A TIME TO HEAL, UNITE AND BUILD
By Umaru S. Jah
Berlin, 2 September 2026: When the APC elects its next flagbearer, members who supported other aspirants will remain part of the party he must lead. Their experience, local relationships and willingness to work will matter to its preparations for the national election. Whoever wins the nomination will therefore inherit a responsibility much larger than the campaign that brought him victory.
This is where my support for Dr Ibrahim Bangura begins. In my introduction last week, I promised to explain the reasons behind that support. His call to Heal, Unite and Build interests me because his professional work offers something against which those words can be examined.
The party’s preparations are taking place alongside court proceedings. According to reports of the High Court’s ruling on 31 August, the court directed delegate elections across all districts within 21 days while maintaining interim restrictions on executive functions. Osman Foday Yansaneh and Lansana Dumbuya were permitted to provide limited administrative support, including signing approved party payments. The substantive hearing was scheduled for 19 October. My concern here is the leadership responsibility that will follow the flagbearer election.
One example of Dr Bangura’s experience deserves particular attention. Oxford’s Department of International Development records that he developed the Women, Peace and Security Guidelines for ECOWAS in 2020. This was a specific professional assignment, involving guidance for an institution whose responsibilities include preventing conflict and supporting peace.
At their launch in Abuja on 23 April 2021, he presented the guidelines as the project consultant. They offered practical direction on incorporating women’s participation and gender considerations into the work of ECOWAS’s peace and security divisions, including its early-warning activities.
The relevance to political leadership, in my view, lies in the nature of that assignment. An institution can declare its commitment to participation and still struggle to make it part of everyday work. Developing guidance requires attention to how that commitment will be carried out. This gives me a concrete reason to take Dr Bangura’s approach seriously.
His research in Sierra Leone adds another dimension. In 2016, he published We Can’t Eat Peace: Youth, Sustainable Livelihoods and the Peacebuilding Process in Sierra Leone. Drawing on extensive interviews and focus-group discussions with young people and other relevant participants, the study examined youth marginalisation and its implications for peacebuilding. It brought the difficulties of earning a living into a discussion of how peace can be sustained.
There are also examples in his political statements. In my account of his address to APC members in the UK and Ireland, published in June 2025, I reported his message that leaders should create bridges rather than walls. He spoke against online insults and division within the party, while recognising that Sierra Leone’s problems require cooperation beyond a single political organisation.
His appeal for reconciliation between President Julius Maada Bio and former President Ernest Bai Koroma gave that national outlook a specific expression. On 15 July 2026, Sierraloaded reported a video message in which he urged the two leaders to reconcile and place the country’s interests above political differences. This was a public appeal concerning leaders on opposite sides of Sierra Leone’s politics.
For me, these examples explain why his message deserves attention. His professional assignments concern participation, his research examines the relationship between livelihoods and peace, and his public statements encourage cooperation within the APC and across political lines. These are related concerns with practical consequences for leadership.
After the flagbearer election, the successful candidate will need to turn the support gathered around different aspirants into a common effort. That cooperation should help the APC prepare proposals that explain what it intends to do, how it would pay for them and whom they would benefit. This is where bringing people together becomes part of preparing to govern.
I support Dr Bangura because I see a connection between the work he has undertaken, the reconciliation he has publicly encouraged and the responsibilities awaiting the next flagbearer. The APC will elect one candidate, but that candidate’s ability to draw on the contribution of many others will matter long after the nomination has been decided.
In Part Two, The Experience Dr Bangura Brings to the APC, I will examine more closely the professional record behind my support.
