Ady Macauley, a hugely popular legal practitioner in Sierra Leone, who has been one of many celebrated attorneys defending the opposition All People’s Congress ( APC ) in its many legal battles , last week spoke to COCORIOKO newspaper about why he wants to be the next Secretary General of Sierra Leone’s main opposition party – the APC.

It should be recalled that when the executive of the APC was dissolved by a decision of the Freetown High Court, presided over by Judge Adrian Fisher, Ady Macauley not only stood firm with the embattled party but later found the need to aspire to be the next Secretary General of the party . He will be contesting the position along with some stalwarts of the party during the next APC Delegates Convention to be held soon.

Mr. Ady Macauley is presently on a mini-tour of the United States during which he will be holding high-level meetings with some chapters of the party to brief them about matters surrounding the APC and his intention to throw his hat into the ring for the Secretary Generalship of the party. Yesterday, the COCORIOKO newspaper conducted an exclusive interview with the famed attorney.

Mr. Macauley explained that after 2018 when the APC lost the cataclysmic presidential elections to the now ruling SLPP, the shock that visited the party left everybody in a state of comatose and it also opened the doors for many legal troubles with the new government.

As a lawyer, Mr. Macauley (Photo) said he had the platform to talk about and deal with governance and constitutional issues , especially where the constitution was being violated through arbitrary arrests of people perceived to be APC and many bad things were being done that were contrary to the tenets of democracy.

For instance, former army Captain, Paul Koroma , one of the close-circuit security officers of erstwhile President Ernest Koroma , was being detained for 6 months without trial and then the government set up commissions of inquiry to investigate allegations of corruption against former officials of the then APC Government.

These were the first matters he took on as an attorney post 2018 elections to ensure that justice was done, and he said that he and other attorneys gave a good account of themselves.

Mr. Macauley went on to state that he engaged in a lot of media activities , even with the BBC and it was then that the realization dawned on him more than ever before that there was a vacuum in the party that he could fill. That was how he realized that he could do even better for the APC as the next Secretary General of the party.

Mr. Macauley, talking like a visionary, also predicted that extraordinary elections are looming in the horizon in Sierra Leone next year and for the APC to win those elections and make a comeback to power, something out of the ordinary had to be done by the secretariat of the party. Supporters of the party must be made to register massively, and vote and the secretariat had the responsibility to help protect their votes.

Mr. Macauley promises to ensure success in these areas as Secretary General of the APC. He also believes that in the democratic dispensation of the country, he will not only be serving the APC, but his country as a patriotic citizen.

Asked about the difference he hopes to make, Mr. Macauley responded that one of his foremost goals will be to unite, mobilize and empower the party’s grassroots, women and youths, who are the strength of the party and who, demographically, represent the highest category of people who vote.

“We have not always harnessed the advantages we have with them , so my vision is to make sure that these three categories of supporters are fully mobilized, feel valued , made to feel that they belong and that their voices are very important. My vision is to empower them to get actively involved with the party and be part of the machinery of the APC.“

Emphasizing the importance , power and effectiveness of the grassroots, women and the youths of the party, Mr. Ady Macauley pointed out that these three categories of supporters “can reach and affect places we cannot reach and affect. We have to externalize the activities of the party , build up the youths to be the future leaders of the party and the country.“

Mr. Macauley’s other vision will be to help the APC utilize technology, through which the party would consolidate membership data throughout the country and the diaspora, bridge the gap between the secretariat and the people and even boost the finances of the party. He said that through technology, members will no longer have to come to the office or the bank to pay their dues. They could now do it through available mobile money transfers.

The Ady Macauley campaign team was also in New Jersey last week where they held a town meeting with party supporters.