COPPP is the only sane path to liberate our people from the creeping totalitarian madness in Sierra Leone. Our people have fought and made enormous sacrifices with life and blood to gain their freedom due to despotic rule under the one party rule of president Siaka Stevens, which lead to 11 years of destructive war.
The political leadership or aspiring leadership within the COPPP must drop their personal ambition and egos to recognise the common threats facing our country and democracy.
A great personal sacrifices by aspiring presidential candidates are needed and it’s a must inorder to remove the paopa SLPP a year from now.
Nothing less will do.
Sierra Leone is at a cross road. Our people are suffering, they may be divided, but what brings them together is their common aspiration to be free, to have job , to be treated fairly and with respect; to be able to provide foods for their families; to be treated equally before the law, to have equal access to services; to have state institutions such as the judiciary, the police and public institutions working for them.
These are the fundamental imperatives that should inform and strengthen the collective wisdom of COPPP. It is a moral and pramatic choice as well. Yes there are differnces in politics but personal leadership and the sense of belonging or ownership should not scupper the collective desire of COPPP.
Reforming Sierra Leone to ensure that no single tribe or groups of party political outfit, with the primary porpose to first enrich themselves quickly by taken over total control of the political space and the economic mismanagement, must be rid off and never again tolerated.
I understand there are 13 opposition parties, comprising of the main opposition APC, the C4C,the NGC,PMDC,Unity Party etc etc.
Bio won the election by a small margin ,51.8 percent in the run off. In the first ballot, only 15,000 votes separated the two main parties APC and SLPP.
So let’s us say that the total opposition coalition votes is 14 percent with NGC 6.8 percent,though I believe NGC got more votes than this figure shows, C4C 3.5 percent and the rest including PMDC transfer their votes to COPPP by what economist refers to as preference maximisation.
For COPPP to ensure first round victory, they must not go in to the election with separate leaders of their respective parties but a united and by all means possible one presidential candidate.
Any attempt to go it alone and hope to coalesce in the run off is too risky a strategy when facing a very determined crooked incumbent that do not play by the rule.
Paopas are doing everything they could, making maximum use of their incumbency to prevent a run off.
But if there was a run off, this, I believe will play in their hands. Being the incumbent and in control of the country’s finances , they will be in a better position to woo leaders of the smaller opposition parties to support them by making deals with them on lucrative job appointments or as government ministers.
Thus the opposition parties have no choice but to deny the incumbent a straight victory, which will be unlikely but cannot be ignored given the gullibility of Sierra Leone electorates.
In a free and fair elections in which there are level plain field, the paopas would struggle to have 37 percent of the national votes or pull a vote equal to the percentage they got in the first round of elections in 2018.
The reason are not hard to find. The government has failed to deliver on the central manifesto commitment they made to the people of Sierra Leone that they would fix the economy in a very short period of time.
Nearly 4 years in power, there is no doubt that they have not only spectercularly failed but they have plunged the economy into further stresses and chaos, leading to an exceptional sufferings and hardship for almost every household in the country except for those in power and their associates holding high paying political jobs.
The government promised to prudent fiscal management of the economy, to close leakages and exercise fiscal discipline have all turned out to be quite the opposite.
The paopas have mismanaged the economy, and they should be honest to admit this, instead of pouring our excuses and blame others. They have wasted more of the country’s money in 4 years than 10 years of their predecessor.
They have heaped more debts on our country for which future generations wouldn’t be able to pay even when they were no longer in power by 2023.
The amount of missing and unaccounted for public funds is higher now under this four years of the paopanistas than when they came to power in 2018.
The Leone, which is the country’s currency was 7 000 to a British pound when they came to power in 2018, in 4 years, it has depreciated to 15,239 to a one pound British sterling.
The government cannot convince anyone that the economy is better now and things are better in the country than 4 years ago, though ,at the time,when the APC was in power, I personally called them out as ‘the most corrupt and incompetent ‘ government ever in Sierra Leone.
But what I have seen since paopas came to power, I need a super adjectives to express my disgust and feelings.
It’s been a roller skating with the paopas in managing the economy– they simply can’t.
In terms of good governance practices, the paopas have made more enemies than made new friends, except for the former disgruntled and questionable characters in the former APC government who have transferred to the ruling paopa SLPP presumably to seek refuge from further criminal investigation on corruption allegations.
Serious human rights violations including unlawful killings even within the ruling party supporters have been committed with no one being held accountable.
The independence and impartiality of state apparatus and institutions are being questioned as ever.
An increase in police brutally and their susceptibility to incipient political directives, interference and control –underpin by low moral and low pay should not be dismissed ,if we have to have a professional, independent and efficient policing.
So by and large , the oppositions must be united against a problematic and cunning opponent who have all the advantages of an incumbent and can use them craftily and will not hasitate to use those advantages ruthlessly.
The APC should never entertain the notion that being the main opposition, they can do it alone. This is not the time, for these are unprecedented trying times for our fragile democracy, the urgency for a cooperate opposition front in the general elections when faced with a slippery political opponent cannot be emphasised.
May God guide and bless our police and soldiers to protect our country and people.
Yankuba Kai-Samba
Writing from Chelmsford UK
