Commentary
By Titus Thompson, Freetown.
The undulating scope of political leadership and the unforeseen encumbrances of political gamesmanship makes it difficult to second guess any future for the All People’s Congress party just the same way as the Sierra Leone People’s Party are having difficulties in restraining the ambitions of their aspirants for leadership.
However, that is the limit as to where the comparison between the two political parties could stretch.
The APC draws the line on miscreant behaviour and open challenges to its hierarchy and this is for a very good reason. The party frowns on rebellion and chaos because it has undergone its dark era when its members would hardly toe the line or succumb to any set of rules that could lead to party discipline. In the event, measures have been put in place to ensure that there is no longer any scope for individuals to hold the party to ransom or turn it into a collection of uncontrolled cabals and warlords.
The aspirations of future leadership are however not entirely constrained by the party’s strict adherence to discipline. The party opens itself up to any aspiring leader who demonstrates commitment to the principles of sobriety and recognition of the supremacy of the Chairman and Leader and his immediate executive.
It is for this reason that the APC party has not frowned on any candidate for future leadership who has intimated their intentions but nonetheless succumb to the fact that there is a Chairman and Leader in situ and that the immediate priority for now is for the party to stay united behind Dr Ernest Bai Koroma so that his legacy is undiminished by the grandstanding of a prospective aspirant. Those who would wish to occupy any office within the party must wait for that position to become available. The prospect therefore of any candidate for a position within the party who fails to defer to the dictates of the party executive is dismal and unpardonable. The APC has instilled that distinctive discipline in its membership and that adherence to the party line has served the party well and enabled it to benefit from the visionary leadership of the Chairman and Leader.
Notwithstanding, there are those who have made their mark on the party and whose names have now come to be synonymous with commitment and fervour. One such individual, Winstanley Johnson (seen in photo taken when he was Mayor of Freetown), has earned for himself the status of a proactive stalwart, an experienced party activist and in most instances, recognized as one of those who stood by the party in its years of ignominy and by his campaigning and forthright style, brought the party back to local government leadership in Freetown, prior to its re-emergence at national level elections in 2007.
So it is that when a person of that ilk would wish to aspire for leadership of any sort in the party, other heads must take cognizance.
Winstanley Johnson has always been his own man, a person who says what he feels is right to whom it must be said and one who has done so much to keep the Western Area political dynamic firmly at the centre of APC party development. He has been a firm believer that the APC should sustain itself and that all traditional groups and cohorts have an equal say in the deliberations of the party.
He has led a very successful local government restructuring and ensured that the APC has an unbeatable supremacy in the representations of local government in the Western Area. As a former Mayor, he has served the City and the party well, helping to bring back the party to prominence in the City, and therefrom provided the basis of a resurgence of APC supremacy in its traditional heartlands and constituencies. He has led the way for securing the Creole claim to the Mayoralty at the Freetown City Council, not because of hegemony but because it makes sound social and political sense.
The Creoles have no other political constituency outside Freetown and so for the APC to abandon its traditional protection of the seat of local governance in the City on their behalf accords an equality of participation in governance that is underpinned by sound judgment and common sense. If he were to be judged on his credentials, experience and commitment to party principles, then the claim that he has made to the next Vice Presidency should accord for him a much vaunted recompense for a life devoted to the APC. The political gains that would accrue to the APC if the Western Area is seen to be thus firmly entrenched in governance would be akin to the redeeming of the party in the heady days when it was abhorrent for party supporters to even accept that they were indeed still members of a then despicable party.
The APC has its own claim to a traditional support base but if that support base is allowed to be frustrated, then the cracks would lead to a complete fragmentation of the party and an implosion of party discipline. There has never been any time that the party needs its support from the Western Area and the North as the coming elections portend. What has always been a disparagement of the party is the hegemonic tendencies for succession to be perceived as being fixed on the basis of nepotism or a filial disposition. The APC has always resisted such tendencies and the consequences of being seen to be so openly tribalistic or partisan. It is for this reason that the APC is aptly described as a broad church, welcoming to all.
There will always be contention in any decision that has to be made but the need for fairness and a robust transparency on assimilation of all sections of the communities would favour a Vice Presidential candidacy of someone of the calibre of Winstanley Johnson. The deliberations that would decipher the flag bearer would then follow from this choice and in turn achieve two things in a seamless manner.
Firstly, the determinations of the party generally and the Chairman and Leader specifically on who gets to be the next President would be complex.
Secondly, the party discipline and mechanisms for ensuring that the Vice President succumbs to both the authority of the party through the Chairman and Leader, and on the other hand to the authority of the President would have a clear legitimacy, thus avoiding the impasse that very nearly threw the party into disarray in the recent past.
The Running mate to the future President would still remain the choice of the flagbearer but in true APC tradition, that choice would be supported and assisted by the party.
In the event, where that choice was to be based on merit and merit alone, Winstanley Johnson is a very serious contender indeed.
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