The expression or saying, “What goes around, comes around” is an informal idiom used to say that if someone treats other people badly he or she will eventually be treated badly by someone else, or the same person if the tables were to turn.
This fear of a retribution from the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) if and when they reclaim State House is causing planners and others in the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) many sleepless nights.
According to a ranking member of the current government of Sierra Leone who holds a key position in the Maada Bio led regime, the SLPP does not plan on handing power back to the APC or any opposition coalition for that matter. The party, he said, does not plan on losing the 2028 presidential elections.
“We cannot afford to lose 2028. We want to continue in power and we will do everything possible while in power to ensure victory. We know what has happened since 2018 and we know how things have turned out. We don’t want for the opposition to come to power seeking revenge for how we treated them. In other words, we don’t want to be chased while in opposition; we don’t want court cases, don’t want to lose our properties, money or other assets,” the ranking SLPP government official informed this medium.
He said the party is aware that they have done a lot of wrongs to members of the opposition and the people of Sierra Leone for which they expect vengeance as soon as they leave power. The ranking SLPP government strongman said as a party government they have passed bad laws that they have not been able to implement.
“Sadly the APC is good at implementing laws that we passed hoping to use against the opposition. We were the ones that wanted a one party state but the people refused us the mandate and gave it to Siaka Stevens who implemented it. It is like setting a trap for someone else only for you to fall victim to your own trap. We have no one to blame for this except the ones who proposed those laws. This is why we as the SLPP government are hopeful of a repeat of 2018 and 2023 presidential elections,” the government head informed this medium.
The SLPP strongman promised that the SLPP will do more in 2028 than they did in 2023 because they cannot afford to lose, adding that with or without President Julius Maada Bio the SLPP can win elections.
“We don’t need president Bio per se for us to win. Yes we know that he has been very instrumental in all our presidential election victories since 1996 and also 2018 and 2023. We have learned this magic and can execute it with or without him at the top. The only hang up now is that we have to ensure that we win no matter what. Yes, 2028 will be bloody for everyone as the opposition would be tired being in opposition,” the ranking SLPP government official confided in nightwatch.
The Sierra Leonean patriot reminded that no post war party has successfully won a third term presidency and the SLPP hopes to be the first to accomplish this feat.
Since coming to power the SLPP government has not been able to keep its promises to the people. Since the Free Quality Education and the Tomabum and Gbondapi rice or agricultural projects of the government flopped, we are also seeing the slow progression into the same fate of the Feed Salone and Human Capital Development projects of the second term regime.
Since 2018 the nation has been oscillating between all out peace and all out mayhem, the prices of goods and services continue to rise with government recently promising to raise the import duty of local importers, yet still the SLPP government official is not deterred or deflated.
Reminded that the people had voted for change in 2023, which result is still in contention although no one has really seen the disaggregated voting data per polling station, the government official smiled and said, “Our elections are not based on the delivery of campaign promises. What matters to our people is who is in power, which party, colour, region, that sort of thing. Since we started our political odyssey as a nation the APC has been in power longer. What did they accomplish that we cannot? We plan on repeating the magic of 2018 and 2023 in 2028. This is one election that we cannot afford to lose.”
According to the SLPP government stalwart no one has been able to show and prove without a doubt that president Bio didn’t win the 2023 elections, adding that if the western governments were confident that Mr. Bio hadn’t won the election they wouldn’t be doing business with him, accepting his envoys and sending their envoys to Sierra Leone.
“The SLPP will not lose the 2028 elections. With or without Julius Maada Bio we know how to win elections. Yes, we are aware of how things have turned out since 2018. I believe that if we are given a further term or two then we can really show the people what we can do as a party. Not everyone in this party has been pleased with how things have gone but we all stand to pay for what this regime has done. This is what we are hoping to avert by seriously focusing all our energy, resources, and focus on winning again in 2028,” the SLPP stalwart promised.
It must be recalled that President Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP chairman Prince Harding have both promised that the SLPP will not hand power back to the APC. No one knows how that will be possible if the APC wins the presidential election.