By Kabs Kanu, Former Minister Plenipotentiary and Coordinator for Africa in the UN Security Council Reform Negotiations
One of the most bloody conflicts ever in Africa was the rebel war in Sierra Leone from 1990 to 2002 . The war which devastated the country’s already crumbling infrastructure also killed over 150,000 people, created a colony of amputees and put the nation’s socio-economic and political progress backwards by one hundred years.
Political Intolerance
One of the leading causes of the war identified by the UN Peacebuilding Commission Sierra Leone Specific Configuration was POLITICAL INTOLERANCE.
The Peacebuilding Commission was one of the institutions where I represented Sierra Leone . The UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) played a significant role in supporting Sierra Leone’s Peacebuilding efforts, particularly after the civil war. Sierra Leone was one of the first countries selected for the PBC’s agenda in 2006, following a request from the President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah government and the UN Security Council. The PBC focused on mobilizing international support to address key challenges like good governance; political, tribal, ethnic, regional and religious intolerance; electoral institutions capacity building, security sector reform, youth employment, and the strengthening of civil society and democratic institutions.
What is political intolerance?
Political intolerance is the disrespect for and rejection of the views and positions of individuals or groups or opposing political parties . It manifests also in an institutionalized desire not only to fight, oppress , suppress others for their views but to also punish , marginalize or even kill those with dissenting opinions.
At the UN, we held countless meetings and conferences , invited civil society and women’s and children’s groups, religious leaders, the media, heads of accountability and transparency institutions, ordinary citizens, supporters of opposing parties from Sierra Leone and diaspora groups and party supporters for high- level engagements lasting weeks , just to get them onboard to go back to the communities to spread the urgent message that for peace to prevail in any country, there must be political tolerance. One of the journalists we invited was Mr. David Tam Bayo, the producer of the then most popular public talk show in Sierra Leone called MONOLOGUE . It was the first time I met David in person.
Heads and representatives of the PBC Sierra Leone Special Configuration even traveled the length and breadth of Sierra Leone to engage government officials, opposition patties, civil society , the media and the public on the issue because the UN recognized the dangers of intolerance and its potentials to take Sierra Leone back to war.
Sadly though, it is clear that the efforts of the PBC have yet to bear the desired fruits as political intolerance has returned with renewed vengeance in Sierra Leone .
Damagingly, the political intolerance in Sierra Leone is the worst and most heinous kind. Now, it is no longer just between the two rival political parties but between individuals and factions within both the SLPP and APC . Put simply , it is now not just the ruling government fighting opponents and supporters of political parties to reject and punish dissenting opinions and positions but members of the very political parties fighting one another for their opposing views and standpoints. Nobody should speak what they perceive to be the truth anymore. It is “Agree with me or I will abuse your mother or if possible beat you and even kill you. ”
Political intolerance or failure to address differences has torn both the SLPP and APC asunder . There are now rival groups within both parties going out to tear one another apart. Both the SLPP and APC have split into factions and deadly personality and power struggles are having a crippling effect on the two parties, all because of political intolerance. The factions within each party are so leadly that journalists seeking to comment on issues within are walking into a minefield of threats, mammy cuss and isolation or loss of party goodwill. I could get targeted even for this article because I am not supporting some people’s views and my late mother could be insulted . That shows how much political intolerance has taken hold in our two leading political parties.
Supporters of Samura Kamara who are fighting for electoral justice and party members who have decided to concentrate on the 2028 elections are at daggers drawn within the opposition APC.
Look at the devastating feuds now tearing through the ruling SLPP between the First Lady Fatima Bio and her supporters Vs. her husband, President Maada Bio and his supporters that led to a very distasteful event in the Sierra Leone Parliament last Thursday. The bitterness was sparked by disagreements over the preferred choices of the camps for the SLPP Lower and executive elections. Instead of doing what the UN Peacebuilding Commission would have loved to see —fruitful consultations and consensus–the factions have gone into name-callings, arm-twistings, threats, repression and verbal outbursts on social media ( with one another) and it spilled over into the House during the State Opening of Parliament last week.
Because of the worsening political intolerance, we have turned into a nation where divergent opinions appear to have been unofficially criminalized and people are being cowed from expressing themselves through threats and foul verbal attacks. The lessons of the causes of the bloody civil war have definitely not been learnt.
TO BE CONTINUED
