By Asmieu Bah
For the past couple of weeks, before the arrest of opposition politician Charles Margai, the debate that occupied centre stage was whether or not President Ernest Bai Koroma should run for a third term as head of state. The issue was sparked off up by one of the top echelons of the ruling All People’s Congress party, Balogun Koroma, in a series of interviews on television and radio on the eve of his party’s convention.
In the TV interview even though he was not there to talk on the president’s bid for a third term, he cleverly used the television to spill the bins when asked about the chairmanship position of the party.
Now it seems this was a technique to test the waters and see how citizens would react to what looked like a statement of intent. Balogun’s answer was that as a party their concern and the concerns of the wider Sierra Leonean public for someone who would hold the party together like President Koroma had done for the last six years. He went on to say that party members and the public wanted to begin the debate as to whether the president should go for a third term.
Since then we have heard many sound bites of Balogun Koroma.
During the just concluded party convention the outgoing National Secretary General of the APC and the newly appointed Ambassador to China, Victor Bockarie Foh said that the President is a respecter of the constitution and as a result will not dear go for a third term so all those thinking along that line should lay that matter to rest.
Two messages from two big wigs of the party, leaving the masses in a confused state of mind.
A war time US President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt was the initiator of third term in modern politics. On the eve of World War II in 1941, Roosevelt was about to end his term of office but was concerned about Hitler’s expansion in Europe and his relationship with Japan was deteriorating daily. In the end, Roosevelt felt the best thing he could do was to give the country a battle-tested and seasoned leader. He was an adroit political contender, arguably the kind of leader that America needed at that time.
The atmosphere in Europe by then convinced many Americans that Roosevelt deserved another term. Others were convinced that Roosevelt's third term would signal America's acquiescence to dictatorship. Still others were disturbed by Roosevelt's apparent dismissal of tradition – no president had ever run for a third term. Nevertheless, he was re-elected and then inaugurated in January 1941. Since then no American President has run for more than two terms.
Of the present crop of African leaders, President Koroma is one of the most popular among his people. That is an accolade we should not deny him when you trace the background in which he ascended to power. I mean his 2007 victory from opposition which is most times unprecedented in Africa where it is almost impossible for a ruling party to lose in an election. Koroma disproved that myth in 2007 just like his political icon, Siaka Stevens did in 1967 against the same SLPP.
He has been acclaimed as a democrat whereas most of his peers have been decried as the opposite; under his reign the country has witnessed economic growth and infrastructural expansion. Early this year, Koroma and two other sons and a daughter of the African continent were invited to the White House by the American President. Good governance was one of the issues the American President took up with them.
Weeks after that visit the APC, or least some members and supporters thereof, are daring to talk about giving President Koroma a third term.
In 2009 the then Nigerien President, Mamadou Tandia defied the country’s parliament and the constitutional court and went for a third term. A former colonel in the army he had been elected president in 1999. His announcement came after the Constitutional Court said it was opposed to holding a referendum which automatically would have given him his wish to rule for another term. The international community prevailed on Tandia but he was obstinate and couldn’t budge. Even the African Union and ECOWAS could not be listened to. The latter threatened to slam sanctions on the country if the President pursues his plan, but all fell in deaf ears. The only African leader who was in support of Tandia was the Libyan leader Muamar Ghadafi who said thus: "If the people decide the president deserves to be re-elected, they can choose him once, three times or even 10 times". He said so at a regional summit. In the end the military intervened and overthrew.
When he was serving out his final term as President of Nigeria, Obasanjo clandestinely floated the idea of a third term in the deceitful manner of it being the people who wanted him to continue as president. That would have almost killed Nigeria’s young democracy. The third term bid was defeated even before it took off ground.
In 2012 the President of the West African state of Senegal, Abdulaye Wade proposed a constitutional alteration to give himself a third term. He refused to reason with his people’s pleas and went ahead with his plan but for the resistance through peaceful demonstrations. In the end he was shamefully voted against.
Having spent more than 25 years in prison in South Africa, Nelson Mandela regained his freedom and contested the first free and fair election in South Africa in 1994 and ruled for just one term and stepped down. That action and his magnanimity to those who had incarcerated him made him one of the world’s greatest men. He relinquished power when he could have gone for his second term.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was also incarcerated by the British in Gold Coast now Ghana. After his release he became a freedom fighter and led his country to independence. He has blemished and tainted his image by staying all these years in power subverting the country’s constitution. That is not a good example in any way, shape or form.
The above are all precedents that yester presidents have set and history is judging them differently. One thing President Koroma should discourage is the issue of people making him appear to be the be-all and end-all, and making him feel indispensable. Those people who are bringing such a debate will not be with him if it boomerangs. They pretend to adore him but they don’t. They are only using him to amass whatever they could lay their hands on – money, power and influence. No sooner does power shifts from him than they will turn their backs on him confirming Thomas Hobbes’s theory that ‘’man is self centred, wicked, selfish and brutish.’’ Let him go and ask former President Kabbah if he still enjoys the razzmatazz and large following he was used to when he occupied State House. After the Makeni SLPP convention in 2005, power shifted from Kabbah to Solomon Berewa. Important meetings were held in the Vice President’s residence at Spur Road not at the Presidential Lodge as used to be. Ministers shifted their loyalty to Berewa whom they knew was likely to become the next President.
Let me speak to the president directly: There is an irony about power, Mr President. Those people want to use your credentials to achieve their aims, don’t go that path. The people should not be taken for granted. One should not be carried away by campaign crowds during elections. After the polls people’s expectation will change, so do not test their intelligence.
Before Koroma there had been Presidents and after him there will also be Presidents. The state has to continue. After all he is a beneficiary of good governance.
