As calls for an update on the actual figure of the death toll, as well as for identification of the dead, resonate far and wide after the bloody protests of August 10, the need for accurate statistics or data from the state authorities becomes paramount.Few days ago the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Parliament, Hon. Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah, made a passionate and fundamental call on the state authorities and security apparatus to ensure that they give an update and make public the number of the people, civilians and police officers alike, who lost their lives in the 8/10 demonstration that turned violent. He, together with other people, also called for an accurate figure on the number of people arrested and detained in police custody in connection with the protests.
It must be noted that while he calls on government to provide data on the exact number of killing perpetuated by the security forces during the August 10, 2022 protest, Hon Maju Bah strongly condemns violence of any form, because among other ills, violence, as Indian leader and philosopher Mahatma Ghandi puts it, when it appears to do good the good is temporary, the evil it does is permanent.
Hon. Bah therefore states: “As the nation grieves, let me state that I strongly condemn violence of any form and believe that there are much more progressive and constructive approaches to communicate our concerns including peaceful protests.”
The opposition leader in Parliament further support the call for an independent committee to investigate the 8/10 demonstrations. He says: “I endorse the call for an independent committee to speedily and conclusively investigate the August 10th demonstrations and its aftermath. The composition and conduct of the committee is credible and non-partisan with the sole aim of providing truthful findings and proffer recommendations that will amongst other things help to provide redress for the families of victims.”
Another but related appeal for identification of corpses was made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Friday 19th August 2022 for family members and relatives to go and identify their deceased relatives at the Connaught Hospital.
The release they issued to that effect states: “Following the insurrection on Wednesday 1oth August 2022, by certain individuals, resulting in the loss of lives of both civilians and Police officers in some parts of the country, the Ministry wishes to inform the families and relatives of the deceased civilians who lost their lives during the riot to come to the Connaught Hospital Mortuary on Monday 22nd August at 10:00am to identify the corpses of their family members for post-mortem.”
While these apparent transparent moves in putting the public in the know about the corpses of the protest go in conformity with the law, giving an update on the accurate data of the people who lost their lives, as well as those detained, in connection with the 8/10 demonstration is paramount and vital for several fundamental reasons.
Data on the death toll so far registered, as called for by the Hon. Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah, must be made public, with the corpses handed over to their families for proper burial rites. Indeed data must be made public for several reasons as accurate record is very important in society.
Reasons for which data is needed range from helping people to make informed decisions, to stopping them from making mountains out of molehills, as well as to find solutions to problems.
Data, which is useful information that one collects to support decision-making and strategy, also helps to stop the guessing game and back up one’s arguments.
While it helps people to be strategic in their approaches to solving problems, data also guides a people to know what they are doing well and to keep track of it all.
Among other essentials, data helps to improve people’s lives as they guide against doing the wrong thing and give a lead to getting the results one wants.
Hence, for the above reasons and for unseeing circumstances, the people of Sierra Leone would definitely want to know the actual number of people killed, as well as of those detained, in connection with the August 10 protest.
It must be noted that bereaved families of both the civilians and security personnel who lost their lives in that protest would never forget the day they lost their loved ones so gruesomely and under the barrel of the gun, while some other people dwell in the feeling of schadenfreude, deriving pleasure or satisfaction from such killings!
However, as a nation we are sadder but probably wiser after such a bad experience in our political history. We therefore must have learnt something from this experience, as it is important to know that patience and time do more than force and rage.
As the President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, Ahmed Sahid Nasralla, puts it: all of us must take responsibility for what happened on Wednesday 10 August 2022, which has put our country Sierra Leone in the limelight once again for all the bad reasons: political, social and economic mismanagement and ultimately violence and war.
Never again should we as a nation take this path of violent protests and retaliation.
Forum therefore takes a leaf from the sage statement of Thomas Jefferson that the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
