By KABS KANU
The opposition All People’s Congress ( APC ) successfully held its Court-mandated Emergency Delegates Convention over the weekend in Makeni, where the party was also gloriously able to approve its much -talked -about new constitution, a bone of contention in the APC,s recent internal squabbles and court cases.
APC met in Makeni and set roadmaps in place for a possible return to power in 2023. A democratic constitution, embracing all, that will stabilize and unite the party was approved by a 937-man emergency delegates conference.
The 937 man delegates, backed by thousands of euphoric and jubilant APC supporters from all parts of Sierra Leone and the diaspora and led by the Leader of the party , former President Ernest KOROMA, who was invited to chair the delegates conference by the court- mandated 21 -man Committee that organized the convention, had a peaceful , well-organized and ultimately fruitful uconvention that was the toast of APC lovers all over the world.
From all the reports sent by our reporters and all the images and speeches published on social media by various media groups and citizen journalists, the message the Jampacked Makeni emergency convention sent is that the APC is still the biggest , strongest and the most popular grassroots political party in Sierra Leone and, come what may, the APC is returning to power in 2023.
It is hoped that after the convention , the APC will take the lead as the biggest and most vibrant opposition to galvanize, energize and spark into full-throated action the 10-party coalition established recently to remove the SLPP from power in 2023. It was probably with this in mind that former President KOROMA, who chaired the convention, threatened that after conference he will personally lead a jihad against any member who continued destabilizing the party.
Ex-President Koroma’s threats did not go down well with dissident members of the party, who were still protesting that the mandate of Judge Adrian Fisher of the Freetown High Court, was not fully followed and that Ernest koroma was not supposed to have chaired the convention. They threatened more court actions.
However , majority of the ecstatic and jubilant APC members at the hall and following up the convention all over the world had no problem with Former President Koroma’s jihad threats because they have had enough of the internal schisms of the APC since it lost power in 2018 and would love to see a unified party now move forward to better things, energized and boosted by the weekend’s successful convention.
To COCORIOKO, this convention, which also reinstated former expelled Vice-President Sam Sumana to the party, is a glorious victory. It brought back together members of the party, and erased all the cobwebs of inertia, cynicism, scepticisms, doubts and divisive and negative emotions that had. gathered around the party and dimmed and Stalled its progress since 2018. The convention also gave the party the opportunity to see its strength and potentials and the love grassroots Sierra Leoneans have for it, so that those that had been discouraged would arise again , realizing that all has not been lost after all. The APC can still regroup and return to power in Sierra Leone, given such enormous potentials and support base.
The success of the convention is not only a victory for the APC; it is a victory for the people of Sierra Leone, who have missed the party since it lost power in 2018.
The ruling SLPP has not only failed the people of Sierra Leone with its blatant tribalism, exclusive governance style, monumental corruption , lack of concern for the suffering populace, wastefulness , human rights abuses etc. but has proved that it is no match for the APC, when it comes to the delivery of national development projects. Since it came to power in 2018: the SLPP has not initiated any sustainable development projects but have rather engaged in whopping lies and false promises.
No wonder the SLPP was jittery all weekend and daydreaming and machinating all kinds of conspiracies against the APC. From what they saw in Makeni, the prognostics are not good for them for 2023, especially if the APC build upon the momentum of the convention and press home the advantage they have to return to power in 2023.
