Protests and riots are signs of an organization whose head is losing control. Leader of the ruling SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) does not seem assert control of a party that is swiftly descending to thuggery and incivility. Few days ago, SLPP youths staged a big protest at party headquarters calling for immediate dissolution of the old executive.
Residents close to the party headquarters were placed in fear.
The consequences of rioting often touch them. SLPP youths say the life of Prince Harding’s executive has come to an end. The chairman must now organize elections for a new body to take over running of the party’s affairs.
The protest was staged by SLPP youths in front of the party building at a time an executive meeting was on-going. The meeting, according to reliable sources, was to extend the mandate of the current executive to December, 2021.
It is clear that election for a new executive will be held only after regional elections for will have been conducted.
But SLPP youths say: “No more extension, the whole executive must go.” Others carried placards bearing the inscription: ‘NEW CHAIRMAN, NEW EXECUTIVE MEMBERS.’
“We are tired; we need a new executive, and that is our position,” some of them cried out. Others call for an interim body before they will countenance moves for extension of time.
“If you want to extend the time, Let there be an interim body to run the party’s affairs temporally,” one of them suggested. For her, Prince should not take SLPP to elections.
As usual, police were called in to restore order. One of the rioters was arrested on the scene while others escaped. Police sources admitted that teargas was fired to neutralize the rioters. It is clear that the current Chairman still eyes the chairmanship.
Prince Harding’s main rival, Batilo Songa is also equally ambitious of the post. Credible SLPP sources have intimated this press that the latter capitalizes on President Bio’s back-up. Dr Prince Harding who was on the PAOPA mainstream seems to have been relegated to the margins.
He is a man whose touch with the masses is not in question.
However he appears to have fallen out of favour with President Bio. Dr Harding’s recent demotion tells the story. Prior to SLPP’s constitutional manipulation, Chairman and Leader was the highest authority in the party.
According to the current organogram, the chairman is now third in command. His powers stop at administrative matters only. The leader who is President Julius Maada Bio is now the party’s number-one in the party hierarchy.
Deputy Leader, Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh is second. President Bio’s tactical moves in the SLPP smear his image.
In his initial stage of state administration, President Bio was known to have promised that he would not tolerate party officials to hold public offices in his government. It was owing to this promise that Dr Prince Harding was deliberately denied a ministerial seat in the Bio administration.
Dr Harding was Chairman of NATCOM (National Telecommunications Commission) and later Chairman of NCP (National Commission for Privatization). The maxim was that Prince Harding was SLPP Chairman, then highest post in the party, and therefore illegible for any ministerial appointment.
Current Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Lahai Lawrence Leema was also nearly denied public office appointment because he was SLPP Publicity Secretary.
What is obtaining in the SLPP reflects the political situation in the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC). APC supporters are constantly calling on the executive to go for a new one to come in. The only difference lies in the methods employed by supporters of the two parties to make their voices heard.
APC members choose legal redress while SLPP embarks on protests. President Bio does not seem to be in the mould of former President Ernest Bai Koroma. One hardly saw protests in APC offices or headquarters during President Koroma’s tenure. Former President Koroma was and still in firm control of APC.
SLPP is a party that has been at each other’s throat among themselves from the days of its opposition to its present time it is in governance. Recent protests weightier in scale than these current ones were seen at the party headquarters on Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown.
Order from higher authorities for youths to quit party offices was seen as a big disappointment.
The youths who thought they had fought for the party with nowhere to go resisted. The resistance rendered them vulnerable to police raids and firing. Most times, they engage the police in running battles leaving a trail of destruction on the streets.
Those who even do not take active part in politics were badly affected. In the recent lower level elections, violence also sprang up between supporters of Harding and Songa leaving one person dead. An SLPP Chairman in the eastern district of Kenema and other rival groups confronted each other over custodianship and distribution of party membership cards.
The violence that erupted at SLPP office spilled over to the township placing security in Kenema under threat. SLPP office in Kenema was sealed off for days by police to ensure sanity there. In a related development, the outcome of most of regional elections have been challenged owing to the violence factor.
Some contenders have cried foul, and rancour continues.
Conflicts could also not be ruled out in the remaining elections. An SLPP veteran politician who spoke anonymously traced the Genesis of violence in the party in a period between 2016 and 2017. He said this period was the most turbulent and shameful in years of the party’ s existence.
Violence, he went on, emanated from machination of the party’s constitution. President Bio who was SLPP flag-bearer in 2012 was supposed to be an ex-officio member after he lost the election to former President Koroma.
Prior to its recent amendment, SLPP Constitution says a flag-bearer who runs once and lost becomes an ex-officio. By virtue of an ex-officio member, the defeated flag-bearer should no longer be active in the party.
Unlike President Bio, it was under that clause that Solomon Ekuma became an ex-officio member. Grassroot supporters did not like President Bio to be ex-officio hence the PAOPA ideology.
Despite several angles one may come from in understanding PAOPA, it is about the rule by force and at all cost regardless of consequences. With such ideology violence erupted and continues to date rendering the party rudderless.