By Kabs Kanu
President Samuel Doe had very good reasons to deport Sierra Leoneans when President Joseph Saidu Momoh allowed Brig. Gen. Thomas Quiwonkpa to come to Sierra Leone, raise a ragtag invasion force, backed by Sierra Leone government paramilitary forces (the ISU) and entered Liberia on November 12, 1985 to overthrow the Doe government.
I was there and it almost turned fatally costly for some of us and our families. Quiwonkpa successfully overthrew the temperamental and impulsive Samuel Doe and his forces reigned supreme until around 2pm when Doe’s forces, led by Col. Moses Washington of the Schefflein Battalion, overturned the coup and restored Doe. Then started the fierce and bloody backlash from the Doe AFL troops who went all over the city and Nimba, especially, hunting out and killing people who had rejoice prematurely.
I was a lecturer at a government teachers college called KRTTI. This reckless act by President Momoh could have cost the lives of Sierra Leoneans and it would have led to mass deportations of Sierra Leoneans, if President Doe was heartless and wicked like the present Guinean leader, Col. Mamadou Dumbuya. Whatever anybody could say now about Doe that was one moment he impressed me a lot.
Sierra Leone Police officers were captured and appeared on Liberian TV live, confessing their involvement and complicity by the Momoh Government. Some of us were very devastated, frightened and traumatized. One of the illiterate ISU officers even created fun in Liberia when he said in Krio on Liberia TV that when ah yeri the heavy rocket fire from Doe in soja man dem, ah almost kaka pan me sef. Ah bin wan kaka. “For long, Liberians joked about it in offices, private transportation and streets.
I was on top of the issue and knew of no Sierra Leonean molested or deported because of “unneighbourly” and traitorous behaviour of our then President. The government exercised restraint. The people of Liberia also exercised restraint. We did not pay for it.
Fast track to 1991, RUF rebel forces with the backing of Liberian warlord Charles Taylor invaded Sierra Leone to overthrow the Momoh Government. Hundreds of the rebel fighters were Liberians and many were captured and similarly confessed their involvement on national TV. The rebels wreaked even more bloody havoc but Sierra Leone too exercised restraint and did not turn on the hundreds of Liberians then living peacefully in Sierra Leone. Though it was not done by the Liberian government, if Momoh had the same callous attitude of Guineas junta leader, there would have been deadly reprisals from Sierra Leone.
No country in Africa is immune or exempted from the delinquent and illegal activities of citizens of neighbouring countries. Many Liberians living in Kroo Town Road, a massive Kru settlement in the centre of Freetown, certainly broke the law once in a while. Kroo Town Road is a hotbed of lawless infractions because it is an overcrowded hamlet of Sierra Leoneans, Liberians, Guineans, Nigerians, Ghanaians etc. Guineans too living in Sierra Leone engage in surreptitious activities, even land- grabbing. But nobody engages in mass deportations. What Siaka Stevens did during his rule did not meet the approval of the generality of Sierra Leoneans and we in the media used to condemn him. But it was under the same Siaka Stevens that Fulas and Mandingos accrued enormous economic powers and political prowess in Sierra Leone. So, it “evened ” out. Think of the Chernor Majus and Bailor Barries.
It should be expected that some Sierra Leoneans living in Guinea and Liberia also engage in unsavoury acts. The same problem is in Senegal and the Gambia where both countries often accuse citizens from across the borders of breaking the laws in their countries. If every country should resort to knee- jack reactions and deport citizens from neighbouring countries because they break the laws, there would be a mighty humanitarian crisis and hullabaloo all over Africa.
If Doe and Momoh shied from it and the governments of Rwanda, the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somali, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Senegal etc., do not deport citizens from neighbouring countries in droves for endangering their security as often happens, Col. Mamadou Dumbuya has no excuse for deporting our Sierra Leonean people for allegedly breaking the law in Guinea. There is a legal system in Guinea to try lawbreakers. There are diplomatic channels to address these problems.
Mamadou Dumbuya must stop underrating Sierra Leone. We have our monumental socioeconomic and political problems but if we unite as a people against Guinea, we can cause his removal from power. He is not an unassailable giant. Dictators are giants with clay feet. They can be brought down as history has proved. Never underrate the capacity of a neighbouring country from creating dangerous situations that would harm you and your country.
Mamadou Dumbuya has provoked Sierra Leone enough. He has to stop it before he creates serious problems between our two countries that will hurt both nations.
We cherish the precious fraternal and familial relations between us and Guinea. These two countries share very strong, tight and binding cultural and family relations that we cannot do without. Sierra Leone and Guinea are indispensable to one another. Sierra Leone cannot do without Guinea. Conversely, Guinea cannot do without Sierra Leone. We cannot war with one another because we will be hurting our families because Guinea and Sierra Leone are one big family unit. Let us be patient with one another like inseparable siblings.
We hope the Guinean military leader will cease his unnecessary and unprovoked aggression against Sierra Leone. We want to live in peace with our family in Guinea.
