I Respectfully Disagree With President Bio
By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
It could be a matter for debate whether President Julius Maada Bio was unconsciously speaking with his tongue in his cheek or not. But his words were as icy as they were reflective last Friday at State House, in Freetown, as he was penning-off the Death Penalty from Sierra Leone’s law books.
And with the aura of the king of all the Greek gods; President Bio ensconced in his chair at State House, as Zeus would have done at Mount Olympus, and reportedly “consoled those who have lived with the pain of losing a loved one to a judicial execution” (according to a State House press release of 8 October 2021).
The icy and reflective words were, and still are, “…consoled those who have lived with the pain of losing a loved one to a judicial execution.” Now last things last. You and I know, or I should let you know, that the last two state-sanctioned executions that took place in Sierra Leone were that of 1998 in which 24 people were publicly shot, and that of 1992 in which 29 citizens were covertly butchered in the dead of night. These two executions were, and still are, the largest number of state-sanctioned killings executed on a single day (and night) by any Sierra Leonean government in the country’s history. And both executions were reminiscent of the Right-wing death squads of El Salvador of old.
Now first things first. It should be noted that it was under the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government of the late Ahmed Tejan Kabbah that 24 Sierra Leoneans (including a helpless woman) were hooded, tied to stakes at Goderich, and executed in gangland style in 1998! And prior to that in 1992, current President Bio was a senior member of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) junta that executed 29 persons without being tried even in a kangaroo court. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report Vol. 3A, after the executions “a trial was subsequently organised posthumously” (page 163). And on page 164 section 328, of that same Report, we are told that before those executions “…at night [the would-be executed had been]…actually tortured…very seriously—their ears were cut off and they were practically dead…[so] it was better to do away with them than to keep them…in this terrible state….” And logically, all those who were members of the NPRC junta could be, figuratively, guilty of collective guilt. Not my logic but the logic of the logic which makes it logical!
So, President Bio’s penning-off of the Death Penalty from Sierra Leone’s law books could be likened to Paul, penning down majority of the Books in the holy Bible, atoning for the sins he committed while he was Saul! Just like the expunction of Part Five of the 1965 Public Order Act that was enacted by the SLPP of Sir Albert Margai; so our Commander-in-Chief’s newfound anti-Death Penalty stance could be that he is trying to “exorcise [the] horrors of a cruel past” (in his words), which was made horribly cruel by both the NPRC and SLPP governments of the past. And those who are not dead to the English Language will call it atonement for the collective sin on the SLPP’s collective conscience.
And what appears to be the tongue-in-cheek part of it all is where the State House Media and Communications Unit quotes President Bio to have stated that, “…The state has absolutely no obligation to undertake judicial killings of its own citizens in order to instill law and order or for political gain…” Such a statement, in my ears, seems to be a Freudian slip. So, going by President Bio’s own logic the killings at Tonko Limba; Makeni; Tombo, and the Pademba Road Correctional Centre “to instill law and order” allegedly by state security forces were, and still are, a stain on his government’s conscience. The United States’ State Department’s 2021 Human Right abuse Report and the Report by the Bombali District Human Rights Committee, titled “Study On Youth Disenfranchisement And Protest In Sierra Leone: Response And Recommendation”, are clinical testaments to that stained conscience!
And after the Tonko Limba; Makeni; Tombo, and the Pademba Road Correctional Centre killings, it appears to me that it was only last Friday that it dawned on our well-regarded “Tok and Do” Head of State that Sierra Leone should have been a country where the “belief in the sanctity of life” must be sacrosanct; and where “every citizen’s constitutional right to life” should not be intentionally violated “for political gain”. That’s accepted Mr President. I have already made a mental note of that, and I will keep it for future reference.
But where I will respectfully disagree with President Bio is his belief that last Friday’s penning-off of the Death Penalty would obliterate the fears of those who “have cowered in real fear for their inalienable and inviolable right to life….” (according to that State House press release under review) I’m respectfully putting it to the President that as long as the SLPP government has repeatedly failed to establish any form of independent inquiry where relatives of those who were killed in those killings, mentioned above, could find closure; there will always be that constant fear from citizens who are not members and supporters of the SLPP for “their inalienable and inviolable right to life”. Again, this is not my logic but the logic of the logic which makes it logical!
It is on that note that I will end today’s One Dropian dropping with a quote from William Shakespeare that says, “Conscience does make cowards of us all”. Or a quote from an unknown author that says, “Conscience is an inner voice that warns us that somebody is looking.” That’s truly true as the International Community and Sierra Leone’s donor partners have been keenly looking at the country the day when the killings at Tonko Limba; Makeni; Tombo, and the Pademba Road Correctional Centre took place, which appear to remind some citizens of the 1992 and 1998 executions!
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