As general elections draw nearer in Sierra Leone, there seems to be some enthusiasm in Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad with ideas floating around that the time is ripe for a third-party. This most believe might transform the country from its current trend into a country that would be the pride of every Sierra Leonean.
Contrarily, pundits of this notion will consider such thoughts far-fetched and mediocre, bearing in mind the political landscape of the nation over the years.
The latter believe that there will be no regime change but a constant continuity with the two old drivers that have been steering the movement of development in the country for more than 50 years.
The last time a third-party presidential candidate had an effect in the political limelight of Sierra Leone was in 2007.
Charles Francis Margai, a son of one of the country’s founding fathers who defected from the now opposition and then ruling party, Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) to form his Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC).
Charles, after the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) convention (primaries) in 2005 suspected some nuances of “a rigged convention” and decided to form his own party which saw him garner an unprecedented 13 parliamentary seats.
Before the onset of Margai’s party, there was UNPP 3rd force formed by one of the country’s independence heroes John Kerefara Smart who went very close to winning the 1996 election. John Kerefa Smart was part of the delegation in 1961 that went to London on the memorable trip that brought independence to the nation.
Smart lost the 1996 elections to the SLPP in a run off after the PDP formed an alliance with the latter party to win the elections. I believe that party never smelt its previous position until its natural demise.
Back to Ngor Margai. As what most people described as restitution for forming an alliance with the All Peoples Congress(APC) in the 2007 general elections runoff, some of the PMDC stalwarts were given prime positions in the ruling government even though most of them were later perceived as betrayers for cross-carpeting to the ruling party in the quest to search for greener pastures, and some accused Margai of monopolizing the party for his personal aggrandizement .
Margai’s party was shown the exit door from being a 3rd force party after he made the decision of forming an alliance with the APC.
Many Sierra Leoneans believe that Charles shot himself in the foot by establishing an alliance with a political party that is considered to be crooked and has no way forward in making positive changes that will meet the demands of Sierra Leoneans.
Next on the third force platform was Mohamed Bangura the former Publicity Secretary of PMDC (Margai’s Party), who left the PMDC to form his United Democratic Movement Party (UDM) a move many believed was an orchestration of the current President.
It was alleged that President Koroma used Mohamed Bangura to formed the UDM if the APC would have denied him the opportunity to contest as flag bearer in the 2012 elections and he would have left with no option but use a safe exit to UDM as presidential candidate in the said elections.
Mohamed Bangura as a political novice and a young presidential candidate attracted a lot of young people who in his ideology and decided to throw their support behind him as their redeemer who will change the face of politics in the country.
To the disappointment of young people in Sierra Leone, Bangura chose to support Koroma’s Candidacy at the 11th hour by asking all his supporters to vote Ernest Bai Koroma as the next president of Sierra Leone.
U see wae u man sell game en?
The deal was done. Koroma was announced President of Sierra Leone in November for his second and final term.
Few years later, we saw in a letter written by Bangura resigning from a party that he had formed.
An excerpt of his letter reads: “it is with heavy heart I must inform you that I am stepping down from the position that you have entrusted me. Effective immediately I will be resigning my post and membership in the party.”
He ended by stating in his letter that the future has called him to work on a different path and that he has chosen to walk through that path.
Just after Bangura’s resignation, his name surfaced to what most describe as Koroma’s largest cabinet reshuffle list in 2016 as Minister of Information and Communications.
Even though there were questions surrounding Bangura’s appointment, the youngman sailed through safe with the approval of parliament.
Just after Mohamed Bangura disappeared on the 3rd force platform, a new kid in the block appeared.
Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray, a disowned son of the APC. Most Sierra Leoneans are looking at Kamarainba as a Youngman that might restore the hopes of young people that think there should be a change with young people in the highest cadre of leadership in the country.
On the other hand, people see him as another political failure with no sense of direction.
Kamarainba is a diasporan who returned home in early 2013 and made his intention in vying for the highest seat of the land in the ruling APC party.
But Sierra Leone political parties not being any of the political parties in the United States where Barrack Obama showed-up as a young Democrat but later became the front runner of the Democrat party and later emerged as president of USA, Kamarainba was denied a renewal of his membership card and kicked out of the APC.
In the same year, Kamarinba formed his own movement which later transformed into a political party.
Kamarainba’s Alliance Democratic Party (ADP) has been a force to reckon with (bone na troat) for the ruling APC Party after he almost won two bye-elections in the ruling party’s own strongholds of Bombali and Port Loko.
Though there were issues surrounding his party with members asking him to be accountable, no one will dispute the fact that Kamarainba and the ADP have not been a household name in the political setting of Sierra Leone at the moment.
And with the arrival of the ADP no one will predict the next party that will emerge victorious in the next election.
Many people believe there is a need for a 3rd force political party to be the next government of Sierra Leone after the 2018 elections based on what have happened in the world few months ago.
Just recently, the French people made a quick exit and voted for a new political reality in France. The French people in a first round of their election ripped off the political system that has been governing for generations over the world’s sixth biggest economy and a powerhouse of the European Union.
“Both the ruling Socialists and the conservative Republicans suffered crushing defeats, as millions of French voters expressed years of exasperation, fear and disillusion by voting for insurgent or extremist candidates” a foreign newspaper reported.
The New Elected President Emanuel Macron, just 39, would be France’s youngest-ever president after his inauguration in the ornate Élysée Palace on 15th May 2017.
Macron has never held an elective office and has no traditional political party to call his own; he quit President François Hollande’s government as Economy Minister last September to create his own political movement, called En Marche! (On the Go!), and drafted thousands of young French to knock on doors across the country, polling 100,000 people about how they wanted their country to change.
The other means which most Sierra Leoneans are contemplating on unseating the current system is through a coalition of opposition parties like it happened in The Gambia.
Earlier, there seems to be a coalition describing itself as “Coalition for Change” which intends to bring together smaller opposition political parties to contest in the 2018 general elections in an effort to dethrone the current status quo.
C4C as they called themselves, issued out a press release endorsing the sacked Vice President, Chief Alhaji Sam Sumana as their leader even though he has denied being one of them.
Similarly, reports have indicated that there is also a new coalition being formed in Kenya by the opposition parties in a bid to unseat the ruling Jubilee Party in the country’s general elections later this year.
Even though he seems to be the most high-profile politician in the coalition there is a belief that the old-time opposition politician, Raila Odinga, a man who has contested four presidential elections, and lost all of them is not the man to lead the new coalition to victory.
In fact, some opposition supporters feel that his repeated losses prove that he is not a match to the incumbent (Uhuru Kenyatta), and that he needs to pass on the baton to a young person.
As most of us await to see if there will be a change in the governance system of Sierra Leone, let me take a deep breath and relax in my little Conner with my Ginger Bear en bread.
