By Asmieu Bah
The months preceding September 31 saw many back-room political deals in
the governing All People's Congress camp to either offload or unload
incumbent Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana from the 2012 ship or
cross with him to the ‘’promise land’’.
Sam-Sumana
shot to prominence almost on the eve of the 2007 elections after a
contest to choose from a long list including Afsatu Kabbah, Pat Sowe
and now Ambassador to Russia Yambasu.
During
his ascendancy to the enviable position, the APC was insolvent as it
had run out of money against the incumbent SLPP which had the state
resources at its disposal and control. Alhaji Sam-Sumana was able to
use his financial muscle to bail out the APC. His coming was deemed a
blessing for the then opposition APC that was badly in need of cash.
And coming from the eastern Kono district to neutralise the political
waters by giving the northern-based APC some eastern region flavour.
The
religious factor was also considered giving Ernest Bai Koroma was
Christian and the precedent had been that the two names on the
presidential ticket should represent the country's two main faiths.
We were told that that Sam-Sumana converted to Islam in order to
capture the Muslim votes. He was taken to mosques in the city and in
the provinces.
He
was, in a way, running against Momodu Koroma who had been foreign
minister for years and was widely rumoured to have been imposed by
outgoing president Ahmad Tejan-Kabbah on the ruling party standard
bearer, Solomon Berewa as his running mate. Sam-Sumana’s selection
was deliberate, the APC needed to fish from the ponds in the south or
east. Coming as he did from Kono, he was following in the footsteps
of Aiah Mbayoh who was running-mate to Dr John Karefa-Smart in 1996.
since
becoming VP, sam-Sumana has weathered several storms. They border on
allegations that are strong to impugn anyone's credibility and
reputation but yet not proved in any competent court of law.
From
the cocaine saga to the hard-hitting undercover documentary by the
Arab TV channel Aljazeera which exposed illegal timber trade in
Sierra Leone even though there was a government moratorium on timber
logging and exporting. The documentary was greeted with consternation
by both the government and the populace. We saw the opposition SLPP
spinning the documentary to score a political goal, something that
the APC would have also done if they were in opposition. The SLPP
called for the resignation of the Vice President. Inside sources
suggested to me at the time that the Vice President was asked to
resign in order to save the face and image of the government but that
he was defiant.
Less
than three months after the Aljazeera documentary was released an
American citizen Mark Heligman sent out emails to many Sierra
Leoneans, including to the President, claiming that Sam-Sumana owes
him some money. According to him he supported the Vice President’s
bid for power during the 2007 elections. Mark alleged that he helped
bankroll Sam’s election bid.
Like
the Aljazeera documentary the Mark Heligman allegations muddied the
reputation of Sam. A supposed ally of the ruling party, Mohamed
Bangura of the United Democratic Movement issued a press release
calling for the VP to speak to the country or resign. The VP went for
the former by calling his first ever press conference since his
current status.
From
the way he looked one could tell that he was down both in terms of
morale and personality. Many predicted that that incident was the
final nail in Sam’s coffin. But like the proverbial cat with seven
live, he has again been named as running-mate.
Sam-Sumana, if the
APC wins the November pools, will be the longest serving Vice
President in our recent democratic history.
The Vice President
has been a subservient helper to his boss, is that one of the reasons
that led the president to rename him, or is it that the VP has many
things in his sleeve that the President thought by removing him would
be like shooting himself in that Sam will spill the beans. Or
perhaps it was a case of the devil you know...
Should the
Koroma-Sumana ticket win next month, another interesting episode that
should be considered is the future relationship between the Minister
of Internal Affairs and many like him who have been in a knife edge
relationship with the Vice President.
As all these
events are unfolding we are yet to know how the international
community will look at the President in his appointment of
Sam-Sumana. It was being discussed around the corridors of power that
the President was delaying to choose his running-mate because he
might not want to unveil the wrong candidate in the eyes of the
international community.
The
apprehensions of many northerners in the party are for Sam not to
venture to think of succeeding Ernest Koroma in 2017. No sooner one
gets power than one wants more. My predictions are that when
President Koroma enters half of his second term, again assuming he
wins, his clout and power base will begin to erode and most of his
ministers will be paying allegiance to the next possible successor
whoever that person might be. After the SLPP convention in 2005 when
Solomon Berewa emerged as the flag bearer, we saw former SLPP
ministers under Tejan Kabbah paying more allegiance to Berewa than to
even the then president. No sooner the Makeni convention ended than
we saw the ditching of two senior members of the party – Finance
Minister JB Dauda and Internal Affairs Minister George Banda Thomas.
The two men were shown the exit door. Berewa thought they were
working against his interest. That warning shot sent the loudest of
messages to the other serving ministers. History is there for us to
learn.
Back
to my focus, the northern alliance in the APC will wish to continue
the status quo while the APC members in the east – I mean the
Sam-Sumana camp will say this is their time. That will be a nasty
battle for the party which could lead to a replay of the aftermath of
the 2005 SLPP convention in Makeni which marked the beginning of the
end – however temporarily – of the leadership of the country by
the party.
Asmieu Bah is a broadcast journalist working for the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation.
