By Richmond B. Tholley
The Sierra Leone People’s Party membership in the Northern District of Tonkolili has overwhelmingly re-elected Ahmed Saybom Kanu.
The elections took place on Saturday, the 12th of April, 2025, at the Tonkolili District Council hall in Magburaka town. The party’s district membership gathered to elect a new district leadership and executive. While many were expecting a tight political race between two of the district’s influential politicians, Mohamed Orman Bangura, Kanu’s main challenger and former youth minister, boycotted the process, and he wasn’t seen around throughout the day. The reason for his absence remains unclear.
Because of the absence of his opponent, Kanu was declared the winner, making him back-to-back chairman. The party’s regional chairman and former resident minister of the Northeast, Abu Abu Abdulai Koroma, declared Ahmed Saybom Kanu the winner and chairman-elect. Koroma is the returning officer as per the SLPP constitution.
At a time when the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party was struggling to regain its lost glory in the Northern District of Tonkolili, there came a tall and lanky man who was initially doubted but later turned out to be the man the majority of the party’s grassroots trusted and respected.
That man is Ahmed Saybom Kanu, the current chairman of the Sierra Leone People’s Party in the Tonkolili District.
A master farmer, the SLPP chairman, is still loved and respected by SLPP surrogates in his home district, and this is evident in the outcome of the just concluded lower-level elections.
A serious politician must have a base, and this is what Ahmed Saybom Kanu has done, ensuring that he comfortably created political bases across the nineteen chiefdoms of Tonkolili.
In the middle of a disputed election with heightened violence and tension, no one thinks Kanu will make a comeback to the position because he was at the center of several allegations that brought his reputation through the political mud.
In all of this, the moderate and easygoing Saybom remains resolute in the course backed by the majority of the party’s grassroots.
While many will disagree with my submissions, it is worth noting that no SLPP politician in Tonkolili District can face Saybom in whatever political contest one may think about as far as contemporary politics is concerned, an SLPP supporter said.
“Today’s elections show that SLPP supporters in Tonkolili still trust the leadership of Ahmed Saybom Kanu,” Sallueu Kargbo, a constituency chairman, said.
Though there are jubilations across Tonkolili, a section of the SLPP grassroots, especially those loyal to Bangura, the former youth minister, and Kanu’s opponent, says the elections weren’t free and fair. On social media, there are mixed feelings among the party members.
During the sectional and constituency elections, Team Saybom swept almost all delegates, and there are speculations that the absence of the former minister was because he couldn’t secure the required delegates to make him SLPP District Chairman.
While there are ongoing arguments and counterarguments, allegations, and counter-allegations, neither the former minister nor his political allies have made an official statement.
