*The Great Betrayal: How APC’s Cowardice and Corruption Sold Out Sierra Leone’s Democracy*
*By The Mental Revolutionary*
The story of Sierra Leone’s All Peoples Congress (APC) is no longer one of legacy or liberation.
It is a tale of moral bankruptcy, a grotesque pantomime of leadership that has reduced a once-formidable political force to a cabal of spineless collaborators, complicit in the theft of their own people’s future.
The June 24th, 2023 elections should have been a triumph—a moment for the APC to cement its mandate and honour the sweat, tears, and blood of its supporters. Instead, it became a funeral for democracy, presided over by the very leaders entrusted to protect it. Let there be no ambiguity: the APC’s abandonment of its electoral victory is not a misstep. It is an unforgivable act of treachery, a slap in the face to every citizen who dared to believe in the power of their vote.
To speak of forgiveness in the wake of such betrayal is to mock the very concept of justice. Forgiveness is reserved for those who show remorse, not for politicians who flee the battlefield with their pockets lined and their consciences buried. The APC leadership had one job—to fight. To fight for the thousands who queued under scorching sun and torrential rain, for the mothers who carried babies on their backs to cast ballots, for the youth who saw in the APC a flicker of hope amid Sierra Leone’s grinding struggles. Instead, they chose to barter that hope for the hollow comfort of backroom deals and the cowardly silence of complicity. They did not just lose an election; they auctioned off the dignity of their supporters to the highest bidder.
Let us name this betrayal for what it is: **a crime against democracy**. When a political party willingly surrenders its victory—a victory handed to it by the people—it does more than concede power. It declares that the aspirations of its voters are worthless. It sends a message that the sacrifices of ordinary citizens are mere fodder for the ambitions of a corrupt elite. The APC’s failure to wage an unrelenting battle for electoral justice is not passive incompetence. It is active collusion. It is an admission that the party’s leadership values their own survival over the survival of democracy itself.
And what do they offer in place of resistance? Empty platitudes about “peace” and “unity.” They dare to preach reconciliation while the wounds of electoral theft still bleed. They host photo ops with handshakes and forced smiles, peddling the lie that all is well—that Sierra Leoneans should swallow their rage and accept the mutilation of their rights. But let us be clear: there is no peace in stolen elections. There is no unity in injustice. What the APC dismisses as “peace noise” is nothing but a cynical smokescreen, a desperate attempt to gaslight the public into forgetting that their voices were silenced, their votes discarded, and their trust spat upon.
Who are these so-called leaders? They are the architects of their own irrelevance. Men and women who swore oaths to serve the people but now serve only their egos and bank accounts. They are political vultures feasting on the carcass of a party they have gutted. They speak of “moving forward” while dragging the nation backward into an abyss of apathy. They have forgotten that the APC was not born in boardrooms or brokered deals. It was forged in the fires of struggle, built by the hands of those who believed in justice and equity. Today’s APC leaders are not heirs to that legacy—they are its grave-diggers.
The people do not ask for much. They demand only what is rightfully theirs: a government born of free and fair elections. They do not seek violence; they seek accountability. They do not crave chaos; they crave the simple assurance that their votes matter. Electoral justice is not a radical idea—it is the bare minimum of democratic governance. Yet the APC’s leadership, in their moral and strategic paralysis, can not even muster the courage to demand this basic standard. Instead, they hide behind the language of “compromise,” as though democracy is a game of concessions rather than a covenant between the governed and their leaders.
To the APC’s rank-and-file members, to the supporters who still cling to the faint hope that their party might awaken from its slumber: the time for blind loyalty is over. Your leaders have failed you. They have traded your victory for a seat at the table of thieves. They have allowed your dreams to be strangled by a regime built on lies. If the APC can not rise now—if it can not channel the fury of the betrayed into a lawful, unyielding crusade to reclaim its mandate—then it deserves to perish A party that will not fight for its people is a party that has already died.
Let this be a warning to the APC’s compromised elite: history will not absolve you. The children of Sierra Leone will read of this moment in textbooks and ask, *“Why did they let it happen?”* Your names will be etched alongside those who prioritised power over principle, who chose cowardice over courage. You will be remembered not as leaders but as collaborators—the architects of a stolen future.
But to the people, the message is different: **Rise**. Rise not with machetes or malice, but with the unbreakable resolve of those who know their worth. The fight for electoral justice does not end because the APC’s leadership has abandoned it. It begins anew in the streets, in the homes, and in every corner where truth still flickers. If the APC will not lead this fight, then it must step aside for those who will. Sierra Leone’s democracy is not the property of a political party. It belongs to the people—and no amount of betrayal can extinguish their right to reclaim it.
The APC stands at a cliff’s edge. One step forward—toward transparency, toward relentless affirmative action, toward the roar of the people—could redeem it. One step back—into the shadows of complacency—will seal its fate. The choice is simple: fight with every breath for the justice you owe your voters or dissolve into the ash heap of history. The people are watching. And they will not forget.
*Aluta Continua ✊🏿 🇸🇱 ✊🏿*
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