|
As the 2012 elections draw near, it is time for Sierra Leoneans to take stock of their political history and decide where this country should be heading for. The political history of this country has been dominated by two parties, The APC and SLPP. The SLPP led Sierra Leone to independence and held power for the first 6 years after which it lost power and was in the doldrums for almost 30 years until it was led to victory in 1996.
History is said to repeat itself and if for no other party, for the SLPP this holds true or has done so on several occasions. Historically therefore one can say with some authority that years ending with the digit 7 have always failed to favor the SLPP. Predating independence and barely six years after the SLPP came into existence the party in 1957 became saddled with numerous strikes, the most prominent of which was the prison strike. But it was in 1967, six years after independence, that the SLPP felt its first cruel shock - the defeat in the elections of that year and the loss of power. So traumatic and chaotic was that defeat that it stampeded many of the party’s strongmen into exile. Many of those who remained were subjected to undue harassment, illegal arrests, torture and detentions at the whims of, first the military junta, NRC, and later the APC led civilian government of Siaka Stevens. The internecine power struggle that developed between the late Sanusi Mustapha, the then most powerful SLPP stalwart in the western area and the late Salia Jusu Sheriff of the east worsened the plight of the party, weakening it. So frail was the SLPP that faced the APC in the 1973 elections that all but one of the parliamentary constituencies went uncontested with the APC candidates declared unopposed. Sierra Leone thus became a one-party state even though a de facto one. The SLPP then went into its first political limbo, which the student uprising of 1977 was to bring to an end by giving voice to a voiceless opposition and paving the way for elections. The SLPP was quite weak at the time and the violence and brutality of the ruling APC made it suicidal for them to put up much of an opposition. The party barely won a handful of seats. These were not enough to stop Siaka Stevens declaring a one-party state because he convinced virtually all the SLPP members of Parliament to cross over to the APC, and the APC became the sole political party. The culture of silence was thus cultivated as a period of political intolerance drove all opposition underground. The wind of change blowing world wide between the 1980s and 90s toppled age old dictatorships, and with the drums of war already sounding in the Mano River neighbourhood, the APC had no alternative but to take the nation back to pluralism, twelve years after the opposition was proscribed. The SLPP re-emerged but for just a brief while as the NPRC coup of 1992 toppled the APC and suspended the constitution. The NPRC lifted the ban on political activities in November 1995, formed the NUP and gave March the following year as the date for elections. The time frame was short, the people’s mindset was timid as the culture of silence and political vandalism had cowed them into silence. It was therefore not the best of times to be in the opposition. But undaunted a group of young men, committed to the SLPP and determined to bring the party back to power after almost two and half decades, joined the older generation of the party to take a shot at the 1996 elections. People like Dr. Prince Harding, Emmanuel Grant, Charles Margai, Momodu Koroma, Frank Basir, Suleiman Tejan Jalloh and Dr. Alpha Wurie to name but a few, gingered their more senior elders like Paul Dumber, R.E.S. Lagao, S.B. Marah, Mana Kpaka, Ahmad Tejan Kabba et al to re-launch the party with the symbolic planting of the palm tree. Where should such an event be held became a crucial decision to make. In this the elders showed their willingness to listen to the younger generation who had suggested Fourah Bay College campus to give the event vim. The task of managing the students, that critical mass of minds, fell on Dr. Alpha T. Wurie as chairman of the re-launching. Many believe that his handling of the task was exemplary and gave hope to the students that a new dawn was in the offing. Those who attended remembered it as a historical event that gave the SLPP the impetus that powered it on to win the elections. The re-planting of the Palm Tree by Tejan Kabbah was the highlight of the occasion – the SLPP was reborn and went on to win the elections in 1995 and 2002. Though the SLPP lost the 2007 elections, in opposition the party continues to manifest its vibrancy. If it wants to have a good chance of winning the elections in 2012 it needs to show the same kind of spirit it did in 1995, put forward a strong and dynamic flag bearer who should be supported by all the members of the party. Then and only then will it have a chance of regaining power. |
