By: Hon. Cornelius Oguntola Melvin Deveaux
Former Deputy Minister of Information and Communications & National Publicity Secretary All Peoples Congress (APC)
Certainly, it has been two years of political calumnies masked in breaches of legal and moral etiquette and political decorum, alongside a total disrespect and disregard for democratic systems and norms and a gross display of administrative ineptitude that is masquerading in the paradox of a so-called ‘SLPP new direction’, which fits well into the paradigm of failed states.
On the Sierra Leone Peoples Party’s two years anniversary, congratulations to President Julius Maada Bio and his government for, at least, vindicating Cornelius Deveaux and all those who weathered SLPP propaganda during the 2018 elections campaign in laying bare the truth that a Julius Maada Bio SLPP government is not a suitable alternative to a Samura Kamara APC government.
In just two years, the very foundations of Sierra Leone’s democracy, good governance and human rights have crumbled and the moral values of humanity, which held our nation together and in high esteem has also been seriously eroded by the many illogical actions of the Julius Maada Bio SLPP led government which includes but not limited to, allowing pregnant girls to attend classes and also the mortgaging of the integrity and fundamental freedoms of the people for COVID-19 donor funds, in conjunction with a failed economic policy that is both donor and tax reliant.
In two years of the SLPP government, the ominous silence from civil society and religious leaders in failing to speak out against the unconstitutionality and political excesses of the Julius Maada Bio SLPP government is so loud and deafening as much as it is sickening; but not loud enough to dissuade those who voted for change to now realizing the President they voted has in two years run the country bankrupt and edged it on the precipice of total collapse by further widening the political divide, compounding the country’s socio-economic and political problems, while priding itself in lies that are glamorized in the beauty of truth as much as the bastardization of the constitution, gross human rights violations and a total disregard for the rule of law continues to characterize the relationship between the government and particularly the people and the opposition political parties.
In two years, Sierra Leoneans continue to lament the failure of the previous APC government in protecting the rights of the people as expressed in the 2018 presidential election ballot and the inability of the current executive to hold a treacherous and heartless SLPP government accountable.
Sierra Leoneans continue to baffle at what seems a conspiracy by the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Nfa Alie Conteh and the judiciary to grant a questionable legitimacy to an oppressive and reactionary government, that has left no stone unturned in its determination to muzzle free speech, suppress the democratic freedoms of the people and to annihilate the opposition All Peoples Congress party.
Twenty four months into the SLPP’s legally challenged sixty months tenure and with local council elections to be likely conducted in about twenty-four months from today and with some members of the current APC executive accused of complicity or being lackadaisical in their responsibility as a credible and responsible opposition, many Sierra Leoneans wonder what the future holds for Sierra Leone.
In two years of the Julius Maada Bio SLPP government, Comrades Herbert George Williams, Abu Bakarr Daramy and now Paolo Conteh and also one retired military officer, Koita have all been roped on politically motivated charges and are currently languishing at the Pademba Road Prisons; several others are attending politically motivated court cases on a regular basis while several others have been literally chained on bails and former ministers cannot travel on their free will.
The court case with the NRM, the internal bickering bordering on accusations and counter-accusations from social media commentators such as ‘Koroma APC’ and one ‘Adebayor’ which casts a slur on both the Deputy Chairman and the National Secretary-General has not been also helpful, to say the least, and requires urgent investigations/interventions if APC lives matter and if we are so serious about regaining power in 2023.
If claims by Koroma APC that the National Secretary-General of the APC had at some point requested him to churn unfounded claims against party stalwarts on social media and if claims by Adebayor that the Deputy Chairman is also playing a game with the SLPP to the detriment of the party and Sierra Leoneans are anything to go by, it signals that the APC is certainly on the wrong footing ahead of local council elections in 2022 and the 2023 parliamentary and presidential elections as much as it behoves our senior party comrades to come out clear or ship out clear.
In two years, the SLPP government of Julius Maada Bio has in very clear terms confirm to every right-thinking Sierra Leonean it is a failed regime just as the opposition All Peoples Congress has failed to muster its strength in holding the government accountable.
Going forward ahead of local council elections in 2022 and parliamentary and presidential elections in 2023, it is imperative that the leadership sorts itself out and for the APC MPs, Local Councils to bank on its strength and cease all forms of cooperation with this government in solidarity with our compatriots living in exile, burdened by unreasonable court cases and languishing in prison cells and in solidarity with the downtrodden masses.
The time is now and right-thinking APCiers should not continue to sit by and allow the hope of the future to wane into an abyss of uncertainty.
To my incarcerated Comrades, I say, keep the faith; I feel your pain especially when had it not been for the divine insight I also would have been locked up with an equal measure. History is replete with incidents of people either coming out of jail to the presidency or returning from exile to the presidency. Didn’t Julius Maada Bio, himself, return from being a refugee to become a president?
In the struggles of the APC, there’s victory!
