The return of Julius Maada-Bio
The youthful former Head of State is credited with having led a coup for the express purpose of restoring democratic political normalcy in his country. He had risen to become the number two man in government when Valentine Strasser was removed in 1996. He took over as Head of State and immediately announced that he […]
The youthful former Head of State is credited with having led a coup for the express purpose of restoring democratic political normalcy in his country. He had risen to become the number two man in government when Valentine Strasser was removed in 1996. He took over as Head of State and immediately announced that he intended to end the brutal civil war by any means possible. Although he had been at the forefront of the effort to achieve a military solution, up to then, he announced that he was ready to enter into negotiations with the rebel forces of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Foday Sankor without preconditions. The fact that he had been advocating this for some time within the government caused some of his colleagues to feel that he was challenging their own views on how to solve the problem of ending the intransigent civil war. In spite of this, the young officer who was then still in his early thirties, stood firm on his resolve to return Sierra Leone to democracy and handed over to an elected government within a few months of having seized power. In addition to this Maada Bio who could have chosen the option of remaining in Sierra Leone and taking advantage of the enormous popularity that he had generated with his actions, chose instead to retire from the army and travel abroad to further his education.
On leaving Sierra Leone, Julius Maada-Bio showed no inclination to continue to interfere in the politics of his country for a long period. In fact, some of the members of his ruling group who had set up a new party, the National Unity Party (NUP), had apparently expected him to help them win power at the 1996 elections. They were clearly disenchanted with his refusal to do so and complained bitterly after the SLPP, the party that had brought independence to the nation, swept to victory in those polls. Maada Bio attended Universities in the USA, the UK, and France over the next ten years gaining a Masters degree in International Affairs, and diplomas in French and special studies in International Conflict Resolution and Development. On returning to Sierra Leone, the former Head of State set out quietly to create a new economic base for himself as a businessman. He engaged in the export of agricultural products such as cocoa and coffee, and established a company known as Tropical Farms Limited. However, in recent times, he has returned to the political arena and in taking that decision, he has opened himself up to a plethora of challenges both from inside the SLPP where he has chosen to throw his hat into the ring and from the All Peoples Congress (APC), the ruling party whose leadership clearly regards him as a formidable opponent.
The SLPP convention to select its flag-bearer for the next presidential election due in 2012 was at first scheduled to take place in March this year. However, many observers believe that a court challenge over delegates that was mounted by some members and which led to a postponement was actually engineered by infiltrators from the ruling party who were determined to undermine Maada Bio’s re-emergence. If this was actually the intention, the attempt was a failure in the end. In July after the court challenge was overcome, the party held its convention and Maada Bio won the contest.
However, it was not a landslide by any stroke of the imagination. Out of a crowded field of nineteen aspirants voted for by a little over six hundred delegates, Maada Bio had just fewer than 40 percent of the votes. The runner-up, Usman Boie Kamara, who was widely regarded as having been supported by the former President, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, received thirty per cent of the votes. The majority of the rest had negligible support individually so that had victory in the contest not been based on a simple first past the post majority and had a re-run been organised, Maada Bio would have still had to face stiff competition. However, it is now virtually certain that he will be the major challenger of the incumbent president, Ernest Bai Koroma, next year. His job now is to consolidate the formidable force that the SLPP represents in the nation’s politics and to reconcile the disgruntled members of the party. In addition to this, after his victory was announced, the senior elder statesman in the party, Mr Charles Margai, whose abdication and founding of separate factional party during the last elections, is largely credited with having the cost the SLPP victory gave a rousing speech endorsing the party’s choice of Maada Bio and pledging to work for its success in the next elections.
The outcome of the SLPP convention has brought the question of the true relevance of the former military leader to the new generation of Sierra Leonean voters to the forefront of the political arena. While the incumbent President cannot be regarded as a push-over, it is quite clear that economic debility in the country has saddled the APC government with serious levels of public disenchantment. In addition to this, Maada Bio seeking to appeal to a wide cross section of young people who are just about to come of age as voters and who are believed to favour change rather than continuity in the polity. For him to be able to take advantage of this demographic shift however, he must be able to convince the voting public that his own emergence is not allied to the essential and perennial elements of Sierra Leonean democracy of the such as regional chauvinism. Most of his critics so far have tried to paint him as being a member of a regional elite from the south of the country pitted against the APC as a party of northern elites. The former military leader is actually the son of a once famous Paramount Chief, although according to him, being the thirty-third child out of thirty six gave him hardly any overbearing privileges. His basic tenet as expressed in utterances since declaring his intention to enter the fray, has been that of generational credibility rather than either regional protectionism or class conflict.
Maada Bio is in fact, very conservative in his demeanour even though his supporters portray him as a radical nationalist as a result of his bold move to break the impasse of the civil war and create a multi-party democracy in 1996. What remains to be seen now is whether he can actually convince the majority of Sierra Leonean voters to entrust their fledgling democratic renewal to a leader whose past his critics contend was tainted by his collaboration in military abuse of power. Interestingly Maada Bio has never shied away from confronting such accusations. In speaking to the post-war Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Freetown, he admitted knowing about many of these abuses when they occurred and was forthright in condemning acts that were sanctioned by a government of which he had been a part. However, none of the investigations into these abuses ever found him to have been either an active participant or a perpetrator of these abuses. His emergence as a contender for national leadership will undoubtedly cause many more such accusations to surface but Maada Bio has proven himself in the past to be an articulate advocate of competitive politics. At that time, he did so under circumstances that were far more challenging, both to his personal safety and to the stability of the nation that he once led for a short time and is now seeking to lead again for a much longer and constitutionally stipulated duration. His opponents, especially those in the APC, believe that because he will be challenging an incumbent whose record does not include any formal role in military intervention in the past, he will face serious disadvantages as a former military Head of State. His supporters on the other hand, claim to have impeccable evidence of close connections between the incumbent President and his namesake, Johnny Paul Koroma, who headed the notorious AFRC junta that overthrew the government installed by Maada Bio’s transition and was eventually thrown out by a coalition of West African and other international forces. In support of this, they point to a number of figures serving in the present government or working closely as backroom figures in the president’s entourage. Quite apart from any threat from the power of incumbency though, Maada Bio is known for his ability to overcome enormous challenges and it is clear that he has entered the fray well prepared to face such challenges once again.
Barrett wrote this from Abuja, [email protected]