Considering the vehemence with which the President of the Inter- Religious Council, Archbishop Tamba Charles has discredited information posted on the website of the Ministry of Information and Civic Education (MICoE) that suggests that concerns by the religious body have been incorporated in the revised “Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Healthcare” Bill has created mix feelings in the hearts and minds of most Sierra Leoneans.
This action of recent by Bishop Tamba Charles has left these Sierra Leoneans in shock and awe and they are now left with no option but to ask, why Archbishop Rev. Tamba Charles did not discredit President Julius Maada Bio’s re-election in the 2023 general elections.
According to the mandate of the Inter-religious Council which Archbishop Rev. Tamba Charles is heading, according to the very concerned Sierra Leoneans, the Bishop through the body should have condemned the re-election of President Bio in the June 2023 election as its intervention in the consolidation of peace and the enhancement of national cohesion.
The recent condemnation of the information shared by the MoICE on its website according to the citizens appears as if God had audibly started direct talks with Archbishop Rev. Tamba Charles.
Perhaps that is the more reason he has started discrediting some of the ill-motivated activities of the Bio-led Government that includes the “Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Healthcare Act of 2024.”
In addition, one will agree that a lot have happened since the declaration by Mohamed K. Konneh, the Chief Commissioner at the Election Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) and Chief Returning Officer of Julius Maada Bio as President.
However, President Bio’s election results were challenged by the APC party, and similar sentiments about the statistical credibility of the results were also echoed by leading international election observer groups.
Even though the opposition APC party failed to challenge the election’s outcomes in courts, it progressed however with its decision to boycott its direct participation in the governance of the State at both the national (legislative) and local (councils) levels, while the pursued the option of a re-run of the elections, and the resignation of the Chief Electoral Commissioner and all other Commissioners at the ECSL as well as other heads of key election management bodies.
These demands however failed to see the light of day, but the APC party maintained its boycott which to a large extent posed serious threat to the derailment of the governance structure of the country and further raised the question of the credibility and transparency of Sierra Leone’s democratic credentials.
Even though this abhorrent manner of capturing power grossly showed potentials of undermining and derailing the peaceful co-existence of the country, Bishop Reverend Tamba Charles and his the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL), an organization that played a critical role in promoting peaceful coexistence in Sierra Leone never at any point attempted to raise eye-brows as to the unfolding situation to discredit such repulsively unconstitutional act.
Also, the Council is known to have played integral roles in promoting dialogue in the country; but the Council and its President, Rev. Tamba Charles didn’t call for any dialogue between the two main antagonizing political parties.
Furthermore, both national and international observers noted the statistical inconsistencies between the partial results and the final results and denounced the lack of transparency in the ballots counting, while calling for peaceful dialogue to resolve differences, again no voice was heard from Bishop Tamba Charles and the Inter-religious Council.
It could be recalled that the opposition APC party had spotted discrepancies in the results in Freetown, where the current City Mayor is a prominent opposition figure. The opposition, during the course of the ballots counting had consistently and persistently raised concerns with stern warning to the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Konneh not to make any pronouncement on the Presidential results as it would provoke chaos in the country.
There is no gainsaying that during the campaigns, President Bio used the State security forces to intimidate, harass and shot at the opposition Presidential Candidate and the party’s headquarters; but at no point in time did the President of the Inter-religious Council, Archbishop Rev. Tamba Charles say a word against those infractions as threat to the peace of the State.
In the 2023 elections, there were death threats posed at certain international and local observers which were condemned by the U.S. Ambassador saying that it was “disturbed” by such developments against peaceful election observers. This according to the US Ambassador has no place in a peaceful and democratic society. Yet, the inter Religious Council never discredited such act. These Observers argued with certainty that the results announced by ECSL lacked transparency.
Conclusively, the ongoing act of advocacy suddenly taken by Archbishop Rev. Tamba Charles appears to be coming too late in the day because he had a clear opportunity to speak out for Sierra Leone when his intervention was mostly needed; but alas, now, as for most Sierra Leoneans, what he is doing is like pouring water on a duck’s back; what he is saying now is not necessarily for the interest of Sierra Leone and Sierra Leoneans, but for the attention of the Vatican, the seat of the Episcopal power that frowns and condemns as sacrilegious the main bane of the “Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Healthcare” Bill. His current ground should have been on solid concrete had had the moral temerity to condemn an egregiously conducted and announced Presidential election that now appears to have put Sierra Leone apart.