By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
One of the things my Sherbro-Limba mother never did, no matter the crime or her anger, whilst I and my siblings were growing up at “Soja Tong” in central Freetown (the Central One of old), was to use swearwords or curses or even thought evil of neither her children nor someone else’s children.
She being a Methodist Christian believes that the “tongue” is a powerful organ and that what the “tongue” says, most of the time, come to pass. And, besides, my mother believes in the Krio maxim of “bad bush nor dae for throw way bad pikin” (I think the Krios might have coined this adage after reading about the “Evil Forest”, or “Bad Bush”, in Chinua Achebe’s influential novel: Things Fall Apart). And when my mother says “pikin”; she means every child in Sierra Leone not only her own!
Probably, the difference between my mother (a Blake from Bonthe Island) and President Julius Maada Bio (also from Bonthe District) is the fact that while my mother has mastered the art of controlling her tongue, whether in anger or in excitement, our Head of State appears to be flippantly unguarded with his. Most of the time, even as a practicing Catholic, he seems to forget, or feigns forgetfulness, of 1 Peter 3:10 which says: “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.”
And even when Proverbs 15:1 encourages our Commander-in-Chief that “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger”; he has repeatedly been making Freudian slips which always seem to alienate or anger a good portion of the citizenry of Sierra Leone. Take his “terrorists” speech of 8 May 2020 as an example. In it, he made innuendoes about members of the All People’s Congress (APC) being participants in “acts of terrorist violence”. He even unclothed the innuendoes by stating that, “…known agents and associates of the [APC] have publicly predicted the precise date, target, and nature of the [terrorists’] attacks.” And to strip the nakedness nakedly, he peeled off the skin further with this: “Like terrorists elsewhere, they [the alleged APC “known agents and associates”] even record their acts with telephone cameras, run self-valorising commentaries on their acts of extreme violence and killings, and share those synchronously in [sic] WhatsApp forums.”
And President Bio, early last month whilst addressing party faithful in one of the southern strongholds of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), seemed to be unable to control his tongue again when he threatened his would-be perceived enemies with “bullets for bullets.” That pep talk, for me, was so humorously humorous that I replied with my typical One Dropian savage sarcasm: “What If They Do Not Come With Bullets (11 June 2023)?”
Now, President Bio’s wishful thinking of “terrorists” and “bullets for bullets” appears to have appeared like an apparition on State House’s lawn as personified in the “Public Announcement” announced by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education on 12 July 2024. In it, there is that frightful apocalyptic information which gives one the dreadful feeling like waking up in the middle of the night and finding a starved lion crouching on the doorway!
I will quote, Ad verbatim, portions of that “Public Announcement” to bring out its frightful apocalyptic frightfulness: “In early March 2023, intelligence officials in Sierra Leone uncovered a plot involving individuals suspected of importing bomb-making materials into Sierra Leone. A special operation was launched to identify and disrupt their activities.
“After months of surveillance, a joint operation of intelligence, military, and police forces was carried out on Sunday, July 7, 2024, targeting several locations in and around the Western Area. The operation was a success, resulting in the seizure of various bomb-making materials, including: 12.5 kg empty gas cylinders, High Grade TNT (Trinitrotoluene), Detonators, Firing devices, Timers and other bomb-making components disguised as powdered laundry detergents and soap.
“Additionally, on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, a further search at the residence of suspect Hussein Antar led to the discovery of 7,847,100 Captagon pills. These pills, a dangerous and addictive amphetamine-type stimulant, [are]…known to be widely used by ISIS and fighters in Syria….”
Apart from the hidden metaphor of terrorism, as innuendo-ed in the “ISIS and fighters in Syria” allusion, we are also told that the seven suspects who are “assisting the police with [their] investigations” are two Antars, three Kamaras, one Marah, and one Bangura (You are at liberty to make all the assumptions, taking into account parts of the country where the security forces had successfully carried out “peacekeeping missions” since the Bio-led administration took over the rudder of state!). I only hope that these investigations will not turn out to be like the fabled boy who screams wolf where there is none? And what I’m also afraid of is for the investigators to come and tell us, later, that during their investigations they actually found out that the “bomb-making materials” were truly “powdered laundry detergents and soap”!
But when one juxtaposes the President’s “terrorists” speech of 8 May 2020 and the Ministry of Information and Civic Education’s “Public Announcement” of 12 July 2024; the message that appears to have been sent outside Sierra Leone is that the country is unstable and unsafe! It is like the SLPP government is dopily playing Russian roulette with would-be foreign investments! Tell me which sober-minded investors will go to any country where some of its citizens are being accused by their own Head of State of “acts of terrorist violence” and where also “various bomb-making materials” are found in and around the capital city?
So, in actual fact, it is the SLPP government which appears to be unconsciously scaring potential investors and tourists away from Sierra Leone. Through unguarded speeches, unnecessary press releases, and uncalled-for public announcements; it seems the Bio-led administration is blacklisting Sierra Leone—putting it under the category of unstable and dangerous countries!
Now, I am beginning to appreciate why President Bio, who ironically likes showing-off his soldierly machoness, seems always comfortable being outside Sierra Leone. After all, who will like to be inside a country where some citizens are accused of participating in “acts of terrorist violence” while others appear to have acquired the technology of “bomb-making”? And the insensitive reference to “ISIS and fighters in Syria”, in the “Public Announcement” of 12 July 2024 in relation to an incident in Sierra Leone, will send quivers down the spine of would-be tourists and investors!
I think, because of a seemingly dearth of seasoned Political Communicators and PR Specialists in the SLPP government, there has been several instances where high-profile SLPP functionaries have shot themselves in the leg or unnecessarily took their government to the abattoir! In Political Communication; you don’t normally cut off your nose to spite your face!
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