Author
Section 54 (1) of the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone provides for a Vice President who “shall be the principal assistant to the president in the discharge of his executive duties”. It further states that for anyone to become such, they must be designated by a presidential candidate before a presidential election.
The provision for the presidential candidate to choose his running mate ahead of a presidential election is a significant departure from the one-party constitution of 1978, which provided for the president to appoint his vice, like he does his ministers, after the presidential elections.
The process always starts with the political parties electing their flag-bearers during their national delegates’ conferences. The way and manner political parties go about doing it vary from party to party depending on their respective party constitutions. So does the process of appointing the running-mates or vice-presidential candidates. Up until this stage, the process is purely a political party affair. But it ceases to be so when political parties make public their presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Once a public pronouncement has been made, they become public officials that are open to public scrutiny for their actions and inactions.
This is the reason why some Sierra Leoneans, APC supporters and non-APC supporters alike, are concerned over the recent growing diminishing visibility of vice-president Samuel Sam-Sumana. President Ernest Bai Koroma, then flag-bearer of the All People's Congress (APC) party, chose Sam-Sumana to be his running-mate in the run-up to the 2007 presidential election. They won. And in 2012 they were re-elected.
In the lead up to the 2012 election, however, it seemed the edges were fraying between the two men. That, notwithstanding, Sam-Sumana got retained as running-mate. But since those elections it has become apparent relations between Ernest Bai Koroma and Sam-Sumana have not been as glossy and and rosy and luscious as they should be. Sam-Sumana is almost becoming more or less a non-working VP. The reason for having a vice-president, at least to my thinking, is for the president to assign executive tasks to him/her or enable him/her to deal with more or equally important state matters that require urgent attention. But Sam-Sumana is getting a lot less of the executive tasks from the president especially these days. He is fast disappearing into political obscurity, some would say.
I am aware of the powers which the constitution of Sierra Leone 1991 vests in the president to appoint people he believes can help him discharge his functions. In the exercise of these powers, Ernest Bai Koroma has appointed many people to the executive arm of government to serve as his advisers in different areas. Today, he is surrounded by a retinue of presidential advisers who never faced parliament for scrutiny; they hold offices at the pleasure of the president. Nobody quarrels with this. It is his prerogative. But we will have problems with Mr President if he does anything that is deliberately intended to grind down the authority of his vice-president, who should be his principal assistant. After all they both got voted for by the people.
By voting the APC party, the people of Sierra Leone voted for the partnership of Ernest Bai Koroma and Samuel Sam-Sumana. The overwhelming victory for the APC in the last presidential election was a clear manifestation of the unreserved trust the people had in the political duo. In other words, the Sierra Leonean electorate trusted the judgement of Ernest Bai Koroma in appointing Sam-Sumana as his number two man. But by all indications, it appears Ernest Bai Koroma is fast losing faith in his once trusted appointee, as could be seen by the present outlandish relationship between the two. He is now keeping him at bay.
The people of Sierra Leone are yearning for an improved relationship between their president and his vice. Let good sense and understanding prevail, at least in the interest of the country, because as the African adage goes: when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. Certainly, if this state of affairs continues, it is the ordinary man and woman in the street that will suffer most, and not the rowing giants. I am sure it was as a result of the deteriorating relationship between Ernest Bai Koroma and Sam-Sumana that made Sierra Leone miss out on a very significant date in Africa - the historic meeting of African Heads of State in Ethiopia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the African Union, which started as the Organization of African Unity.
Conventional reasoning would dictate that if the president could not attend the summit his vice-president should have represented him and not the Foreign minister, Dr Samura Kamara. I am not questioning the ability and capability of Dr Samura Kamara to step in for the president. But I am sure the vice-president could have provided more visibility and more weight to Sierra Leone’s delegation to Ethiopia in the midst of other African Heads of State. He may be an expert in economics and its related disciplines, but certainly Kamara is a greenhorn in diplomacy and international relations. Sending him therefore to such a hugely significant meeting can mean that the president did not treat the occasion with the seriousness it deserved or he only wanted to spite for his vice.
But this did not come as a surprise for some people who attended the just concluded APC national convention in Freetown or watchers of the political goings-on. I happened to have watched the on television the last day of the convention. I was completely taken aback when I realized that speaker after speaker carefully and cleverly avoided mentioning the vice-president in their courtesies, apparently for fear of reprisals, even though he was seated right on the high table and very close to the president. Throughout the time I was watching, only the representative of the Diasporans and the chairman of the eastern region mentioned the vice-president in their salutations.
I am sure that day is a day Sam-Sumana would love not to remember. It was very, very depressing for him and his supporters. It was a real embarrassment for them. I am not a fan of the VP and of course I don’t have to. But honestly, I believe that he deserves better. No matter what he is still the vice-president of Sierra Leone and should be recognized as such. But trust Sierra Leonean politicians. Despite the humiliation and relentless bullying, Sam-Sumana remained unruffled in his immaculate red colours. He stood up from time to time, joining hands with Ernest Bai Koroma, wearing broad smiles and singing loftily the APC victory song – “there isvictory for us…”. What a dirty game politics is!
He was once the dark horse of the APC party in 2007, but today Sam-Sumana has become the dark sheep of the Red family. He is despised, reviled and unloved by those who once adored and hailed him. But the hierarchy of the APC party should know that what is happening today with Sam-Sumana may well have devastating consequences on the stability and cohesiveness of the party in the short- and long-terms. He may not be strong and influential enough to take over from Ernest Bai Koroma after he retires in 2017. He may not have all what it takes to cruise the APC party to victory in 2017. But Sam-Sumana still has residual support within and without the party.
This support could increase with time; some of it coming out of sympathy rather than out of love. People may be afraid to demonstrate it now because Ernest Bai Koroma is still very much in control – the Alpha and the Omega – but I am sure in two years time, we will start to see it clearly surging up. This could prove to be fatal for the APC party. It could be the source of the party’s disintegration, and ultimately its demise. Distancing himself from Sam-Sumana, his vice-president, and disparaging him could only aggravate this unfortunate situation for the president and his party.
President and VP must leave as collectively as they entered. They should collectively sit down and plan their exit, as well as how to leave behind a party that is cohesive and dynamic. By so doing, they both will be regarded as statesmen, not only by the APC party folks, but the wider populace. But as things stand, there is the likelihood that whilst Ernest Bai Koroma will be revered as a statesman within the party, Sam-Sumana will be vilified as a villain.
I am sure President Koroma would want people to remember him for his strides in developing Sierra Leone when he would have left office in 2017, and not as the president who destroyed his own political party because of his loathing for one man, his vice-president.
© Politico 13/06/13
