Who Is The Enemy Within The APC?
Titus Boye-Thompson, Accra Ghana
William Shakespeare is famously quoted in “Julius Caesar” when Brutus intoned that “there is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ……”
The All Peoples Congress is probably at the cusp of a momentous victory, but that sure accolade is set to be snatched from its jaws by smouldering embers of the burning stakes of an imploding SLPP, as it seeks a last wrought iron grip on power in Sierra Leone. It is as if this will be a premonition or a predestination, but the failure of the APC to seize its own advantage in the political landscape would be used by a desperate SLPP under the guise of “a government for national unity”, as a means of witholding some power even in the face of a defeat at the polls. The SLPP will never win a fairly contested election in Sierra Leone, this is one of the salient truths of the country’s politics, but many do not appreciate why this is resoundingly so. To be abreast of this fact is a mark of acumen and poise, lacking in many politicians in the country. Like one of my Professors would say, “lets look at the maths .”
The SLPP’s mainstay is in the Southern and Eastern Provinces of Sierra Leone. These two regions do not hold a majority of the population, and in the game of elections, it is the numbers that are counted. Whereas in the Eastern Province, there is Kono, a bane of all political parties, and the yardstick to measure, reach in areas that are not a traditional stronghold. The APC has the advantage of having had a fair share of Kono support over the years, maybe more so than the SLPP, but one thing about the Kono District that political pundits have consistently failed to decipher, is their wholesale alliance to their homegrown political talents. You see, the Kono do not follow ideology in politics, but their own bloodline. So, whenever you can take the Kono vote out of the Eastern Province, you automatically skew the mathematical advantage. The Kono District vote is in fact the bellweather vote for a winning political party. The Party that secures Kono, secures the whole country. It is for this reason that the APC is in itself, its own worst enemy, for failing to make good its currrent goodwill with the Kono District and its leaders like Alhaji Samuel Samsumana, Diana Konomanyi, Yambasu and others. There is a tide….. APC would be committing suicide if it continues to alienate the Konos at suich a critical time, when a sure victory is so much on its clasp, you could almost taste it.
The APC’s recent spate of internal mishaps have caused it so much self inflicted damage, the likes of which would cripple even a strong gladiator. Moving around like a wounded lion, the current executive is unsure of the proper strategy to engage, inorder to stop the rot. For one thing, instead of taking its tide at the flood, as it were, the party is dividing itself like an earthworm, believing that each divided part will survive on its own. The greatest danger of such splitting is the disengagement of even its own core support base. The past six years have seen a disenchantment of the grassroots with the leadership style of the Executive, to the extent that the party is now seen to be distanced from its core supporters. On the whole, a major root cause of this disparagement is in the anomaly of a party at odds with its flag bearer. Any rational being would tell you that unless the root cause of an issue is tackled, any other attempt to placate the issues would only be elastoplast on an expanding wound that really needs a bandage. In a nutshell, if the APC were to come to a common understanding with Dr Samura Kamara today, and back him to the hilt as the party flag bearer, stop all this nonsense about aspirants galore, the damage it would do the SLPP, anyone would think that the SLPP candidates are foreigners standing for elections in Sierra Leone in 2028. So for as long as this infighting is being allowed to fester in the APC, the party would fail to see the fortune that their affairs should have accomplished “if taken at the flood.” The flood for the APC is now, failing to plan is planning to fail.
The enemy within the APC are the self-centred ones, those who believe that they can manipulate the grassroots and the masses to forge their evil plans on the people, those who are misguided enough to think that the APC belongs to an individual or even a particular tribe or interest group. The APC has always been a broad church, able to capture the imaginations of many because of its dynamic nature and flamboyant display of comradeship. Unlike the SLPP, the APC does not adhere to a tribal dominatrix, nor does it respond to a typical culture or language matrix, instead, the APC has managed to carve out its own political subculture through a fusion of the various influences and experiences of its peoples across the country. They would play their ojeh, bow down to the gbangbani and revel with paddle masquerades at the appropriate events and ocasssions, all in unison. This shows respect for the cultures and traditions of the myriad people that makeup the melting pot of the Western Area, Sierra Leone’s largest metropolis. The APC do their thing by singing the Party song at the conclusion of any infractions and elections, they do not sing of anybody’s cocoa being roast or toast, and last of all, APC’s First Ladies respect Sierrra Leone’s institutions and stand up for the President at State events!
