SAMURA KAMARA REVEALS HOW PASTOR MAMBU INFLUENCED HIS EMERGENCE AS APC FLAGBEARER
By Kelvin Jay
Former All People’s Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Dr. Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara, has revealed how Pastor Mambu allegedly played a significant role in influencing his emergence as the party’s flagbearer ahead of the 2018 presidential election.
Speaking on AYV’s State of the Nation programme, Kamara recounted how former President Ernest Bai Koroma invited him to his residence at a time when he was preparing to travel for a meeting in the sub-region.
According to Kamara, upon arriving at Koroma’s residence, he found the former President seated with Pastor Mambu. Koroma reportedly asked whether he knew the pastor before informing him that the pastor had a message for him.
Kamara said Pastor Mambu subsequently narrated his encounter with Koroma during the process that led to the former President’s emergence as APC flagbearer in 2007.
He explained that Pastor Mambu told the church that approximately six months earlier, Koroma had approached him with a list of six individuals being considered for the APC flagbearer position. However, the pastor reportedly told Koroma that God had already revealed to him that Samura Kamara was the person destined to lead the party.
“When that revelation was made, I left and never said a word. This is how Pastor Mambu influenced my selection as flagbearer,” Kamara explained.
He added that when he was eventually announced as the APC flagbearer at the party’s convention at the Itenary Hall in Makeni, he strongly believed that his emergence was in accordance with God’s will.
Reflecting on his relationship with former President Koroma, Kamara described himself as a diligent and humble individual throughout his service under the former President.
However, he disclosed that their relationship subsequently deteriorated, despite attempts by members of Koroma’s family to reconcile the two. Those efforts, he said, proved unsuccessful.
Referring to an account in his recently published memoir, ‘My Circumstances of Life’, Kamara said Koroma had advised him to remain subordinate to him even if he eventually became President, suggesting that the former President had already drawn a circle around him.
Nevertheless, Kamara indicated that he would not have been easily controlled had he assumed the presidency, maintaining that the responsibilities of Head of State would have required him to exercise independent authority.
His revelations have reignited discussions about the circumstances surrounding his emergence as the APC flagbearer in 2018, particularly the alleged influence of religious figures and political leaders in the party’s leadership selection process.
