By Stephen V. Lansana
The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) is concerned after watching a video on social media in which the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) mayoral aspirant, Mohamed Gento Kamara is seen campaigning in a mosque and appealing to religious sentiments for votes.
The statement contained in a video recording on Friday, March 24, 2023 in the Basharia Mosque, Kissy Road, Freetown, showing Mohamed Gento Kamara, a Serra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) patron, financier and mayoral aspirant, displaying distasteful tribal and religious bigotry to the shock and disappointment of the congregation.
SLAJ vehemently condemns this type of campaign messaging from a political aspirant and further condemns the leadership of the mosque for allowing a politician to use their place of worship to campaign on such grounds.
SLAJ believes the 2023 elections are not about religion or tribe or region or any other extreme considerations but should be on issues that can develop Sierra Leone and raise the standards of living of her people.
“Religious tolerance is our last hope; it is the bedrock of our coexistence and our pride as a nation. A key component of SLAJ’s work during the 2023 elections is to combat disinformation and hate speech in all their forms. We will not allow this last bastion of our coexistence to be disturbed for political gains,” said SLAJ President, Ahmed Sahid Nasralla.
SLAJ calls on all political aspirants/candidates to be mindful of their campaign messages and refrain from using divisive sentiments for political gains. The peace, security, and cohesion of our beloved country is our collective responsibility.
SLAJ also calls on the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL) to take appropriate steps to prevent houses of worship from being used as campaign platforms to preach hate and intolerance.
The main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party said that Mohamed Gento’s religious and tribal bigotry has no place in society.
“The APC shall document such tribal and religious bigotry as evidence of threats to our nation’s stability and shall firmly hold responsible anyone whose tribal and religious bigotry incites political violence. The APC calls upon all Sierra Leoneans to remain calm, tolerant, law-abiding, and peaceful,” the party emphasized.
“We urge you to firmly disregard the unfortunate utterances of Mohamed Gento Kamara as mischief-mongering and political desperation,” APC said.
Reacting to SLAJ press release, Gento Media Team said in a statement that, “let it be clear that it is far from the truth. It is a complete misreading and misinterpretation of the content, without watching the entire video clip to understand the context”.
Gento Media Team added, “For SLAJ, we would like to inform the general public that when reacting to a video of that nature the principles of fairness in Journalism must be respected. And for the APC, building hills out of moles is not going to win you votes.”
According to the Media Team, Gento is a deeply religious man, his wife is an ardent Christian, while his mother is a devout pastor. “Hence if anything, his respect for Christians and the Creoles is deeply rooted in his social upbringing and religious practice,” it said.