Emergence of hope in local leadership: Ambassador Alimamy Kamara opening corridors of calm and stability

Ibrahim Jalloh - (Jallomy)✍️

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It is a month now since the Makeni incident of horror took place but the wound of the distardly incident is still festering!

The killings and destruction of public and private properties are still deeply entrenched in the minds of sons and daughters of Makeni with a mixture of bitterness, disdain and sorrow.

Two of the remains have been buried but the remaining four continue to pierce the sad memories and bitter reactions of residents of a city that is yet to come to terms with the fundamental root causes of an action that has caused irreparable loss.

The burial has been segmented and significantly delayed due to prolonged negotiations involving the security sector, bereaved families and local leaders, inclusive of the district representatives in Parliament.

The security sector is concerned about potential eruption of violence that will jeopardize the fledging peace and stability. This is due, in part, to security intelligence gathered and, in part, to massive conspiracy theories on mass funeral gatherings and processions.

The bereaved families are calling for befitting burial and in the traditional way. While this is legitimate, the potential for exploiting the situation for achieving political capital by suspect groups is visible. 

Already, the relationship between the police and a large segment of the Makeni population is sour and one of suspicion and mistrust. In view of this, any situation that could trigger a clash must be deliberately and intentionally avoided.

Dramatically, Ambassador Alimamy Kamara has taken a positioned leadership role in bringing together the main actors and pragmatically rebuilding trust and confidence. Crowned as spokesperson of the local leaders, the Ambassador metamorphose into the critical and much needed role of a chief negotiator and conflict resolution point person. 

On a radio talk show program aired by a local FM station called Hope Radio, he unequivocally and confidently stated the absolute need for trust among the key actors for the conclusion of the burial rites of the remaining corpses. 

He warned that politicians must stay from any action that might ignite Chaos as no one will escape future judgement for actions inimical to peace and stability. 

He warned that the police were not enemies and that they were equally disturbed and saddened by the unfortunate incident.

Many analysts have pointed at local leadership failure as one of the causative factors to the conflict. Ironically, it also takes positioned and dispassionate local leadership, among others, to remedy the situation. Ambassador Alimamy Kamara has graduated into this and we hope that his exemplary leadership will resuscitate the others.

We must commend our youth and their leaders for realizing and coming to terms with a generational error that must not happen again. 

The moment of reawakening and self realization is here. We now know what happened was wrong, undesirable and unacceptable.

As we look forward to the final burial of our remaining dead brothers, we must follow our common resolve to seeking justice and ensuring that those who bear the greatest responsibility face the law.