Former President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has returned to the center of All Progressives Congress politics, and senior party loyalists are warning him to tread carefully.
The warning comes amid growing concern inside the APC that some of the same members who kept their distance during Dr. Koroma’s years out of the spotlight are now positioning themselves closest to him, while others are invoking his name to boost their own flagbearer ambitions.
“Your Excellency should be careful of the sycophants and the Judases in the APC,” a senior party stakeholder told The Informant newspaper. “These are people who were praying for his downfall. Today they are the first to line up for photographs and to claim they were always with him.”
Dr. Koroma led the APC for two terms from 2007 to 2018 and remains the party’s most influential figure. His recent engagements with grassroots structures and regional executives have reignited debate over who truly speaks for the former president.
Party sources say the jostling has intensified because several aspiring flagbearers are telling delegates they have Dr. Koroma’s endorsement.
“There is a deliberate attempt by some flagbearer hopefuls to use his name as currency,” another APC executive said. “They go to districts and say ‘Baba has endorsed me.’ But the former president has not made any public declaration. That is misleading the base.”
The APC is preparing for internal elections to choose a flagbearer ahead of the next general elections. With no clear successor anointed, the contest has opened space for both genuine loyalists and political opportunists, according to interviews with delegates in the Western Area, Bo, and Makeni.
Analysts say Dr. Koroma’s legacy still commands significant weight with the APC membership, which is why control of his endorsement has become a battleground.
“The danger for him is being surrounded by people whose loyalty is to access, not to principle,” said a Freetown-based political commentator. “If he is not careful, the same voices that were quiet when he needed support will be the ones defining his legacy now.”
Inside the party, calls are growing for Dr. Koroma to set clear boundaries. Loyalists argue he should distinguish between long-standing comrades and late converts, and issue a public statement clarifying that no candidate has received his endorsement until he says so himself.
For now, Dr. Koroma has not commented publicly on the flagbearer race. But pressure is mounting for him to address what many in the APC describe as a credibility problem: people pretending to celebrate his return while pursuing personal agendas.
As one veteran APC member put it: “The party needs unity, not betrayal dressed as loyalty. The former president must know who stood with him, and who stood against him.”