Pressure is mounting on the Chairman of the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC), Minkailu Mansaray owing to an alleged collusion with the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to continue to rule till 2026 election.
Such compromise, according to grassroot supporters, amounts to undermining democracy contrary to the aspirations of many Sierra Leoneans.
Calls for the Mansaray executive to step aside have been pouring in as many doubt the Chairman’s loyalty to a party of which he is the head.
His call for a deferred election ahead of the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee has sparked big debates among APC members who call for the current executive to go.
APC bloggers who seemed to have taken over the entire communication machine for the party have joined the loud calls for Minkailu Mansaray to go as he no longer stands for the values the party stands for. Formed out of the Elections Before Independence Movement (EBIM), the party has always defended free and fair election as its key value which the executive is alleged to have trampled on.
By his announcement, the APC Chairman wanted the elections to take place in 2026 instead of 2024 which has been the people’s loud outcry to lift the shadows of tyranny and oppression out of the country’s body politic.
However, several quarters say it is difficult to see the Mansaray executive out of the party at the moment as the Chairman’s office is an elected one. Legally speaking, the APC Chairman can quit office only after the expiration of his tenure and replaced in a National Delegates Conference.
According to local and international election reports, the current government did not win the elections, but holds the forte after allegedly stealing the people’s mandate with support from top APC politicians.
Accusing fingers, all along, have been pointing at the APC Chairman and other top officials for pampering PAOPA’s grip on power although their victory was very much in doubt.
Many say the APC leadership had collected money from the ruling party for them to lie back, but the worst side of the allegation was the failure of APC’s big guns to publicly debunk the claim.
The allegation which had been filtering through APC’s rank and file no longer became secret after Mr Mansaray announced that the election would take place in 2026 and not 2028.
The APC Chairman made the statement during a press briefing, last Wednesday, held at the party’s headquarters in Freetown to keep APC members and supporters posted about the latest development in the election probe.
The APC co-chair at the Tripartite Committee, Dr Kaifala Marrah was there to do the briefing as he too faces allegations of a sell-out owing to his persistent warning against preempting the outcome of the committee. He was also there to call on APC members to trust the committee, exercise patience and self-restraint until the recommendations are made and implemented.
Many APC members converged at the office to get the facts about the election investigation, and Minkailu Mansaray was expected to send a loud, strong and compelling message to the PAOPA regime that his party would robustly resist any attempt by government to influence the committee or fail to implement its recommendations.
However, the APC leader calls for an early election, if at all, it will hold as no one knows what will be PAOPA’s next plan. If PAOPA, according to APC members, means business, the Tripartite Committee should have folded now and recommendations implemented.
If Mr Mansaray is also clearly understood, he is referring to an early or rerun election to be held between President Julius Maada Bio of SLPP and APC’s Samura Kamara although spin doctors have made several attempts to fine tune a statement which many see as an error.
The erroneous statement stunned and shocked members, supporters and sympathisers as they have always expected him to take a tough and radical stance against the Bio regime at a time the committee is about to round its work.
It is a popular view that the international community will act on when APC acts to take back the people’s votes.
However, the Chairman’s statement has poured cold water on the effort of several APC members and supporters who have always wanted to see democracy restored by holding another free, fair and credible election after the Election Investigation Committee completes its work. The move is to ascertain the actual winner of the June polls so that peace, security and prosperity will once more flourish in Sierra Leone.
However, Mr Mansaray’s statement is never a surprise to several APC members who have been monitoring the close links he maintains with members of the ruling party at the annoyance of his comrades.
Recently, Mr Mansaray offered NLe100m to President Julius Maada Bio who lost her relative few days ago prompting several criticisms from APC’s rank and file. They had wanted such money be given to the families of those whose lives had been taken away by the barrel of the gun and not one who had access to all state resources.
The criticisms lately intensified when Minkailu Mansaray and other members of the executive, except Foday Osman Yansaneh, failed to show up at the burial ceremony of Samura Kamara’s elder sister.
Many say Kamara’s burial ceremony should be a top priority to APC’s executive than any other person. It was in the midst of growing suspicion and concern that the APC Chairman made such statement that adds more fuel to the blazing fire.
APC grassroot members however kick against any move by any APC top official forging strong ties with the PAOPA regime which many see as monstrous and deadly.
Under PAOPA’s watch, Sierra Leoneans’ blood has been spilled in cold blood with no one made to answer questions in a court thus strengthening an impunity culture which opened the floodgate for other wrongs.
The regime has masterminded brutal killings, political intimidation and harassment, indiscriminate arrest and detention, suppression of free speech, association and assembly as well as creation of widespread terror tactics mainly in opposition strongholds and any attempt to befriend or pamper such a killer party will be dangerous.
Many APC members, supporters and sympathisers say Minkailu Mansaray is moving towards that direction as he nurses presidential ambition.
The APC Chairman also was recently accused of trying to pay off an old score with the APC leader, Dr Samura Kamara who was Finance Minister in the Ernest Bai Koroma regime. Sources intimate this press that Kamara, who cares much about value for money, would like to see every proposed project defended and every penny properly accounted for, would not easily disburse money to ministers to go ahead with programmes and deals that heavily costs government.
Most of APC’s top guns were also not happy with the manner in which Samura Kamara was handpicked by former President Ernest Bai in the 2012 convention in Makeni city, Northern Sierra Leone.
Such move created the platform for Kamara’s resounding victory in the 2023 National Delegates Conference also in Makeni city. Top APC members seem not comfortable with him as they see him as a technocrat and not a politician.
As a real show of what many call “bad blood” for the party’s presidential candidate and leader, APC’s executive swiftly convened a meeting where Kamara was invited and informed about the expiration of tenure as the party’s flag-bearer and presidential candidate.
According to the APC Constitution, a flag-bearer who loses an election must step down at the end of six months starting from the day of the announcement of the elections.
The clause would have affected Samura Kamara if June 24, 2023 multi-tier election had been freely and fairly conducted.
Since the election was marred with naked irregularities, and now the subject of investigation by a tripartite and expatriate body, it therefore creates room for Samura to stay put until the game is over.
As the waiting game continues, an APC politician who spoke on condition of anonymity referred to the statements of the APC Chairman as “unfortunate” adding that such will never come from the SLPP Chairman, Dr Prince Harding.
He said the SLPP Chairman would always stand by his party even in tough times when everyone though that all is lost.
Dr Harding, according to the APC politician, cares less about insulting international election observers who he refers to as “academic dwarfs.” The aim, political commentators say, is to dampen their zeal so much that they could pull out of Sierra Leone leaving behind a polarised situation.
On the other hand, according to APC members and supporters, the APC Chairman is seen always pampering members of the ruling party particularly at a time he is expected to take strong actions.