By: Ibrahim Jalloh - (Jallomy)
All Peoples' Congress (APC) party has a political history replete with internal shambles and rigid leadership almost to the point of mass exclusion in major and critical decision making processes.
Fashioned along communist tradition, APC over concentrate Power and authority in a small class of political elites with the towering figure of the overall leader and chairman.
In his days, Siaka Stevens was founder, chairman, leader and secretary general of the party. So the breathing space for popular participation in the process of party governance and by extension state governance narrowed and conspicuously restrained.
After the heavy military blow of the NPRC takeover of the reins of power and in the wake of multi party democracy that ushered an era of political pluralism, APC plunged into protracted fragmentation. At a defining moment in its political history, APC had three national offices in Freetown superintended by supposed political giants of the party. The split and disconnect engineered then are still eating into the political fabric of the APC to this day. The culture of internal struggle for political emancipation in the party has been a major threat factor in achieving and sustaining internal cohesion.
APC has governed the state for a period of thirty five years and her sojourn in opposition has been limited. The consequences of these are many and varied with their attendant drawbacks: political denial and resistance to democratic change. APC cannot function well in opposition because the culture of tolerance and acceptance of political outcomes is missing and a major deficit.
APC came back to power after the era of the late Kabba. Former President Koroma exerted enormous influence and galvanized the support that landed APC to victory. The personality of former President Koroma and the long standing support base of the APC culminated in the 2007 electoral victory of the APC. Political Pundits weighted the personality of former President Koroma as the deciding factor and hence the temptation faced by former President Koroma to view and define the APC as a private political enterprise. For close to eleven years, former President Koroma maintained a firm and unchallenged grip on the APC. Matters came to a head with the fall of the APC party in 2018. Key elements in the APC 1995 Constitution were challenged and a war began.
The National Reformation Movement (NRM) was formed. They knew what They were doing. They were ferocious and aggressively determined to drive reforms in a party that is monolithic and derogatory to change.
The NRM was largely successful. However, they faced the challenge of internal betrayal.
Not too long ago, a conscious party member in the Diasporas questioned the legitimacy of the current APC leadership and sought litigation in the court. The outcome of the court action has restrained the executive, at all levels, from participating in the mid-term National Delegates Conference to look into and endorse the revised constitution of the APC party.
The court ruling was shocking, incredible and shattering. The ruling pricks and stings to awareness a party membership in unpardonable submission to the party leadership
APC going into a convention without the top leadership of the party is the judicial call. The situation has put the entire membership of the APC in a strategic political dilemma. It is a hard choice between maintaining the party and sustaining the leadership team of the party.
The change of mood of the plebeians after Mark Anthony's speech on Caesar's funeral is the current state of affairs in the APC.
Should this be the end or nearing the end of the dynasty ?
The clamor and stampede are on for an interim arrangement but a minimal resistance is on the path
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