INSINCERE YOKING, HANDSHAKES AND PHOTO-OPS CANNOT DISGUISE REALITY: WE WANT GENUINE RECONCILIATION , NOT TACIT SURRENDER
By Kabs Kanu
We want genuine reconciliation between SLPP and APC . If the possibility ever exists for both the SLPP and APC to put aside past grievances and wrongs and begin working together with shared commitments and objectives to move our nation forward, such a gesture must be hailed to the high heavens by all citizens.
After all, nobody is bigger than the nation . We are one country, one people. Despite all our shortcomings on both sides and grievances held against one another, if the SLPP – APC duopoly in Sierra Leone politics is headed towards reconciliation and peaceful coexistence between our two feuding political parties ( If this will ever be possible ), it is something that every true born Sierra Leonean must celebrate. We are tired of the cat- and- dog relationship between the SLPP and the APC.
Genuine reconciliation, not surrender by one party
However, attending one another’s events marked by handshakes and photo- ops cannot be genuine reconciliation if underlying thorny, vexing and hurtful issues have not been sufficiently addressed and there is no commitment that the stronger party will stop all its grievous acts to the less stronger partner. How can one say that he has reconciled with an enemy that is continuing to punch him ?
As things stand, the attendance of the SLPP National Convention in Freetown by the Deputy leader of the embattled APC , Ambassador Osman Yansaneh, should stop being classified as reconciliation or working together for the general good between the SLPP and the APC or a desire by both parties to move forward in one accord.
For there to be genuine reconciliation , contrition or sorrow for past wrongs is imperative, followed by restitution and a genuine, unfeigned commitment not to perpetrate those wrongs again. The Bible clearly teaches that. Zaccheus resolved to return everything he had stolen before he received genuine forgiveness for sin and redemption from Jesus Christ. Read Luke 19: 1-10.
No acknowledment and contrition for past atrocities
Have the SLPP admitted and shown remorse for the many atrocities, human rights abuses , bloodshed in APC strongholds, extrajudicial lkillings , strong- handed deprivation of the rights and priviledges of supporters of the APC , exclusion of APC members and Northwesterners from governance through the worst display of tribalism and regionalism ever seen in Sierra Leone and the heartbreaking daylight robbery of the 2023 presidential elections by Maada Bio ?
In any situation where the relationship is lop- sided and one party is taking undue and repeated advantage of the other , for there to be genuine forgiveness and reconciliation, the bully must acknowledge his fault , be ready to give the victim his rights and create a free, fair and equal playing field. Without this, it is not reconciliation ; it is capitulation.
Since 2018 when it seized power from the APC , the SLPP has committed multitudinous , egregious and horrid atrocities against the APC. So far, the SLPP has not admitted committing any wrong to the APC. The SLPP has not admitted that it stole the 2023 elections with the kind of vulgar panache and impunity ever seen in this country . To this day, the SLPP is justfying itself that it did no wrong to the extent that the APC flagbearer, Dr. Samura Kamara, who signed the so-called post- election Agreement of National Unity and the Tripartite agreement has abandoned the process along with myriad of supporters within the country and the diaspora , calling for electoral justice. With this contentious issue festering and unresolved, how can any so- called reconciliation between SLPP and APC now be genuine? Without electoral justice, it is fake .
No commitment not to perform same atrocities again
Furthermore, there is no genuine and serious commitment from the SLPP that they will not steal another election in Sierra Leone. As a matter of fact, President Maada Bio has pulled a fast one on the morons in the diplomatic circle and international community pushing the tripartite agreement by putting diabolical structures in place to steal the 2028 elections , including appointing a die- hard, criminally – inclined SLPP member to be electoral commissioner of the East, against bitter protests by the APC.
Yesterday, to drum home to the world that he is not even taking the tripartite process serioudly, President Bio vowed and bragged at the SLPP Convention that he will ensure that the SLPP become the first party in Sierra Leone to ever win three terms in a row. People think he is talking about elections. Maybe, he did not state it well. He was not talking about elections per se because even a dunce knows that the APC achieved it in 1967, 1973 and 1978 . In the new dispensation brought about by the 1991 constitutional electoral structures established , no party has won three terms in a row. That was what Maada Bio was bragging to accomplish yesterday.
So, the SLPP is cooking another grand scheme to steal the elections again and with no civil society or judiciary or radical media operating in the country ( Save a handful ) , the people cowardly to stand up to him, and the hypocritical international community all talk and no robust action to stop him, Bio is relishing the prospects that he might get away with it again. Is this something too difficult for Yansaneh and others to know ? What are they doing about it ? It is a serious problem that needs addressing. It will not be done by fooling the public that all is going well between the two parties .
Now, let us ask ourselves : Would the SLPP had waived its morbid animosity for the APC and attended yesterday’s Convention, if the SLPP had been the opposition party that had suffered so much since 2018 and from whom the 2023 elections were stolen in broad daylight and whose members had been brutally murdered by the president’s forces and excluded from government through the most heinous tribalism ever seen in our country ? The nation would have in fact been in total chaos if APC had done to the SLPP the depravities, bloodshed and violence we have seen since 2018.
Let us ask further : Is the SLPP ready to give APC their rights and privileges , create a level playing field in political participation and future elections and show a resolve to stop killing APC supporters who take part in demonstrations ? Has the SLPP released the hundreds of APC supporters and Northwesterrners it has been holding at the notorious Pademba Road Prisons for joining demonstrations against the government, part of the recommendations of the tripartite committee ?
Some people were lauding Political tolerance yesterday ,but what pillars are the tolerance built upon ? What foundations precipitated the political tolerance ?
The photos below tell a tale of a million words, none complimentary to both parties. This is no genuine political tolerance . If anything , it is a manifestation of what has been going on in the country since 208—One party audaciously pulling all the strings and the the leaders of the other just being tamely dragged along. The photos are not a genuine reflection of the dynamics, emotions and reality of the state of affairs between the two parties. They are just a ploy to please Maada Bio while he continuing harming the APC.
It was not a genuine reconciliation of two political parties but few individuals with vested interests in the political stratosphere . It was not genuine reconciliation or a desire to work together for the National good. It was just stinking hypocrisy at work and capitulation by the APC !!
SLPP is not serious about genuine reconciliation , democracy and political pluralism in Sierra Leone. This message should be very clear to everybody in the APC. Maada Bio is just fooling the world and the APC.
Maada Bio will never grant the APC their rights without a fight. So, playing along with Bio’s deceit and subterfuge to pretend that all is well is just another concession of defeat by the APC and another betrayal of the party.
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