The return bid to power by defeated erstwhile Dr Ernest Bai Koroma earnestly has all the makings of a man who has been waiting in the wings. After all the hurly-burly of reformation youths and the results of a nine-man committee seemingly being inconclusive, the man who told the world that he would quit the leadership of the APC within two or three months by his own mensuration has not done so. Before his latest surprising announcement he has been in hibernation of sorts while the party was in virtual disarray.
“The great question which in all ages has disturbed mankind and brought on them the greatest part of those mischiefs which have ruined cities, depopulated countries and disordered the peace of the world is not whence it came but who should have it.” –JOHN LOCKE. Treatises on Government.
It is indeed “who should have it” that has been responsible for the resource-curse of Sierra Leone for over half a century of independence. We have been cursed with self serving leaders with the exception of one. Until recently we have been laden with creeping fascism closing its grips around our throats.
The late Dr Siaka P. Stevens the founder of the APC was a dictator who brought about a one-party state that almost crippled this country. He was on some occasions simplistic testifying to his poor parentage. With guile he was unchallengeable for the party leadership and the fact that he was older than most of his party members added to the regard in which he was held. The rest is history.
After two successive victories at the polls under his leadership it looks like he now feels that he has the answer to another APC victory as if the APC is doomed without him. Now it can be safely inferred that ‘after u nar u’ was with the connivance of the man himself. It will be recalled that all during the period that sycophants were publicizing the phrase all over the place, Dr Ernest Koroma refused to comment on his willingness or unwillingness to seek for a third term outside the Constitution. But the people rejected his bid. This is the same man who is coming back to the same people as a rebranded Ernest Koroma.
The cold hard fact is that the defeat of the APC during the last elections lies squarely on the shoulders of former Chairman and Leader before the elections who is now angling for the same post. Firstly his inscrutable sacking of Alhaji Sam Sumana was responsible for the loss of Kono District and the formation of his own Kono party. Secondly his bizarre choice of Samura Kamara who was not even an original contestant was another spanner in the works of the APC for the next five years.
Ernest Koroma’s return to the fray is a clear testimony that there is going to be a bitter struggle for the next flag bearership of the party. And this time round his choice under the APC selection clause may not be accepted and may lead to a spilt or defections.
Absence of occupation is not rest. A mind vacant is a mind distressed. In the first place Ernest Koroma has been suffering from the guilty conscience of his two major blunders. And he would now be thinking with hind sight. ‘Had I known.’ He was under the illusion that even if you put up a stick and dress it up with red the APC would win which is why he flung Samura Kamara at the electorate. Secondly he felt he would be manipulating him with remote control. Indeed he has not still abandoned the idea of remote control even with the off chance of APC winning the 2023 elections.
The forensic report has just compounded the chances of the APC winning the next elections though mysteries are still in the offing.
Ernest Koroma is coming back to the electorate as a two-faced politician. He has led the APC into two victories. It will not be surprising if he leads them into two failures.