Since 2018 Sierra Leone has been on the edge. The security situation across the country can only be described as tense. The tension has been simmering for a while. But of late there is the expectation that things could get worse. Sensing this potential for a problem that our government security sector workers have severally proven that they are ill equipped to handle, the government of Sierra Leone has on several occasions called for peace and security to be assured of across the country.
Tomorrow there will be a historic town hall meeting called for by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations Foundation to come up with home grown ideas and suggestions on how we can be assured of peace, stability, security and national cohesion in the country.
The Government of Sierra Leone has been unwilling to admit the cause of the lack of peace and so start the real process of dealing with and so healing the rifts that continue to threaten our collective peace and security.
There is unnecessary denial of why Sierra Leone is in a state of war although we have not been hearing any gunshots or bombs going off. War is defined as the absence of peace therefore all the calls for peace and security by the government and regional military leaders in Sierra Leone say that we are in a state of war.
Ignoring this war has not limited the threats to all out running skirmishes on the streets across the country. This has actually made the situation now so untenable that we will need a national town hall organized no less than by the government and the UN Foundation. This should raise serious eyebrows and inform us that the lack of peace needs serious addressing if we are to start the process of national healing that will result from such a town hall meeting.
If the government of President Julius Maada Bio including all the government’s and ruling party media people were to be honest, the real reason for the government to be worried of the widespread street protests across the country is justice, especially lack thereof. Justice is limited in Sierra Leone. It is often delayed and mostly denied to people deserving of justice.
The nation is no stranger to street protests. Actually since 2018 we have witnessed and heard of the deaths of scores of protesting civilians by state security people, all of whose deaths have not been addressed by the government despite repeated calls by the deceased’s loved ones calling for justice for their loved ones and peace for those surviving them.
But these calls have mostly been made without the expected response from the regime. Up to present the citizens that were shot at the Male Correctional Centre on Pademba Road, Tombo, Makeni, on August 10, 2022 and September 11, 2023 have not been identified with protesters still in jail awaiting trial. The fates of many more reported missing by their families are still unknown. The dead were reportedly buried in mass graves without their families’ consent and them not knowing where their loved ones were buried.
We have all heard that where there is no justice there is no peace. The government of Sierra Leone has ignored this proverb while trying to call for peace and security of the state. A great place to start the process to peace is by allowing for the people to narrate to the government about their experiences with the justice system in Sierra Leone which has one set of rules or laws for different people depending on one’s relationship with the government of the day. The word “buff case” has come to define the lack of justice in our court system where an individual would boast that the case brought against him/her would end up in their favour.
The country therefore has a historic moment tomorrow at the New Brookfields Hotel to address the real reason for the lack of peace that has affected our national cohesion. If the government is serious about resolving the lack of justice that would lead to the flagbearer and the main opposition to boycott the court system to address the extant electoral impasse, if they should hear about how the 10 elected Members of Parliament of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) and the suspended auditors general have been treated since their respective unconstitutional removal and suspension, if they are to get the truth from the families of those shot at protest actions since 2018, then tomorrow’s town hall is the best place to start.
The hope is that the organisers of the town hall, far from what happened at the disastrous Bintumani Conference Centre affair organized by the ministry of information featuring the president and his successes after the first year of his disputed second term would make it a point to listen to people. The main purpose of a town hall is for the government to listen to the people and their complaints, not the other way around. It is not time for government to make speeches; the people have had enough of speaking and want something done to address our lack of peace, stability and national cohesion.
Tomorrow’s town hall is not time for state security personnel to intimidate people wanting to speak their truth based on their experiences, not time for ministers of government or the hosts to shut their microphones off.
The military heads of ECOWAS making up ECOMOG and the UN are not out of touch with reality in recognizing the growing possibility for unrest in Sierra Leone. They know of all the issues including the continued hardship and the problems of getting any kind of justice from our courts as long as the case involves the government. Orders from above are routinely obeyed against the rule and application of the law.
Therefore in respect and remembrance of the many souls whose lives were cut short by shooting state security officers, for those who were killed and injured before, during and after our electoral processes sometimes in the presence of security officers, and those who have repeatedly been denied justice by a captured judiciary and a complicit house of Parliament, tomorrow’s town hall meeting is the place to be.
The hope is that all will be welcomed, not just those who are expected to sing the government’s praises with regards to access to justice in Sierra Leone.
