By Comrade EOK
A Proud Beginning
The All People’s Congress (APC) was not built for chaos. It was built on a promise democratic governance for Sierra Leone.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, our forefathers laid this foundation with courage, through the turbulent Margai years, and carried it forward. The APC went on to govern for 18 years under leaders like Siaka Stevens, Joseph Momoh, and later Ernest Bai Koroma for 11 years, leaving legacies still debated and referenced today.
In those early decades, the party groomed leaders differently. Disagreements were real, but they were settled quietly, within the family, without public disgrace. That discipline is what built the APC brand.
Cracks After Koroma
When President Ernest Bai Koroma’s tenure ended, something shifted. Power that had been concentrated for 11 years, now had to be shared, and not everyone was willing to share it peacefully. Some who had benefited under his leadership wanted to keep steering the party. Others, who felt left out, pushed back.
Out of that tension came new formations, the NRM and later the ARM movements that gave a voice to APC members who felt sidelined, even if they were never fully embraced by the mainstream party structure.
A lot of dramas were manufactured throughout the 2018 to 2026.
Today everyone enjoys the blueprint of the NRM taking the bold steps to contest for their positions of interests.
The 2023 Flagbearer Race and Its Aftermath
The lead-up to the 2023 elections deepened these divisions. Many senior party figures, potential flagbearers, former cabinet ministers, heads of parastatals, stayed quiet on critical party matters, reportedly fearing they’d lose Koroma’s endorsement or attract government scrutiny. That caution didn’t shield them. A large share of those same names later appeared in the government’s Governance Transition Team (GTT) reports and white paper.
During the years 2020 to 2023 before national conventions, the few powerful and the few others split, branding the less powerful as team B; that’s those not supporting the structure of Dr. Samura Kamara’s presidential bid, and the team A factor, that is those in favour of Dr. Samura Kamara. The team B faction suffered mass defeat in almost all elections with molestations everywhere, beats on elections and a lot of damages.
Before Dr. Samura Kamara won the flagbearer race, the party split into informal camps, supporters and non-supporters, and that split reportedly shaped outcomes down to the ward level, with accusations of favoritism and sidelining on both sides.
After the 2023 general election loss, the fallout was public and fast.
Legal team members reportedly stepped back and began positioning for future roles. His running mate resigned, leaving his boss stranded on the sea path. The entire Team A dismantled like a bunch of woods. Flagbearer declarations everywhere. Dr. Samura’s legal team and loyalists dispatched. Most of his loyalists and team strategists were snitch, traitors and betrayals planted around him.
By 2023, few months after losing the presidential election, when his three-year term as National Leader (agreed at the Makeni Delegates Conference) expired, much of his earlier support base had scattered. He was disgracefully abandoned and chased out of his party office.
Today, he’s nowhere to be found, and 90% of his loyalists are now Flagbearers. They treated him like an abandoned cat, while on the wilderness seeking for electoral justice.
The Party Registration Controversy
The APC’s membership registration and database drive is where the sharpest criticism belongs. In my assessment, and that of many members I’ve spoken with, the digital registration system had serious weaknesses, no visible duplicate checking, identity mismatches, and card distribution problems that left some legitimate members without cards, while the exercise reportedly raised significant funds for the party.
With all the huge funds generated, yet still, the party can’t fund the cards printing. The printing was funded by Dr. Ibrahim Bangura (DIB), and Mohamed Omodu Kamara (Jagaban) and few others, who gave their support for the party cards printing.
This was where the party’s expired leadership failed and unnoticed corruption occured massively.
A big shame.
This is my read of the situation, not a settled legal finding, but it’s worth saying plainly, if a party can’t trust its own membership roll, it can’t trust its own elections. That’s a governance problem the APC leadership needs to answer directly, with an independent audit, not a press statement.
Where the Party Stands Today.
This part isn’t opinion, it’s public record:
The APC’s National Executive, elected at the February 2023 Makeni Delegates Conference, had its constitutional three-year mandate expired on February 20, 2026.
The party has been split since then over whether to hold a fresh National Delegates Conference or extend the current leadership’s tenure, a dispute serious enough that it has gone to court.
Separately, APC Secretary General, Lansana Dumbuya, was charged in February 2026 over remarks made at a party meeting, a case that drew concern from the Lawyers’ Society of Sierra Leone about political speech and due process.
These are not rumors. They are confirmed developments that should be the center of any honest conversation about the party’s direction, not sidelined by personality politics.
The Real Questions
If we strip away the noise, these are the questions every APC member, and every Sierra Leonean watching deserves answers to:
- Why did the leadership allow its mandate to lapse before resolving the succession question?
- Who is funding the legal fight to extend tenure, and what are they gaining from it?
- Why has the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) not issued a clear, binding position?
- What are the declared 2028 flagbearer hopefuls doing right now, leading, or waiting safely on the sidelines for others to fight this battle for them?
Conclusion
The APC did not survive 18 years in government and decades in opposition by accident. It survived because, at its best, it resolved disputes internally, with discipline and respect for its own constitution. What we are watching now, an expired mandate, a court battle over succession, a Secretary General facing criminal charges, and a membership database nobody fully trusts, is not “politics as usual.” It is a party testing whether it still has that discipline left.
Recommendations
- Independent audit of the membership database and card distribution process, with findings published to members.
- Swift, transparent resolution of the leadership succession question, through the PPRC or the courts, rather than indefinite delay.
- Protection of internal dissent, members and officials should be able to raise concerns about party direction without fear of expulsion, sidelining, or prosecution for speech.
- Real accountability from 2028 hopefuls, those positioning for the flagbearer race should state their position on the current crisis publicly, not wait for it to resolve itself.
- A return to the old discipline, grievances settled within structured party channels, not through court battles and public mudslinging that damage the brand ahead of 2028.