By Maada Karkpindi M’boma  

As the mayoral seat for Freetown municipality becomes highly contestable, President Julius Maada Bio’s singlehanded handpicked SLPP candidate for the seat, Mohamed Gento Kamara, has been cautioned by civic groups to withdraw his statement and apology to the nation.

Press releases issued by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) and the Sierra Leone Labour Congress (SLLC) have cautioned the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party mayoral candidate from making incendiary religious and ethnic statements at religious gatherings.

Mohamed Gento Kamara is quoted saying in a video that Muslims leave their religion and join Christianity for job seeking. He made the statement at a mosque during last Friday’s Juma prayers. His statement has received wide condemnations from Sierra Leoneans at home and in the diaspora with civic groups viewing it as a sentiment with a tendency to pitch discord between Muslims and Christians.

Gento’s hate rantings emerged following the Political Parties Regulations Commission’s placing of a ban on political rallies. And in his desperation to reach out to the electorate, he is dashing out monies everywhere in Freetown to win the hearts and minds of the people at the eleventh hour to the election.

But little did Mohamed Gento Kamara realize that religious tolerance is part of Sierra Leone’s national identity. Therefore, the Mosques and Churches should not be used as a platform to address political rallies. Accepting political campaigns in the Mosques or Churches is a recipe for political chaos. From time immemorial, Sierra Leone has enjoyed peaceful co-existence of religious forbearance, wherein socialization between Christians and Muslims has proven to be highly cohesive. Christians are marrying Muslims and Muslims are marrying Christians to depict the nature of our religious acceptance from both sides of the religious divide. Sierra Leoneans have seen the operations of the Inter Religious Council, where Muslims and Christians deliberate collectively to advise the government on significant national issues.

The SLLC in their press release dated 27 March 2023 describes Gento’s statement as ‘incendiary’ and ‘ethnic’ which they observe has the proclivity of pitching discord between Muslims and Christians, pointing out that such a statement should not have come from someone who is seeking political office. Dated and signed by the Congress’s Secretary General, the release condemns the act and urges the SLPP mayoral aspirant to withdraw his statement and apologise to the nation. A similar reaction was heard from the religious council and the journalists’ association.

Being a Muslim or Christian does not give you the bravery to transform these institutions into a political base to provoke the peace and cohesiveness between the two religious communities. Politics should be divorced from these two institutions and that they should not be used to mount political campaign.

Mohamed Gento Kamara, being an initiate to the mainstream politics of the country, must slow down and play strictly by the rules. Sierra Leone politics is not based on religious affiliations. The late former president Alhaji Dr Ahmed Tejan Kabbah was a Muslim with a Christian wife but was voted massively by both Christians and Muslims to rule this nation for two political terms from 1996 to 2007. Again, former President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma was a Christian with a Christian wife; he ruled this country for two political terms from 2007 to 2018. This shows the level of religious tolerance being enjoyed by the country. Therefore no one or certain people should use religion to escalate political violence.

It is good for political aspirants to be au fait with the national constitution to know their dos and don’ts. Using religious edifice to mount or stage a political campaign is totally condemned and unacceptable. Those involved in such practice should be reprimanded, named and shamed by the appropriate authorities. Politics is built on the foundation of decency, where no hate speech or religious sentiment is nurtured.

It is against the background of religious tolerance that SLAJ and SLLC came out conspicuously to condemn the unwarranted political behaviour and utterances of the SLPP handpicked mayoral candidate for the approaching elections, Mohamed Gento Kamara, who was videoed using a mosque as a political platform to manage his campaign.

Religious fanaticism is diabolical to societal inclusiveness. Once it starts to rear up, it must not be encouraged and must be fully put under control before it becomes a devastating canker in society. It is evident that former President Koroma and now President Bio have prayed in different Mosques and Churches across this country without making any political statement(s) that would provoke hate and destroy the peace and tranquillity of the state.

To be a politician is very easy, but to behave as a politician is another face of the coin. The spirit of tolerance, whether religious or otherwise, must be imbibed in the society to sustain cohesiveness.

It is the fervent hope of the nation that the SLPP leader, in the person of Bio, condemn the act and apologise to the nation for his party member’s wrongdoing. Also in the same vein, Mohamed Gento Kamara should see reason enough to first withdraw his statement foremost, as it has been collectively demanded by civic actors, and tender a public apology as well as desist from using the mosques or religious platforms for political campaign. Sierra Leone is a secular state and must be respected for her religious tolerance.

Gento is on record to have unleashed a tribal statement against certain northerner ethnic groups last year at the United Brethren in Christ on Black Hall, Road Kissy, in the east of Freetown, for which he also received wide condemnations. But it seems as if he failed to learn from that mistake.