Manipulating SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) members to accept President Julius Maada Bio as 2023 flag-bearer remains the party’s biggest headache at the moment, sources have told this press.

To many SLPP members, Bio is not a man for the moment and must step down. Many grassroot members believes that Bio might bow to pressure, and step down as no one could fight a dozens. As intra-party tension builds up full attention is now focused on President Bio to know the line of action he would take to avert the legal battle or conflicts awaiting him. Bio who was nominated in December last year has come under fire by his SLPP comrades who are seeking to nullify his candidacy for next year’s election. To many SLPP members, Bio is not properly seated as flag-bearer since his nomination is illegal.

Under SLPP constitution, Bio has exhausted his chances of the party’s flag-bearership. This is the third time he has got the party’s flag. He got it in 2012, 2017 and 2021 in a row. SLPP members at home and in the diaspora were not pleased with the method employed to have Bio as flag-bearer, a situation that has ignited fresh waves of litigations against Bio’s candidacy. Even senior government officials in Bio’s administration seem ready to take on President Bio when time is up.

They wear the cloak of peace for now as Bio currently holds the sword Any attempt to resist him will lead to serious consequences. In the southern capital of Bo, the members swallowed the bitter pill for the sake of peace and progress. Investigation conducted by this press show that two methods could be used by the aggrieved members to see that Bio’s candidacy is reversed, but the Judiciary remains the ultimate choice.

The courts will be used to nullify his nomination so that he could not fly the party’s flag next year. Peaceful protests could also not be ruled should the judiciary fail the litigants.

Most SLPP members do not lose sight of Judicial frailties. That view is supported by European Union. The inter governmental agency’s press release quite lately raised a big cloud of suspicion on the judiciary for being untrustworthy. It is difficult for the courts to hand down rulings and verdicts that disfavour government. The arbitrary removal of 10 APC (All People’s Congress) parliamentarians, failure to respond to questions on the illegality of the defunct commissions of inquiry by the judiciary, among others remain great lessons that the courts hardly go against matters in which government has an interest.

A committed SLPP member resident in the United States, Stephen Mambu engages media outlets to render Bio’s candidacy odious to all minds. He is educating his fellow SLPP on the need to challenge Bio through the courts. A big conflict which could tear the party apart close to elections is building up. Divergent views on actions to be taken by Bio lingers.

Some politicians within SLPP says Bio may adopt peaceful means to resolve an issue which has the potential to hit hard his political chances in 2023. A veteran politician who spoke to this press on condition of anonymity said Bio could remain on the seat only if he chooses either to persuade or manipulate the masses to avert a fresh convention. The veteran politician told this press that a real political threat crisis awaits SLPT, and that Bio had to be humble enough to reach out lest it boomerang He went on to state that the test of leadership does not he in the capacity to destroy but lies in one’s ability to make “A leader must re by learn to handle a situation before it becomes a crisis,” he stressed. nest ed as Others do not see the president as one who would use peaceful means to bring situation under control. He is known for riding roughshod on those who stand his way for the common good. As a former military ty’s head of state, he does not hesitate to get rid of anybody he perceived as an impediment to his governance including SLPP comrades.

In his bid to ensure that what he wanted prevailed in the party, Bio, close to three years, suppressed the women’s wing of the party. He the o as word. the He replaced the party’s female wing with Julius Maada Bio Women’s body despite calls for dissolution. It was a move to please his wife, Fatima Maada Bio who too had strong resentment for the SLPP women’s body, a reason nobody knows. The party has also seen intermittent waves of killings and brutality most times in ensuring that Bio’s will prevail over controversies in the party.

Despite coming to power thought the ballot box, Bio’s administration still maintains features of a military rule The brutality is seen not only seen in his party but also outside it. The adage of how one treats his kinsmen is an indication of how he would behave to others is highly relevant here. Since Bio never spares some his party members, he also does the same to opposition parties.

Heads of opposition political parties and other opponents have been arrested and detained without charges, Bio’s brute force to his own party is not unconnected to the tactics of high-level incivility and barbarity he brought to the country’s body politic 20 years after the war. The brute force helped him become flag bearer in 2017.

The combined might of 11 flag-bearer aspirants could not stop Bio, a man who was determined to become President at all cost in spite of the consequences. It reached a time in which SLPP headquarters was a no-go area for other aspirants except Bio although he was no longer competent to contest under the old constitution. His constitutional manipulation recently done by the sacked attorney general made him qualify for the flag-bearer race. However, the threat facing Bio within and outside SLPP is bigger than him.