APC’s political poaching – an act of desperation?
As they approach their 36th month in office, the ruling APC should be preparing an account of their stewardship to the people of Sierra Leone who are waiting to read the catalogue of achievement since the declared policy of turning the country around in 36 months. On their assumption of office I cautioned them that the rhetoric of opposition was a quite different matter from the reality of running a government. It certainly is not the end of term report but we are judging them ruling a government by their own declared undertakings. It is important to make this demand because the results have not matched their words. (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)
The prices of basic commodities remain outside the reach of the average citizen; the exchange rate still hovers around 4,000 US dollars. We have had nothing but dismal examination results beginning with the record bad performance of 2008. No new infrastructures have been put in place so far apart from the completion or continuation of major SLPP projects. As for attitudinal change which has received so much publicity and funding, the question asked is “Where are the changes?” There has been no end to political violence and intimidation.
The party interferes in such areas as student’s elections to ensure that a pro APC government is put in place in every tertiary institution. Paramount chieftaincy elections did not escape the intervention of party stalwarts. Regionalism and nepotism have been intensified, the latest example being the restructured office of the Diasporas in the Presidency; the names of the new leaders in there speak for themselves. As for rebranding the image of the country Forbes latest disclosure about Sierra Leone being the worst place to live speaks volumes.
The party has made several attempts to break the opposition party’s strong hold on the south and east. It introduced violence and brutality in the Pujehun by-elections having poured millions into the exercise all of which ended disastrously for them. Charles Margai’s defection from the SLPP and his PMDC buttressed their position in the runoff elections in the south. The reward for that has been bare-faced poaching of disaffected PMDC members. Benjamin Davies was sacked as PMDC nominated minister of lands which caused him to resign from his party to join the APC. He was immediately rewarded with the plump job of Ports Manager.
During the travails of the APC in opposition, a very senior stalwart wanted to defect to the ruling SLPP, but former President Tejan-Kabbah was able to prevail on him to change his mind and remain in his party in order to enhance the democratic process. Not so the APC in power. As stated above, when Tombo Bangura and other staunch PMDC members resigned from their party, the APC wasted no time in poaching them. They forgot the tremendous boost they had received from the PMDC in the runoff Presidential elections and today several hundred former PMDC stalwarts and members are now in the APC, leaving the former politically weak and unstable. Brutality and coercion having failed in Pujehun, the leadership, no doubt on the advice of Musa Tarawalli the resident minister south the party have now turned their attention on Bo and Kenema. From what one has read in some newspapers, the present action is nothing short of outright bribery.
What baffles ordinary people is this; if the APC has been so successful in their three years in office, “achieving what the SLPP failed to achieve in 11 years why, O why are they running after former SLPP stalwarts and former MPs with money. Why would they not leave it to those members to decide for themselves, based on the government’s declared achievements?” As an act of desperation, the APC has now resorted to political poaching and bribery to swell their numbers in the south and east. We have a lot of confidence in our members who certainly know what they are doing.
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