WHAT DR BANGURA BRINGS TO THE APC
By Umaru S. Jah
London, 11 September 2026:
Political parties are often good at announcing what they intend to do. The harder task begins when those promises must be turned into results that people can see in their communities.
In Part One, I wrote about Dr Ibrahim Bangura’s call to Heal, Unite and Build and why I believe it fits the situation facing the APC. Part Two looks at the experience behind his candidacy: his work examining development programmes, his research on youth participation and what I observed during his campaign launch in Germany.
I am writing this week’s article from London, where I have come to attend the official launch of DIB Iron Ladies UK and Ireland. The visit also gives me an opportunity to meet party members and listen to their views as the APC moves towards the NDC.
Dr Bangura’s profile at the Africa Oxford Initiative states that he assessed more than 100 European Union-funded projects and programmes in approximately 30 African countries as a Results-Oriented Monitoring expert. His task was to examine whether programmes were progressing as intended and whether their reported achievements could be supported by evidence.
That kind of work is relevant to Sierra Leone. Our country has seen many programmes announced in agriculture, education, healthcare, roads and youth employment. Some have made a difference. Others have failed to deliver everything that was promised. Too often, citizens hear about the beginning of a project but receive little information about what it eventually achieved.
The written plan is only the starting point when a programme is reviewed. It must be compared with the work completed, the money spent and the number of people reached. A project may receive funding and still suffer delays. The institution in charge may lack trained staff, or the programme may fail to reach its intended beneficiaries. Establishing what went wrong requires patience, sound judgment and evidence from the communities involved.
These are useful qualities in government. A President cannot personally run every ministry or public agency, but he must understand how to hold those institutions to account. He should know when a delay has a reasonable explanation, and when poor supervision, waste or neglect is responsible.
My interest in Dr Bangura’s experience also comes from observing him within the APC. Before his campaign launch in Germany, he met executive members from several European countries. He allowed them to speak and listened before responding. His message that day centred on peace and bringing the party together. To me, he appeared more interested in encouraging the members than in making a campaign speech.
At the public launch in Darmstadt, another part of his thinking became clearer. He spoke about discipline within the APC and the need to strengthen the way the party conducts its affairs. He argued that political leadership requires proper preparation and that decisions must be followed through. I saw a relationship between what he was saying and the work he had done examining programmes across Africa.
His interest in hearing from people affected by political decisions also appears in his research. In 2016, the Social Science Research Council’s African Peacebuilding Network awarded him an Individual Research Grant for a project titled; ‘What the Youth Say: Youth and the Democratization Process in Guinea.’ The study examined youth participation in governance and the consequences of exclusion and marginalisation.
Although the research concerned Guinea, its subject is familiar in Sierra Leone. Young people do much of the work during political campaigns. They attend meetings, organise support and defend their parties in public, yet they are often given much less influence over policies affecting their education, employment and future. Dr Bangura’s decision to examine the issue through the experiences of young people, tells us something about his approach: before proposing answers, he wanted to understand the views of those living with the problem.
The APC is seeking the opportunity to govern Sierra Leone again. To earn that opportunity, the party will need more than criticism of the present government. It must tell the public what it would do differently and show that it has people capable of carrying those plans through.
Take agriculture as an example. It is easy to promise support for farmers. The serious questions concern the kind of support they will receive, when it will reach them and whether roads, storage facilities and markets are available for what they produce. Without attention to those matters, even a well-funded programme can disappoint the people it was created to help.
The same applies to youth employment. Training young people is useful, but training alone does not create work. The courses offered must reflect actual opportunities, and those completing them need a fair chance to use what they have learned. Someone must follow the programme closely enough to know whether it is improving lives or merely producing impressive figures for an official report.
In 2023, Dr Bangura edited a book on the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former combatants in Africa. The book examined the different experiences of countries trying to rebuild lives and communities after conflict.
Sierra Leone must find answers suited to its own history and circumstances. Knowledge of what has happened elsewhere in Africa can still help a leader recognise useful approaches and avoid mistakes that have already caused problems in other countries.
Alongside his work across Africa, Dr Bangura teaches at Fourah Bay College as an Associate Professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies. In 2024, he was selected for an Africa Oxford Initiative Visiting Fellowship. His academic work deals with many of the same subjects he has encountered professionally, including governance, peacebuilding, youth participation, security reform and post-war recovery.
My support for him is not based simply on the number of assignments he has completed or the positions he has held. I am interested in the questions that have occupied his working life: whether public programmes deliver results, why citizens are excluded and how institutions can recover from failure.
Those are also questions that confront any government in Sierra Leone. The APC will need policies that reflect the country’s finances, the ability of public institutions to perform their duties and the daily experiences of its people. It will also need a leader who understands that announcing a policy is only the beginning of the work.
What I observed in Germany helped me understand the relationship between Dr Bangura’s professional background and his approach to politics. In the meeting, he listened before responding. At the campaign launch, he spoke about discipline, preparation and following decisions through. His professional record shows years spent examining whether institutions and programmes delivered what they promised.
The delegates will decide which aspirant should lead the APC into the next national election. My choice is Dr Ibrahim Bangura. His professional work has taught him to examine whether plans are realistic, whether institutions are performing their duties and whether people are seeing results.
Sierra Leone needs that attention to delivery. Promises have never been in short supply; the weakness has often been what happens after they are made. I believe Dr Bangura’s experience would help the APC prepare seriously for government and present the country with proposals it can defend.
That is one of the reasons I support his election as the APC flagbearer.
In Part Three, The Leader Who Can Bring the APC Together, I will examine his conduct within the party and his approach to members who support other aspirants.