As Sierra Leone licks its wound after the 8/12 violent demonstration that took many lives and property, voices from various quarters are calling for peace and dialogue as the way forward to maintaining an unapprehensive calm and peaceful coexistence of people in the country.
Although he has vowed to crack down on perpetrators and supporters of the violent demonstration, the first gentleman of the country, President Julius Maada Bio, in his address to the nation on 12 August, called on the people to maintain peace and be law-abiding.
“In the coming weeks and months, Government will undertake necessary security actions meant to guarantee the peace and security of all citizen,” the President states, saying: “While these may cause some unavoidable inconveniences, Government’s actions will guarantee all constitutional rights and freedoms of peaceful citizens. The security forces will and must act with great restraint and within their professional codes of service. But be assured that my Government will crack down hard on violent insurrectionists, their collaborators, their sponsors, and their supporters. My Government will relentlessly fight those who would rather use terror and gruesome violence to achieve political goals.”
He says further: “As President, I urge every peace-loving Sierra Leonean to be mindful that our national unity, peace, and stability are essential for our survival as a nation. Let us continue to respect all the laws of Sierra Leone and remain law-abiding.”
In the same vein, there is serious call for peace and dialogue in the country by statesmen and women, members of the diplomatic corps and ordinary Sierra Leoneans within and outside the country. The US Ambassador, the British High Commissioner, the EU Representative, members of the Civil Society, opposition party leaders, opinion leaders among other interest groups in the country have called for peace and dialogue, as the nation continues to lick its wound after the August 10 violent demonstration.
Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, a member of the major opposition APC party, who posted on her Facebook wall that she had been falsely accused to be an inciter of the August 10 protest, says: “This deliberate and continued action of making false accusations publicly has already led to constant attacks of me on social media and attempts of physical attacks on FCC (Freetown City Council) property. But this is not about me….My heart goes out to all those who are suffering at this time. May the souls of the departed rest in peace. I believe that in challenging times we must nurture a spirit of unity and forster platforms for peaceful engagement. I call for calm in the city and for all to avoid violence.”
Others have also voiced out their concerns for peace and dialogue over the media.
The interim secretary of the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) party, Hon. Abdul Kargbo, who has completely dissociated his party from the protest and condemned any act of violence to redress grievances and economic hardship, says contrary to accusations from Government that the APC is behind the August 10 violent protest, his party and their members are in for peace and dialogue to move the nation forward.
“Our party has done everything to ensure we maintain the peace of this nation. A lot of things have happened to the party personally. As a party we do not believe it is violence that will solve the problem of this nation. We believe in constructive dialogue, and that is what we have engaged in and we have been keeping the peace of this nation. This is because we believe that the only way we can come back to power is through democratic means. So we want to advise anybody that engages in some form of violence to let them restrain from doing that and know that the only way we can get to power is through democratic means. Times without number we have dissociated ourselves from this very protest. When the party wants to protest, we publish a press release, we own up and we associate ourselves with it. But this protest, the party has nothing to do with it and the party condemns it.
“We are kindly asking every Sierra Leonean to keep the peace and make sure that they go and register to vote. This present Government was elected democratically and the only way we should remove them from power is through democratic means and not through protest or demonstration. Let no one take the law in their hands; let us keep the peace of this nation. Sierra Leone has gone through many ordeals and devastating challenges, such as the 11-year rebel war. Thus let don’t do anything again that will destabilise this nation anymore.”
Dr Isata Mahoi of the West Africa Network for Peace, WANEP, says: “We should avoid hate speech and words like terrorist, which I am not so pleased about. Hate speech would never solve the problems. We can apply Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms at community level to solve problems in the communities, which I have talked about before.” We need to be clear about the roles of chiefs and paramount chiefs and what they should do to help their communities.”
Valnora Edwin, a Civil Society leader and a member of the Sierra Leone Peace and National Cohesion Commission set up by Government few months ago, also emphasised the maintenance of peace and dialogue to settle differences in the political and socio-economic domain of the country.
She says: “I want to appeal to Sierra Leoneans that we condemn all forms of violence. And I think there are mechanisms in place for peace. We need to try to test and use mechanisms from the local level to the upper level when we have issues of concern. To public officials and to the government, it is about opening space a bit more, it is about building the trust level; it is about letting Sierra Leoneans feel a bit more inclusive, and that do not mean that things are not being done but when incidents of this nature happen, it is good that we go back to the drawing board. And that is why we are calling for dialogue. The dialogue should include different sectors of society. Even us as civil society, human rights defenders we have to go back and look at what have missed, what we can do to ensure that what has happened does not reoccur. The political parties too need to sit down and talk.
“We need to educate people, especially the young ones, to make more informed decisions and to know what is democracy, how the democratic processes work and how governance works. It is not about partisan politics. Let us do those things that would make Sierra Leone and its economy grow and attract good people and investors into our country.”
The Secretary General of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) party, Alhaji Amadu Serry, who also emphasised upholding peace and dialogue in the country, says the NGC is calling on government to let the country get a roundtable peace talk since peace is important for the country’s development. “We are asking Government to be ready to engage all the political parties and also the Civil Society members to sit and talk, as peace is very important. We know the government has had peace conferences but we still need to talk. And we are also asking the government to empower the more the peace commission to ensure they do their work well.”
