Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone has witnessed high political drama and intrigues following the release of a police clearance certificate to Dr. Samura Kamara earlier this week.
It’s the preparation to the all-powerful National Delegates Conference (NDC) of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) when members of the party and its delegates would converge at a destined place to elect a flag bearer for the party.
Already Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara has been flying high on the APC agenda with grassroots, middle and down trodden members and supporters of the party reposing confidence in him as a prospective candidate to lead them to the polls on June 24.
This reality was signalled on Monday when first the Sierra Leone Police through the Criminal Investigations Department cleared him of any wrong doing or wanton of criminal record in his files.
On Wednesday 8th February 2023 Members of Parliament in the House of Representatives exemplified this belief that has moved those that once sat on the fence to be convinced that Dr. Samura MW Kamara was the front liner to be endorsed for the standard flag bearership of the APC Party for June 24, 2023 presidential elections.
The action has drawn challenges from various members of the public who have described it as a “Palace Coup” against democracy or the others. But MPs didn’t bother tom listen to the criticisms or concerns as they believed that their action was taken in the best interest of the party and the country; and also they have acted independently on their own without being influenced. They did this in solidarity with the main Opposition Leader in the House Hon. Chernoh Ramadan Bah, MP, who was able to make them believe that supporting Dr. Kamara as the standard flagbeaer was the best chance they could have to win the elections.
The MPs’ action Wednesday was really shocking but it also had its own lessons to learn as they expressed honest intentions in their minds and faces about the stark political realities of the day. First it endorsed the tradition that the APC doesn’t go to the NDC with multiple candidates as it became of Siaka Stevens, Joseph Saidu Momoh, Eddie Turay, Ernest Bai Koroma and now Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara.
Though the action could not be predicted as the final outcome of the NDC, yet it signal defeat for the others as Dr. Samura will likely emege as the standard flag bear of the APC Party. Secondly, it reveals the dynamics in politics as changes are bound to occur every day. The MPs reflected Sierra Leone’s Parliamentary Democracy that once ruled the country before the Republican Constitution of 1979 which led to the 1991 Constitution that change democracy from Parliamentary to Presidential system of governance.
In the former, MPs elect a leader ad endorse him, while the latter has to deal the populace in constituencies or wards as the case may be with delegates. Last but not the least, the MPs acted as representatives of the people to think better for and on their behalf by choosing leaders for them.
It cannot be denied that the APC was fragmented by too many political camps and rival aspirants, all vying for the same goal but with different agendas. This fragmentation, some in legal wranglings, and others by political intrigues and manoeuvres had hit MPs hard leading to frustrations and blames of not taking responsibility to put the intra-party affairs of the APC in order.
Thus, Wednesday’s endorsement was an attempt to cut the legal and political intrigues and manoeuvres that have rocked bottom the party too deeply, to an end. At least the MPs’ message was very clear….. “Unite for one person that is mostly accepted by all of us and let’s make the victory desirable for all of us”.
From the Police Clearance to House Endorsement, the members are now moving in unison to coronate Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara in a final ceremony on Sunday 12th February, 2023 in Makeni. All preparations and arrangements are now set and the days are just counting for the APC to have a new leader in the person of Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara.
