...a sequel to OPPOSING THE OPPOSITION <http://politicosl.com/2013/07/opposing-the-opposition>
By Umaru Fofana
"An intelligent and conscientious opposition is a part of loyalty to country." That is, according to American lawyer and politician, Bainbridge Colby, who served as the last Secretary of State to President Woodrow Wilson.
But do not say that about the leadership of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). In fact they owe this country and its people an apology. They have bickered while the country has gone without the provision of alternatives to the modus operandi. They have compromised to access resources from government while those in power have become arrogant. They have paid more attention to themselves than to those they should keep watch over.
The latest in their bickering as they gear up for their national delegates’ conference, tentatively scheduled for 16 – 17 August 2013, is this: disagreements have emerged which could lead to the indefinite postponement of the delegates conference to elect a new executive. I would not be the least surprised if they were sued again by one of their own should that happen because the mandate of the current executive expires.
It is not a new phenomenon for members of a political party in Sierra Leone to drag each other and the party to court, which is generally a good thing in that it is preferable to violent ways of seeking redress. What is not so is the fact that it is not uncommon for the courts to be interfered with by the government of the day if the squabbling party is in the opposition. When in 2002 a group of big-hitting politicians boycotted the holding of the APC congress in Freetown that returned Ernest BaiKoroma, the aggrieved went to the Supreme Court to challenge Koroma’s election. The panel of judges ruled in their favour which brought to a temporary halt Koroma’s leadership of the party. The impression then was that the SLPP government interfered with the process to frustrate the opposition leader and his followers.
Following that another APC convention was convened in Port Loko in 2005 where Koroma would be re-elected. That, again, was boycotted by many of the big hitters who claimed that the legitimate 1995 constitution of the party had been set aside. Again they went to the high court to seek an injunction to restrain the party from going on with the conference. Justice Abel Stronge ruled against the renegades and in favour of Ernest BaiKoroma and the party. If you believe the conspiracy theorists the reward for Justice Stronge’s ruling was to make him Speaker of Parliament once Koroma won the presidency in 2007. A position he still holds.
In my last piece I told you about how Sierra Leone’s two main political parties – the only ones to have ruled us since independence – have known more of civil war over nothing ideological or people-centred, than they have policies especially when they have been in the opposition. As promised, the fallout from the challenge to Ernest BaiKoroma in 2002 and subsequently has been visible even if people tend not to notice it apparently because he is now president.
When in 2002 he became the flag-bearer of the APC, the odds were stacked monumentally against Koroma. He ran against an incumbent president, Ahmad TejanKabbah who had just five months prior brought peace to the country and had an appeal across the country. In addition to the return of peace, Kabbah’s nationwide appeal which enabled him secure over 70% of the votes was in part because he was partly from the north and the northern parties that had proved very strong in the 1996 election had all but disappeared. The most popular grassroots politician, ThaimuBangura, who supported Kabbah in the 1996 runoff election, had died on 6 March 1999. The man who took over his party as leader, the great parliamentary debater UsmanKamara, handed over the party to President Kabbah by endorsing his re-election bid. The nonagenarian Dr Karefa-Smart who probably had won the election in 1996 was approaching his 90th birthday and so proved lack lustre.
Crucially too, with the use of the police, the incumbent unleashed terror against Koroma’s party supporters especially in Kono district. Just as it is being done today. So much for our country’s governments – the more they change the more they remain the same.
But Koroma had other issues to contend with which affected the SLPP in the November 2012 elections and still seems prevalent even after. He had a much divided house amid allegations that the delegates’ list had been doctored in his favour leading to a boycott of the process by those who had expressed an interest to run against him. Remember the allegations against Bio after the primaries in 2011? They included the millionaire businessman MK Suma, Eddie Turay, Dr Moses Sesay, Serry Kamal, Abdul KarimKoroma and Jengo Stevens.
All these men, either individually or collectively, fought tooth and nail to be the flies in the ointment for Ernest Koroma whom they saw as the cat among the pigeons. MK Suma defected to the then ruling SLPP party. Abdul KarimKoroma would also join the SLPP many years later after he would have been appointed ambassador to China and recalled after he misbehaved there. Eddie Turay continued as Member of Parliament and wanted to become Speaker but, apparently, the Koromaist would not allow him to. He became displeased and would later be sent as ambassador to the UK where he still is. A move many interpreted to mean driving him away from the political scene to reduce his relevance. Serry Kamal was made Attorney General amid rancour between him and Koroma who never felt comfortable with him. He was later sacked rather controversially. Dr Moses Sesay was not awarded a symbol to run for parliament in 2007. He could well be being punished for siding with the litigants who challenged Koroma’s legitimacy. He was not a plaintiff but stood by them all the way.
If I were President Koroma I would not be impressed by those who defect today to the APC. That is the name of the game. Take a look at many of those who have the holier-than-thou attitude…they were the same in the SLPP days. Our politicians are unconscionable.
President Koroma himself was a member of the People’s Democratic Party (SORBEH) which, before the advent of Dr John Karefa Smart and his United National People’s Party in the mid 1990s looked most promising to be the way to political power. A founding member of the PDP party says that Koroma was not a founding member of the party. “He joined us, stayed briefly and jumped out again”, the source says. A close family member of the late PDP leader ThaimuBangura told me thus: “Koroma became a member of Sorbeh when it seemed we would gain power, but left us when that looked less likely”. It speaks volumes about Sierra Leone’s political class.
So when after he had tried and failed to lead the APC Suma defected to the SLPP, in power at the time, no-one serious took him seriously. But President Kabbah looked pleased with himself as he welcomed him at a lousy ceremony at the Miatta Conference Hall. The same way Koroma looked at the APC party office when UsuBoie went the opposite direction last year. And if anyone thinks Boie’s defection to the APC after his unsuccessful bid to lead the SLPP was unprecedented or people-serving, they are being naïve or dishonest. It was self-serving. Crossing the political carpet – CROSSTITUTION as I prefer to call it – is as old in Sierra Leone as politics itself. And like the country’s body politic, it is not based on any ideological shift or disagreement. Apologies: Victor Foh (APC) and the late Teacher Lagao (SLPP), perhaps the only two conscionable politicians who stayed in the political wilderness for a generation and more, because they believed in what their parties stood for albeit they were in the opposition.
Eddie Turay comes close. Just four years after the overthrow of the APC and the huge derision they faced in the hands of the public because of how they had destroyed the fabric of the Sierra Leonean society, Eddie boldly and courageously – perhaps unashamedly – led the party to the polls in 1996. I remember him putting on a brave face and a strong fight in front of university students at FBC when he went there to campaign. The party was simply hated on campus at the time. In huge part due to his individual efforts the APC managed to hit the five percent threshold to win some seats in Parliament under the Proportional Representation system.
Turay, it would seem, never forgave Koroma when he allegedly manipulated the 2002 delegates’ conference denying him from becoming that leader that would have become President of Sierra Leone. But it would be disingenuous for anyone to think that whoever had led the APC in 2007 would have won the presidency. Not for his intellect, not for his track record, but for God’s gift to him – charisma – which was very lacking in the incumbent candidate Solomon Berewa, Koroma stood out. And the fact that he had not been involved in the APC politics of old, counted in his favour.
But back to the SLPP as they prepare to their conference – whenever it happens. The APC could have afforded the alleged manipulation of their constitution in 2002 and the appeasement in 2007 of their incumbent leader. The SLPP cannot afford that. After all the APC constitution allows for consensus and selection for many of what should be elective positions. The SLPP document does not. So despite his perceived grassroots popularity within the party, Bio cannot manipulate things especially so because he does not see eyeball to eyeball with the incumbent party leader and a host of others at the top echelons of the party. He, like everyone else in the party, must seek reconciliation if this country should have what the Brits would call a Loyal Opposition.
There have been many incidents of violence in the SLPP by its members against each other. They may not have been serious as to affect the security of the state but violent incidents they nevertheless have been. It would not be much to ask that Maada Bio should come out and not only denounce but renounce such violent acts especially because they were deemed to have been carried out in his interest even if not in his name.
Another mistake he has made and seems to still keep making is his insistence on being the “flag-bearer” even after the Supreme Court ruling on his electoral petition. That position no longer exists. Bio should try to reinvent himself. He should let go of that title that is not. Keep his support base in tact through legitimate means. And run again, should he wish to, when the time is ripe for the 2018 presidential election. He should try to be less divisive and let his rank and file supporters respect divergent views in the party without consequences. Should he lose, let it be. It will be an effective way of entrenching democracy whereby losers will stay within and not jump ship. No quicker way to destroy our democracy than through CROSSTITUTION and violence. Remember the words of William Blake: Opposition is true friendship.
© Politico 23/07/13
