By Ezekiel Nabieu
For three days the freedom of movement of the majority of citizens was curtailed - a new experience which most adults had not been through unless if they had come into conflict with the law. When you come to think of it no man living in an ordered society is wholly free. During that period there were no questions such as “Usai yu dae go”? or “Usai yu comot?” This is because there was a full house everywhere. While housewives were especially delighted, bars and restaurants were saddened.
We are supposed to be under a government so constitutionally checked and controlled that proper provision is made against its being otherwise exercised. The provision of the Declaration of a Public Emergency is made in our 1991 constitution. Ex-lockdown how free are we going to be or how free have we been? Real freedom means good wages, shorter hours of work, security in employment, good homes, opportunity for leisure and recreation with family and friends.
Prior to the three-day exercise there were heated prevarications within the public with regards to the necessity for the stay-at-home and the choice of days of the week. While the vox pop was always unanimous in supporting the lockdown I heard not a single person in favor of the exorbitant amount doled out to members of parliament. And these included supporters of the APC who would burst into a tirade in favor of their party but end up by remarking that that whopping amount given to the MPs was ill-advised and wasteful.
A lot of things went amiss which an “infallible” government would not own up to like the politicised recruitment that led to the avoidable bungling. Temperatures were not taken and so some suspected cases of Ebola were not spotted owing to fear of their fate by relatives and friends. Another superfluous exercise was giving out slabs of soap to families. What was outrageous was the rejection of these slabs by some citizens because some enemies of state had been passing rumour around that they were poisonous and meant to wipe them out. Money for these slabs could have been used to feed the poor because most low income people can afford soda soap at Le 500 (five hundred Leones) anyway. This does not argue that some houses were deprived the slabs of soap because of corruption. Many citizens were too ill of non-Ebola diseases but could not get to hospitals or health centres because of lack of transportation. As a result, health centres are likely to be flooded with patients after the exercise with a scarcity of health officials.
NA AFTER GOVERNMENT NA GOD?
The cliché “After God nar government" SEEMS to have been turned on its head eliciting the question “After Government nar God?” This is because the incumbent government seems to have discarded the primordial edict of “God first”. We have seen that in the matter of choice of days for the lockdown the president did not consider Friday and Sunday - the days followers of the country's two official faiths worship in congregation. It is a pity that in a meeting with the president, the Inter-Religious Council leaders did not stand up to secular leaders like Men Of God of old did. We have been subjected to the clamping down of our rights to congregational worship. Add to that the fact that there has been power over our subsistence. The question is not whether there be power but who should have it.
In spite of the inconvenience and hardship it caused sycophants not affected were toying with the idea of extending the lockdown regardless. They wouldn’t mind an extension of 21days as long as they are ok. They do not even care if the economy is hard hit.
The Bible states in Romans 13 verse 1 thus: “There is no power but from God.” Wait a minute! The passage says nothing about the form of government. It emphasises governments when these function PROPERLY. And when it does, to resist is to resist the ordinance of God. This should put paid to the idea that every government comes from God. I need someone to convince me by any religious doctrine that the power of dictators and sadists like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin ,Gaddaffi, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Siaka Stevens etc. came from God. Let us remember that the Bible states categorically that Satan is ruler of this world. He tempted Jesus Christ. Who else?
“Man proud man, his glossy essence like an angry ape most ignorant of what he is most assured, drest with a little brief authority plays such fantastic tricks before the high heavens as to make the angels weep.” –Shakespeare.
The Body Of Christ that was instrumental in bringing peace between the APC and SLPP following our November 2012 elections was not even consulted about the choice of days for the lockdown. If we think of God it follows that He exists. The Koran says “There is no God but God.”The Bible says in 1Corinthians 8:1 “There is none other God but one.”
Let us all pray fervently to God who answers prayers to eradicate the Ebola epidemic from our nation. Plato said in the Republic “God if he be good is not the author of all things but of a few things only and not of most things that occur to man.” These are the thoughts of a Greek philosopher who was neither a Christian nor a Muslim. He did not subscribe to the view that all things are sanctioned by God excluding Satan who is in fact the prince of this world. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that Ebola is not caused by God. Christians know that God is love. Political considerations aside, no sane person would want this epidemic to continue because it permeates all spheres of life.
This bevy of information specialists or so-called specialists has not succeeded in turning around the mindset of the proletariat towards the Ebola scourge. Rather rumour has superseded and won the information war. Tell me why people would still be denying that Ebola is real after four months of empty rhetoric and bashing of the air waves? Thanks be to the independent media who have been doing a yeoman’s service. Without implying that the money should have gone to the independent media, parliamentarians should not have been the people to have been given Le 63 million each for “leadership” in the Ebola fight. Government should now abandon this lockup idea and give incentives of Le 100,000 (one hundred thousand Leones) or so to anyone who gives information leading to the location of a victim of Ebola. There are many ways to kill a cat. We should not halo because we are not yet out of the woods.
Scotland learns from Sierra Leone
Scotland is part of the United Kingdom and was about to secede recently. Thankfully they had an afterthought. They reflected on the hash we have made of our independence after 50 years becoming worse than we were as a dependent state. And they decided wisely to stay put. At the good news I poured out a tot of Scotch and drank to the health of the Queen and the Scots. Clever folks.
(C) Politico 25/09/14
