Our Men Of God Have Also Failed
By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Twenty-nine years ago, I lost faith in organized religion in Sierra Leone. And since then, every day the willful inertia, the hypocritical hypocrisy, and the partisan muteness of the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL) on national issues, of extreme and grave importance, are still convincing me as to why I should not renew my faith in organized religion.
As I see it, it seems most of the respected conmen (and con-women) in Sierra Leone today can be found behind the Pulpit (as in Christianity) or the Minbar (as in Islam).
Majority of our Men (and women) of God have now commoditized and politicized religion in Sierra Leone. Their sermons and “khutbahs” are often times tailored to suit their political leanings—making the words of God sound like muffled political propaganda.
Organized religion in Sierra Leone now appears to be so leprous that if Jesus Christ (Prophet Issa) were to come today, he would not even “overturn the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves” in the House of God (as told in Matthew 21:12); he would just shut down all the churches and mosques in Sierra Leone because of the dishonesty and irreligiousness of most of our so-called Men of God! And, no doubt, Christ would have asked Martin Luther, the German priest who was “the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation”, to nail his 95 Theses on every door of every church and mosque in Sierra Leone.
I have always said it in camera, and I will say it on camera today, that the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL) has lost all moral authority to either organize any “national reconciliation” or “religious harmony” among Sierra Leoneans or between political parties. This is because that Council now appears to be a collection of fragments pieced together through the commonality of hypocrisy and partisan lip services! The only time the IRCSL will be very active is when the interest of majority of its executive members are at stake.
I think a little digression might help here. In 2018, before the Presidential Election run-off, when the then Mr Julius Maada Bio and Dr Samura Kamara had a standoff; the IRCSL through the Catholic Church organised a “Special Service” for both men—reminding them of their Catholic roots and the fact that they were both attending the same church in Freetown.
But sooner President Bio took the Oath of Office as Head of State, he withdrew all of Dr Samura Kamara’s security details and the next thing we heard was what appeared to be trumped-up charges against him. And in all of these, the Catholic Church and by extension the IRCSL kept quiet like a tomb! At no point in time did the Catholic Church, or the IRCSL, publicly reprimand President Bio for treating his fellow Catholic from the same church in such inhumane and an un-Christianly manner.
Now that Dr Samura Kamara and the All People’s Congress (APC) have declared the APC’s “….non-participation in any level of governance, including the legislature and local councils, as the results [of the June 24 multi-tier elections were]…tampered with to give the SLPP an unjust majority at all levels”; the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone has crawled out of its hole like an “okuru” rat to broker peace and end the political impasse between the APC and the SLPP.
Why now? Why not when President Bio was referring to members of the APC as “terrorists” and “insurrectionists”? Why did the IRCSL keep quiet when Dr Samura Kamara and his convoys were frequently attacked by state security personnel, mainly in the southern and eastern parts of the country, prior to the June 24 general elections? Where was the IRCSL when the APC was complaining about the impartiality and double standards of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) which eventually led to “…the glaring irregularities and violations of established electoral procedures”? And why didn’t the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone issue out a press release condemning the firing of live bullets at the APC Brookfields headquarters in Freetown, leading to the killing of a female nurse, prior to the final announcements of the June 24 Presidential Election?
But I can bet my 12-year-old Toyota Camry that the reason why the IRCSL is now trying to broker peace is to give President Bio and his government some amount of legitimacy from the main opposition. Once that is achieved, the IRCSL will revert to its normal hypocrisy and partisan muteness status and start making its courtesy calls at State House!
But it is understandably understandable that the President of the IRCSL, The Most Reverend Dr Edward Tamba Charles, is a very good and close friend of President Bio which might be why the IRCSL is afraid to speak truth to power. Probably, just a probability again, that also might be another reason why the IRCSL doesn’t like ruffling feathers or rocking the SLPP boat.
And it seems to me that the IRCSL appears to believe that President Bio is more Catholic than Dr Samura Kamara. That might surmise why the IRCSL seems to be always protecting the Head of State and his government than Dr Samura Kamara and his interests. Indeed, there are Catholics and there are Catholics!
Also, I’m just wondering where the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone was prior to when innocent civilians were killed in Makeni, Lunsar, Tonko Limba, Mile-91, Tombo, and the Pademba Road Correctional Centre in Freetown by state “peace-keeping” security forces. When all of these injustices were taking place nationwide, the IRCSL was always unperturbed—no need to raise a finger in protest because they didn’t involve some “special interests” of the Council!
The Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone will only spring into action whenever the interest of the SLPP is threatened. So, it is not surprising that they are now teaming up with the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion to broker peace and end the political impasse between the APC and the SLPP. They have, suddenly, found their voices back because they want the APC to legitimize the SLPP government!
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