Amb. Tamba Lamina, the Minister of Local Government and Community Affairs has led Governmentโs delegation including Minister of Internal Affairs, the Inspector General of Police, the National Coordinator of the Office of National Security, the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, and other dignitaries to the Gorama Mende Chiefdom and ordered Paramount Chief Haja Mariama G. Kanja IV to sort out the discriminatory practices in her Chiefdom.
Itโs to be noted that for quite a while now, there has been a no-love-lost relationship between the authorities of the above-mentioned Chiefdom and Wonde Secret Societies. This happened after the Chiefdom Authorities denied the practice of the activities of the said secret society in the Chiefdom. The situation escalated to the destruction of properties belonging to members of the secret society.
The Local Government Ministry in response called the two parties to a meeting in Freetown with the intention of resolving the dispute but the Chiefdom still remained unstable after that meeting which was why a high-powered Governmentโs delegation led by the Local Government Minister visited the Chiefdom.
In his address to the Chiefdom stakeholders and members of the Wonde Secret Society, Minister Ambassador Tamba Lamina condemned the disorderly conduct of the youths and held the Paramount Chief and the Chiefdom Leadership responsible for stirring unrest in the Chiefdom.
He maintained that Gorama Mende Chiefdom is just one of the 190 Chiefdoms under his supervision and he was disappointed for the fact that he engaged the two parties on two occasions on the matter under review but they still could not resolve their issues even when they promised him to do so. He disclosed that the underlying issue of the Chiefdom is intolerance and emphasized that Sierra Leone is a country that is guided by a Constitution which pays premium on co-existence, and that the very existence of every Chiefdom is based on culture and traditions which makes it unreasonable for the Chiefdom Authorities not to protect the cultural practices of their people.
He continued that cultural practices are allowed to be carried out across the country as long as the members stick to the guidelines and principles that regulate same, and do not violate the rights of other members of the community who are not part of their societies, adding that the members of the wonder secret society in the said Chiefdom have assured the government and their community people of their compliance to the laws.
He disclosed that the Government has noticed that there is a set of people in the said Chiefdom who are not tolerant and that they believe that everybody should believe in what they believe and nothing else. He said the wish of the Government is to see Chiefdoms where everyone goes about their businesses without any cause for alarm, which he said has not happened in the Chiefdom over the last few weeks.
He ended up categorically condemning the intolerance and urging the stakeholders to restore peaceful co-existence in the Chiefdom with immediate effect.
In his statement, the National Coordinator of the Office of National Security, Abdullai Caulker, joined Minister Lamina to express the government’s disappointment over the instability in the Gorama Mende Chiefdom. He stated that the country cannot allow a few individuals to start something that has the tendency to cause instability in the country. He added that if it takes the Government to institute a curfew in the whole Chiefdom to stabilize the same, it will be done if the authorities fail to bring back their Chiefdom to normalcy.
After members of the Government delegation vehemently spoke in condemnation of the intolerance by the Chiefdom Authorities and urged them to restore peace and calmness, the Paramount Chief PC Haja Mariama G. Kanja IV
and the Member of Parliament Hon. Ibrahim Koroma apologized to the Government and requested that the Government give them 2 weeks to resolve the issue. They promised to get back to the Government in the form of an official report on how the issue is going to be resolved.
The dignitaries later accepted the plea of the Chiefdom authorities to allow them to settle their dispute within the two weeks-time that they requested.
Frederick V. Kanneh
Information Officer
MLGCA
