By Umaru Fofana
It is a bit encouraging that Sierra Leone’s two main political parties are busy with some regular consultations with their members along the lines of democratisation within their ranks. Or so we are made to believe.
The Secretary General of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) Ambassador Osman Yansanneh has told me that the party will from 10 – 12 January 2020 hold their national delegates’ conference aimed at ratifying some amendments to their constitution. The key change will be the sea change that rather than through SELETION the party will be obliged to ELECT its presidential and parliamentary candidates through a primaries process. This is progressive!
The Vice Chairman of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Umaru Dumbuya says they plan to hold a “mini-convention” in Magburaka from 27 – 29 November this year to ratify their amended constitution before a full delegates’ conference that will be preceded by lower level leadership elections. Among the changes that may be proposed will be separating the position of Chairman from that of Leader. At present it is the same position. And this is what I consider retrograde which sees an amendment aimed at an individual in the present time rather than for the collective and the future.
Over the years one issue that has been concerning to me about our body politic has been the manner in which political parties in Sierra Leone behave generally – and how they lack internal democracy. But for purposes of this article I will concentrate on the way the parties behave when they are in power, the way their members turn a blind eye or bemoan in corners like bruised cats, and the way the Political Parties’ Registration Commission (PPRC) would sit by and watch them do as if it is all happening on a movie screen.
The dogged determination of some elements of the opposition APC party to ensure there is a democratic dispensation within their party, not least in seeing the change of that SELECTION clause is laudable. If the democratisation of the APC party’s constitution is finally realised it will be positive for the politics of the country.
On the contrary, the apparent move by the ruling SLPP to amend or change their constitution to strengthen the hands of the President of the country over it is a retrograde step. It would suggest that when in power political leaders try to play god and do whatever they feel like and seemingly get away with it. Otherwise you ask yourself why the APC had to wait until they were out of power to agree to change that undemocratic Selection clause. They all seem to make the same mistakes of weakening their constitution to suit and entrench the leader whenever they get to power.
When they lost in the 2007 election, the SLPP held their delegates’ conference in Kenema ostensibly trying to correct those things they thought had cost them power. But it seems they’ve forgotten all of that now that they are back in power. And before the Kenema conference, their Makeni one in 2005/6 that came up with the then Vice President Solomon Berewa as their standard bearer and presidential candidate, had also called so many things into question. His candidacy was apparently imposed on the party in all but name by the president at the time, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah – even if there was a semblance of an election within the party.
Berewa’s running-mate, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Momodu Koroma, would in turn be later imposed on him. That imposition and the delay in announcing that running-mate would later be regarded as one of the factors that led to the party’s defeat with the favourites becoming disgruntled hence becoming uninterested in active campaigning. Exactly a facsimile of what would happen some 12 years later in the same Makeni when in 2018 then President Ernest Bai Koroma did the same to his party with the same outcome, albeit without any semblance of election whatsoever.
So when the SLPP met in Kenema after their 2007 defeat, among other things they resolved that in future all those aspiring to become the party’s presidential candidate would have to campaign with their would-be running-mate. That was to avoid that long delay in announcing the ticket and, probably, avoid any imposition by anyone, like Berewa had experienced.
They also resolved that any member of the national executive would not be eligible to run to become a presidential flag-bearer. This was an apparent move to stop a man called John Benjamin from being Chairman of the party and running for president; An obvious undue advantage, it was thought.
But it happened that John Benjamin, Dr Kadie Sesay and some other executive members continued nurturing their presidential ambition. So at the subsequent delegates’ conference in Bo, the chips were down. It was apparent that both Mr Benjamin and Dr Sesay were bent on going ahead with their ambition anyway. So a compromise was struck for Benjamin.
To keep him out of the race but still in the party and somewhat satisfied, SLPP changed their newly-amended constitution and buried some of those ideals they had propounded in Kenema. So John Benjamin became Chairman AND Leader of the party as the new party constitution dictated. Also, Dr Kadie Sesay and some other executive members were allowed to run in the primaries. They all seemed pleased with the arrangement.
Fast forward, Benjamin’s tenure came to an end. Again in Bo, and much to the chagrin of most of the opposition party delegates, the conference (of an opposition party) was policed by soldiers under the invocation of MAC-P (military aid to civil power which should only come in when the police have proved incapable of handling a given situation). However, Benjamin who was the party’s Leader was happy with the presence of armed soldiers and told me at the time that it was “to tame the unruly elements” within the party. Those would only have been an apparent reference to supporters of Julius Maada Bio whose preferred candidates won the executive committee positions, and he eventually became the party’s standard-bearer.
At this time president Ernest Bai Koroma was further strengthening his already King-King and Midas holds over his APC party. Everything he touched was believed to turn into gold, and his firm grip over the party would later become a stranglehold. And that led to the imposition on the party of a presidential ticket in 2018, and their subsequent defeat.
Today, there are attempts by some elements within the ruling SLPP to bring President Maada Bio into leadership of the party. This will not only be a distraction for him from the everyday running of the state, but will also give him the same control his two predecessors had that eroded internal democracy within their parties and led to their defeat.
Every SLPP member I have spoken to about this attempt has cited the alleged recalcitrant and mercurial tendencies of the current Chairman/Leader of the party, Dr Prince Harding. They want President Bio to have complete control over the party which, as things stand he does not have – at least not officially. That, to my mind, is what should obtain.
In a parliamentary system the party leader is the Prime Minister. But in a presidential system such as we have in Sierra Leone, it should be made to stand that you cannot be the President and an executive member of the ruling party let alone the party leader. For the health of our democracy, the party in power should be run as an entity separate from the state. I know it is difficult due to our political culture but we can try it: Let us separate the leadership of the state from that of the party in power. And this is where I blame the PPRC which does not seem to be interested in or is incapable of forcing political parties to practise the democratic values that are represented in the country’s constitution.
It will suggest that the SLPP members pushing for the separation of Chairman and Leader are saying that when Dr Harding leaves the party leadership they will revert to the current constitution. But for how long do you keep changing your constitution to suit one individual of the moment, and not the whole for the future! Sierra Leone deserves better!
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