1 year 11 months more to go for the 2023 Presidential and parliamentary elections. 11 months more remain for the local council elections to be held in 2022. The two elections require planning, strategy and tactics. 1 yr and 11 months is a short time for a party planning to take back the reins of state command.
Within the short time, the main opposition APC (All People’s Congress) has to plan and strategise if it is to come back to power in 2023. Planning and strategising calls for putting in place the right structures, programmes and activities to make the party a viable and effective entity.
Political strategy calls for elections at constituency, district, regional and national levels to install legitimate and efficient leadership within the party. The most critical stage in the planning process is the selection of a candidate to fly the party’s flag in 2023.
Elections for the presidential candidate in the party may prove to be most controversial in light of competing political interests and ambitions. The competition among APC flag-bearer contenders is keen. Many flag-bearer hopefuls have emerged with expression of assurances of taking the party to State House in the coming elections.
But, an APC stalwart has anonymously warned that if party members differ on several political issues, let them agree on one factor: the quality of individual that should be elected as flag-bearer of the party. Several interviews have been conducted on the controversial issue. Responses from the interview point towards a similar direction.
The responses indicate that the party’s flag-bearership must be entrusted to the hands of Chief Sam Sumana, former Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. The former Vice President has a clean slate on issues of corruption and accountability. He is the only key APC politician that is free from the White Paper, a product of the Biobele Commissions of Inquiry.
The White Paper is an embodiment of approved recommendations which government is poised to enforce to ensure that stolen money is paid back to the state purse. In a situation where persons found wanting appears have gone berserk, their personal properties both moveable and immoveable would be sold off to get back the money.
Nobody including former President Koroma would be spared in the hot chase. As long their hands are caught on the loot.
Houses, vehicles and other properties of past government officials are on the threshold of confiscation in an event they fail to pay after evidence of stealing is adduced against them.
Former President Koroma and Dr Samura Kamara still remained persons of interest. Both have appealed the findings of the Commissions of Inquiry at the Appeals Court. Should they lose the appeal, the Bio administration would enforce the White Paper.
In an event, they fail to pay back, government would come down heavily on their property to replace what they have illegally taken from the coffers. Should they pay back to save their property, subsequent corruption trials would not be ruled out.
In criminal law, a crime is a crime and any property produced upon investigation of that crime becomes an exhibit. Sierra Leone has tough laws on corruption, and the commissions of Inquiry are mere investigative bodies. Those persons of interest who pay back may not be precluded from being indicted for corruption.
Some government officials who recently lost their appeals have been referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission for full fledge criminal investigation. The former President and Dr Samura Kamara would likely face ACC in an event they lose their appeals.
In the face of the prevailing unpleasant situation for Dr Samura Kamara, the flag-bearership would hardly be entrusted to him. This question is common: how can you have a flag-bearer who wrestles with corruption offences in the courts?
It remains the most frequently asked. The people of Sierra Leone must relieve themselves from tribal and regional sentiments to have a quality candidate. Chief Sam takes pride in solid political platform with the required clout and contact to take back APC at State House.
He showed that clout during the 2018 Presidential and parliamentary elections. Chief Sam single-handedly removed eight parliamentary seats from the APC in the hotly contested elections. He is now ready to return those seats if elected flag-bearer in the APC.
The signs of the eight seats coming back to the APC are already made clear. Although Chief Sam had resigned from C4C party after his return to the old family, the APC, he is still an influential personality in the C4C.
Chief Sam’s weight and influence is made visible in parliament where most C4C members bitterly opposed the ruling SLPP on major policies and laws ready to be passed by parliament.
The C4C is part of a consortium of 13 political parties ready to unseat SLPP in 2023. Of all political parties in the consortium, C4C is second only to the APC in terms of political strength and weight. Since the inception of the three commissions, Chief Sam’s name never featured in any of the commissions. His name also did not appear in any White Paper making him one of the cleanest personalities in state governance.
The former Vice President is no stranger to the politics of Sierra Leone. He knows it well because he has been there. He, who knows it, feels it.
Chief Sam served the former President almost twice in the capacity of a Vice President. He would, most times, act as President when the substantive was away on important foreign missions. Chief Sam would always be remembered for two crucial actions he took to save Sierra Leone from destruction when former President Koroma was out of the country.
Those decisions revolved around bringing sanity to the country’s main correctional facility on Pa Demba Road in Freetown during a jail break and shutting down We YONE and UNITY radio stations to stop flammable exchanges.
The two radio stations belong to the Main opposition APC and the ruling SLPP respectively. Those decisions came between 2009 and 2010, the early days of APC government. It was a period the new government was struggling for a sound footing in the face of deeply entrenched Tejan Kabba vestiges.
Chief Sam’s actions in restoring order in the absence of the President cost nobody’s life at that time. The two decisions actually defined the real personality of the former Vice President.
Chief Sam has also exhibited patience and tolerance than any other politician in the APC. In one of his saddest moments, he remained unruffled and looked to the future with unyielding hope.
Except otherwise, but the present and the future is on his side. Owing to his political weight, youthfulness and exuberance, he is the only politician within the APC that would threaten President Bio in the polls the same manner President Bio threatened former President Koroma on the eve of the 2018 elections.
Entrusting flag-bearership in Chief Sam Sumana should not be predicated on tribe and region, but on victory for the party.
If the northern and southern regions of Sierra Leone have produced presidents, the time for a President from the east is now.
APC should not waste this golden opportunity.