Is the politics of reasoning gravitating people toward the APC? – A rejoinder
I cannot agree more with the concerns of Richard Bockarie; Sierra Express Media contributor, about some people in Sierra Leone leaving one political party for another simply for convenience or for personal benefits. However, I am encouraged by his piece to offer my perspective on this rapidly accelerating political trend in Sierra Leone and other parts of the world. (Photo: B.M.Turay)
When the NPRC overthrew the APC party in 1992, most Sierra Leoneans decided to throw their support unto the new regime for what they thought was a moment of liberation from economic and political decadence. Others affiliated with this regime to enhance the creation of fast money or promotion of social grandeur.
Soon after the NPRC left the political scene and was replaced by the SLPP, we saw a rapid shift in support from the “Khaki boys†to the civilian regime, the SLPP. There were those who openly denounced the NPRC and treated some of its members with total disrespect and disdain; even though members of this same SLPP government took part in planning the NPRC take-over in the first place. This is an unfortunate fact of life and Sierra Leone has never been an exception to this misfortune.
The brief but nerve-breaking emergence of the AFRC regime in the political limelight of Sierra Leone, under the leadership of Maj. Johnny Paul Koroma, was greeted with less open support but underground appreciation by perhaps the same political prostitutes who had played the same game with the APC, NPRC and the SLPP. When the SLPP came back to power, through the assistance of British Mercenaries and ECOMOG forces, the same political prostitution continued. But when I look at the whole situation, those who are playing this game constitute a very noticeable minority of our total voting population.
After the war, and with the many civic organizations now operating in the country, Sierra Leoneans of different political affiliation have come to embrace good work and good governance, not necessarily from leaders in the political party that they identified with but, from any party that brings a smile to their face and help inculcate hope in them.
Let us take the SLPP and APC as a case in point: after 12 years of SLPP rule, Sierra Leoneans, including the very supporters of the SLPP, were smart enough to realize that things were not going the right direction. They realized that bad road networks; food insufficiency; corruption; a troubling economy and civil society development continued to stagnate. As a consequence, the SLPP lost the trust and support once reposed on them by the very accommodating people of this great nation. In the end, the SLPP lost to the APC and to the leadership of Dr. Earnest B. Koroma.
Perhaps it should be encouraging to all Sierra Leoneans that our people can now freely decide to throw their support on any political party that they believe is responding very rapidly to their needs and hopes. This is what our politics is supposed to be about, in the first place – a politics that should cater for and from the grass root going up.
The Bumbuna Hydro project started before some of us were born. The APC of Dr. Siaka Steven spent 24 years on this project and the SLPP of Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, spent an additional 12 years doing the same things that were done on this project from the day of its inception, which is something I would call, “shifted or misplaced priorities in dealing with grass root problemsâ€.
2007 came around and Dr. Earnest Koroma came into the spot light. He too embarked on the same path toward completing the Bumbuna project; and by 2010, the project, for the first time, is able to generate electricity.
The same is true about the Kenema –Kailahun; the Port Loko- Kambia; and the Freetown peninsular road networks. The Kenema Kailahun road network will facilitate commerce between our country and neighboring Liberia. The Port Loko Kambia road will do the same between our country and neighboring Guinea.
As the people of Sierra Leone continue to see some of these developments, it becomes very clear to them that the New APC is ready to govern with exceptional difference; and is very serious about addressing the problems of people at the grass root level going forward. There is therefore little wonder that Sierra Leoneans from other political parties are gravitated toward the APC of Earnest Bai Koroma.
Good leadership and the desire to make a significant difference has come to characterize the Earnest Koroma led APC. Soon, we will come to describe those honest and result-oriented people of our nation of Sierra Leone as “political realists†instead of “political prostitutes†if they can draw the fine line between blind loyalty and love of country (patriotism).
Brima M. Turay, PRO; APC NA
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