Since last year’s Christmas was held in low key owing to gunfire at police and military, the people of Sierra Leone especially muslims look forward to a peaceful Eid-ul-Fitr in all communities.
Christmas, Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha are special and sacred occasions for Christians and Muslims all over the world to which Sierra Leone is no exception.
Christmas which, according to Christians, is the Birthday of Jesus Christ, Eid-ul-Fitr (Pray Day) marks the end of 30 days of fasting among muslims and Eid-ul-Adha is a day of slaughtering of sacrificial lambs in remembrance of Prophet Abraham who nearly sacrificed his beloved son to Allah who tested his faith.
Proper celebration of the holy occasions calls for peace and sanity so that all sacred duties could be dispensed. If it goes according to schedule, fasting will end next Monday 10th day of April, this year, and muslims will observe several Islamic activities as commanded by the almighty God.
In the early hours of the morning, the muslims will have breakfast, take a bath, put on their gowns and prepare to go to the pray fields for a brief sermon before they return home.
It is a sunnah (practice of the prophet), during the day, for muslims to visit each other, sit and dine together and also observe their five daily prayers. They retire to their beds after the last prayer (Isha) in preparation to observe the six days of fasting that follow, also a sunnah of the prophet.
Non-muslims also celebrate the holy day in their own way as seen in masquerades, carols, concerts and discotheques. Like Christmas and other holy occasions, observation of the Eid-ul-Fitr started with the declaration of a public holiday by State House, the highest institution of the state.
Government, during such occasions, is under obligation to provide security for the people as criminals especially pickpockets may want to play their usual tricks and pranks.
Professional policing requires that the police agency prepares comprehensive operational orders to ensure peace and security throughout the festive period. Police officers should be deployed at entry and exit points of the pray fields as well as key spots in the streets to control traffic and prevent accidents.
If deployment plans of old are strictly enforced, they must remain on duty and return together with the people and also ensure that worshippers and their property are safe. Such duties rhyme with the conventional notion of policing which is to protect life and property especially those who positions render them vulnerable to attacks.
Such police function, if carried on well, helps to strengthen police-civilian relationship in the short and long run. The police are part of the community and should be seen taking part in community affairs especially matters of religion.
It is an established fact that police presence is deterrence to crime, and the best police officer is the one on the beat or street making community contacts and gathering intelligence.
Interaction with the people makes it easy to detect, prevent and investigate crime to ensure a peaceful society for all and sundry.
It is also a zero tolerance strategy against crime and such ensures that even the most minute or infinitesimal crime is not committed at all let alone one to think about committing a serious one.
It is prudent for such police measures to be taken during the holiday in light of the current political and security challenges confronting Sierra Leone. It ranges from ‘Kush’ to election crisis which has rendered the country’s security situation a bit fragile or volatile.
Kush addicts are prone to crime and they would stop at nothing to wreak havoc on the servants of Allah during the worship. They may appear uninvited and unnoticed to disturb the peace through petty thievery.
The Kush phenomenon has been pushing the country to a brink of an emergency owing to the heavy death toll it has taken among the youth population.
Vice President, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has, few days ago, launched a ‘Kush’ Task Force to tackle the menace that has become a threat to national security and the lives of the Sierra Leonean youth.
Again, little needs to be said about the election crisis which is also badly impacting on the country’s security situation. Tension rises in the country since the signing of a communiqué between the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party and the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) as the two sides vow to protect their interest.
The country’s political situation shows that SLPP and APC do not see eye-to-eye on national issues as allegations that President Julius Maada Bio holds and exercises a stolen mandate gain ground every day.
The APC members would like to see the President step aside or hold fresh election, a demand President Bio would not easily accept since he is also confident that he won the elections.
The disagreement between the two parties over the June 24, 2023 elections creates the security problem which the Islamic worshippers must be aware of during their celebration.
As usual pray day eve is usually preceded by criss-cross transient migration patterns among the people of Sierra Leone.
Those in the city would like to spend the Eid holiday with their kinsmen upcountry and vice versa.
Such migration schemes sometimes help to heal old wounds or renew ties with friends or families for peaceful coexistence.
It is also the same with Eid-ul-Adha which is also celebrated almost the same way except the killing of the lamb which makes the difference.
With all this in mind, the people of Sierra Leone look forward with hope in government that there will be stability throughout the yuletide this time, and that the incidents of November 26, 2023 which badly derailed the Christmas festivity will not repeat.
29 days to Christmas, last year, Freetown residents woke up to sporadic gunfire putting to rest expectations of a peaceful and ecstatic Christmas. It was a time Freetonians were preparing to troop upcountry as usual to see their loved ones after several years.
According to army sources, renegades and unidentified gun men had overrun military and police armouries carting away assorted assault rifles as well as support weapons (Rocket Propelled Grenades, mortar bombs and other heavy artillery) before they melted into thin air.
In an effort to repel the attackers, over 20 Security personnel including a Lieutnant Colonel lost their lives raising fears of an all-out conflict in the build up.
Government officials initially described the assailants’ action as a security breach which later metamorphosed into an “attempted Coup” that triggered waves of widespread arrest, raids and searches in various homes here in Freetown.
Towns and villages in the North-West regions, strongholds of the main opposition also saw similar crackdowns as they are believed to be hideouts of suspected coupists.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew was immediately declared and went on for weeks before it was lifted. At that time, a thought of spending Christmas will not dawn on anyone who wanted to ensure that his safety is intact.
Except for the South-East regions, no one is safe in the North-West as everyone is a possible suspect as government sees such communities as flashpoints of violence and political thuggery.
Amid uncontrollable waves of arrest, the Criminal Investigation Department put out a long list of wanted persons who they said were at large and called on the public to provide information leading to their arrest.
Dozens of Sierra Leoneans including former President Ernest Bai Koroma were arrested, a move that further worsened the security situation. It was a fluid situation, according to the Information Minister.
The situation was a big stun, shock and fear for Freetown residents who wished to spend the Christmas holiday in the countryside as no one knows the exact location of the dissident forces.
It was almost a situation that rekindled memories of the ‘West Side Boys’ phenomenon that wreaked the greatest havoc ever seen in the country’s history.
Like the November-26 situation, the ‘West Side Boys’ were renegades who fled into the jungle after the restoration of President Ahmed Tejan Kabba in 1998 to evade justice.
They were coupists who staged a putsch in May, 1997, against President Kabba.
Once in the Okra Hills, the ‘West Side Boys’ would waylay travellers from the provinces to Freetown and take away valuables, most times, money, Gold and Diamond to procure weapons to fortify their forte along the Freetown highway.
Fear is rife that the runaway soldiers may launch the same attacks on peaceful civilians if government sits with folded arms.
But, security agents seem to be on top of situation and the Pray Day May go peaceful.