As the three days Bintumani Conference, leading to the establishment of the Peace and National Cohesion Commission ends, the New Direction Government has been urged to match words with actions.
The call was made by the National Grand Coalition Party, who presented a position paper on the need to have a peaceful and cohesive country.
“We remind Government that actions speak louder than words. It is within the powers of this current Government to avoid taking steps that will further undermine peace and national cohesion. Such a stance will go some way to reassure detractors about the sincerity of their efforts. If deeds fail to match words, we are all entitled to feel cynical about the government’s true motives,” part of the NGC position paper reads.
Many presentations casted doubts over the sincerity and commitment of the Government to fully follow up on many of the recommendations proffered at the conference. It came out very clear that our institutions are weak and highly politicized.
President Julius Maada Bio was criticized for taking a very strong and uncompromising posture while addressing the conference. He was reported to have further castigated the opposition for failing to attend the conference rather than further encouraging them before the United Nations, the Manor River Union and ECOWAS representatives.
He was said to have stated that the conference has nothing to do with politics and politicians. But how true is this, when the country’s problems are deep rooted in the political, social and economic factors?
It is a fact that we always have tensions whenever we go into elections. The issues of electoral integrity, the role of the courts, the police and other electoral management bodies have been questioned in the past elections and these problems have brought us where we are today. It is therefore untenable to talk about peace when we ignore political issues.
It was clear that a very good number of political leaders, in the likes of Ernest Koroma, Charles Margai, Mohamed Kamarainbah, Samura Kamara and Chief Sam Sumana, were vitally absent in a conference that is supposed to chat the way forward for peace in the country.
The organizers of the conference would have done a service to the country if they had succeeded in bringing together these political leaders.