By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Those who are familiar with Theology and Literature might have come across the idea of the Seven Deadly Sins. They are Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth.
These are themes which have been explored by Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Charles Dickens, and other English writers of repute in some of their influential works. Through these seven sins or “dark impulses” (as some writers call them), one could witness how characters are shaped, the rise and fall of political and professional careers, and how lives are destroyed while the destroyed lives might still be alive.
That brings me to Sierra Leone’s politics which is full of instances of the Seven Deadly Sins. The country’s current miseries are not occasioned by nature but by the personifications of these sins or “dark impulses” in our politicians and to some extent in most “senior” and hundreds of ordinary citizens.
In modern Sierra Leonean politics, these sins or “dark impulses” could be explored in personalities such as the former Minister of Finance-cum-Chief Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa aka JJ Blood; former Chief Minister-cum-Minister of Foreign Affairs Professor David Francis; former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Lahai Lawrence Leema; current Chief Minister Dr David Moinina Sengeh; former Vice President Victor Bockarie Foh, and former-cum-current Presidential Spokesman Alpha Kanu.
If any of the above Sierra Leonean personalities were around at the time of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser or Dickens; they might have been some of the main personas in their poems, plays, or novels because these people appear to personify pride; the greed to always be at the corridors of power; political gluttony, and uncalled for wrath against perceived political foes.
During President Julius Maada Bio’s first term, Sierra Leoneans who believe in political correctness were appalled at the manner in which Prof. David Francis always dressed down members of the All People’s Congress (APC). He always looked for occasions to belittle them in ways which could have even made President Trump’s scolding of the current Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during their first meeting at the White House looked like a dressed rehearsal. As Chief Minister and later as Foreign Affairs Minister, he always put up the aura of a medieval lord strolling around his serfdom looking down on his serfs! At the height of his arrogance, he infamously referred to the last APC government as a “politically-organised racketeering” enterprise that was engaged in “egregious infractions”!
As for Jacob Jusu Saffa aka “JJ Blood”, he was an embodiment of pride and lust for political power. As the Minister of Finance and later Chief Minister, whenever he was asked by journalists to comment on the “bread and butter issues”; his replies were condescending like a half-baked economist who accidentally found himself addressing (“labo labo” or labo-ing to) “raray boys” and “kolonkos” inside a “pote” in one of Freetown’s slummy slums.
And Lahai Lawrence Leema, the former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs in the first Bio-led administration, seemed to have been a different kettle of fish. He was a personification of pride and uncalled for wrath against anyone and everyone who didn’t share his partisan views. He behaved like a spoilt prince who was impatiently waiting for the kingdom to be bequeathed to him whilst at the same giving indications of how terrible his would-be reign would look like.
But now, Prof. Francis, “JJ Blood”, and Leema might have realised that political power is short-lived. They might have realised that whilst they were seemingly climbing the ladder to defecate on the faces of APC members; those members might have seen their buttocks and turned their faces in disguised laughter (to paraphrase the Ghanaian novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah). They might have now realised also that “pride cometh before a fall”. And Prof. Francis, “JJ Blood”, and Leema might have learned a lesson that whenever someone is being given an opportunity to serve their nation; humility would be far more profitable than arrogance!
So, Prof. Francis has gone back to where he belongs: academia—he now writes books which nobody seems to read except himself and a few Sierra Leoneans who find amusements in the remorsefulness of a fallen man who now unfolds his conscience in the printed word. As for “JJ Blood”, he has gone back to “Factory Setting” (sorry for my Soja Tong-ian colloquialism) while Leema might now be soliloquizing like Macbeth after Lady Macbeth’s death in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”.
Currently, the current Chief Minister Dr David Moinina Sengeh appears not to have learned any lessons from Prof. Francis, “JJ Blood”, and Leema. He seems to be making the same mistakes they made whilst they were wielding political power. In fact, he gives the impression that he is determined to outsmart them on the lust for political power and the uncalled for wrath against APC members. Most of the time when he speaks, tweets, or makes comments on Facebook; he reminds me of Shakespearean tragic characters such as Coriolanus and Macbeth. At times, Dr Sengeh even frightens me into picturing an image of a featherless peacock sprinting toward a cliff!
But let me leave the Paopa-ists for awhile and turn to former Vice President, Victor Bockarie Foh, and former-cum-current Presidential Spokesman Alpha Kanu. Both seem to be embodiments of greed, political gluttony, and the insatiable lust to always walk and work in political spaces
After serving as Vice President in the Ernest Bai Koroma administration, no APC member would have thought that a time would come when Victor Foh would join ranks with the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and lambast the APC the way he did publicly few months after the APC lost political power. Imagine him telling the nation that he only accepted the Vice Presidency because he was afraid for his life and that the APC, of which he was a key player, didn’t do anything meaningful for the nation and that they (including himself) were only “chopping monies” like squirrels who chanced upon an unguarded groundnut farm. But those who know Victor Foh’s character very well say they are not surprised because Victor Foh will always be the Victor Foh they knew and still know!
And Alpha Kanu seems to be an epitome of undiluted greed and political gluttony. Having served as Minister of Mines, Minister of Presidential Affairs, Minister of Information and Communications, Presidential Spokesman, and Presidential Adviser in the last APC government; it is unbelievably unbelievable that he will serve as Spokesman for an SLPP government. He appears to be a modern day Judas—except that he seems to have replaced the kiss with his voice and the pieces of silver with his fleshy monthly salary! Imagine a king being employed by someone he once regarded as a jester! But when greed, lust, and gluttony are the driving forces for one’s actions; the issue of being principled is out of the question!
And when one adds the envy and sloth of most “senior” and ordinary Sierra Leoneans toward themselves and their nation into the cauldron; one gets the symbolic symbolisms of the Seven Deadly Sins.
medsankoh@yahoo.com/+232-76-611-986