By Felix Khonte
There is an entertainment group within the “Media Bloggers” of the opposition All Peoples Congress Party that is commonly called the “All Peoples Comedians.” Their motto is “NOTO PAN BAD” which simply implies that, “it is not for any bad intention.” Their comical ways of transmitting messages to the general public has brought them to the spot light of many admirers across the country. They could be spotted at every activity the Electoral Justice Fighters undertake in the four corners of this nation to try and educate the rural populace about the aims and objectives of the electoral justice movement.
The group leaders, commonly called King Kondos, in conjunction with his counterpart Vonjama, are very vocal at the political ramblings that are tearing the All Peoples Congress party into pieces. Their messages of truth and loyalty to their party and country, transmitted in the form of comedy, to the devastated and shortsighted executive and leadership of the party; sounds of no value to the rogues that have decided to throw their weight behind the ruling party at the detriment of their supporters, and by extension the country.
Their messages of ignorance to the executive, that could lead to the arrogance of the leadership; and then finally lead to the destruction of their political party and their careers in politics, as articulated by the semi-literate, but very resilient and forward thinking young men to the rogue leadership of the APC, has become a talking point across the political divide of our nation. The feelings of resentment that was expected to be exhibited by the leadership of the APC, has suddenly vanished in thin air, as their thirst for supporting the wrong decisions of the elections results has become more visible by the day.
The fundamental principles, aims and objectives of all democratic political parties across the globe are to contest elections and maintain power through fair, transparent and credible electoral processes. Political parties perform very important tasks in the governance of the state. They bring people together to achieve control of the government, develop policies that are favorable to their interests or the groups that support them. They organize and persuade voters to elect their candidates to office, either in the presidency or parliamentary seats, and work towards the development of their constituencies and the country at large for future elections.
Although very much involved in the operations of government at all levels, political parties are not the government itself. The basic purposes of political parties are to nominate candidates for public offices and get as many of them as possible. Once elected, these officials try to achieve the goals and objectives of their party through legislation and program initiatives. Political parties want as many people to be involved in their party as possible; because politics is about the people and numbers.
Most members take only fairly passive roles, simply to cast their votes for the party’s candidate at election time. Others become more active and ambitious, and may decide to work as officials in the administration of the party. These classes of people are referred to as the executive members, who are voted for during the National Delegates Conferences of their party. They are responsible for the running of the affairs of the party, and to see that the party gathers massive support to strengthen their support base in their ambitions of taking up governance.
Rather unfortunately, this criterion has been on the negative side of the current executive of the opposition All Peoples Congress, including their elected Parliamentarians, Mayors, Chairpersons, and Councilors as they have all decided to speak in “uniformity against negativity.” Because of certain circumstances that have obliged them to limit their allegiance to their party, they have got trapped up in dangerous undertakings of irrational consequences. They even tend to dismiss other people’s positive ideas and suggestions for their candid consideration towards the progress of their party and the nation.
In this present world that is full of treachery and deceitfulness, the tragic fall of honest people from grace to grass is epitomized by the bad examples they had been introduced into; by the front runners within their ranks. There could be found people who had developed antagonistic tendencies of crude arrogance, with their selfish egos of diabolical consequences to capture the hearts of innocent people. In trying to build their empire of greed and selfishness, they employ their chameleon tactics to persuade very decent people to join them in their suicidal crusade of destruction.
THE ENTRY OF ERNEST INTO THE APC: The coming of former president Ernest Bai Koroma to the All Peoples Congress party has of late been interpreted as more of a curse than a blessing! This bad omen of mistrust and abject mischief was antagonistically foreseen by the late two erudite lawyers, in the persons of Serry Kamal and Edward Turay, all of blessed memory. Surprisingly, the front runners of this diabolical plan of destruction of the APC, were the two most senior manipulators with jihadist antics in the history of the All Peoples Congress, namely, Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray and Alhaji Osman Foday Yansanneh.
THE REVELATIONS OF SERRY KAMAL ABOUT ERNEST: “Ernest is not reliable, he has a character of self-centered arrogance; and he is only concerned about where he could always be seen to be at the helm of affairs. I know Ernest to my finger-tips as we all attended the Magburaka Boy’s School. He will kill the APC party after his term comes to an end!” These were the exact words of warning from the late front runners of the flag-bearer- ship of the All Peoples Congress, Hon. Serry Kamal and Hon. Eddie Turay.
The trusted members of the party took the matter to court in order to sanction the eligibility of Ernest Koroma’s sudden emergence for the flag-bearer race of the APC. The matter dragged for months at the high court. With Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray as chairman of the east district, Freetown, and Alhaji Osman Foday Yansanneh as Secretary General, they used their powers of the party to prevail on the plaintiffs for the matter to be settled on gentle man’s agreement. The matter was withdrawn from the high court, and later at the Political Parties Registration Commission.
This decision gave the green light for Ernest to be nominated as the front runner of the party in the 2002 elections, against Alhaji Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, SLPP. He lost to the incumbent president Tejan Kabbah, who was vying for his second term after the end of the war.
In 2007, Ernest Koroma, together with Alhaji Sam Sumana as his running mate, contested against Solomon Berewa of the SLPP and they won the presidential run-off elections with flying colors. Mid way towards his second term in 2015, Ernest became the first ruler in the history of democracies to remove his vice-president in office under cooked up allegations, manufactured; and implemented by the secretary general of the party, Alhaji Osman Foday Yansanneh.
THE DEVILISH MANIPULATIONS OF ALHAJI OSMAN FODAY YANSANNEH: A shrewd manipulator of unmerited characteristic and egoistic disposition that could damage the prospects of people he beholds with grief! The man who claims to be amongst the founding members of the All Peoples Congress, and again labels himself as the one and only encyclopedia of the party; and also knows everything about the membership of the APC, yet cannot try to unite the party, but to divide it in pieces! This sly Alhaji, with deep rooted animosity of greed and selfishness, is a dangerous vampire in the history of the APC!
AND WHAT WERE THE ALLEGATIONS LEVIED AGAINST SAM SUMANA? He was accused of holding a false degree, and that he had falsified his title of Alhaji before his pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Mecca. Foreseeing the dangers surrounding his life, he sought refuge at the American Embassy close to his residence. That action finally nailed him that he had abandoned his position as vice-president; and was therefore hurriedly and unconstitutionally replaced by Victor Bockarie Foh!
THE FALLOUT OF ERNEST KOROMA’S FATHER WITH THE APC: In depth investigations into the circumstances surrounding the clandestine activities of Ernest Koroma against the APC reveal that: “His father was not in the good books of the founding father of the party, the late Siaka Probyn Stevens.” He was suspected of doing things against the wishes of Siaka Stevens, and by extension; the APC, as he was alleged of being a strong member of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). For that reason, he was relieved from the position he held, and he therefore continued his allegiance with the SLPP in Bombali District.
ERNEST KOROMA’S TRUE CHARACTER EXPOSED: As William Shakespeare wrote in his book, Julius Caesar that: “Coming events cast their shadows before them.” Indeed, at the end of his second term as president of Sierra Leone, Ernest surreptitiously and routinely developed the clandestine mischief of unprecedented vendetta against the party that made him what he is today! He became the champion of everything about the All People Congress. If not Ernest; nobody else can do anything without his blessings. He made himself to be the focal person to nominate candidates of his choice, at the various offices within the party, before the ‘promulgation of the selection clause of the party.’
To pay back his trusted lieutenants that introduced him to the All People’s Congress in 2000, he became very instrumental at the 2022 convention in Makeni, to choose the two Alhajis of discreet back grounds, to become the Chairman and deputy chairman of the APC. He then set the stage of insincerity, mistrust, and secret divisions of negative consequences to take firm grip within the ranks of party.
Ernest Koroma’s choice of Dr. Samura Kamara in 2017, for the flagbearer of the opposition All People’s Congress was a well calculated plan; to begin his murderous machinations of mischief and deceitfulness against the All Peoples Congress. It was true and on record that Dr. Samura Kamara had actually won those presidential elections of 2018, but because of his perceived tendencies to kill the party, he turned over the victory to Julius Maada Bio.
A man that his predecessor; former President Alhaji Ahmed Tejan Kabbah had warned him, never to encourage Bio to run for the highest office of the land. After the run-off elections, he discretely told his supporters that he was under pressure from the international community that they wanted a “regime change.” He apologized to the party and promised that he would make sure he brings the APC back to governance in 2023.
THE AFTERMATH: That was the beginning of the bad blood that Ernest created amongst a good number of supporters of the party. Additionally, in one of his audio messages he broadcast on social media, he openly stated that Dr. Samura Kamara was the least candidate that he had in mind to choose from the lot, simply implies that Ernest had never wanted Dr. Samura Kamara to win the presidential elections.
ERNEST KOROMA’S SILENCE: The recriminations started, and continued with renewed vigor of exuberant ramifications, created by the man that ruled the nation for two consecutive terms. His penchant dislike for the party that made him what he is today could be felt by the way he encouraged president Bio to commit gross human rights abuses, rampant corruption and spate of killings across the country, especially in the North-West. There was not a single line of press release from the former president condemning the actions of Bio.
THE DAY-LIGHT ROBBERY: The June 24th 2023 events were no elections at all, as they symbolized the greatest day light robbery that the world has never witnessed in this millennium. From the procurement of voting materials, right down to the announcements of results was just a complete mess up. The elections management body that are paid from the consolidated revenue fund, to perform their duties judiciously and without bias, boldly decided otherwise, by betraying the people’s mandate, and declared the incumbent president Bio; the winner, under heavy security presence, especially around the vicinity of the opposition party offices on Old Railway Line, Brookfields, and other strategic areas across the city.
THE POSITION OF THE APC NAC AND THE LEADERSHIP: Fast forward, the Opposition APC was not satisfied with the pronounced results. They summoned their National Advisory Committee (NAC), together with executive and flag-bearer, where they all agreed that they will not accept the result, and that they will not go to court because of two reasons. The principal one was that, they cannot go to court when there was no evidence to back up their petition, because the Electoral Commission had not published the results in the government gazette or the website. Again, looking at the court system in our present day Sierra Leone, they will never get justice in those institutions because they have all been accused of state capture.
THE BUILD UP TO INCONSISTENCIES: There and thence, the reverberations started to build up in the camp of the opposition All People’s Congress. The leadership summoned a press conference that was rudely disrupted by sporadic gun fire and led to the death of two people on two occasions, on the 26th and 27th June 2023. The secretary general made it categorically clear that they will not accept the result, and that, according to the 70.2 Result Reconciliation Forms (RRFs) in their possession, they had a commanding lead of 57.15 percent of the valid votes that gave them the presidential victory.
THE INTERVENTION OF OUR DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS: They called on their representatives not to take part in the governance of the state. This stalemate lasted for three months. With the wisdom of the flag-bearer, and with the blessings of our development partners, the COMMON WEALTH, the EU,UN AU and ECOWAS, a dialogue was organized that gave birth to the “Government of National Unity,” followed by the setting up of the “Tripartite Agreements.”
THE STALEMATE WITHIN THE CAMP OF THE OPPOSITION: “Sometimes in our life’s journey, we can never foresee the ultimate consequences of our actions, be they positive or negative!” This is the current fate of negativity that has caught up with the APC executive; and their representatives in the various offices across the country. They cannot speak in unison for the things that matter for the progress of their party and country. “They have lost direction in their political careers, and now swimming in their deep wilderness of traumatic and megalomaniac depression with consequences of total destruction!”
THE SYNDICATE: “The APC and SLPP are not opposing parties; they are twin malignancies feeding on the corpses of this nation’s potential. While Sierra Leone brims with riches, these criminal syndicates have perfected an economy of graft and tribalism, leaving the people with nothing but dust and despair. Their shared legacy is not one of governance, but of a calculated, generational theft. A conscious decision they have employed to starve the people for their own gluttonous feast. They are a disgrace, a plague upon the land, and their only true talent is a unified, devastating incompetence that has broken the back of a proud nation. They have not merely failed us; they have plundered the very soul of Sierra Leone!”
THE SELL-OUTS EXPOSED: “The friend of a thief is a thief.” They accuse the flagbearer, Dr. Samura Kamara that he had gone to see president Bio; therefore, he has sold their victory. If it were so, why can’t the NAC and the executive go by the party constitution for anyone caught in anti-party activity? “Put him aside, and fight for your victory!” Instead, what we started to hear from all their different conversations were dubious stories of inconsistencies; with deceitful undertones of great betrayals of the highest degree. “It is done and dusted,” were the words of Sidi Yayah Tunis, the controversial Public Relations Officer of the party.
MORE REVELLATIONS: The secretary general, who openly told the world that they will not accept the result as announced; because they won the presidential election, has rendered himself a “victim of severe personality disorder!” In one of their engagements, he openly told a handful of their supporters that “there was no need to cry over spilt milk.” They should be gearing up for 2028 as the 2023 election result was already done and dusted!
FURTHER REVELLATIONS: For his part, the chairman of the party, Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray, who is presently on sick bed; uttered similar statements during the familiarization visit of the moral guarantors at their party headquarters. When asked about how far they have met with the government about the implementations of the agreement, he simply told the delegation that: “We have put to rest the issues of these elections and we are now preparing for 2028.”
FURTHER MISCHIEFS: The deputy chairman, Alhaji Osman Foday Yansanneh, who told a cross section of APC supporters in the United Kingdom that; they cannot be talking of 2028, when the elections of 2023 are not verified which was on their favor. In another bombshell, on his return from the United Kingdom, he openly confessed that he received some money from his colleagues in the executive, but he did not know the source that money came from.
COMBINED MISCHIEFS: The leader of the All People’s Congress in parliament, Hon. Abdul Kargbo has been silenced by the chief minister, Dr. Moinina Sengeh that, “you cannot eat your cake and have it.” Since then, he has remained silent. The deputy PRO of the APC, Pope Kamara, resorted to violence after suffering from a defeat on a debate with one civil society activist; Thomas Barbadi. Hon AKK appeared to be a nuisance of himself on SLIK TV on Sunday, when Alhaji Mohamed Warisay was trying to put the matter of the Electoral Justice to the moderators and listeners, he resorted to laughing on the background making himself a clown.
THE INDISCRIMINATE KILLINGS: The spate of indiscriminate killings of citizens across the country by this government has not been taken seriously by the opposition. Since 2018, several people have met their deaths at the brute hands of state security personnel parading as loyalists to the government, and not the citizens. The killings at Rosinth Village at mile 91, Thonko Limba at a bye-election, Makeni City for a stand-by generator, Lunsar and Tombo. August 10 2022 and beyond, when one popular blogger, Evangelist Samson was brutally killed in Makeni City on the 14th August.
THE SAD CHAPTER: The saddest of all these killings was the Pademba Road massacre on the 29th April 2020, when state security apparatus entered the maximum prisons and carried out the onslaught. After the operation on that fateful day, the former leader of the SLPP Women’s Wing, Fatmata Sawaneh was on social media, narrating how they carried out the operation with top ranking party stalwarts, including Lahai Lawrence Leema, the former deputy minister of internal affairs.
THE FATE OF THE 318 UNACCOUNTED FOR SUPPORTERS OF THE PARTY: There is something deep inside these people that they are not committed to bring to the people of Sierra Leone. They submitted a list of their supporters that are in ‘supposed’ custody of the government. According to the agreements for peace and national reconciliation, these people should have been released by now; as they are deemed to be held under politically related cases. This executive has never questioned the government about their fate, or to try and secure their release as outlined in the agreements.
THE KUSH EPIDEMIC: This is another life touching issue that any serious opposition should have held this government to account. Several of our youths have lost their lives because of this menace of a substance called Kush. Some are moving around the country with sores, and swollen limbs and legs, with no future, except to roam about the streets asking for pittances to make their living. Many of them are in their hide outs at the ghettos, in miserable conditions, waiting for their time to give up the soul! The situation became so alarming that the Freetown City Council had to issue out a press release about the number of corpses they remove daily across the city.
THE RESURFACING OF THE SAM SUMANA: They are on their dirty tricks again trying to dampen the ambitions of a fine gentle man with a large following in the eastern province. He is a force to reckon with when the history of our nation is to be written, for his humility and dedication to the cause of the All Peoples Congress, and the nation as a whole. As the party itself is in deep self-created wounds of conflicts, the Sam Sumana saga could be another fraction that the embattled acting chairman cannot simply cast aside, as he has a penchant dislike for him; and that could possibly add to his reputational damage!
THE APC FLAGBEARER CACOPHONY: The All People’s Congress, once a party of oneness and comradeship in structure has today become a bunch of desperate, shortsighted and backward thinking evil manipulators that have no good intentions to convey to the grassroots of the party. Their loyalty and trust to the former president has dented their political careers as he is no longer a significant entity in this nation’s political arrangements. Their gross misplacement of priorities of not hitting hard on the Chief Electoral Commissioner to release the disaggregated data for the June 24th 2023 elections has damaged their chances of facing the grassroots. That action should have been a stepping stone for their chances to face the electorates, instead of talking about the unforeseen elections of 2028.
THE END OF THE GAME: Today, there is no opposition in Sierra Leone. The ruling party has captured the entire leadership of the APC, except Dr. Samura Kamara, who they accuse of having sold their victory, but still stands tall at the throat of president Bio for the people’s mandate. The APC executive and their so called surrogates are now doing the duties of the SLPP PRO’s, as they are heard all over the place defending the bad governance of the Bio administration. For an opposition party that is supporting a government that has no legitimate result after elections; is terrifying and unbelievable, and is like a riddle wrapped up in mysteries of traumatic enigmas!
BY THEIR COMPLICIT AND TREACHEROUS ACTIVITIES AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THIS GREAT NATION CALLED SIERRA LEONE, THEY HAVE SQUARELLY BEEN REFERRED TO AS: “THE ALL PEOPLE’S COMEDIANS” OF THE ALL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS! Please pardon me comrades of ‘Noto Pan Bad Fame’ for making reference to your good works for the development of Mama Salone.
Let me end this article with this Bible Quotations: THE DECITFUL HEART: “The Heart Is More Deceitful Than Anything Else, And Incurable—Who Can Understand It? I, The Lord, Examine The Mind; I Test The Heart To Give To Each According To His Way, According To What His Actions Deserve. He Who Makes A Fortune Unjustly Is Like A Partridge That Hatches Eggs It Didn’t Lay. In The Middle Of His Life His Riches Will Abandon Him, So In The End He Will Be A Fool.” (Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 9-11).