SHOUTING FIRE IN A CROWDED THEATRE
But the SLPP government in Sierra Leone, a nation that is still recovering from one of the most brutal civil wars in the sub-region, is oblivious of the above maxim. Penchant for political and economic hegemony has clouded the vision of the SLPP party’s leadership that the SLPP government’s action could inadvertently forment into another round of conflict in Sierra Leone. What is more, the majority of SLPP government operatives were active actors of that civil war and they seem to have learned nothing from their brutal recent past.
Nonetheless, the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) and the Judiciary of this impoverished nation have not been helpful at all; as long as the SLPP government is playing a central role in these unsavoury actions of fomenting conflict, the Police and the Judiciary have been compromised and rendered even more oblivious of that fact.
They [the Police and Judiciary] may not even know that in the greatest democracy in the world, the United States of America, former President Donald Trump may be predisposed to an array of alleged criminal cases against him, but the US government knows too-well how not to foment conflict. That is to say that, ‘they know how not to shout fire in a crowded theatre’ – going after a very powerful stakeholder deriving support from mostly amongst far right extremists, could lead to conflict.
This is not to say that the main opposition APC – All Peoples Congress’ newly elected leader and Flagbearer is guilty of any crime. Rather, it is to state that the SLPP government had five years to start and conclude a case against him, a very powerful national stakeholder in the nation, but waited all these years only to utilise it for a political trump card against an opposition party in readiness to take over governance by the estimations of many local and international opinion leaders on the brink of elections in June 2023.
That crowd we saw on 23rd February 2023 in favour of the newly elected APC Leader and Falgbearer, Dr. Samura Kamara, while the main opposition APC must know that political rallies must not go beyond 6PM, it was just enough for the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to use commodious good-sense to exercise patience and self-restraint to avoid another civil conflict. It was not just about a few bad apples in the SLP in the so-called ‘Force for Good’ perpetrating violence and intimidating prominent opposition leaders, it was rather about a carefully orchestrated political gimmick trickling down authority from the IGP to the last constable that had the reckless endearing audacity of confronting that mamount gathering of disenchanted people badly in need of change of a toxic political environment in a political rally.
But like I stated earlier on, there is this unbridled desire that power can be forced upon the people absolutely and the Police, the Judiciary and the Civil Society operatives, have been compromised and activated to ensure that power is achieved absolutely. This is called political witch hunt, which has no place in a democracy – and must be resisted by all means necessary.
Karamoh Kabba is a social and political commentator in Sierra Leone
