By KABS KANU
Sierra Leonean commentators at home and in the diaspora on online talk shows and their hosts are fuming with anger.
We at COCORIOKO think that it is because something Sierra Leoneans are underplaying is going on that is very detrimental to peace and security in our nation. We think that either one of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) and the opposition All People’s Congress ( APC ) or both parties are not upfront with the truth about the Tripartite Committee —And this is slowly leading our nation back into the palisades of conflict.
Throughout last week, many insanely apoplectic, angry and vituperative talk show hosts in some of the most-watched online TV stations have been spewing bitter tirades at both the SLPP and APC and describing them as two cursed political parties that have ganged up against the people and are not fit for any purpose in Sierra Leone.
Indeed, after their splenetic attacks on both the SLPP and APC , when the talk show hosts opened their stations to the public for comments, the tirades from the public against both the SLPP and APC were even more gross, ribald, sickening , ireful, inflamed and condescending and their bile demonstrated a very troubling spectacle presently going through the country—steaming ,vengeful ire that may not bode well for the nation, with sections of the country now calling for an uprising against the system to take back their country, not only from the ruling Maada Bio government but what many of them are describing as unserious and rotten politicians within both the SLPP and APC. When you study the accents of the callers and commentators, they seem to cut across all ethnic groups , so SLPP propagandists must stop fooling themselves that the threats of confusion are coming only from Northwesterners or APC supporters. Please , let us face the truth—SIERRA LEONEANS ACROSS THE BOARD ARE VERY ANGRY.
This is happening because many people now feel betrayed that the Tripartite Committee, which , they thought, was meant to restore democracy in Sierra Leone has not met the expectations of the people, with a foreboding that both the SLPP and the APC have joined forces and are now working in tandem to produce an outcome from the Tripartite Committee that will only satiate their selfish, political and power-hungry desires—All of this because people suspect that both the ruling party and the opposition are being criminally economic with the truth about the trajectory of the Committee, turning the whole process into a guessing game for the people.
While the opposition APC continues warning its supporters not to preempt the outcome of the Committee because anything is yet possible, the President, Retired Brig. Maada Bio, the Chief Minister Dr. David Moinina Sengeh , the Minister of Information for Civil Education, Chernoh Bah and key officials and supporters of the SLPP are accusing APC opinion-leaders and officials of misinforming their followers and giving them false hopes. Because of distrust for our politicians, this variance in the expectations of both parties is fueling lots of doubts and apprehension in the minds of the people and this is what is making them angry .
The contentious sticking points are the conflicting perspectives being peddled to the public — the SLPP are snugly convinced and are articulating it to supporters and the nation that nothing else will come from the committee other than recommendations about how to reform the electoral system for future elections while APC supporters are all over the press and social media feeding adherents with hopes that since, according to them, the committee has discovered that the APC actually won the 2023 elections, power is about to be handed over to their presidential flagbearer, Dr. Samura Kamara , or at worst , a rerun of the disputed elections is about to be ordered as one of the outcomes of the committee . APC supporters are even contending that the ECOMOG Standby Force is being sent to Sierra Leone not to protect the Bio government but to ensure that these perceived recommendations that favour the party are implemented and Bio quits office.
What is however glaringly and annoyingly confusing and disputatious is that this information of power being handed over to Samura Kamara or the scheduling of a rerun are not coming from any APC member of the Tripartite Committee, Samura Kamara himself or the executive of the APC, BECAUSE ALL OF THEM HAVE REMAINED TIGHT-LIPPED MORE THAN EVER , with many newspapers and concerned citizens on social media urgently urging the party to speak up. A veteran politician and MP , Alhaji I.B. Kargbo recently added his voice to the chorus of Sierra Leoneans beseeching the Tripartite Committee, especially, to come clean. He postulated that since the Committee is not briefing the public on a stage-by-stage basis, it has led to “the dangerous notion whereby the two political parties, the APC and the SLPP, have decided that each party is at liberty to draw its own conclusion as to what the tripartite is all about.”
The public’s anger with the APC was exacerbated two weeks ago when the party joined the SLPP to issue a joint public statement condemning hate speech and inciting statements. Why would the APC join forces with the SLPP to condemn incendiary speech when it is President Bio and his extremist social media supporters who are busy making inciting statements and threats against the public, many people asked . Further, when party spokesman Sidi Yaya Tunis joined the SLPP to publicly announce that there will be no runoff, the APC did not debunk him officially. Why is the SLPP busy asserting that there will be no rerun and the APC is saying nothing to refute the statements ? This is the question that is bothering everybody and has led to social media outbursts that the APC may have caved in to the SLPP. Though this has not been found to be true, as yet, the failure of the APC to tell their own supporters what they believe will be the outcome is becoming baffling everybody. Are the APC holding to their chest vital information for tactical political and diplomatic reasons ?
While all these doubts are going on, some citizens are calling for a massive uprising in Sierra Leone, if the outcome of the Tripartite Committee does not satisfy the expectations of the people. Though SLPP extremists backed by some flip-flopping APC members do not want us to report that chaos is looming in the country , Some Sierra Leoneans, who claim that they are not fighting for the APC, are calling for a public revolt against President Maada Bio and the SLPP Government after the Tripartite Committee presents its report on June 19, if there is nothing in the recommendations addressing issues like overturning the rigged elections of June 24, 2023. It had become that confusing more so when APC leaders dissociated themselves from the planned insurrection against the SLPP Government.
Another confusing layer being added to the quagmire is the plethora of information some APC bloggers and newsmen are confidently putting out daily that Dr. Samura Kamara will soon be called upon by the committee and stakeholders to form a government, as Sierra Leone’s new president and that President Bio has even started negotiating exit strategies. Where are all these information coming from ? And why are APC leaders silent over them ? Why has the U.S . Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Bryan Hunt, who has been strongly asserting in the media that there will be no rerun, now silent over the puzzling assertions floating in the social media ?
As the countdown to the date of the release of the Tripartite Committee winds down slowly, with only a week -and-a half left now, we think , in the interest of the party and the nation, the APC must come out now and inform their restive supporters and the nation what is really going on. Keeping everybody in suspense is opening up the party to more suspicions and accusations and helping to undermine peace in the country.
In all fairness to the SLPP, their own points are clearly stated and they are quoting the constitution that the committee lacks the authority to overturn elections and so there will be no rerun or power transfer. The recommendations will be for future elections, they have made it very clear . It is the APC representatives in the Tripartite Committee and the executive of the party, including Dr. Samura Kamara , who are shrouding this committee in a cloak of secrecy. They are evasive, ambivalent, equivocal, prevaricating and vague. Or is it another of the touted Samurasque political wisdom not to let the cat out of the bag and to thrive on surprises ?
I know my comments and concerns are going to provoke more attacks on me from both the SLPP and the APC, and from those who do not believe that journalists should express their doubts and seek clarification. They might feel that I ought to know better and lambast me , but I am accustomed to tirades now, myself . SIERRA LEONEANS DO NOT SURPRISE ME ANYMORE. By the way, know better about what , when you leave important strands of information loose and hanging ?
THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH, ESPECIALLY FROM YOU , APC.
Knowing the truth and living with it is better than horrible imagining. Let us hear from you whether the bloggers and writers are saying the truth about the Tripartite and whether there is any basis for the hopes they keep raising.
SEE THE PUBLIC STATEMENT BELOW. IT IS WHAT EVEN THE INDEPENDENT COMMISSION FOR PEACE AND NATIONAL COHESION IS SAYING ABOUT MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE TRIPARTITE : APC, WHAT DO YOU SAY? WHO IS SPEAKING THE TRUTH ? IF THE SLPP AND THE PEACE COMMISSION ARE NOT SAYING THE TRUTH , WHY ARE YOU NOT DEBUNKING THEM ? CONVERSELY, IF YOUR BLOGGERS, JOURNALISTS AND SUPPORTERS ARE SAYING THE TRUTH , WHY NOT AFFIRM ? WHY ARE YOU WAITING FOR GODOT ?
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