By Sylvester Rogers
One of Black Africa’s oldest political parties, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), is desperately and conscientiously searching for a leader that will win an election to succeed Brig. (Rtd) Julius Maada Bio as leader of the SLPP and as president of the Republic of Sierra Leone when his second and final term shall have ended in 2028.
When the jostling for the covetous and enviable leadership position or standard-bearer in the Sierra Leone People’s Party began in earnest just six months or a year after the renewal of President Dr. Julius Maada Bio’s final mandate in June 2023, as stipulated in the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, many people, especially pessimists and free thinkers, were quick to interpret it as an ominous sign that will spell doom and gloom for the 2028 transitional elections for the party.
The exact total number of people vying for the covetous and enviable leadership position or standard-bearer in the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) for the transitional elections in 2028 is not immediately known. But rumours doing the rounds in the capital, Freetown, and the countryside are that it will go up to 20 contenders or so, card-carrying members of the SLPP.
Those SLPP card-carrying Members rumoured and those who have made their intentions publicly known include the sitting Vice President of the Republic, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, whose unflinching loyalty to President Dr. Julius Maada Bio and competence to handle difficult and complex state matters, many say, have at no time been questioned.
Mr John Oponjo Benjamin the former National Party Chairman and Leader of the SLPP, the out going National party Chairman Dr Prince Alex Harding, the Chief Minister Dr David Moinina Sengeh, Hon Alhaji Musa Tarawally, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs Alhaji Timothy Musa Kabba, the former Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament Hon Mohamed Sidie Tunis, the current Minister of Finance Mr Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura, the former Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United Nations Dr Alie Kabba, the current Executive Director of National Sports Authority Lawyer Dr Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai, the current Commissioner of ACC Lawyer Francis Ben Kaifala, currently a senior adviser at State House-cum-Trade Unionist and Lawyer Alpha Osman Timbo, the former NPPA boss and the short-lived NRA Commissioner General Mr Ibrahim Brima Swaray, the current Executive Director of the Anti Drugs Agency Rtd. (Col)Lawyer Andrew Jaiah Kaikai and a little-known child Lawyer Charles Pujeh and more to emerge.
The most serious contenders in the standard-bearer race for the Sierra Leone People’s Party for the 2028 transition elections include Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, the sitting vice president and heir apparent, whom many see as the perfect gentleman of Sierra Leone politics. His admirers see him as a calming figure and an experienced administrator who is expected to manage the country’s transition to a calmer period of democracy and rule of law. Mr. John Oponjo Benjamin, the former National Party Chairman, is seen in the party and even in the country as the undisputed traditional father figure in the SLPP, whose current campaign is taking the form of quiet diplomacy but shouldn’t be underestimated at all.
Hon. Alhaji Musa Tarawally, Dr. Alie Kabba, and Hon. Mohamed Sidie Tunis are among the most serious contenders in the race for the standard-bearer for the SLPP for the 2028 transition elections.
Other names being floated as contenders include the youthful politicians Chief Minister Dr. David Moinina Sengeh and Alhaji Timothy Musa Kabba.
All the above mentioned in the Standardbearer race are legitimate card-carrying members of the SLPP Party.
Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella’s name is also being floated as a possible contender for the SLPP standard-bearer race, but whether he has re-registered with the Sierra Leone People’s Party is not immediately known. Perhaps the outgoing National Chairman, Dr. Prince Alex Harding, and the outgoing National Secretary General, Lawyer Umaru Napoleon Koroma, will have to make known to the public whether or not the former NGC Party presidential candidate in 2018 and 2023 has re-registered with the SLPP.
I thought that people who are in the same political party are supposed to be people of like minds who believe in the same political ideology, but that fellow party members of the SLPP aspiring for the leadership position in their own party are now seeing themselves as arch enemies is far from being a party united for the common good of its numerous supporters across the country to retain political power.
That fellow members of the SLPP party who are yearning for the party’s leadership position instead of rallying behind the most popular candidate amongst their lot to win an election to retain political power are coming out in droves, some with venom coupled with deep-seated animosity in their minds to seek revenge either because they feel they have not been adequately compensated or they are in a hurry to see the party’s back, a premeditated move that clearly suggests that the SLPP is very much divided right in the middle.
I gathered that a good number of party members are very much disillusioned; some of them feel they have spent all their resources for the party’s reelection at the June 2023 elections but weren’t considered for any position in the government, and so they are despondent to the extent that they want to do everything with malice to see that their own party doesn’t retain political power in 2028. They want to cut off their noses to spite their faces!
Other disgruntled party members believe that some people have been overcompensated for merely working at the election tally centers. Some of the would-be aspirants, an SLPP elder in an indignant mood exclaimed, are mere spoilers and upstarts in the leadership race, as the majority of them have no political base even at their own chiefdom level, not to mention at the district or regional level, but they just want to ride on the nationwide popularity of the party to clinch the enviable position of president.
However, some members in the higher echelon of the SLPP, including die-hard party stalwarts, future leaders, and grassroots members of the party, believe that a huge number of people vying for the party’s leadership position is not a bad idea at all, as their party is renowned for practicing internal democracy with the participation of everyone, for which the SLPP prides itself.
Another school of thought sees it as a good radiance, as it will help the movers and shakers in the SLPP to thoroughly and genuinely address emerging grievances and burning issues that are precipitating the syndrome of splitting, which many in the party believe is encouraging the setting up of various would-be aspirant camps that are widening the divisions in their great party, and, if need be, to strike a compromise rather than going into the transition elections of 2028 divided and losing political power.
It is an established fact that the Sierra Leone Peoples Party had narrowly lost every national election they had gone into divided (Kai Samba and the Brewah divide from the Sir Albert Margai’s SLPP 1967/68, Charles Francis Margai’s divide from the Solomon Ekuma Berewa’s SLPP 2007).
For history not to repeat itself, the SLPP must urgently put their house in order before the transition elections in 2028.
Some political commentators and high-profile politicians believe that the race for the SLPP leadership has begun in earnest, clearly suggesting that the SLPP wants to go into the transitional elections of 2028 as a united party rather than a divided and depleted party.
They furthered that when the leadership contest for the Standardbearer and national executive officials shall have been concluded, a mediation team comprising respectable elders of the SLPP should be set up to be able to handle and comprehensively deal with all grievances and petty mishaps that might have happened amongst aspirants on one hand and their supporters on the other hand to amicably lay them to rest for an onward victory for the transitional elections of 2028.
It is true that the world over, outgoing leaders, be they presidents, religious leaders, or chief executives in every facet of society, would always want someone that would watch their back when they exit office for whatever reason(s). Your guess is as good as mine.
The silence of President Dr. Julius Maada Bio over his succession plan is very worrying, as he seems to be playing his hand well and might have a lot to say and do at the appropriate time.
President Dr. Julius Maada Bio must be seen to be providing a level playing field for all the contenders and should be seen to play a neutral role so that the people will choose a candidate of their choice that will easily win the transition elections in 2028 for them.
