation cannot be allowed to continue. There are many qualified SLPP people suffering because the president makes appointments without really consulting anyone.
We have a situation where even the president’s wife is holding key positions in this government simply because she is the president’s wife. Where in the world have you heard that a president’s wife is literally the head of customs at the nation’s main seaport?
Well, we have a situation where Mrs Maada Bio is alleged of being “in control of the Water Quay” while many people with the education and training to run the port are languishing without jobs.
“There are a lot of such anomalies in this government of Sierra Leone that beg one to differ,’ said an SLPP stalwart speaking on conditions of anonymity.
The obvious division in the party has begun manifesting itself in public with some partisans who weren’t included in Mr Bio’s highly disputed “second term win” and cabinet stepping to the plate to declare their intention to contest for the party’s flag before the next elections. Some SLPP politicians have expressed divergent views on the trending issue.
“Because of the divisions in the party, we have people who are talking about being a flagbearer while we are four years away from the five-year election cycle. These flagbearer declarations and petitions by some partisans are adding fuel to the fire or hope by many people locally and internationally that there will be another election before 2028. If there was unity in the party, we will not have people making their presidential ambitions known so far from the timing for such a process without the current party head giving them his blessings. The SLPP is in a very dark place right now with blame for this put squarely on the head of the party and government. Since 2018, the Bios have created the enabling environment for what is our present lot with his many appointments focusing on those belonging to his PAOPA / New Direction clique,’ added a highly respectable female MP belonging to the ruling SLPP.
The female MP said since 2018 Mr Bio and his wife have ruled the SLPP and nation as if they are monarchs without any respect for the rule of law as they consider themselves above the law and accountable to no one.
There has been widespread neglect of many people who believe that they are deserving of positions in the government but were either put on ice or outright sacked without mentioning of their names or explanations for why they were left in the lurch.
Alie Kabba’s name was mentioned by the SLPP stalwarts that spoke to this medium. More than anyone in the party they all felt that Alie Kabba is deserving of a key ministerial position for the kind of work he put in as campaign strategist to ensure that Mr Bio “won” the 2018 elections. But because of internal party wrangling, Kabba was literally embarrassed as he kept being demoted by his appointments, with his last being posted to Egypt as Ambassador.
Sadly, Mr Kabba, like many of the men who have so far shown interest in or made their intentions known for being the next SLPP flagbearer, was not called up for Mr Bio’s “second term cabinet.” The end result is that Alie Kabba’s name keeps popping up as potential flagbearer from Kailahun, the Eastern Region, after Bio should have been showing signs of relinquishing his positions in the party.
Meanwhile, our sources informed Nightwatch that many people in the SLPP feel overlooked by the current regime. Their contention stems from the widely held belief that instead of continuing with the men and women in the party that would question or even challenge his plans and or actions, the president threw a major curve ball by appointing many young people to his new cabinet to replace seasoned veterans.
While the young and forward looking cabinet is being touted as the party’s New Direction, those in the know however informed this press that this assumption is a smoke screen as the real reason for president Bio overlooking the technocrats of the party for what they described as “the Young and the Restless” is to send a message that he is in charge and can do as he pleases, that he was done being indebted to these men and that he had to distance himself from their alleged transgressions based on the Auditor General’s reports covering 2018 to 2022 and the many deaths that resulted from trigger-happy police officers opening fire on unarmed youths across the country.
The SLPP stalwarts that spoke to Nightwatch said the major reason for the divisions in the party has to do with people being stepped on, their positions or rank, their works done in the interest of the party set aside by the bulldozing Bios in their rush to consolidate power in the hands of the president.
“The president and his wife stepped on a lot of toes to get to this point we are at in the SLPP. If we lose any elections going forward, it will be because of how people in the party and country feel about the Bios. Never in the history of the party are people so opposed to a president as we are with president Bio. Since he took over, many people feel like their stocks have taken a nosedive as they no longer enjoy the clout their names used to evoke. Many people have been forced into self-imposed exile within the party. We don’t get to hear of any other name in the party except the Bios and in the main whatever we hear about them either brings the party or government’s name, image and reputation into disrepute or makes the entire party to look like we are part of the PAOPA ideology. The real SLPP is not a forceful party; we are actually into debating an issue to get the best out of it instead of forcing the issue on the people. Since 2018, we have seen how this PAOPA way of doing things have left us: it has left us divided as a party and a nation. There is always a call for peace and national cohesion since 2018 because PAOPA is against sensible ways of resolving things in the interest of the society. It’s either the PAOPA way or the highway,” contributed a new Member of Parliament belonging to the ruling SLPP.
Our sources closed by postulating that cleaning up the SLPP and the other rifts that have been created by the Maada Bio led government and party will take more than saying sorry or giving people their due, it will take town hall meetings across the country to see the depth of how the hardships and sufferings that were created by the party government these past six years have affected people and to see how they can be addressed.
“Nothing short of a national soul searching would do. The corruption, the waste of public funds, the lawlessness, the violence, the unbridled utterances by the President and his wife, the lack of respect for the rule of law and the sacred constitution: the national and the party’s constitutions, the unnecessary hiring and firing of people desperate for any government job, including the rifts in the party, would require a national soul searching. The Bios instead of taking the country forward have succeeded in taking us back. Going forward would take all the political parties working together in the interest of the nation. Our collective experience with the presidency of Julius Maada Bio has been a gross disappointment. After all the promises made to change our national narrative what we got was far from expectation,’ the SLPP stalwart that spoke on condition of anonymity concluded.