As President Julius Maada Bio slowly rides into the sun set, succession disputes may wreck the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). Others say the party may tear apart if political ambitions are not controlled.
The race is too as several top-notch SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) politicians have showed up for the party leadership and state governance. It is a never-ending row between old and young politicians, and may destroy the party’s survival in the political landscape.
The PAOPA camp which consists of young revolutionaries within SLPP are currently in governance although most have fallen out with President Bio.
The likes of Alie Kabba, Jacob Jusu Saffa, Lahai Lawrence Leema, Professor David John Francis and others were key PAOPA actors but did not end well with their master and had to take an exit.
Kabba was Foreign Affairs, Saffa was Finance Minister, Leama was Deputy Internal Affairs Minister and SLPP’s Publicity Secretary while Francis was Chief Minister and later took charge of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Current SLPP Chairman and Leader, Dr Prince Alex Harding too is reported to have nursed flag-bearer ambitions, but only time can tell as every step close to the race.
Current Chief Minister, Dr David Moinina Sengeh, according to many SLPP supporters appears to be the ultimate successor of President Bio, but he is yet to make his intensions known to the party and the country.
Most Bio’s ministers were sacked for reasons that are not properly explained to the people of Sierra Leone except for Leema whose dismissal may not be unconnected to crimes allegedly committed in August 10, 2022 protest in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown and other parts upcountry.
However, their stay out of governance does not mean end to their political existence as they currently wield considerable influence over their constituents particularly in the South-East heartlands of SLPP.
They have regrouped to come back in an apparent move to control the party. It could however be difficult for many of them as criminal cases hang over them.
For the August killings, Leema became a prime suspect after he allegedly turned down an SIC’s invitation to clear his name as he was badly implicated by several residents in Freetown where the protests were tense and bloody. To date, he is yet to answer the call.
Despite such challenges, Leema and other politicians still wield strong influence over SLPP’s young men and women especially at a time of economic hardship.
One of the former ministers, Mr Kabba, according to senior SLPP politicians, was the Chief strategist whose role immensely contributed to the party’s victory in 2018. They had a campaign team ever assembled in SLPP’s political history.
The team mobilised young men and women in Sierra Leone to throw their weight behind their leader, President Bio who was SLPP’s flag-bearer in the 2018 general elections.
He was initially made Foreign Affairs Minister following the party’s victory, but later lost the President’s favour. He was reduced to an Ambassador to Egypt where he served for a little while before he left state governance.
He was never called again even when PAOPA came back to state governance although controversies hang on the election victory.
Kabba has been a key SLPP loyalist playing significant role in the early 1990s that saw the removal of then APC (All People’s Congress) government under then President Joseph Saidu Momoh from power.
At the time the putsch was staged, APC had been in power for close to three decades, a move that angered majority of Sierra Leoneans.
However, Alie Kabba has not harvested the fruits of his labour as his good works and sacrifices for the party have not rewarded him with the fortune he wished.
Although he has been removed, the old SLPP politician saw it necessary to fight back as he believed that once he is on the driving seat this time, the political tide would be on his side.
Within SLPP, the name Jacob Jusu Saffa is a household one.
Despite few criticisms, he still maintains the capacity, to draw a large number of the party’s rank and file to his side if the platform is created.
He was one-time an SLPP Secretary-General before he became Finance Minister in the PAOPA regime which he contributed immensely to sustain in the political landscape.
However, his failure in ensuring a bread-and-butter economy as he promised years back turned him into an object of vilification as the fester in the worst economic conditions.
Saffa was a frontline political campaigner and was with President Bio when he was assuring Sierra Leoneans that no one should buy a 50kg bag of rice at Le200, 000 (two hundred thousand Leones).
This means a bag must be bought below the said price particularly when he made reference to the Le50, 000 (fifty thousand Leones) which was the normal cost in the Kabba-led administration, a period before former President Ernest Bai Koroma took over state governance.
Although Saffa has reneged on a key promise, he is still popular with top and low cadre members of the party, and he is sure to make impressive inroads in future campaigns for the party’s flag.
But, others still doubt whether he would make it as the public backlash about the failure to put food on the table still hunt him.
Facts about the political ambition of Dr Prince Alex Harding remains sketchy, but sources within the party said he was one that had been marginalised for too long and this time could be his turn to be at the helm of affairs.
Dr Harding is one of the longest-serving members of the party and has seen a lot in the political struggle.
Many Sierra Leoneans came to know him between 1996 and 2007 when he held ministerial posts in the Tejan Kabba government.
He also remained loyal to the party even when it went out of power in 2007, a period in which he started a tough political campaign for the victory of SLPP and President Bio himself.
He succeeded in his political project as Bio won the elections, but did not tap the political largesse as it was in the Kabba-led administration.
Despite his tedious effort in ensuring a Bio victory, Dr Harding held no ministerial post as he was confined within only the party enjoying little say in state governance.
Throughout Bio’s presidency, SLPP Chairman heads only the National Commission for Privatisation, a less important agency in the affairs of government.
Dr Harding also played a very important role in ensuring a second term for President Bio as shown during a National Delegates’ Conference in the Southern city of Bo in December, 2021.
Many within SLPP condemned Harding’s effort in mobilising the delegates to get Bio as presidential candidate for third time in a row.
The criticisms came mainly for the party’s senior members who are now called the OLD GUARDS.
Stephen Sahr Mambu, a core SLPP member resident in the United States is one of the tough critics of the convention which he sees illegal.
He argued fervently that the convention was not meant for the election of a flag-bearer but other officers of the party.
The hardline critic, Mr Mambu expressed his intention to run for the party’s flag in a press held at SLAJ (Sierra Leone Association of Journalists) headquarters.
Currently, Bio sits on the presidential seat for another term after the convention has been held although controversies still linger.
A debate also goes on in the party that Bio’s successor could be the current Chief Minister, Dr David Moinina Sengeh who many said had been groomed for the presidency.
In his short time in the SLPP, Sengeh rose to fame when he championed, the Free Quality Education being government’s flagship project in Bio’s first term.
As Chief Minister, Sengeh also navigated the international political environment to ease the tension between SLPP and the international community (the UN, EU, US and UK).
In his effort to reverse the funding cut, Dr Sengeh held talks with the British High Commissioner, Lisa Chesney over Sierra Leone’s economically deteriorating situation.
He also met with the EU Ambassador, Manuel Muller where he discussed critical issues relating to state governance.
Dr Sengeh was also with President Bio during a UN summit in New York, the first in Bio’s controversial second term.
In spite of his exposure, Dr Sengeh appears not ripe or destined for the post of SLPP flag-bearer as he is yet to build a broad fan base in the party that would enable him realise his political goal.
Despite challenges confronting the young academic doctor, many SLPP members say Dr Sengeh has already worn the regalia of a crowned prince as he is seen as Bio’s right-hand and trusted lieutnant.
This press also learned that the Chief Minister worked hard for Bio’s presidency in the first and second terms and there must be pay-back time.
Dr Moinina Sengeh also represented SLPP at a three-day peace deal brokered by the Commonwealth, African Union and ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) to end a post-election stalemate that nearly rocked the state.
The dialogue resulted into a communiqué that once more restored peace and stability in Sierra Leone.
According to the peace document, SLPP and APC have duties to perform to ensure that peace and security is strengthened, and Dr Sengeh can take partial credit for the relative peace and stability the country enjoys today.
Erstwhile NGC (National Grand Coalition) leader, Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella is also widely rumoured to have nursed and nurtured an ambition for SLPP’s flag and the presidency although he has not gone public.
Yumkella started his political journey in early 2017 after he retired from UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation). His aim was to take an active part Sierra Leone’s politics and ultimately occupy the country’s highest seat.
The party’s flag-bearership was a post he strongly eyed years back and doggedly went for it with many hoping that it was another Tejan Kabba in the SLPP.
Kabba was invited from the UN to head SLPP as flag-bearer and contest the 1996 elections since Sierra Leone needed peace at that time.
As a peace envoy for good years, he was the only person who many hope would bring peace to Sierra Leone. However, Dr Yumkella was not in Kabba’s mould as he met a tough contender, President Julius Maada Bio on the ground.
Clad in cloaks of unrelenting PAOPANISTS, SLPP supporters would not hesitate using violence to keep Yumkella out of the Presidential race.
Owing to sustained political thuggery, Yumkella ran away from SLPP to form NGC which he led as a flag-bearer and Presidential candidate in the 2018 polls.
The new party won four parliamentary seats with Yumkella ending up as a parliamentarian after winning a seat in one of the constituencies in his home district of Kambia.
Many expected that the NGC leader would stay as a strong third force but such hope was dashed after Yumkella crossed over to his old party, SLPP.
At the time he went back to SLPP, Yumkella dreamed of an opportunity of being Sierra Leone’s next President.
But, as head of EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), such post is not enough to transform him into a political icon that will make him move huge crowds to the polls.
Situation would have been a bit favourable if he was made at least a Chief Minister. Dr Yumkella also faces a tough backlash in Kambia district whose youth have turned their backs against him saying he fulfilled none of his promises.
A commercial motorist in Kambia, Alimamy Kamara recently told this press that Dr Yumkella had disappointed them as he practised the least of what he had been preaching since 2017.
With such reputation damage in his party and hometown, Yumkella may not be the right man at this time, but would try his luck probably with a different momentum.
Apart from Yumkella, the old Professor, David Francis also hopes of becoming the next President. He has recently returned to London where he has been lecturing for years and might come back to Sierra Leone at any time to join the race for the party’s flag.
But, many say his role in putting together one of the worst reports against the APC might hunt him. Many see him as a man of revenge and reprisals as seen in his Governance Transition Team (GTT) report of April, 2018.
It was the implementation of the GTT report, according to top SLPP politicians that relegated SLPP to the dustbin. However, Professor Francis hopes to make it in the ballot box since tribe and region matters in politics than the country. Although many Sierra Leoneans see him as a fiend, his party comrades treat him as a hero and friend.
It remains unclear whether Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh would go for the presidency but sources have intimated Nightwatch that his name would soon be on the list of potential contenders.
Others say it could not be easy for Mr Jalloh as Presidents would not like to see their Vice Presidents succeed them. It began from the days of then President Siaka Stevens who, in 1985, preferred the Army Chief, Joesph Saidu Momoh to his Vice President, Sorie Ibrahim Koroma.
It was also the same for President Tejan Kabba who did not allow his Vice President, Solomon Ekuma Berewa to take the seat after him.
Former President Ernest Bai Koroma too trod on the same path as neither Sam Sumana nor Victor Bockarie Foh took over from him. However, will it be a different turn for Juldeh Jalloh?
No gainsaying that the thirst for power has created factions within SLPP whose differences threaten its very existence particularly at a time the party is losing grip of the country’s political situation.