The SLPP – A great party!
The Chief Election officers of the Ivory Coast and Guinea have declared their determination NOT TO WITHHOLD OR DELAY the results of the recent polls held in their respective countries. (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)
Tanzania was quick to release their results. The election problem and the fracas that followed in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria were as a result of the Chief elections Officials holding on to the election results unnecessarily too long, in fact much too long. That led to suspicion that something “funny” was taking place.
In Sierra Leone the members of the now opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) began to lose confidence in Christiana Thorpe’s handling of the results when she began to announce them selectively despite protests. Her refusal to display the actual certified figures for each polling station and her ultimate invalidation of the results from 477 polling stations simply added insult to injury. Her repeated utterances of a free fair and transparent election in 2012 has certainly not cleared our mistrust, especially the way she is manipulating the appointment of electoral commissioners. I wonder if she is listening to her counterparts in Guinea and the Ivory Coast.
Christiana Thorpe’s maneuver in association with some representatives of the international community was the main factor that brought the APC to power. From the violence that followed and the regionally divisive policy of the new government, coupled with its vindictive dismissals may have led many, mostly its supporters to assume that the SLPP was a finished political entity. What irritates the over zealot APC supporters is the absolute refusal of the opposition to die. On the contrary it has displayed an amazing resilience and self-confidence that has amazed them. Despite much effort and misuse of state machinery, (the Daily Mail newspaper is to be published on-line from New York and edited by Kabs Kanu the founder of Cocorioko and who is now deputy Permanent Representative at the Sierra Leone UN Mission. The party has withstood all the onslaught and remained strong and united with many formerly disillusioned members coming back home.
How else would 23 men and women, people of value would be vying to lead the party? The ruling APC has to perform a real miracle and a palpable turn-around to eclipse this resurgent opposition.
It is said that a chain is as strong as its weakest point. For now the weak link in the SLPP is the Member of Parliament for constituency 4 in the Kissi Tongi chiefdom of Kailahun district, the honourable Tamba Bobor-Sawyer. He displayed his first act of treachery soon after the Local government elections of 2008 when the ruling APC candidate lost to the opposition SLPP candidate in constituency 4. Honourable Bobor Sawyer addressed a letter to honourable Vice President Alhajie Sam-Sumana telling the latter that the APC lost because they refused to heed his advice about the selection of a suitable candidate. A copy of that letter was forwarded to the Secretary-General of the APC, the Regional minister east and the APC appointed Sierra Leone ambassador to Washington. Up to this moment he could give no tangible reason for his action. His colleagues in Parliament had become very concerned because he refuses to follow the party line on all issues.
Over the Christiana Thorpe confirmation, he says it was because the lady had personally carved out his chiefdom as a single constituency. His behavior was the subject of a formal complaint to the party executive; his response then and on other occasions has been irrelevant to the issues; he would go to great lengths to narrate is efficiency as a former senior police officer until Keith Biddle the then Inspector-General recommended his dismissal from the force. Even David Tam-Baryoh could not get anything constructive when he was asked on the Governance radio programme why he was always out of tune with his party colleagues in the house. He spent a lot of time explaining the origins of the Kissis and the Makona Union without answering the question. The party leadership had asked him to step aside from participating in official matters until his matter was thoroughly investigated. About a month ago a high powered party delegation was sent to discuss his behavior with his constituents at which meeting he undertook to reform. In response to the formal report that I forwarded to the national chairman he addressed a letter to the Minority Parliamentary leader the contents of which bore little relevance to what transpired at the meeting in his constituency.
On the contrary he has devoted more than two pages in the Standard Times newspaper, which incidentally has become the repository for his imagined wrongs and takes delight in publishing his irrelevant and wholly inaccurate accounts. I keep repeating that the honourable member must be suffering from delusions and out of reality.
The British Labour party went through a crisis with one of its left wingers Nye Bevan who as minister of health introduced the very successful National Health Service NHS 1946. The party eventually took disciplinary action against Bevan who ultimately purged his behavior before he was restored.
We reminded Sawyer’s constituents of the options open to the party and to a man they all condemned his behavior. I am informed that he suffered a similar fate in a recent Kissi Tongi descendants’ meeting in Freetown, but the man would not change. Soon the party leadership will have to deal effectively with the matter. Maybe he would like to join the APC. It is reassuring that all this resurgence is taking place in spite of the honourable member for constituency four.
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