By Tanu Jalloh
I was in constant touch with a source very close to the National Advisory Council (NAC) meeting that eventually settled down for Chief Samuel Samsumana as the running-mate to President Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's
Congress (APC). By the way, I was very interested in the outcome.
For the most part of that Sunday, 30 September 2012, the atmosphere in Freetown was as expectant as it was apprehensive. The stakes were high. President Koroma was yet to choose his running mate and it was getting close to
close of nominations. The whole country had waited, waited irascibly on the announcement of the President. As a matter of fact the decision was long overdue.
Though it rained when night fell, as if to shower some calmness on a rough day of deliberation, the general mood in the meeting that lasted for well over ten hours was one of indecision. It was unprecedented, as I would get to learn later. The last time a NAC meeting stayed that long and gambled the fate of the party was over what to do again with
Sam-Sumama whose political future was questioned in the press by the opposition and the public. The reason was to close that season of Al Jazeera’s documentary. A deluge of corruption allegations, some of them, a broadcast expert told me, “could crumble in the face of strong argument for thorough ethical scrutiny.”
The fact is Sam was new in the APC, having been brought in just before the 2007 elections. That newness was to become an issue soon after the victory that ushered them into governance. Thus from 2010, some say 2008, he was seen as the “lucky intruder” that was riding on the back of “indigenes” of the party. Hell broke loose, despite how neat they managed to carry on in the last three years. And there was problem; it festered and reached its nadir in 2011 when the need for a running-mate emerged. It became the course to an impending implosion in the APC.
Back to the meeting that struggled to get a partner for President Koroma. It was getting late and time was far spent, already eating into other equally important government engagements. In fact, the President missed out on the 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which officially started earlier that week. He could not have left behind that problem because the verdict was time-bound but also very integral to his second term bid. Above all it was his prerogative to choose a vice. And all of this came on the eve of his natal day, which was on 2 October. Happy belated birthday, Mr President.
In the meantime, pressures mounted from outside. They manifested themselves inside of the NAC meeting and seemingly engendered a compromise. A delegation from Sam's home district of Kono made up of new APC candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary and local council elections, was in Freetown with a strong message. “If you don’t go with Sam, we will give you back your symbols,” the envoy was quoted to have said, in a protest probably the strongest in support of Sam’s bid since the running-mate choice saga obtruded with intra-party politics. All that subsided for a while, but thereafter new challenges would emerge.
Once embattled, Sam is now on the ticket of President Ernest Bai Koroma as running mate for the 17 November 2012 polls. The APC was almost at the verge of occasioning the end of an era – the career of the VP. Once he survived it, that era was soon to prove chaotic, and the players ditto. There are those politicians, among them ministers, who had
openly cast a slur on the person of Sam-Sumana. They made reference to many allegations flying around. No convictions. Yes, but they argued that that was just too huge a baggage on the shoulder of the party to ferry across and against the strong tides in this elections. There are those, and I can single out Ambassador Dauda Kamara, who
thought and believed Sam was just the right person.
Against that background a division within the party is highly likely – The need to compensate those who stood by the VP in times of persecution and the urge to come against those who pushed for his elimination. In the event the APC wins the presidency after November 17, there would definitely be a major fallout. Events might take the following
trajectory, presumably, within two years into the five years of the second term of President Koroma.
“Sam-Sumana as VP, is President in 2013’. That is my headline for this piece. I am certainly aware of the confused sense it represents at first glance but it is also open to a plethora of interpretations in the light of current happenings. I have set out, therefore, to place an appropriation around it, explaining in detail and putting context to instances ab initio. Let me state here, going forward, that the scenarios I’ve attempted to create in support of my assumption would be based on the reality that APC forms the next government in 2013 and Sam-Sumana remains Vice President throughout. Insinuations are that that is highly unlikely. Anyway, that’s a subject for another piece.
My predictions: Just two years into their rule, should they win, the VP would have deliberately consolidated himself in terms of power, money, influence and authority. By mid-term, he would be in place to take part in virtually every major business of the APC and the government. Invariably, for every consultation his input would count, so also is
his consent. Eventually, he would have broadened his scope and assumed some clout both in terms of following and the way he
consolidated himself in the topmost echelon of the party. He would then become the man he never was between 2007 and 2012. Look out for these traits in him probably so far suppressed: tough, presumptious, cunning, tricky, masterly, uncompromising, shrewd, feisty and most obviously, assertive.
With a combination of those characters, Sam-Sumana would be doing his boss’ job when he is not around but also when he is around but could not be budged. At this stage all those ministers and party members who almost succeeded in depriving him of another chance at being running-mate to President Koroma would be at his mercy. As a matter of fact, when the power struggle ensued in the run up to his appointment, those people who accosted him did not do so because he was going to become the vice president. They were concerned that this time around Sam-Sumana would certainly have everything going his way, such that the assumption of the flagbearership would be easy. And the next moment he would be the President. Thus, the only way to not allow him become the president was to stop him from becoming the vice president.
There is a strong team of core APC patrons some of whom were and could still be looking forward to succeeding the President in 2017. As it is right now, that would appear to be a pipe dream for them.
The prediction, that a Sam-Sumana “victory” at that level would leave in its wake a debilitating fallout could come to pass. There has been the feeling that party members in the north who have dominated its executive, engrossed in its innings and outings, are therefore calling the shots. The ego that comes with that feeling has been dealt a serious blow. Now it is both in the interest of the party and the people they represent in government to get over the nausea.
Good luck.
(c) Politico 04/10/12
