The PMDC Secretariat
9 Hannah Benka-Coker Street
Freetown
Dear Partisan,
RE: LETTER OF RESIGNATION FROM THE PMDC
I write to tender my resignation from the People’s Movement of Democratic Change (PMDC) party, of which I am a founding member and one time National Women’s Leader, due to the following summarized reasons.
I strongly and sincerely believe that the leadership of the party has woefully failed the movement and I as an individual.
According to Charles Francis Margai’s message to the entire nation, one of the main reasons why he left the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) was due to the manipulation of the party’s constitution and the fact that he felt robbed of victory at the SLPP Makeni convention.
Based on the flawed nature of the just concluded PMDC National Delegates Conference in Kenema, I have now come to the realization that Charles Margai is in fact guilty of the same act of manipulation that saw him abandoning his membership of the SLPP and subsequently forming the PMDC alongside a good number of those of us who have always sympathized with him until now when it has come out clearly that he has redirected the original focus of the party to suit his own convenience.
As a result of his dictatorial and tribalistic tendencies, coupled with his display of ungratefulness and disrespect for the opinions and views of other better heads around him, most of the founding and influential members who over the years made tremendous sacrifices to make him what he is today, have either left the party or are sitting on the fence in outright disappointment at the makings of the current leadership.
Most of them, including my humble self, feel very strongly that Margai perceives the PMDC as his personal property and therefore does not consider anyone important to the progress and cohesion of the party. He has succeeded in building a cabal around himself, and what that cabal has so far achieved is planting the seed of discontent among members of the party, thereby leaving them with no option but to resign or become passive members.
Due to the above reasons and many more which I feel constrained to mention, I don’t see myself continuing my membership of the party under the disrespectful and failed leadership of Charles Margai. I HAVE RESIGNED.
Signed:
………………………….
Rebecca Mbalu Conteh
Former National Women’s Leader
PMDC
Resignation from the PMDC Party – The curtain is down..
We the undersigned individuals identified ourselves with the Peoples’ Movement for Democratic Change party – PMDC and its cause in 2005, and were one of those who stood firm and unrepentant in protest in the UK against the excesses of SLPP rule and the malpractices of the party hierarchy at the infamous Makeni convention of that year, which culminated in the blatant manipulation of the leadership contest against Charles Margai and other well intentioned candidates who vied for the position of party leader.
The ensuing political debacle that emerged, laid the foundation for our support and involvement with the formation of the PMDC, as there was a clear and poignant message that Tejan Kabba, Solomon Berewa and others within the SLPP were against changing the face of Sierra Leone politics. The birth of PMDC envisioned positive change for all Sierra Leoneans with promise of equality and opportunity for all, irrespective of region, tribe, gender and political affiliation – the PMDC thus had a positive agenda encased in the party’s manifesto.
Without sounding optimistically feminist, Mrs Agnes Macauley (former UK chair) was duly respected and applauded as one of the hardworking ‘iron ladies’ of PMDC‘s inception and was especially introduced by the party leader Mr Charles Margai, during his major speech in Bo Town at PMDC’s first convention in March 2007 ahead of the Parliamentary and Presidential elections of August 2007. In those elections, PMDC manifested itself as a political giant despite its infancy and won 10 Parliamentary seats and 15% of the electoral votes. This was a feat unprecedented in Sierra Leone’s political history.
The presidential run off of September 2007 saw PMDC members befittingly throwing its weight behind the APC party and Ernest Koroma which resulted in the APC winning the run off and Ernest Koroma inaugurated as President. This was no accident as it was the appropriate and a way forward decisions that majority of us supported. APC has given some opportunity to PMDC to demonstrate their ability to contribute in nation building. This is yet to be fully manifested. In the meantime, the PMDC we knew in 2006 and 2007 has lost its values because of proper leadership, continuous internal rifts and acute tribal divides. This was manifested at the last convention where members openly campaigned on tribal basis. The Party should not only be united by party label but by a common set of policies rooted in its positive change message. By the attitude of the party hierarchy, PMDC intends to remain a ‘party of convenience’ for few of its members and not serious about pursuing any political stance and ideology, but the emergence of caucuses and insider machinations dominating its politics. The result is a situation where the voices of reasoning have been silenced and replaced with poor management, tribal divisions, diaspora alienation and total disregard for transparency and accountability.
2.
Some founding members – Chief Suwu, SAS Lebbie, Kumba Gbamanja, Femi Hebron to name a few, who couldn’t compromise their expectations for the party with ‘failure ‘and who tried in vain to bring PMDC to it’s original form with very little success and whose relationship with the leadership became strained decided to leave the party.
As Leader of the Margai Support Group during the SLPP Convention days in 2005, and subsequently Chair of PMDC UK and Ireland branch, Agnes Macauley and her executive team worked hard to promote the virtues of PMDC as a third political force in a climate of unity, tolerance and collective effort. Our outspoken support and unending spin attest to the unflagging loyalty we had for the party and the leader Charles Margai. Today PMDC UK is fraught with rift, uncertainty and outright executive incompetence. Except for one or two individuals, the branch lacks enough capable hands to manage its business. Members’ views and opinions are sometimes discarded and accepted with indifference and cynicism, thus the absence of valuable learning points for progress. Other members measure the branch’s success with their own failures and mediocrity creating disaffection in the general membership.
Joined by other senior members of the Party, the question now is can the PMDC redeem its past glory and embark on a meaningful road to win future elections? The dream that the party will one day hold the reins of government is far-fetched as the leadership has failed members woefully. What is clear is that rather than an objective analysis of the party’s future in the political process, it appears that non conformity to the party’s slogan of "positive change" has the norm.
Fellow PMDCians, in pursuant of the way forward, we, Mrs Agnes Kumba Dugba Macauley, former Chair and founding member, Mr Frederick Laggah, former PMDC deputy Chairman, an honourable intellectual with humble personality, Cllr Charles Ojukutu Macauley, founding member and Councillor Burnt Oak ward , Barnet, UK, Mrs Sia Evelyn Nyandemo, former PMDC UK Womens’ leader, current CEO of Sickle Cells Carers Awareness Network (SCCAN) UK/Sierra Leone, and Mr Sahr David Dingiswayo Nyandemo, founding member and programme co-ordinator (SCCAN), The former Young Generation Leader and Current Secretary General of the PMDC UK branch Sylvester Suaray hereby resign from the Peoples’ Movement for Democratic Change Party – PMDC with immediate effect.
3.
The decision to leave PMDC though, regrettable and with a feeling of strong emotions, seems the right thing to do in the current climate of PMDC politics. If we have to face the same old challenges in the party and spend copious amount of time and resources looking for solutions to our own internal problems rather than big issues of governance, then let us stop being irreverent to our conscience. Our impeccable loyalty should be to our country, Sierra Leone
Signed:
Agnes Kumba Dugba Macauley
Former Founding Member PMDC, former Chairman, UK
Mr Frederick Laggah, former PMDC deputy Chairman, UK
Cllr Charles Ojukutu Macauley, founding member
Mrs Sia Evelyn Nyandemo, founding member and former PMDC UK Womens’ leader
Mr Saa David Dingiswayo Nyandemo, founding member
Sylvester Suaray, The former Young Generation Leader and Current Secretary General of the PMDC UK branch.
Photos: Rebecca Conteh(top) and Agnes Macauley.
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