APC Today More Inclusive Than SLPP

The APC of yesteryears always maintained a strong presence in Kailahun through Tamba E. Juana, in Pujehun through Francis M. Minnah, in Kenema through Joseph B. Dauda and this list goes on for other areas including Kono, Bo, Bonthe and Moyanba. These districts constitute the heart of what is today called SLPP stronghold in Sierra Leone. However, it does a great justice to also say that the SLPP of yesteryears had an equally considerable presence in the North — the so-called APC stronghold. But while the North is today an almost no-go zone for SLPP, APC continues to maintain a strong presence in the Southeast. This makes today’s APC a far more inclusive political party than SLPP.

The Bio factor, aggravated by his pa-o-pa club philosophy, has virtually reduced today’s SLPP to a one-man business club. SLPP is today full of threats, infightings, mistrusts, jealousies and all the vices of divisionist philosophy. To say the least, it is actually inconceivable what SLPP has today degenerated into. Never at any point in history has there been so much division and exodus in SLPP as it is today under the stewardship of Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio. This makes us wonder why Bio still continue to make attention in the SLPP Party.

In the eyes of the millions of youths of Sierra Leone, it is all but a Messianic Prophesy that Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio will become a Head of State somewhere at some point in time. Just before the 2012 elections, it was all apparent that Bio will be the Head of State of Sierra Leone. Now just a little over one year after that aspiratory election, this beautiful dream is all of a sudden shredded in mystery. The political calculus has changed altogether and in a colossal way.

Even though very briefly, Bio was once the Head of State of Sierra Leone. Surely, Bio had wanted to continue in that capacity for a much longer time were he able to convince the nation on his shrewdly crafted “Peace Before Election” drive. Although Bio will forever be credited for hauling Foday Sankoh (The All Devilish RUF Rebel Leader) head-on from the depths of the forests of Sierra Leone and solidly pinning him on the negotiating table, Bio, for whatever reason, failed to convince Sierra Leone in both the Bintumani One and Bintumani Two Conferences on his “Peace Before Election” campaign. Bio could have also been the Head of State of Ghana had he naturalized there and had his business prospered in that country. Yet unfortunately for Bio again, none of these preconditions ever materialized.

Yet Bio is still a very vibrant force to reckon with. Bio, a career soldier turned politician and turned businessman and again turned politician, still has the stamina to do unimaginable wonders. Being extremely shrewd, highly adaptive and ever resilient, Bio is that kind of genius who sees things far beyond what the average person can naturally comprehend. This adds to Bio’s wonders of doing things in surprisingly impressive ways. Bio is a known endless listener and non-action figure, which feature made him to peacefully hand over power to late Tejan Kabbah in 1996. There are so many such good qualities of this handsome gentleman that actually make him so widely beloved by the youths of Sierra Leone.

Bio could have never married the Gambian-born beauty queen for no good reason. Gambia is a sister and friendly state to Sierra Leone. Just like Bio, the current Head of State of Gambia (Yahya Jammeh) is also a retired soldier and a likely distant comrade of Bio. Both Bio and Jammeh have real-world experience of combat. Bio and Jammeh share so many more in common that Bio too is bound to be a Head of State somewhere sometime soon. Now the living fact Bio has a Gambian lady, just as Jammeh does, makes this Messianic Prophesy of Presidency more a matter of time.

It was a rumor of fact that His Excellency President Dr. Earnest Bai Koroma promised, in the ground-breaking peace deal in Conakry, to hand over power to Bio in the would-be 2017/18 elections in Sierra Leone. It is increasingly now evident that President Koroma will indeed live up to that ground-breaking promise. We the Sierra Leoneans, starting from the Paramount Chiefs to the Parliamentarians, are now in the process of calling for a 7-year third term for President Koroma. This, of course, will work by every means by amending the National Constitution as it is being done now and approved by us the Parliamentarians.

If, however, for whatever reason this fails by elections, then President Koroma would have to gracefully succumb to his Ground-breaking peace deal. In that case, we would only say hurray to Bio. But the base line logic is that President Koroma would request for and be granted the green light to run for a third term. Unlike Kabbah who found it not so smooth to deprive Belewa of the presidency, Koroma will be the very man running for the third term. As the ground-breaking deal calls for, Koroma will make sure that he deliberately loses the elections to Bio. This will save Koroma the arduous task of persuading someone from his own APC Party to do so; a lesson learned from the bitter experience Kabbah had to die with. In that case, bio would have then been the President of Sierra Leone and would have lived long enough to see his Messianic Prophesy of Presidency fully fulfilled.

In the absence of this honey scenario, it only makes me hope for one last possibility. If His Excellency President Dr. Earnest Bai Koroma indeed runs for third term and grabs power then, it will only mean that Bio will have to look to the North to fulfill his Messianic Prophesy of Presidency. Bio would have to Naturalize in The Gambia to legitimatize him to take over the Presidency of that peaceful country after his comrade, Yahya Jammeh, retires from the scene. With this I say Good Luck to my beloved brother, Bio. May the Lord our God ever guide you through this difficult journey to presidency.

God Bless Sierra Leone!

By Sulay B. Conteh

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