By Kabs Kanu
I am appalled to hear Mohamed Pope Kamara, our beloved Publicity Sectetary , publicly proclaim from the rooftops that there will be no rerun and those touting that hope should stop deceiving the party. This message is completely antithetical to the dream breathed into the APC recently by the leader of the party, Dr. Samura Kamara, who has folded his sleeves and decided to fight on.
I am also trying to find meaningful interpretation of the statement made by Lansana Dumbuya , our Secretary General, that the APC’s final position on the Tripartite will be disclosed on Thursday and his appeal that whatever the decision announced, that the party accept it in the interest of the APC , forget personal interests and move the party forward.
There are hints from the statements of the two leading officials of our beloved APC that the APC might have decided to throw in the towel in the fight to safeguard and rescue the mandate of the Sierra Leonean people stolen by our criminal President Maada Bio on June 24, 2023.
I might be wrong . The APC Execitive might announce on Thursday that they back Dr. Samura Kamara and that we will continue fighting until we get electoral justice. It is however Pope Kamara’s public declaration that there will be no rerun that crushes our hopes and gives the feeling that the APC might decide on Thirsday to eat humble pie and move on.
But you know something ? I have no ax to grind with Pope and Lansana if they come clean on Thursday and let the vanguard and the rank- and – file of the APC know finally that there is no hope for us in the Tripartite. Rather than become villains, I am hoping that, if that is what both men will be announcing on Thursday, people should appreciate them more and will in no likelihood chase them with stones. The reason for my advice is that people should appreciate both men for coming out at last and taking the bull by the horns to help comrades stop eternally living on false hopes and deceit, as long as the decision comes from NAC .
As a Senior Adviser of the APC, I encourage everybody to respect what these two gentlemen will be coming to tell us on Thursday , as long as it is the decision of NAC. It will be a bitter pill to swallow but if the final decision comes from NAC ( And not from a group of individuals pushing their own selfish agendas ) , I would appeal to every member of the APC not to set upon the messengers for their message. They will only be delivering the message from the greater body, NAC.
Comrades should remember that we have wasted a whole year feasting on false hopes about this tripartite. We keep prolonging hope but nothing is turning in our favor.
We cannot continue living in this fool’s paradise, while the supreme interests and agendas of the party are going behind everyday.
Dr. Samura Kamara and the APC and everyone of us have suffered the greatest injustice ever known to man . The 2023 election was clearly won by Dr. Samura Kamara who defeated Maada Bio by a landslide , according to the RRF forms released. For us to be told that there are only 80 recommendations and none has to do with a rerun or restoring electoral justice is the most painful injustice ever to be suffered by a political party. I am very devastated and very angry.
But where the big mistake was made was that we the APC trusted Masda Bio and the international community, especially. We should never have trusted these bandits, buccaneers and carpet baggers with the destiny of the APC and our nation. You never trust the international community because they never seek a nation’s supreme interests. All they do is to safeguard their own parochial economic interests.
Remember that it was this same international community who aided and abetted racial discrimination in Rhodesia ( Now Zimbabwe ) and South Africa . They secretly supported the Aparheid system in South Africa which denied the owners of the land their human dignity and rights to life and their rights to self- determination. They also aided and abetted in the denial of Africans their rights in Nambia, Angola, Mozambique etc.
It was this same international community that killed Patrice Lumumba, the UN Secretary Dag Hammaskjeold , Samora Machel, Steve Biko and kept Nelson Mandela in jail for 26 years. Wherever there is an oppressive government in the world, watch : America and Britain are secret supporters of these regimes. America poured billions of dollars into the hands of Samuel Doe and Mobutu Sese Sekou, though these men had turned their citizens into slaves. So, we should never be surprised with America and Britain or even the UN if they have decided to deny the APC justice.
APC should never have trusted them. If we suffer any defeat in this tripartite, that is where the blame should lie —We trusted the international community too much.
From the day Mohamed Konneh refused tp release the voters data, APC should have stuck to its guns and boycotted the elections. We should never have listened to the international community and gone into the elections disadvantaged and with all the stakes stacked in favour of the criminal SLPP. NOTHING SHOULD HAVE ENCOURAGED US TO LISTEN TO THIS HYPOCRITICAL INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.
Another tragic error made was to have allowed our MPs and mayors to have returned to governance. When we boycotted Parliament and the city councils, we were in a great position to cripple Maada Bio and force our rights to be restored. But we did not listen to ourselves. We preferred to listen to deceivers.
The international community betrayed Dr. Samura Kamara. Having worked with them, he trusted them too much. But this is what they are committed to do —Support dictatorships and oligarchs.
But we the APC have learnt. Our forebears Dr. Siaka Stevens, S.I Koroma , C.A Camara Taylor and others never trusted or relied on the international community. If you can recall, the APC, led by the famous John brothers of Britain, in fact burnt the British and American flags in Freetown and in London. Shaki remained in power for long and prevailed because he did not build his trust or anything on the international community.
Sekou Toure in neighbouring Guinea never trusted the international community. He thumbed his nose at them and prevailed.
We should go back to our core philosophy to depend on the people and the grassroots instead. It is there that our power resides. Whenever APC listens to and obeys the people, we always prevail. We are the most popular party in the nation and the people love us. We control the crowds. We must harness their power oncr again for the good of the nation. Let APC decide to return to our core values . That is what has always given us victory. I will deal with that in my next installment.