There has been a plenitude of calls on our local radio stations pleading for the application of the death penalty which is still gathering dust on our statute books. Killing of humans beings has been going on since creation deliberately or unintentionally. Society as a whole has been divided as to whether to take a life for a life or to inflict lighter punishments. The Bible and the Quran representing two of the major religions practised in this country are in favour of the death penalty but some authorities of these religions have developed opposing ideas based on their prejudices or ideas imposed by so-called humanitarian organizations. In Genesis 9:6 it is written “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” Therefore any leader who fails to carry out this edict cannot count himself or herself as a true Christian.
It is worthy of note here that Christian states including the world’s super-power, the United States, founded on Christian principles, still carries out the death penalty in parts of its federation with the edict of the Bible in mind. Muslim states on the whole carry out the death penalty and it is evident that personal killings aside from wars are far less than they are in Christian countries that are anti-Bible. Amnesty International is one secular organization that has been disabusing the minds of religious leaders to disobey what their religious books say. The results however for those heeding the call of Amnesty International are steep increases in killings for the slightest pretext or none. What Amnesty International and their likes have never fully explained is whether those killed have no right to life. This must have been the rationale behind the Bible’s injunction of killing for killing which so-called humanists are ignoring.
Youths would be interested to know that former President of Sierra Leone, Dr Siaka Stevens, took appropriate measures that greatly reduced the incidence of murders for a considerable length of time. That was after murders at Mammy Yoko and Wellington Streets in Freetown. He was a Christian conforming to the local adage: ‘Kill dog nar dog yai meke e know say die dae.’ The murderers’ bodies were displayed at the prisons premises for all to see.
Bread is so dear and flesh and blood so cheap in Sierra Leone. As if to pour scorn on the lip service of the Paopa government murder has assumed epidemic proportions on the increase. ‘Morning Coffee’ of the SLBC told the nation of the macabre murders of two children at Rokel Village in the Western Rural Area within the space of one week. These heinous crimes are arguably ritual murders and cannot be unconnected to the ongoing Commissions of Enquiry from which culprits hope to be absolved by spiritual means.
President Bio is a professed Catholic but there is no knowing whether the Catholics have developed their own doctrine on the death penalty like their artificial celebacy doctrine that has boomeranged and flown in the face of the Papacy. President Bio should realize that in our purported democracy no personal beliefs should go against the collective mood of the country at this point in time that the death penalty should be implemented as it exists in the statute books. It should be noted that non-application of the death penalty is a sin of omission.
The non-application of the death penalty was what obtained during the government of Dr Ernest Koroma who was showing clean un-Christian hands to no avail. It profited him nothing at the polls. In spite of the cleaning of the gallows by Major Paolo Conteh Dr Ernest Koroma posturing as a humanitarian refused to sign the necessary approval. The things he left undone undid him. Is history about to repeat itself here?
President Bio’s refusal to apply the death penalty is an Old Direction move while paying lip service to a New Direction. The popularity that Dr Ernest Koroma was seeking was a senseless one. It is dumbfounding for President Bio to be dumb on this issue of death penalty. If a referendum is held on the issue the proponents of death penalty will win overwhelmingly. But it is not necessary with all the waste of funds if the President can sign it up according to the Constitution. If President Bio does not speak time will speak when it is too late.