March 22, 2021
By: James Kamara-Manneh
It is said that when a child refuses to listen to the voice of his father, a hard tap on the back is necessary. Similar belief is stated in the bible which instructed parent not to spare the rod and spoil the child.
There are many scriptural principles in God’s word that guide parent on how to instill discipline in their children but there is not much time for biblical sermon.
I drew this nexus to establish the point that even citizens are like children that are being put under parental control. The president being the Fountain of honor acquires such responsibility of disciplining his subjects when the need arises. However, in the days of our forefather’s indiscipline has been the order of the day, so it is no more news that the indiscipline and unpatriotic act of citizens should be seen strange.
However, the current President is one that has gone through disciplinary mentorship and that was felt during the Military Junta days. He is a retired Brigadier General from the Sierra Leone Army and he was the military Head of State of Sierra Leone from January 1996 to March 1996 under the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) military Junta government.
After two decades and more Bio succeeded Ernest Bai Koroma as president, who was constitutionally ineligible to run for the presidency having served the maximum two five year terms.
On this backdrop, President Bio has tasted the presidency before having served a military Head of State for about three months. As a military ruler, he toppled his boss in the NPRC junta Captain Valentine Strasser in January 1996 but handed over to democratically elected Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP after the 1996 presidential elections.
In May 1964, he graduated from military academy as an early age, where he also played active part in the peacekeeping ops by the United Nation in Liberia. He played a role in the 1992 coup and led the 1996 one before handing over after elections.
Therefore, it is evidently clear that the present President has tasted the bitter-sweet of being a discipline individual, and it was upon his military background that the people of Sierra Leone democratically elected you as their President.
Three years down the line the expectations of citizens is wasting down gradually due to the many indiscipline and unpatriotic behaviors from some diabolic citizens. Very recently, EDSA Saboteurs and enemies of Progress Cuts Glouster Village Transformer Cables thus depriving other of adequate Electricity supply.
Residents of Glouster Village in the mountain rural district of Freetown, woke up in the early hours of Sunday 28th February, 2021 with tremor after noticing that two of the power cables at the transformer supplying electricity to their community under review and its environs have been damaged by some misguided fool’s errand, joy-killers, and Politically blind loyalist call citizens.
Upon investigation some residents within the area where this damaged transformer was located were pointing fingers at an experienced electricians supposedly staff of EDSA; owing to the fact that these are high power cables which supply directly from EDSA’s substation adding one has to switch off the mains before executing such satanic act.
However, critical minds have also called on the management of EDSA and that of the ministry of Energy and Power to construct a cave like structure with sufficient ventilation around this transformer and many others that had been damaged by these miscreants, in order to deter vandalization and theft in the future.
An individual will be tempted to ask, why are some indecent Sierra Leoneans so retrogressive?
However, even the Law making body-Parliament has be concerned about EDSA transformer theft and is calling on all security bodies to give maximum support to the effort in checkmating this ugly incident. The Speaker of Parliament advised the Police and Office of National Security to narrow-down their investigation on certain categories of people with specialized knowledge that might be causing this mayhem.
Another disturbing incident was when youths took to the street to cause unrest all in the name of disgruntlement. Citizens have witnessed serious damage to public and private properties, damage to our police officers and other security personnel. Some will be arrested charged to court and at the end will be freed. So sad that indiscipline and unpatriotic tendencies permeate our country.
During elementary days at school the sight of a military uniform used to put fear in us, not to talk of a well-dressed soldier, especially during the junta regime. Those were the days when civil servants went to work as early as 7:30 am. Today, to even respond to greetings properly has become a huge task for them. Some are so lackadaisical and unprofessional. Sometimes, one could wonder when authorities will stop putting square pegs in round holes!
The struggle to make ‘Mama Salone’ a disciplined society has been on for a long time. Many leaders have over the years made efforts to curb indiscipline and to instill patriotism in the heart Sierra Leoneans, all seems like wasted efforts.
Regrettably, all these attempts have failed to restore ethics and discipline in our society. Some possible reasons that have led this country to where it is today is that there have been lack of adequate planning and effective implementation particularly on the part of the leaders who are expected to plan and implement the programme of ethical restoration and curbing indiscipline. Past Koroma’s government, instituted the Attitude and Behavioral Change ‘ABC’ project; it is evident that little or nothing was achieved thereof
Former President Ahmed Tejan Kabba was so furious at some point he described his subjects as ‘bad hearted people’. Therefore, with the various projects that were geared toward building this nation could be difficult to adopt, reason being politicians and those placed in authority are indeed not sincere. They are good with merely playing lip service to their pay masters. There was superficiality.
The frequent changes in government can lead to unnecessary changes in nomenclature and lack of continuity. However, all hope is not lost as the Bio government is poised to curb indiscipline in our society. The government can do this through the use of coercive instruments for maintaining law and order in any society.
At the individual level, a citizen should constantly exhibit that self-control, moderation, modesty and respect for legitimate authorities. An individual should maintain high moral attitude, free from corruption and other social vices. Obedience to the law by an individual is necessary to ensuring a discipline society.
In many human societies, religion has always been a major tool for enforcement of ethical standards and discipline. Religious bodies such as Christianity, Islam and traditional religion preached and encouraged moral excellence. The high level of moral decadence in the Sierra Leonean society appears to point to the failure of all these methods of controlling discipline. I think the issue is not leaving it to fate but to put in more sincere efforts and save this nation from collapse.
Putting on your military attire Mr. President symbolically will send a positive message to state defaulters that it is time for disciplinary action. One of your promises made in your 2018 manifesto was that if you assumed the seat of power you will make sure that discipline and patriotism are the normative values to experience. Sad to say things are going the other way round, it is time for public mistake, public correction- this is the language Sierra Leoneans will understand.
Your citizens were reminiscing of the Junta days where even rat don’t come out onto the street during the general cleaning Saturday; and this was one of the reasons you were elected.
If this is the time to weed out the weed from the wheat, am sure your citizens are fully behind you!!!!!