The two words, justice and peace, often go hand in glove. Hence you often hear the call and response: “No justice…No Peace!”
There cannot be peace anywhere people are denied justice. Sierra Leone has a peace deficit problem, the reason for which is the failure of the justice sector to deliver judgment in line with the rule and application of law. Evidently, Sierra Leone also has a justice problem that has resulted to the obvious or glaring lack of peace that is threatening our security and national cohesion.
The definition of a state of war is not only restricted to the use and or exchange of arms or munitions. The broad base definition of war is the absence of peace. Any society that is grappling with maintaining law and order cannot and will not be able to ensure peace, except by the overt use of force by the state. Such societies need help and assistance from others to maintain peace and guaranty security. This is why there is all the talk about Sierra Leone not being stable at the ECOWAS and speculated on by state security people and the government.
Sierra Leone’s stability and the capacity of the state to ensure a stable society has been questioned by no less than the regional ECOWAS military heads forming ECOMOG. At a recent meeting of ECOMOG the heads of militaries from the region decided to prepare a deployment of 1,200 soldiers to Sierra Leone to assist and boost local state security forces to maintain peace and security across the country. Another 1,500 will form part of an antiterrorism force ready to tackle any trickling of the threat of Islamic fundamentalism dominating the Sahel whose leaders President Bio is advising on peace and stability issues while here at home we also have such deficits.
As Sierra Leone assumes the rotational month long presidency of the United Nations Security Council, questions have been raised about the lack of peace, security and national cohesion in Sierra Leone.
The seriousness of the issue has now been accentuated by the announcement from the Ministry of Information of a national town hall meeting slated for Tuesday, 27 August, 2024 at the Brookfields Hotel, organised by the government and the United Nations Foundation. The meeting will be a multi stakeholder approach to local peace and security involving the young, old and aged brainstorming on how to ensure lasting peace, security and national cohesion. But doubts have been cast on the proposed town hall with many people hoping it will not turn out like the disastrous and scripted town hall alluded to by Kadiru Kaikai in that now forgettable threat to bring war to Sierra Leone if he and his SLPP loses the 2028 presidential election.
Meanwhile there is a large security presence day and night across Freetown. The increase in the number of boots and guns in the city has not gone unnoticed by a highly concerned public that is being kept in the dark with regards the necessity for such a buildup of state security.
While the state of anxiety is apparent, the real reason for the lack of peace, security and national cohesion across the country is being skirted and downplayed by government media and their friends in the traditional local media.
The obvious and overwhelming reason for our present state of instability you will not hear from government is lack of justice. The state of war that has presently gripped Sierra Leone is pivoted on the state not being able to guaranty justice for the citizenry from the judiciary. The people consider the judiciary to have been captured by the executive and its members being more considerate of “orders from above” than the application of the rule of law.
While there are many other issues that are adding to our lack of peace, the most serious remains the failure of the state to ensure electoral justice for the people since the electorates, the main opposition and members of the international community immediately rejected the announcement of the incumbent president as the winner of the 24 June, 2023 presidential election. Since the chief returning officer announced the president as winner he and the ruling party have refused to either release the disaggregated voting data per polling station or produce RRFs collected from and signed by polling agents across the country.
Local security experts and some members of the military had over the popular Wi Yard social media site blamed the “institutional coup” the Bio led regime carried out against the people of Sierra Leone for the 26 November, 2023 attempted coup by soldiers, police and former soldiers of the armed forces. The bloody 11 September, 2023 protest action was held to protest the election result.
But if Sierra Leone was a society known for speaking truth to power we can safely say the society has been in a state of instability since 2018. For the years leading from since the current party government of Sierra Leone took over the reins of state leadership, many civilians have lost their lives to state security officers for which no one has been put forward to answer for these deaths in the court of law.
Protesting citizens have been shot and killed with many more arrested and locked in jail in Makeni, Tonko Limba, Koidu, Mile 98, Tombo, at Pademba Road Prison, on 10 August, 2022, and 11 September, 2023. Despite calls from the public and bereaved families for justice for the dead and peace for their loved ones, no one in the state security setup has taken responsibility for these deaths, although the president, trying to convince locals to come out and celebrate Independence Day, promised that his government will no longer shoot civilians.
There is also lack of justice issues besetting the political front. The 10 elected Members of Parliament from the All Peoples Congress (APC) that were removed from their posts by a court of law as opposed to the constitutional provision for a bye election have not had their cases scheduled in a court of law since their 2018 removal. The judiciary also failed to schedule a hearing into the makeup and terms of reference for the tribunal that was established after (as opposed to before) the suspension of the Auditor General and her deputy by the president. The House is set to vote on the removal which vote is expected to satisfy the executive’s wish by an SLPP dominant Parliament that resulted from the use of the PR system of elections that was approved by Parliament although the country has established constituencies and not in a state of war or conflict.
But the most damning verdict against the judiciary and the justice system in Sierra Leone came from the challenger in the June 2023 presidential elections who together with the APC have refused to seek redress for the announced election result in the court of law, which should have been the norm. The nation was forced to seek help from outside with the establishment of the Tripartite Committee. The opposition party refused seeking the court’s judgment on the matter citing that they have never gotten justice from any court when the matter involves the government.
Another threat to the nation’s peace is the expectation or possibility of massive protest actions over the 2023 presidential elections. Although the APC and their supporters have been quiet since the announcement of the president as the winner of the 2023 vote, there have been several calls to protest that were quieted by the large presence of state security officers across the country but particularly in Freetown. Since the announcement of the disputed result the people are still not sure of how or if their votes were tallied because the electoral commission has refused repeated calls to publish the voting record.
Such blatant disregard for the rule of law has caused simmering tensions across the country. The last call for nationwide protest action that was largely not responded to due to the presence of a huge deployment of soldiers, police officers and state intelligence operatives was to happen on June 19 this year, the day the Tripartite Committee established to look into the electoral impasse was scheduled to release its report. Freetown and other city centres across the country were like ghost towns as citizens mostly stayed home fearful of a repeat of the huge loss of lives and destruction of property during the nationwide 10 August, 2022 protest action that caused the president to cut short a trip to the U.K. The president returned to Freetown calling the dead, injured and other protesters “terrorists”.
Meanwhile, talks of lack of peace and possible protests are a sore point for state security. Because they are not trained to handle large crowds and are susceptible to shooting before asking questions, the people of Sierra Leone have developed a serious hatred for members of the police, presidential guards and reconnaissance (recky) officers. Their notorious and deadly actions against protesting civilians have added to the state of instability as the public are neither afraid of nor respectful of state security officers. The people see them as part of the problem: A captured institution serving the government of the day that is more obedient to “orders from above” than the rule of law and the people whose taxes pay their salaries.
If Sierra Leone is to make any improvement in the lack of peace and security across the country, the government must ensure an unbiased justice system where everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. Justice and the rule of law must be applied to all regardless of their relationship or closeness to the powers that be. Justice delayed is justice denied; and there will never be peace where justice is denied. No amount of troop buildup will be able to address past and extant issues relating to lack of justice. It will only add to the problem.
Addressing the poor outcomes of the justice system is the only guaranty for peace, security and national cohesion. An unscripted town hall where people can freely express their feelings and talk about their experiences without being attacked by state security and their microphones switched off by a minister will also bode well.
The town hall meeting slated for Brookfields Hotel will be a waste of time and money the poor and suffering masses can use if the government will not ensure justice, electoral or otherwise. Lonta!