A group of members of the party, known as the National Reformation Movement – APC (NRM – APC), yesterday published a statement, criticizing the Committee of Nine established by former President Koroma to conduct the internal review. Below is part of what the NRM – APC wrote in a widely circulated statement:
“We have long admired most of the membership of the Committee of Nine. We have long admired their willingness to make sacrifices to accommodate the extra time needed for the Committee’s work.
“We have even admired their patience in seeking explanations for the party’s political crisis at the 2018 elections from both predictable and unpredictable sources.
“Its formation, we must say, fits with the growing idea that the party’s internal politics need to be reformed to reflect present-day political realities that are firmly rooted in a competitive democracy like ours.
“This makes most of us to keep alive the idea that the APC party’s internal politics are at the very least going to have a democratic feel; we keep alive the feeling that at long last the politically backward tendencies that led us to become the main opposition party will be extinguished in order to prevent anyone from submerging the party further in the dumps.
“Certainly, there is no need to exaggerate the political significance of improving communication with the support base; looking afresh into the leadership’s relationship with our people.
“In this contemporary age, the need for fair dealing with the membership, the youth and grassroots has been embedded in the consciousness of the people — including the humblest of constituency party associations.
“It is against this backdrop and in light of the Committee of Nine’s inscrutable silence, even after the expiration of its six weeks’ timeline, that we at NRM cannot rest easy, especially when the Committee of Nine’s six weeks’ timeline continues to drag on, unnecessarily, to eternity.
“We have been completely shocked with disbelief about the decision of a Committee entrusted with public power to keep the party’s membership and support base completely in the dark, for this long, regarding a work it was mandated to perform on behalf of the mass of the membership of the APC.
“What have the grassroots, the youth and the entire membership done to deserve this? Why is it that finding out why the party failed to sustain political power and making those findings available to the membership has become a needle-in-a-haystack problem?
“Why has the Committee’s task suddenly become as difficult as the miners’ task of clearing the ever-increasing pile of wet sand in Peter Abraham’s Mine Boy?
“The idea of showing contempt for the people’s right to know what is going on with the Committee of Nine is too significant to be careless about or ignored.
“In the interest of the ordinary supporters and all those who do not have powerful connections in the APC to get them in the know of what is happening with the Committee of Nine, we want to remind the Committee of Nine that its six weeks timeline has long expired; and demand an explanation regarding the task they were mandated to perform on behalf of every member of the APC.
The release was signed by Mohamed Sheridan Kamara Esq. Interim Leader, Osman Bikal Kamara Secretary General, Alfred Minkailu Pa Yamba Koroma Public Relations Officer, Ahmed Timbo Koroma National Coordinator; Unisa Tarawali Deputy National Coordinator, Alusine Bai Hinga Kargbo Western Region Coordinator; Theo Jay Kay Director of Finance; Amidu Ayoub Kanu Diaspora Coordinator among several others.
Our investigations reveal that the bulk of the membership of NRM consists mainly of younger people who see themselves as ‘new’ APC blood, compared to the older generation party faithful referred to as the ‘old’ blood or ‘old’ APC guards.
The youths among other things are calling for an overhaul of the whole administration of the APC, accusing the ‘old’ guards of being lazy and lackadaisical during the last election because they had literally amassed wealth and are comfortable enough so as to be complacent.
Responding to the formation of the NRM within the APC and stories about a breakdown of authority within the APC executive, leading to resentment and complacency, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Cornelius Deveaux told AYV that the APC has no such movement called NRM. He added that the APC is not a party that washes its dirty linens in public, and that the APC doors are always open to anyone seeking clarification on issues pertaining to the party and government.
He encouraged media that have been unnecessarily hyping reports about the APC Committee of Nine to understand that the Committee is embarking on informing the general membership about the outcome of the study, adding that the APC is a party that believes in transparent and accountable governance.
Meanwhile, a number of APC supporters who claimed to have been attacked for political reasons; some seriously injured were beneficiaries of a total of seven million Leones paid to five victims and family members of deceased persons belonging to the APC. The occasion was described as an important milestone in the APC keeping in mind its supporters.
