It has finally come down to this. After four years at State House, green-blooded Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) supporters say there is a war going on within the party that will affect all political parties. Speaking to this medium, they say battle lines have been drawn pitting supporters of the embattled PAOPA regime of President Julius Maada Bio against hardcore SLPP supporters who say they are fighting to save their party.
As is already being reported, there are hardcore members of the SLPP here at home and in the Diaspora who promised to wage a flag bearer war against President Bio and his team for taking the SLPP down a path of no-return that would see the party relegated to the backburners if they allow President Bio another term in office. The PAOPA ship is about to sink; it is already listing and people are beginning to flee for their lives, living and reputations.
Things are really looking desperate for Bio and co. It is so bad that the PAOPA, certain of possible defeat in the upcoming presidential polls is making moves to cajole prominent people from the opposition, not in the interest of a coalition for change, but in the interest of staying in power to continue their pillaging of the state. Emboldened by their success in conning Alpha Khan of the APC who they are now using in the hopes of wrestling Port Loko from the APC, President Bio and his party chairman Dr Prince Harding openly begged Dr Kandeh K. Yumkella of the NGC to rejoin the SLPP. A desperate PAOPA, doing this a bit too late after it had showed its true colours these past four years, also made a passionate plea to Andrew Kelli to return.
But these men are not going to be easily convinced as Alpha Khan; they are not desperate for jobs and won’t allow themselves to be conned into taking anything from PAOPA to continue their agenda under the guise of the SLPP. KKY would remember how his mother was insulted at the SLPP party office when certain thugs removed her hijab from her head; closed the gates on him and spat on his face. KKY and the leader and chairman of the NGC and key members of the Consortium of Progressive Political Parties know the true intention of PAOPA’s nefarious overture. They see it as the last ditch effort, a kind of dirge of an ideology similar to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric that is on its way out.
It can be recalled that President Bio and his PAOPA came to power under the SLPP banner. After 10 years under the previous government of Sierra Leone led by President Ernest Bai Koroma, everyone in the SLPP fought tooth and nail to see the party back in power.
Then, no one really paid attention to the fact that their flag bearer was propagating another ideology other than SLPP. The difference between PAOPA and SLPP became glaringly apparent when some core SLPP supporters were rewarded with positions in government because they are part of the president’s PAOPA faction while others were sidelined and left out for just being SLPP supporters.
Now, these men and women of the SLPP say they are taking the fight to PAOPA to reclaim the soul of the SLPP.
‘After 10 years of waiting for EBK to step out of the scene, we thought that with Bio the SLPP had come to power. But what we are seeing after four years under PAOPA is that we the members of SLPP have been treated as if we are part of the opposition. We are tired of being told to wait while the party is edging close to being kicked out of power because of the very forceful and unproductive PAOPA mentality the president and his teammates are running the country.’
Today, all is not well within the ruling SLPP. There is confusion between green blooded partisans and the New Direction PAOPA resulting to internal wrangling that have seen partisans battling each other over positions for their handlers.
‘This is like a War of the Roses. I don’t think anyone will be willing to let the other have his way. With the PAOPA supporters using force and coercion to get their way, the true SLPP is a party of reasoning. We use the power of persuasion coupled with sound plans and actions to win votes. We don’t use force or go against set rules and procedures to get things done. For four years we the members of the SLPP and our fellow citizens in the official opposition have been treated worse than second class citizens of our beloved land that we love by a faction that is here on its own agenda. With the way things have been going for the past four years, when is Bio and PAOPA going to be able to turn things around for the country to benefit?’
The SLPP supporters say despite all his promises Bio has been claiming projects started by previous governments as his without having anything to show that he started for future governments of Sierra Leone to continue.
‘So, what has he done to show for the past four years? All this government can boast of is that they have succeeded in widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots and destroying whatever bridge there was between the tribes and regions.’
The ruling party supporters said it took a long time after the war for Sierra Leoneans to have some semblance of peace in the country. But the advent of PAOPA has resulted to a lot of political, tribal and regional issues that are cause for concern as the issues that led to the war are worse off today than ever before.
‘A lot of us think that with the way this government has run things, there is no way anyone can assure it of victory. Next election presents one of those crossroads situations for Sierra Leone. Either we will unite as a country for the good of the country and sack non-performing civil servants or we will either remain like this or keep getting worse as we go forward. If it’s this bad now, I don’t want to imagine what it’d be like if it gets worse than this.’
The SLPP supporters said they have languished on the streets of Freetown with promises by the president to see to their affairs ‘but after four years, what are we to expect from the PAOPAists with just a year to go?’
‘It is as if these guys only came here to accomplish their set agenda and leave the party more fragmented than it was. They came here with an agenda; all of them had squandered their wealth overseas and see Sierra Leone as their piggybank to reclaim what they had wasted. We know that Bio came back here nearly penniless and propped up by his wife and a few friends. All the money he left Sierra Leone with after his junta days is gone. PAOPA used the SLPP to finish what they weren’t able to do as a junta.’
The SLPP members said their war against PAOPA will see them considering themselves as ‘part of the opposition to unseat President Bio and his new but corrupt direction.’
‘Sierra Leoneans should know that politics has nothing to do with knowing someone. We should be as pragmatic as the Americans to unite against any public servant that is not doing his or her job. We should vote in the best interest of the country; that is, our own national self-interest; not some party, regional or tribal rhetoric that will only divide us,’ they said, citing the 2020 US presidential elections that saw Joe Biden winning the same states that Trump had won to give him the edge over Hilary Clinton in 2016.
‘So, we see that states that were Republican joined with the rest of the US and voted Democratic against their own party because they considered President Trump as unfit to continue as a two term president. President Bio and any other Sierra Leonean seeking State House are entitled to two terms. But the second term is only guaranteed if the incumbent performed to expectations. Bio has not and should be on his way out.’