The coronavirus epidemic which has claimed the lives of many people in the world and has been threatening the collapse of world economies seems to have been twisted to political gimmicks in the Sierra Leonean milieu, as the two main political parties are at each other’s throat in the disguise of fighting to contain the deadly disease from spreading.
It all emanated from the former Defense Minister of the erstwhile Ernest Bai Koroma’s government, Alimamy Palo Conteh, who is one of the heroes that fought ferociously in the battle of curbing down the Ebola rebellion, was invited by the Maada Bio led SLPP government to assist with his expertise in mapping out strategies to prevent the coronavirus epidemic from entering Sierra Leone. Proving to mean a genuine and patriotic Sierra Leonean probably, he accepted the invitation owing to the fact that it was an era of health emergency and topsy-turvy, so he, therefore, deemed it expedient to answer to the clarion call of His Excellency in coming to the aid of the government devoid of his political affiliation.
This purported solidarity was quickly and automatically transformed into an arrest that alleges the culprit of attempting to assassinate the president in his State House office. The matter is under investigation by the court.
Now that rumors are making rounds in the social media and from opposition party members alleging that the country’s first lady Madam Fatima Bio and “innovation father” Monina David Sengeh has been infected by the deadly coronavirus, clearly showcase the manner at which politics is gradually culminating into the fight against the coronavirus.
The covenant newspaper is of the candid opinion that as a nation, Sierra Leoneans must stand tall and think above their noses, by putting all matters of politics aside and work for hands in glove in the fight to curtail the harmful virus from spreading in the country so as to save the lives of many vulnerable Sierra Leoneans.
We in the covenant newspaper will also want to call on the attention of compatriot Sierra Leoneans to the dangers and destructive nature of the coronavirus especially in this trial times when the country’s economy and health sector are in a complete state of shambles, in lieu to that, therefore, we are admonishing all and sundry to fish out any political triviality in the fight to contain the dreadful coronavirus from its dispersal in the country.
The covenant newspaper is also of the view that this is not the fitting atmosphere for the flaming of phoney and unfounded political hoopla as we should all concentrate on embarking on the necessary promotion and precautions set aside by medical professional particularly the World Health Organization (WHO) to contain the virus from spreading its ugly feelers in the country rather than engaging in baseless endeavours.
We also want to reflect the minds of Sierra Leoneans to the great powers in Europe and America who despite the medical professionalism, quality medication and well – equipped medical laboratory at their advantage could not tackle the widespread of the virus in their respective countries, which has caused them a huge loss of lives and also resulted to serious economic devastation, so, therefore, we in the covenant newspaper are calling on political actors to pay kin attention in the protection of the lives of Sierra Leoneans rather than propagating irrelevant political messages.
Let us put the interest of the country and the lives of its people first before any political affiliation if we are really serious to save our nation from the menace of the coronavirus from shattering our people and economy.
