By Teddy Foday-Musa, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The formation of the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) stemmed from the accusation that democracy was undermined by high ranking SLPP officials during the party’s national convention at Makeni in 2005, which saw the emergence of Solomon Berewa as the SLPP party flag bearer for the 2007 general elections.
John Leigh, who was knocked out of the nomination race that would have qualified him as one of the contesting candidates, furiously coined the phrase “Eat their money and vote your consciences.” He was responding to what he labeled as a “Conbention” in favour of Solomon Berewa, and not a convention in line with the principles of democracy.
Mr. Charles Margai, who was the knee challenger of Solomon Berewa also went down the same road with John Leigh. He too cried foul and openly condemned the 2005 SLPP Makeni national convention. He accused both Tejan Kabbah and Solomon Berewa of manipulating democracy for their selfish political gains. It was against this back drop that the PMDC was born based on upholding the principles of democracy and the constitutional rights of Sierra Leoneans. Therefore, the PMDC leadership of Charles Margai was born out of the desire to correct a manipulative democratic exercise that took place at the SLPP Makeni national convention in 2005.
However, Charles Margai who protested loudly during the SLPP convention in Makeni has now become a symbol of history repeating it self with the PMDC Makeni consultative meeting held on the 29th November 2008. The principle of “what goes around comes around” has interestingly been manifested by Charles Margai, who is not the victim this time but a perpetrator himself.
Therefore, it is ironical that the democracy which Charles Margai stood for at the SLPP Makeni convention has now been thrown overboard by him in the same Makeni and in the same fashion under the canopy of the PMDC. Charles Margai in the same Makeni town, called a similar PMDC very unpopular convention amidst disapproval from majority of PMDC membership. He now believes that he has succeeded in manipulating the PMDC constitution by illegally extending his sole leadership of the party for another 2 years to 2011 without the constitutional mandated election for all elected national positions at the upcoming national convention in April.
Charles Margai did this single handedly with the support of just a few of his cohorts ignoring a written and signed letter from PMDC parliamentarians calling for the cancellation of the Makeni consultation meeting. He also ignored the general public opinion from the party membership, suggesting that emphasis be laid on defending the Pujehun parliamentary seat bye elections instead of the Makeni consultation meeting. It was based on this and the general accepted public opinion that he twisted the Diaspora financial contribution towards his consultative meeting.
The Steve Gaojia Leadership Campaign Committee (SGLCC), after their recent tour visited Charles Margai at his office. Steve Gaojia expressed similar support for the popular view of financing and defending one of our held seats at the Pujehun bye-election instead of the Makeni consultative meeting. However, Mr. Margai told Steve and his team that “Even if the Diaspora fails to finance this Makeni consultative meeting, I will finance it single handedly because I deemed it necessary to go on”
Indeed Charles Margai did what he vowed to do. The PMDC Makeni consultative meeting is now history that has repeated itself from the angle of the SLPP to the corner of the PMDC. In the SLPP, Charles Margai became a victim of a similar situation. But he has now transformed himself into a perpetrator along this same line within the fold of our PMDC. He has become the subject of both parties, repeating himself with a mark of irony in our political realm. The democracy that he stood for during the 2005 SLPP Makeni convention is what he is lying for at the moment in the PMDC.
He has succeeded in manipulating our constitution and at the same time undermining our fragile party democracy. His actions at the Makeni consultative fiasco coupled with his chairing of the rushed and illegal so-called “National Conference” to endorse his unconstitutional actions was like a knife put on our party in order to divide us. But united we are, still standing. And he is experiencing this unity by the wave of condemnation he has come under from the general party membership and hierarchy.
Please consider this article as my own added voice to the lot in crying down Charles Margai for throwing spanners into the wheels of our moving PMDC democracy and party unity.
*Teddy Foday-Musa(seen on the right in the photo with the Special Court’s Peter Andersen at The Hague) is a founding member of the PMDC and former PV correspondent in The Netherlands.
Comments