On 6 March the ruling All People’s Congress party took an unprecedented step and expelled from its ranks the then Vice President, Samuel Sam-Sumana. On 9 March, Politico’s Umaru Fofana met the Secretary General of the party, Alhaji Usman Yansanneh at his house for the following interview:
Politico: Why did you expel VP Sam-Sumana?
Yansanneh: This is the result of a report by a committee set up to investigate allegations made against him of anti-party activities. Activities that border on subverting the party and making it impossible for us to realise our achievements and objectives.
Politico: Such as?
Yansanneh: Such as fomenting violence, particularly in his home of Kono where he has created a number of cells made up of groups of highly violent young men who are his dogs of war. They will attack anybody who appears not to toe the line of Sam-Sumana for President, come 2018. We've had these boys attack senior ministers. The minister of lands, Musa Tarawallie was attacked by these boys wearing Sam-Sumana's vest saying “No Sam-Sumana, No APC”. The minister of mines was also attacked. He went for a one-day visit to Kono, he had to stay there for two days. The minister of education was on an educational tour of the district, he was also attacked. We tried to get Sam-Sumana to understand that there is a method, a procedure set down for assuming the position of president. You don't create cells, you don't create camps. It is divisive.
We also believe that he has not been able to provide leadership in Kono. He is not in talking terms with the entire executive of our party. The executive of the party intended to construct a building in Kono, he went to the Paramount Chief who had given land to the APC, took the document from the Paramount Chief and said he was going to build a party office. We told him that this is a party affair, it is not a Vice Presidential affair. He refused. I, as Secretary General, called him, he never accepted. These are some of the things that we had. But we have been talking to him. Then suddenly, one of his former henchmen, now deputy minister Karamoh Kabbah in the ministry of political affairs wrote a long letter of complaint to the chairman and leader of the party that Sam-Sumana has created a situation where his name has been put into disrepute and hatred from among his Kono ethnic group. So as far he is concerned, Sam-Sumana did this, he did that in Kono to ensure that there is no peace. One, these group of thugs were created at a time when the APC was shelving away the coat and stigma of violence.
Politico: You say the Vice President has set up cells in his Kono district. If the members of these cells had been fomenting violence as you allege, why did you not let the police investigate the violence so that the law would have taken its course?
Yansanneh: Well, incidentally, he is the chairman of the Police Council and we have records of his lead thug, Adamu. Adamu has been arrested three times for violence-related activities. Then suddenly, according to the police, he would never sleep in a police cell.
Politico: Are you alluding to political control of the Sierra Leone Police?
Yansanneh: Well, essentially that. He will tell the police that, “look, nobody will remove me here, my position is entrenched in the constitution, I am the chairman of the police council and you have to listen to me”.
Politico: And the other reason you've given is that he lied that he held a masters degree from the United States.
Yansanneh: Yes, evidence came from the lady who actually pioneered his entry into our party a few days before the choice of a running mate. We wanted somebody to be put in the position of a running mate who could easily succeed Ernest Bai Koroma and in fact it was I who asked in the panel that – “do you have a degree?” He said he had a master’s degree. And it was Diana [Konomanyi] and the then Secretary General [Victor Foh] who produced a document saying he had a master’s degree. So on the basis of that, the consensus was that he be allowed to go ahead.
Politico: That was 8 years ago. Why did it take this long for you to know that he lied, if at all he lied about that?
Yansanneh: Well when Karamoh Kabbah presented his complaint, he appeared before the committee of investigation...among the witnesses he said he would like to call, are Logus Koroma present minister of transport, Diana Konomanyi the present minister of local government. And in her submission, Diana told the committee that as far as his credentials are concerned, he had no master’s degree.
Politico: After they had themselves submitted in 2007 that he held a master’s degree?
Yansanneh: That is correct. And so we said, "fine if this is the case, then you people must have been complicit in creating the impression because you wanted somebody to become running mate from your own region”. As far as we are concerned, we wanted somebody from the south-east. He had that credential, we wanted somebody educated, they brought a master’s degree, we wanted somebody who is a Muslim. We are told by the evidence of Diana that two days before, she took him to an Imam at Murray Town whom we have asked, and the Imam says yes two days before that, this man accepted the Shahada [there is no God but Allah and Mohammad is His messenger] and he became a Muslim. We have no quarrel about his becoming a Muslim on the eve of his assuming that position. What we doubt is that, why should a man born, bred a Christian, christened with Samuel Sam-Sumana suddenly change his name, not because of religious conviction, not because he believed in Islam, but because he wanted power?
Politico: And why are you realising that only now?
Yansanneh: Because it is only now that we have the evidence
Politico: And on the issue of his not having a degree, I have gone on the Metropolitan University of Minnesota website and they've got his photograph emblazoned on their website as one of their illustrious alumni.
Yansanneh: You see, an alumnus could graduate with a certificate, a diploma, probably with a certificate of participation. What he told us was that he is a master’s degree holder. That is our question.
Politico: Have you been able to prove that he doesn't have a master’s degree from that university in Minnesota?
Yansanneh: We've been able to establish that he has no master’s degree.
Politico: And the issue of his faith, being a Muslim...assuming, like you say, he became a Muslim just in the lead up to him becoming a Vice Presidential running mate, the Muslim community says he is Muslim and that all it takes for someone to be a Muslim is to say the Shahada like you say. So why has that now become an issue?
Yansanneh: Why I am saying is the motive behind becoming a Muslim at a particular time. I am a Muslim. Now, if you tell me, “Osman if you change your religion and you become a Christian, we will give you the presidency”, I will refuse it because I am a convinced Muslim. So we cannot take the leadership of this country in the hands of someone who could one day sell the country. Because if he can sell his religion and the religion of his upbringing – Christianity – he could sell Sierra Leone.
Politico: Does this not implicate the president himself, Ernest Bai Koroma, that he chose someone as his running mate without having vetted them?
Yansanneh: The president only came to know about this when the evidence was presented by Diana Konomanyi.
Politico: That was only a few months ago
Yansanneh: In fact a few weeks ago.
Politico: Isn't something wrong then with President Koroma's judgment, that he couldn't know these things all these years having chosen this man as his running mate who ended up becoming Vice President?
Yansanneh: But like I said, if the man says he has a degree, we've never been saying that you have to have a degree to become a Vice President. No! Ernest Koroma did not put that as a requirement. The requirements are in the constitution, he is a Sierra Leonean. The Islam and Christianity is for political reasons. We believe that we cannot have a Christian as president and a Christian as Vice President, that has been the tradition. So this is the position. You cannot blame or fault president Koroma for that.
Politico: Some people have referred to this as a coup. You're simply just overthrown the Vice President of Sierra Leone. Without being a member of the ruling party, his days, many believe are now numbered as Vice President.
Yansanneh: It is not a coup d’état. A party has its principles, we have our rules and regulations. If Ernest, for example, falls foul of those rules we'll show him the door. That is from our party's point of view. If the Vice President does it, we have done it. It is not a coup d’état. The Vice President can continue being Vice President but as far as the APC is concerned, he is not a member of our party any longer.
Politico: Are you saying he can continue being Vice President? Is there no intention to go to parliament to have him impeached at all?
Yansanneh: Well, the constitution is the guide. As far as the constitution is concerned, if dishonesty is discovered in your behavior as President or Vice President, that is for parliament, that is not for me, that is not for my party.
Yansanneh: So will your party move to go to parliament to have him impeached?
Yansanneh: I am the administrative head of the APC. As far as I am concerned, for the way he has conducted himself in the party which we believe is dishonest, which we believe is divisive, which we believe he has committed anti-party activities by not bringing unity within the party, we've decided to give him the sack. He is no longer a member of our party.
Politico: I ask you again finally, Ambassador Yansaneh, does your party have any intention of having Vice President Samuel Sam Sumana impeached which is the only way he can be removed?
Yansanneh: I have told you that impeachment powers are not in the hands of the APC.
Politico: But will you seek that in parliament? Your members have got the majority that they need.
Yansanneh: When we reach there, we'll cross the bridge. As far as we are concerned, anybody who does not obey the rules of our party, we kick you out. If incidentally, he you happen to be impeached so be it.
Politico: Do you not think this is a precedent that could come to hound future Vice Presidents of this country whereby if for some reason they disagree with the president of the day, the president uses his clout within the party to have them kicked out of the party and consequently they cease being Vice President of the country.
Yansanneh: Well let me tell you that the report of the committee was read to the national advisory committee, the second highest organ of the party. It is composed of 40 members. In the meeting of the 6th March, 33 members were present 7 were absent including 2 dead. So the five people gave reasons why they were unavoidably absent, either they were out of the country, like the Attorney General, and one sick man. Others were for one reason or the other, either they were engaged in other activities but the 33 people voted fully in support of the action to get him out. So Ernest did not use his clout. It was a decision. As I sit here now, it has become so popular. I'm receiving letters of congratulations from all over the country. In fact, in Kenema, one SLPP councilor was bold enough to tell me, in congratulating the APC for taking disciplinary action against a highly-placed person like the Vice President, that his party has not done that. As far as he is concerned, by Tuesday or Wednesday, he will submit a letter of application to the APC. If we accept him he will resign and join the APC. This is how good that decision has been and it is sending a lesson not only to the APC but to the SLPP that the party belongs to the people and that nobody is bigger than the party.
Politico: You say that this move had nothing to do with President Koroma, could this have happened without President Koroma's acquiescence, without probably his seal of approval?
Yansanneh: Let me tell you that in the NAC meeting that we held in November, an issue was raised that Sam-Sumana in a teleconference had abused Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma and the he had in fact said that the declaration of a State of Emergency was illegal and that President Koroma had arrested under-aged children etc. etc. When the matter was brought to President Koroma, he said “you go and handle it at the NAC level”.
In the NAC meeting, we decided that since the issue was between our two highest members we were going to take it off the agenda and that I as Secretary General, the Deputy Leader and the Vice President will meet so that we will report to the president. We called him to a meeting several times. I wrote to him the meeting was a decision of NAC, but he said he was not well. That is some three months ago. He never answered to the invitation, so president Koroma did not press. But this one affects the people. The decision that has been taken is people oriented.
Politico: Could you not have waited till Sam-Sumana had served out his quarantine period of 21 days before taking this action? It's like you are doubly punishing him.
Yansanneh: No we are not doubly punishing him. He called me and said “why are you not sympathising with me”. I said “no you are not Ebola-positive”. This is a precautionary measure to protect him. The government wants to protect him. Let him stay in that protective custody, self-imposed. We didn't put him there. He made a press release that he wants to be quarantined. So that is not the APC. The process of getting the report of the investigation committee was on-going so we didn't want to stop it.
© Politico 24/03/15
