By Gideon Tucker The issue of gang life amongst our predominantly male youth population has become a rather frightening national challenge for not just the Police but more so the Office of National Security (ONS), the latter an arm of our security apparatus that could play a key role in strangulating a resurgent youth camaraderie that is hinged on violence of various proportions and drugs, which we call Cliques or Gangs. Mind you, it’s not a case of ONS taking over the role of the Police in curbing clique activities but rather complimenting the efforts of the Police in that direction by providing the necessary instruments with which these groups could be reined in and rendered ineffective as far as violence is concerned.
We have to accept the grim fact that political parties have in recent years helped to strengthen these Cliques by providing them with monies and the paraphernalia used in unleashing violence such as machetes, clubs and drugs. Sadly it was claimed that certain Police Officers, not long ago, were seen distributing monies to the leaders of some of these cliques around the precincts of State House of all places, obviously at the behest of a particular party that was to contest an election.
In effect, what is unfolding now in this country is the very unfortunate scenario of political parties unleashing mayhem on their opponents by proxy, using these cliques. It has all the potential of degenerating into violence of frightening proportions in the near future, especially as the political jostling and denigration, sometimes as primitive and acidic as one could hardly imagine, raises its ugly head now and again between the country’s two main political parties- APC and SLPP.
What the backers of these boys have failed to understand is what impact their very actions could have on the peace and stability of this country. Militancy and extremism these days do not recognize borders as we are witnessing now in the Lake Chad basin and the Sahel region.
Youths in those places have been recruited into so-called Causes, the genesis of which they are ignorant of, and have today become merchants of death, sadistically traversing the border areas between Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger or their new theatre on the Burkina Faso/Mali frontier, the latter’s terror campaign having continued for quite some time now. The presence of France’s much feared Foreign Legion in Mali has not reversed the onslaughts by the militants or cowered them in anyway.
Today from Abuja, Ndjamena, Yaoundé to Niamey, Bamako to Ouagadougou, the trepidations and anxiety being felt as a result of the carnage taking place in the conflict areas is endless, whilst the poor peasants and their families are being butchered or driven from their cherished homes. The rebel forces in those places are drawn from the unemployed and often bitter youths. One must be very blunt here; efforts must be made to dismantle the Salone cliques using the carrot approach and should only resort to the stick as a last resort.
Discussing the problem with a community leader who is well respected by Clique members in one of the hotspots in Freetown, it was quite worrisome to learn of the fanatical loyalty the rank and file of these cliques have for their structured leadership headed by their so- called 5- 0s. They execute orders of their leaders with much gusto, irrespective of how brazen or hazardous it could be. It could range from violent mugging in broad daylight to attacking a targeted rival gang leader.
Even more frightening is the revelation that these boys would with lightning speed, emerge with brand new machetes from nowhere, when ordered by their 5-0s to go on the rampage. Even the man from one of the tough groups, could never figure out where their obnoxious weapons are stashed.
According to this my contact, the whole Clique scenario started as a mere harmless rivalry between neighborhoods as to who wore the trendiest clothes and with the eye-catching swagger but said violence swept through the DNA of these groups as a result of gangster music and blamed Salone’s rap musicians for tacitly encouraging opposing groups. He said despite the numerous cliques in some of our cities and towns, the two major umbrella bodies under which they could be found are, Red and Black, and members put on t-shirts or bandannas of the colour their group represents. They have today mutated into very violent groups engaged in petty and major crimes. We all were witnesses to the gang on gang violence between 2014 and 2017 in particular that saw lives that could have been productive, violently cut short.
According to this my invaluable source of insight into these cliques, many of the youths are ready to quit life on the rough lane if they could have alternative opportunities such as access to skills training, jobs or support to the resumption of their formal education which had abruptly ended due to several factors including dysfunctional family background or joblessness of parents or guardians.
ONS can use their expertise to engage the boys but they have to start by winning their trust; they could begin by meeting with them as partners of a common cause bent on creating a peaceful and stable Sierra Leone. They should not even encourage a shred of doubt in the minds of the youths that ONS could just be trying to penetrate their ranks and then propel the Police into opening a labyrinth for these youths to run into. Such contacts must not be overly covert and they must meet community leaders who know these boys and can help in creating the enabling platform on which communication can start. Many of the boys are not inherently attached to those social ills, and can be transformed. You talk to them they will tell you they are open to turning to a new and productive page in their lives.
Violent extremism is today not far away, as the Military in Sahel countries are engaged in fierce battles against jihadist and extremists. And the last thing we could expect in our country is to see ill intent persons capitalize on the vulnerability of these our young minds and turn them into killers. Using the carrot approach to curb the growing gang violence could only be a last resort. Former Internal Affairs Minister Palo Conteh, at some point when it seemed the clique boys had upped their tit for tat mayhem, had the Gallows at the Maximum Prison in Freetown that had not been used in nearly thirty years, cleaned up and oiled. The Killer machine was put to a test run. With the entire event given quite a publicity, the boys just disappeared from their haunts. Narrating this incident to a female American research student in Freetown at the time, she gave me a wide grin and remarked ‘’ well indeed they weren’t as tough as they posed’’. We need a Sierra Leone that would join the development train of countries like Ghana and Ethiopia, which is in full throttle. As the legendary American musician Tina Turner would say in one of her songs ‘’we don’t need another Hero, we don’t want another war’’. Just My Take!
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
