PMDC at the crossroads (Part Two)!

“Mr. Leader, in concluding this letter, based on all of the above highlights, and your recent comments in the standing committee meetings- where you categorically stated that the PMDC seems to be incapable of managing itself financially, and must think of another option, and where you also responded to a question about your style of leadership, by mentioning that you will have a word for the party after your consultation with your family, and, as you also mentioned in one of our meetings again that if it becomes difficult for one to cure a cancer from a part of the body, that part of the body must be cut off, I am of the opinion that you are certainly admitting your incapability to continue to be the leader of the PMDC. Mr. Leader, based on all of the facts mentioned above, and based on your current performance in the party, it is now clearly evident that you have lost the will power to continue to lead a promising party like the PMDC. In that regard, I am humbly suggesting that you consider the honourable option of stepping aside as leader of the PMDC, so that other members can step up to the plate”.

These are the words of Mohamed Bangura, the ill-placed chairman of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), in a red-worded letter addressed to Charles Francis Margai, the non-performing leader of the party.

In the said letter, Mohamed Bangura admitted that the PMDC has lost momentum, saying “Mr. Leader, it may be to your notice that all is not going well within the PMDC at this time. It is evidently clear that since the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary elections in this country, the momentum which the PMDC had, and the motivation and inspiration which the party offered to its membership has rapidly eroded. It is also very evident that the charisma and political support which you brought to the party has dwindled very rapidly. Those facts are evident in the many resignations of key members from our party. The people with whom you initially sat down and planned, developed and implemented the PMDC at its initial stage are nowhere to be seen today. When you turn around and check for those founding members of our party, you hardly see many of them. Have you tried to understand why those key founding members are leaving the PMDC?”

Mohamed Bangura in his hypocritical letter also went on to state that “Mr. Leader, it is also very clear that finance continues to be another serious problem for the PMDC. Since our voluntary eviction from our previous headquarters, you are aware that we are only able to utilize our current location as a result of the kindness of our good ally who helped us pay a rent for a year-or else, the PMDC would have been in existence without a building: that I can call the party headquarters. What a disgrace that would have been? As I write this letter, the landlord is now at our backs, requesting for the remaining two-year rent of the three-year lease agreement. Not stopping there, as a party we found it difficult to fund the past bye- elections. Had it not been for the assistance we received from our allies, we would have found it very difficult to effectively participate in those elections. The national party’s bank account is in the red. We are not boastful of any funds in that account. All of this points to a serious looming problem that the party faces now”.

That is not all, Mohamed Bangura pointed out that “Mr. Leader, the recent bye-elections’ results clearly show that PMDC is losing support and membership from its main base under your leadership. As you are aware, we lost both of the two local council elections in Bo, and lost the parliamentary elections in Pujehun. These were once our strong holds since the formation of the PMDC, but it seems that we have lost those strongholds. We have seen senior party members including founding members leaving our party. The most disturbing is our inability to attract more members to enroll in our party. Consider the attendant of our standing committee meetings, you will see that the same people are always in attendance for over a year and, we are not seeing any innovations, or bringing more people of substance to the party. Another problem is our inability to coordinate with other party members including those in the Diasporas so as to engage in a more meaningful activity for our party”.

Disappointingly, or rather frustratingly, Mohamed Bangura noted that “Mr. Leader, shortly after the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary elections we had a very good relationship with other political parties and their members, especially the ruling All People’s Congress (APC). Today, those relationships have been gravely mismanaged to the detriment of the PMDC”.

Not stopping there, Mohamed Bangura in outright cover-up said “And lastly, lack of respect for our membership is also another factor for people to leave the party. People call requesting for important information, but the tone and manner of response to them have also contributed largely to the party’s current predicament. Based on my experience as a member of the PMDC since 2007, and my current capacity as the chairman of this party, after researches and other efforts gearing towards finding out the reasons that culminated in our decline, I have come to a conclusion that each one of the problems highlighted above have something to do with your style of leadership. The charisma, motivation and inspiration which you brought to the party in its early days have completely diminished”.

To say the least, I was not expecting these words to come from Mohamed Bangura.  The good thing that they are in fact coming from Mohamed Bangura who came from nowhere and became the party’s first publicity secretary and later chairman, is the fact that it goes to expose his insincerity and political immaturity.

Why would Mohamed Bangura attempt to pile all the burden of responsibility on Margai for the current predicament of the party? Why does he now want the public to believe that he is not in control of things as chairman of the party?  Also, why does he want the public to believe that he is only now knowing or coming to the conclusion that Margai has become a liability to the party?

Was this not the same Mohamed Bangura who rudely walked out of an executive meeting in Bo and gave an interview to Concord Times newspaper few hours later in which he declared Margai as a dictator and as unfit to lead the PMDC to victory?

The question is, if a publicity secretary of a political party with the responsibility of marketing a presumed presidential material is going round and making such remarks about that individual, wasn’t that enough reason to pass a vote of no confidence on him?

How come Mohamed Bangura, after acting unprofessionally and immaturely by declaring to the whole world that his leader Charles Francis Margai is a dictator and unfit to lead the PMDC to victory, turned back and started campaigning for him to be re-elected as leader of the party? Isn’t that a double standard attitude?

Was Mohamed Bangura, in his madness to become chairman of the PMDC not in the forefront in heartlessly and shamelessly rigging the constituencies, districts and regional elections so as to give Margai an undue edge over his co-contenders for the leadership and his own contenders for the chairmanship position?

Mohamed Bangura, even though he raised very salient points hinging on the survival of the party which he himself contributed in no small way to destroy, should not be taken seriously.

I think his sole intention is to further damage what if any that remains of Margai’s political future, and by so doing projecting his own insignificant image as a young and dynamic politician…which he is not and will never be.

The question is, what has Mohamed Bangura achieved so far by way of putting the party on a sound footing ahead of the 2012 elections since assuming that position? Has he been able to bring back a single member that has left the party?

If today Mohamed Bangura is telling the world that the party has not been able to attract new members since the 2007 general elections, then he was blatantly lying to the public when in response to the defection of Dauda Tombo Bangura and 650 others to the ruling APC, he stated categorically in a Radio UN interview that ‘the party remains intact and attracting scores of new members daily’.

Why is Mohamed Bangura asking Margai to explain the reason why those who actually matter in the party have left…when he knows exactly what is responsible for that…and knowing also that he himself is in fact a major contributor to that?

Again, why is Mohamed Bangura complaining about the lack of funds when he personally helped drove away a good number of those who were willing to spend their last penny to see that the PMDC succeeds in its bid to assume the governance of the state? Did Mohamed Bangura not refer to Femi Boyle Hebron whose house the party was using as secretariat and who spent thousands of dollars on the party as a “liability”? Did he also not refer to Hon. Dauda Tombo Bangura, the man whose vehicle DTB 001 Margai was campaigning with at the very early stage of the PMDC and who spent a fortune to sponsor the party especially in the northern region as a ‘bonga tail’ and as being “politically immature”?

Why is Mohamed Bangura complaining about office space now? Does Mohamed Bangura really know what he is up to? He just can’t escape responsibility for the demise of the PMDC.

Concluding, let me here state that Mohamed Bangura hasn’t the singular authority to ask Charles Francis Margai to step down?

Since when has Mohamed Bangura become the actor, the player and the be-all for the PMDC?

Look out for Part Three!

By Theophilus S. Gbenda, Freetown

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