By Idrissa Conteh :
I have been obliged to send this appeal to all Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad that we have to endeavour to ensure that our disease-infested country, Sierra Leone, must remain stable and peaceful in order to be able to go through its darkest period since it attained independence from Great Britain.
The inflammatory language being used by political commentators at home and on social media give the impression that our current problems can resolved through violence.
Far from it, violence in the present circumstances can only derail the efforts being made to combat the Ebola epidemic disease.
Though Sierra Leone has a long history of violence, such acts have never brought anticipated results.
Like Mahatma Gandhi once said “I object to violence because when it tends to do good, the good it does is only temporary and the evil it does is permanent”, all acts of violence undertaken in the country have only added more suffering, more pain, more blood, more corruption, more poverty and more misery.
The rebel war brought us more of the aforementioned vices than anything else. In effect, though the NPRC boys said they took over the reins of government in order to make a speedy conclusion of the civil war, they only succeeded in amplifying it through what came to known as the “sobel phenomenon”.
Though the NPRC inherited the war from Boedu and Bomaru, near the Sierra Leone – Liberia border, they dragged it to Freetown amidst some of the worst human rights violations that had never been recorded in history.
With this traumatic experience at the hands of our own army, no one needs to advise us as Sierra Leoneans that the worst civilian government is by far better than the best military government.
The NPRC boys portrayed themselves as desperate and a bunch of hungry people who wanted to become rich overnight.
We therefore have a collective responsibility to ensure that we do not return to perilous path we have come from.
I am therefore appealing to all and sundry to avoid preaching violence and making inflammatory statements that are susceptible to lay the foundation for the breakdown of law and order.
No suffering lasts forever. The epidemic will come to pass and we will have the opportunity to exercise our democratic rights through the ballot box – the only credible way to change from one government to another.
Let us pray for our country. Let us pray for our people who are going through a treacherous journey. May God see us through this crisis soonest.
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