The question with regards who President Julius Maada Bio will endorse to succeed him as president and leader of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) has all of a sudden become hot topic again. As president and party leader the question has arisen if president Bio will or should play an active role in the naming of a possible successor as his highly contested second term draws closer to an end.
As the whole country and world wait for “the cat to be let out of the bag,” there has been widespread speculation with regards who the president will endorse, if any at all, and why he should or would. As an incumbent president on his last term it is expected that by now the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) would have had a clear-cut individual that the party should be rallying behind in preparation for the 2028 general and presidential elections.
In a normally functioning democracy, that person would have normally been vice president Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh. But with our local politics so tribal and toxic, the vice president is not expected to carry the mantle after the president. As President and Commander-In-Chief the president, whether he likes it or not, has to be biased and decide on a successor, unless he plans on going a third term after some constitutional posturing. There is therefore no possibility that the president will not interfere in the SLPP flagbearer race.
At the 2018 Old Bo Boys Association (OBBA) gathering the president is on record saying that he will not hand power over to the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC), which comment led many to speculate that he would either go for an unprecedented third post war term as head of state or hand power over to another SLPP partisan. However, despite making this statement that was also repeated by former SLPP chairman Prince Harding, the SLPP does not have a clear-cut individual or partisan to officially come out to contest for the SLPP flag with the blessings of the president and other important partisans.
According to sources in the SLPP executive, president Bio out of existential necessity will be active in the decision on who succeeds him after 2028. But the question becomes, who will the president choose and why?
“Who will the next SLPP leader or flagbearer be, no one is really quite sure. But in terms of the influence and weight an endorsement from the incumbent president would be for the president’s successor, the president will be in the driver’s seat on who will succeed him, if any at all. Obviously the president is not taking the SLPP into 2028 to lose; no party, ruling or opposition goes into an election to lose, especially if you are the incumbent party or leader. President Bio and members of this administration have interests to protect. Therefore, in the words or suggestion of the president himself, the SLPP will need someone who is marketable and affable or liked across the country. The president and party would do well if they should choose or endorse someone from the North. It would be costly for the SLPP if the party focuses on the Southeast. But the question becomes: is the SLPP considering or even looking for a strong flagbearer candidate from the North or East? We have already heard and seen people like IB Kargbo of the APC and the disgraced cocaine ambassador Alimamy Bangura endorsing the vice president. While Juldeh should be the one expected to take over the leadership of the party as its flagbearer, we don’t expect him to make the cut. The vice president has too much militating against him succeeding president Bio. Meanwhile, president Bio and his advisers all have so many issues they might or will have to give an account for should there be another regime at State House for the president not to be involved in who succeeds him. The field is so far empty since president Bio ordered that all flagbearer aspirant activities stop post-haste that we do not have the calibre people making their intentions known. If there was anyone, we would have heard from the president by now,” a ranking SLPP stalwart informed nightwatch.
The SLPP executives commented that at present both the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party and the PAOPA faction have enough people who can take over from president Bio. As a democratic institution the SLPP stalwarts say the party has no problem with its human resources.
“The trillion leones question now is: who will president Bio choose to succeed him? The president will choose someone that will protect him and his government administrators. They have properties, businesses and other interests to protect. Chances are if the APC comes to power they will demand accountability for so much going as far back as the commissions of inquiry, the civilians that have died under the hand of people in this Maada Bio regime, the Auditor General’s Reports and the issues that affected the ASSL, the cocaine affair, the outcome of the 2023 presidential election, the laws that they passed, the properties the Maada Bios have acquired in The Gambia and so much more. Don’t be surprised that the president will have the most influence and impact on who succeeds him. The question now becomes, who in the SLPP will be able to treat the SLPP and APC as Bio has done? So far we don’t see anyone that is showing signs that they are as desperate as president Bio was as an opposition flagbearer when he laid it all out there for President Ernest Bai Koroma to notice him and take him very serious,” asked the SLPP executive members.
Meanwhile, the long expected answer to the long awaited question with regards who president Julius Maada Bio will endorse in the SLPP or PAOPA faction has been given: president Bio will have the most say on who will succeed him as SLPP flagbearer; he will be choosing someone who is marketable and liked across the country; and that he will be choosing someone who will protect him from being held accountable for his and the stewardship of those he appointed to run the government of Sierra Leone.
“It is either that, or the president goes for a third attempt as president of Sierra Leone!” the SLPP executives warned. Lonta!