By Ibrahim Jalloh (Jallomy)
Yenya is a patch of land on the eastern fringes of Sierra Leone in the historic district of Kailahun. The district of Kailahun poignantly shares boundary lines with the neighbouring Guinea and Liberia. These are two countries that have longstanding diplomatic ties with Sierra Leone. Particularly Guinea, history has cemented a perfect bond, anthropological connect and an undisputable sociological mix with the country and people of Sierra Leone. Inter marriages, trade links and political manoeuvrings have characterised the compact and relational identity of the two sister republics.
Yenga is a border community between Sierra Leone and Guinea but geographically Yenga falls in the map of Sierra Leone and as such an integral part of the sovereign territorial space of Sierra Leone, an independent country, a member of ECOWAS, the African Union and an effective player in the Mano River basin. The sovereign right of Sierra Leone over the seemingly insignificant but politically definitive Yenga is undisputable.
The problem in Yenga started rearing its ugly head some 20 years ago. The war which the Guineans had come to help end, was ending. Then they refused to leave, laying claim to the area. At first instance, talk about their claim was dismissed and their continued presence was seen as a mere trade affair. Soon it graduated into an effective military occupation. The situation took a military character and alarmed the citizenry and the government of Sierra Leone.
The then president, Ahmad Tejan Kabba studied the situation and in his usual diplomatic posture called for restraint and opened a diplomatic corridor of engagement with the sister republic of Guinea. Guinea and her then political leadership faltered and conveniently demonstrated bad faith.
Until the end of his tenure as president in 2007, the now late President Kabba was untiringly focusing on the Yenga problem but a resolution was not only distant but elusive. His successor, President Ernest Bai Koroma raised the anticipated dust but left the presidency without a resolution of the Yenga problem.
Both presidents pursued diplomatic options but at the bilateral level. Their efforts, though did not yield the desired result, cannot be dismissed as failed trials. Each of the two presidents was mindful of the historic and political bonds between Sierra Leone and Guinea to the extent that any action outside the diplomatic corridors was a non-starter.
President Bio is in power and a not too proud inheritor of many social, economic and political problems. One of the problems he inherited is the unexplained military occupation of Yenga. The Yenga problem is political with significant security implications. The Guinean political leadership has gone beyond the line to provoke an encounter that will undermine all that defines the two sister republics. A war with Guinea over a small patch of land is not only unimaginable but unnecessary.
The Yenga problem has exploded on the national theatre. It has attracted massive national attention. It has taken a political character and it is being heavily politicised. President Bio is never in deficit of solutions to emerging national issues even of crisis proportions. Moving outside the closed bracket of his two predecessors, Bio has escalated the problem to the sub-regional bloc of ECOWAS.
This is an excellent move and one that reflects his leadership character and conflict resolution skills and experience. Graduating the Yenga problem from bilateralism to multilateralism is the best option in the circumstance.
The greatest threat to the national handling of the Yenga problem is the massive stampede of the main opposition to seek political capital out of a national problem that has real potential to conflagrate. Nothing can be crueller than this. Nothing can be more than the politics of hate. The parallels being drawn by the main opposition between the diminished livelihoods of the people as dictated by an inherited ruptured economy and the closure of the border and the occupation of Yenga can only dishearten the citizens and create disaffection between them and the government. In the end who gains and who loses!
Needless to say, Yenga is a generational problem and one that requires a national convergence. Regrettably, the hanging clouds of politics pose a significant threat to an early resolution.
Author’s Email: Akempi@yahoo.com
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