NORTHERNERS ARE DETERMINED TO RESIST ANY FORM OF IMPUNITY…enough of the nonsense
By Sylvanus Fornah Koroma Jr. (What A Man!)
Just after the announcement of the Presidential elections results in 2018, Northerners in the South and East of the country suffered a spate of attacks. We saw videos of police officers supposed to be Northerners beaten and possibly stoned to death. Some people were exiled or had to exile themselves and left all they had to run away for their lives. Some lost everything they had including their lives. No enquiry reports or/and action of these atrocities have been made public to restrain such recurrences.
The acts of impunity of threats and violence were tolerated to grow especially in the Eastern Region which has now become the notorious hub for the perpetration of acts of violence on our people. As Northerners, we have a right to defend ourselves when no one particularly the Government hears our cries! We would and should not wait for our kinsmen and tribesmen be continued to be violated and yet wait for the law to protect us when the protection is obviously not forthcoming. Self defence is accepted in our laws and we will invoke it when the need arises! We should no longer as Northerners (and by extension as Sierra Leoneans) tolerate any oppressor. We must as Northerners (Sierra Leoneans) be determined to resist any form of impunity now, or otherwise we will continue to see our kinsmen or tribesmen be maltreated and even be killed. Together we have the number and strength to successfully resist this ongoing oppressive manner by which our tribesmen/kinsmen are treated with impunity. Our people are violated and sometimes killed, and when people do something bad and are not punished for their deeds, then they are thus encouraged to continue acting with impunity.
This is the nonsense that we have to stop as Northerners and Sierra Leoneans. Otherwise, we will only be nurturing self-inflicted pain that will eventually force us to rise to the occasion and free ourselves from the bondage. Therefore, as Northerners and Sierra Leoneans we should stand up now and put a stop to the threats and acts of violence on our people anywhere they find themselves in Sierra Leone, by making the sufferings known to those in authority, but wherein the authority fail to act in due time, then we are bound to defend ourselves.
AN ATTACK ON ONE PERSON IS AN ATTACK ON ALL is the new mantra we should adopt going forward. We cannot and should not continue to hold the peace when our people are recklessly attacked, and we sit and watch them doing their attack on our people with impunity. We should start asking ourselves as Northerners and Sierra Leoneans, ‘should we continue to sit by and watch them kill and or violate all of our kinsmen and tribesmen?’ We should let the perpetrators know that we are not afraid of them. We should also let the perpetrators know our stance and that we have the numbers and strength to halt them. We should ensure that they (the oppressors) no longer do what they are doing now, otherwise we will take the fight to them if the government does not stop them. Going forward, we should now publicly discuss these ugly incidences and some of us will henceforth write for posterity and will never again keep quiet on these thorny and burning concerns. We should implore our religious leaders in our communities to publicly condemn the acts of the oppressors; and those of us who are members of secret societies should endeavour to bring up these discussions in our society meeting places and condemn the perpetrators. We should encourage these discussions in public places and condemn the oppressors.
Just a few days ago, we heard someone in Kenema issuing threats of violence on social media against northerners residing in Kenema that choose to stand with and support the All People’s Congress (APC) position of non-participation of its members and supporters in the said unprecedented midterm electronic census. This kind of message of threat and eventual acts of violence will continue if we do not stand up for our rights now, and put an end to it. We have all heard one Austin Johnny spewing hate messages against our northern kinsmen with impunity. They
will continue to do so when we leave them unchecked. Austin Johhny is a henchman of President Bio. And in terms of politics, the President is on camera during his campaign for presidency encouraging his supporters to be aggressive and said he as a leader should be seen to be calm. Until certain actions are done by the President, some of us will continue to believe that some of these oppressors have the President’s blessings. Another classical example is the violence that happened in the second of the three Parliamentary elections held in Constituency 110. In the said elections, a full cabinet minister, the Minister of Transport and Aviation was caught on camera in an engagement wherein ballot boxes were destroyed. And NEC without a legitimate reason cancelled that election thus giving way to the third parliamentary election in three successive years. The point here is that the President has to do more against the perpetrators of threats and violence from within his support base, otherwise some of us will continue to assume that they have the blessings of the President of the country hence they cannot be touched.
If we as Northerners and Sierra Leoneans do not get the protection of the state, then we will be bound to fight the existential threats no matter what it takes. Therefore, it is an appeal to the Government to speedily look into the concerns raised and ensure the threats and violence against
