But SLPP Took The Democratic High Road, Elects Presidential Candidate
By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
The two major political parties in Sierra Leone, the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) and the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) have chosen their presidential candidates ahead of the March 7, 2018 general elections, one party chose to select its flag-bearer, while the other took the democratic process to elect its standard-bearer.
The APC held their convention on October 14-15, 2017 in the northern regional headquarters city of Makeni and the SLPP did theirs on the same date in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown.
In taking advantage of their constitutional provisions, partisans of the ruling APC party decided to select the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr. Samura Mathew Kamara as the presidential candidate for the 2018 general and presidential elections. The Constitution gives an option to elect or select the presidential candidate of the Party.
During same convention, the APC selected the current Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Chernor Bah, fondly called “Chericoco” by his admirers, as the running mate for Dr. Kamara.
Dr. Kamara is a native of Kamalo village in the Bombali District, Northern Sierra Leone. He spent some time as Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance during President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah‘s SLPP-led administration.
He was also the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone from 2007 until March 2009 when appointed him Minister of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED). In December 2012, he became the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Born on April 30, 1951, Dr. Kamara is an economist, a Christian, and an ethnic Loko. He was personally handpicked by president Ernest Bai Koroma at the APC party’s national convention held in Makeni on October 15, 2017.
Dr. Kamara recently represented President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Prior to the handpicking of Dr. Samura Kamara as APC party’s presidential candidate for the 2018 elections, there were 28 aspirants, some of who had in March 2017 resigned their previous positions as diplomats, ministers, and advisers to President, to vie for such position in the ruling APC.
Those resigned their jobs prior to the APC convention were Dr. Kaifala Marah was the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Dr. Alpha Kanu was Adviser to President Koroma and Ambassador-at-Large, Dr. Sam Sesay was Adviser to President Koroma; Ambassador Alimamy Philip Koroma was Sierra Leone’s High Commissioner to the People’s Republic of China, Madam Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura was United Nations Secretary General’s Representative on Gender and Sexual-Based Violence, John Bonoh Sisay was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sierra Rutile Mining Company, Madam Victoria Saidu Kamara was daughter of late President Siaka P. Stevens-founder of the ruling APC, among others.
All of these presidential flagbearer aspirants have spent huge sums of money to galvanize delegates who were to vote for them in the just concluded APC Convention in Makeni, but to their disappointment, President Ernest Bai Koroma, who serves as the Leader and Chairman of the APC party, used his veto power to select instead of allowing the delegates to vote for the flag-bearer aspirant of their choice.
Already, there were reports that APC partisans in Port Loko town were burning their red shirts, which is the color of the ruling APC, and wrapped their bodies with palm fronds which is the symbol of the main opposition SLPP after the announcement of Dr. Samura Kamara.
Port Loko District in the north of Sierra Leone sent in five presidential flagbearer aspirants-Dr. Alpha Kanu, Ibrahim Bundu who was the Majority Leader in the House of Parliament but lost that position because of his aspiration, Kemo Sesay who is the current Minister of Works, Housing and Infrastructure, Lawyer Mohamed Kalokoh and Deputy Minister of Lands, Country Planning and the Environment-Mahmoud Tarawally. None of them were selected.
On the other hand, the main opposition SLPP held its convention at Katco Hall on Wilkinson Road in Freetown and elected its presidential candidate for the 2018 general elections. They elected Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio, who was also SLPP’s presidential aspirant for the November 2012 general elections, as the one to lead the party in the 2018 elections.
Brigadier (Rtd) Bio, who was born on May 12, 1964 in Tihun, a village in Sogbini Chiefdom in the Bonthe District, southern Sierra Leone, is one of 35 children born to Mende Paramount Chief Charlie Bio II of Sogbini Chiefdom.
He was a military Head of State of Sierra Leone from January 16, 1996 to March 29, 1996 under the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) military junta government.
Bio fulfilled his promise to return Sierra Leone to democracy and handed power to Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP following the latter’s victory in the 1996 presidential election.
After retiring from the military in 1996, Bio moved to the United States to continue his education. Bio is a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. with a Master’s Degree in International Affairs.
Bio had served as the president of International Systems Science Corporation, a consulting and investment management firm based in the United States. He is currently married and has four children.
He contested the 2017 convention with four others who were the erstwhile Chairman and Leader of SLPP-John Oponjo Benjamin (JOB), Engineer Munda Rogers, Dr. Alie Kabba and Ambassador Umaru Bond Wurie.
Brigadier (Rtd.) Julius Maada Bio polled 475 votes, John Oponjo Benjamin (JOB) 116, Alie Kabba 11, Munda Rogers 10 and Ambassador Umaru Bond Wurie 6. There were 39 delegates that were absent in a convention that went on peacefully.
