Two days ago on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, the very busy streets of Freetown resembled a ghost town as the majority of shops and other places of business were closed to the public. The action was in response to the fear instilled in people from those who called for a stay at home protest action in anticipation of mayhem on the streets of Freetown. They had called for the protest in anticipation of the disclosures by the Tripartite Committee.
The quiet and empty streets of Freetown was reminiscent of what happened on August 10, 2022 with many saying they responded that way because the events and effects of the nationwide August 10, 2022 riots are still fresh on the minds of the people.
The calls by the president, the main opposition All People’s Congress – APC and even the most notorious social media demagogue Adebayor aimed at encouraging the people to overlook the threats to their lives and businesses and come out and work fell on deaf ears and proved futile as the people responded in droves and closed down their places of business for the day.
Busy streets and areas like Sani Abacha Street, ECOWAS Street, PZ, East End Police, Dove Cot and the like were devoid of the kind of vehicular and human traffic for which they are well known. Even the Western Rural District of Waterloo was also completely deserted.
Many business people said the wanton deaths of civilians and police officers and the destruction of many police stations across the country on August 10, 2022 (that led the president to cut short his working visit to the UK to come home and address the situation for which he called the protesters “terrorists”) was their reference point for this call on social media for them to stay home although they actually survive by the day. For them the need to stay alive far outweighs the need to earn.
Upset people who say the empty streets robbed them of making a living for their loved ones blamed police officers and the central government for how the day turned out. Police officers they said exacerbated the effects of the day by their huge presence across the town with guns in police vehicles blaring their sirens all day and the arrest of many young men on suspicion of incitement and involvement in planning to “come out” and protest. In short they blamed the fear that the militarisation of the day that was instilled in them by heavily armed police officers.
President Julius Maada Bio was also blamed for his now infamous “bullet for bullet” statement that caused many to believe that something awful and bloody was going to happen on June 19. Instead of trying to tone down the rhetoric of the expectations of what those who allegedly called for the protest action were trying to achieve, the public blamed the government’s Ministry of Information for not being active in spreading messages of hope, saying that all they were bombarded with was news of the coming of ECOMOG to ensure that nothing untoward happens on Wednesday, June 19, the day the Tripartite Committee was scheduled to complete work and hand over their report and recommendations into their investigation of what really took place during the presidential elections on June 24, 2023.
Fault was also ascribed to those who allegedly called for the stay home and protest action. Their action destabilised the nation and crippled the economy for the day. By their action they have created an open window for anyone that would want to cause problems for our peace and to our economy since they now know that any threat made on social media will be responded to by the masses. Many people say this kind of thing should be expected in the future by those who would want to cause problems for any sitting government.
The business people and others who responded by closing down their places of business also took some of the blame as they became what those who spoke to FORUM NEWS called “lab rats in this experiment at destabilising Sierra Leone”.
Meanwhile, despite the threats, fear, arrests, show of public security force of arms, the closed shops, turning Freetown into a ghost town and all the apprehension, Wednesday, June 19 came and went without incident. There were no reports of rioting or police shooting or assaulting anyone, anywhere.
Sadly, the biggest losers of the day were the government or people of Sierra Leone for all the revenues lost to the day. Billions or trillions of Leones of business was flushed down the drain because no one was able to convince the people that the day would pass without incident. The poor and suffering people and business owners who live on a day by day basis for survival that were forced to stay home, including those that braved the storm and opened their businesses despite making no sales, also lost big time on Wednesday.
But the biggest single group of losers is the desperately poor we call the vulnerable: the disabled, the mentally ill, the beggars, the homeless, car loaders and washers, those who clean the streets and places of business, who live on the charity of kind business people and others that come to town to work and otherwise. They suffered greatly.
This is the making of state failure, said a very disappointed foreign businessman.
There were no winners on the day because a loss for the country is a loss for all. But going forward the society needs reassurance by the head of state, the police and all communications related people in government and even the media that all will be well whenever someone comes up with an idea that a riot is going to happen anywhere in the country. The lack of information from the powers that be has led to the rise of social media demagogues the people run to for all kinds of news including fake news laced with wild speculations. The society considers these people truthful with limited information from government. Government considering such people as faceless has given them the power to con the people into believing that whatever they say is the absolute truth, more truthful than those they elected to public office.
This needs to change so that what happened on Wednesday, June 19 will not be repeated again. Lonta!
