By Umaru Fofana
Sierra Leone is in the throes of an internal bickering in the ranks of its two main political parties – the governing All People’s Congress party and the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party. And the disagreement is not ideological. Nor is it about the welfare of the people. It is a disagreement over the control of raw and naked power. It is deeper than most people think it to be. And it is rather unusual that it is happening in both main political parties, at the same. In the past, the parties would have various crises to contend with but at different times.
The opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party, many know about this, is enmeshed in an internal wrangling the ramifications of which could be dire and possibly lead to a further unravelling of a party which has not only experienced so much haemorrhaging in the last few months and years but has fallen short of performing its opposition role by providing alternative solutions to the country’s myriad problems and holding the government to account. It tries to do that in parliament but that is not good enough in view of how their voices are dwarfed in the House. Consequently it cannot get its own feet on the ground. It all borders on one thing: the struggle for power by men and women whose interest is themselves – not the people. It is a case of a presidential candidate who lost an election and does not have the character to let go of the title of “flag-bearer” and let the party move on, and the chairman of a party whose rank and files loathe him and he does not have the spine to reign or resign or call an early congress to prove his popularity. Written about this before: (http://politicosl.com/2013/02/slpp-at-the-crossroads-again/).
Now, the ruling All People’s Congress party, not many know this, is witnessing simmering crisis which could lead to bloodletting, metaphoric speak. This will not only take away from the people the attention of those whom they elected to lead them and pay attention to them, but may also mess up the next general election, forcing undemocratic means to be devised in settling scores. One can only remind them of what happened to the SLPP when they were in power.
Now, hear this: President Ernest Bai Koroma and Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana are at daggers drawn. Number One has asked Number Two to not show up in his office, according to usually reliable sources at both the presidency and the vice presidency. Yes! The president asked his vice away. That came in the back of the president having asked his deputy, as the South Africans would call him, to represent him at the Annual General Meeting of the Ahmadiyya Mission in Bo a few weeks prior. At the last minute, impeccable sources have told me, the president stood him down after all the vehicles had been lined up for the trip. He chose to go himself. No reasons were given.
It has not been rosy since. The First Lady, my sources have indicated, was also asked to ask the VP to stay away from the president. Both Sia Nyama Koroma and Sam-Sumana come from the same place – Kono. And I hear “Kono meetings” are now being put under surveillance. Trust, if any had existed between the country’s two gentlemen, seems to have evaporated.
Now add to that the visit to Kono last week by Diana Konomanyi, the new Minister of Local Government. She, like the VP and the First Lady, is from Kono. It was part of the much-vaunted albeit completely unnecessary and wasteful “Thank You” tour ministers embark on these days after their appointment, as if they were voted for. Even in the face of destitution written on the faces of those who turn out to “welcome” them during such tours.
My information is that Diana was supposed to have visited with other new ministers who hail from the district including the Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office, Harriette Turay. A reminder, if you need it, Mrs Turay has been nominated to work in the VPs office. The deal was that they would wait until Mrs Turay had gone through parliamentary ratification which, I understand, should happen today.
But if you remind yourself that Diana and Sam do not see eyeball to eyeball then you get the drift. It is ostensible that there has been no love lost between the two. The former has had close relations with the President yet very frosty ones with the VP. If that is strange to you, then you are stranger.
In my L1 there is a saying that the intestines are never strong without something inside them. It is clear therefore that the battle for the 2018 presidential race has started. Among the names that have been mentioned, and he has not denied it, is Alimamy Petito Koroma who is the current Minister of Works. He was with the delegation that went to Kono. Needless to say that Vice President Sam-Sumana is also interested in the top job. So the question is no longer a question as to which way she is working. Nor is there a question as to whether she does not have the blessing of the President. Again, the intestines are never strong unless…
Probably because he comes from a ruling house, Sam-Sumana is loved by many Paramount Chiefs that I have met or spoken to in the last three years. And they number over thirty. They were one of the reasons, my sources say, he was retained by the president last year. Making Diana minister in charge of those chiefs could have been a deliberate attempt aimed at undercutting that influence. Confusing or familiar intrigue? May be both.
While the then governing SLPP party struggled with Dr Albert Joe Demby and whether or not he should be retained as Vice President by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah their 2001 Bo Convention was interesting, to put it mildly. He was not retained. I remember interviewing the then Attorney General, Solomon Berewa, who left me in no doubt that he was going to replace Demby. He did replace him. The power of incumbency Kabbah wielded at the time and the fact that he was making a choice the party constitution allowed him to make, saved the party from a rupture. But that rupture was only postponed as it came to pass when things were pushed too far.
Around the same time, or immediately preceding that, Charles Margai had resigned as Minister of Internal Affairs and at a press conference at Paddy’s Restaurant expressed his intentions, in all but name, to run for the party leadership. That floundered somewhat. But in 2005 he restated his case which continued to the Makeni Convention. The outcome of that is one the SLPP will not forget in a hurry. The rupture did happen.
And caught up in the ongoing party conundrums are the hapless people whose loyalty is informed by anything but issues and national interest. It is tribe and region and “what is in for me personally”. Self-aggrandisement.
Now the APC have confirmed that their national delegates’ conference billed for Kono this year will now happen in Freetown. The tension among Konos could not be far from the real reason for that even if the party secretary general, Victor Foh has cited financial and physical fatigue.
It looks apparent that the struggle as to who succeeds Koroma as party leader and subsequently president of Sierra Leone has begun in earnest. And Ernest should be very careful not to burn his fingers and his party’s. If he pushes too hard, there will be a Charles Margai in the APC, despite his seemingly deliberate attempt at closing the gate on potential Port Loko rebels.
In a nutshell political parties in Sierra Leone should be further democratised and institutionalised beyond ethnicity and region and cash. The running of parties should be separate from the running of the country. Again this is an unfair comparison but worthy of making because even the politicians themselves do do it when it suits them. When I went to cover the US presidential election in 2008, I arrived in Phoenix, Arizona after doing some work in the east coast on the Obama side and was surprised by my first experience.
After doing some research I got the contacts for the Republican Party office in the desert state capital. My cab driver took me there and I was shocked by what I was told by those I met there. One of them said: “Senator John McCain’s campaign office is completely different to the Republican Party office”. Unless you knew that you must be surprised yourself. They told me how separate the two were. Profound!
It is strange therefore that Sierra Leone still has political party executive members who are ministers of state or hold some other state positions. This serves right neither the party nor the state.
However the parties here decide to run themselves, the Political Parties Registration Commission should be exposed to best practice elsewhere with a view to making them see what works right. I know there are issues with the efficacy of the PPRC but leaving them in their current state – devoid of any serious knowledge in electoral process – is worse than making some efforts at making them learn. The internal party squabbles, lurking or blatant, should be addressed and redressed. If not for any other reason, to keep the attention of our politicians focused on the plight of the masses. That plight is too much to list here, whatever efforts are being made elsewhere or results attained.
