By Rev. S. M. Williams
I hope you wouldn’t mind some sermonizing consonant with my last and foremost profession namely the ecclesiastical ministry. In this exercise of tribute paying we are trumpeting the good that is not interred in the bones of the late President Kabba. “Life is a little gleam of time between two eternities; no second chance to us forever more!” wrote Thomas Carlyle. Such is life. There can be a higher standard of living but there can be no higher death. All of us are physically equal at death in terms of deterioration, dust and ashes.
“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment? John 5:26-29. Thus, if Tejan Kabbah did good he will hear the voice of Jesus and come forth to the resurrection of life but if he did evil be will come forth to the resurrection of judgment, regardless of his religion. It should be noted in passing that John said in John3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Why is it only now that there is a deluge of posthumous accolades on the life of the late man? Why are we giving the devil his due only now? There are rhetorical questions. I wager that Tejan Kabbah would have loved to be a live recipient of all these outpourings of eulogy which were not showered to him owing to “bad heart”.
The predestined life of Tejan Kabbah could be likened to the biblical prophet Jeremiah of whom God said “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” Jeremiah 1:5. This is very much in sinc with the general Muslim philosophy of “everytin nar God” and the choice of legitimate leaders by God. Fame usually comes to those who are thinking of something else. Tejan Kabbah may not have returned to his native land with the ultimate aim of becoming President of Sierra Leone. Who knows?
Indeed it is personalities and not principles that move the age and this has been proven beyond all reasonable doubt by Tejan Kabbah. In politics a man must learn to use above principle and Tejan Kabbah rose. His behavior was as puzzling as the spelling of his first name Ahmed/Ahmad. The debate continues. He did not exhibit the imbecility characteristic of some of our leaders and he did not want subjects to be afraid of him but of God. Many of us are going to have a lasting, high and happy memory of the man Tejan Kabbah who I shall now present in verse as follws:
A-C-R-O-S-T-I-C
A – Africa loses another noble son
H – Having striven arduously in life
M – Made the necessary mark
A – And he succeeded tremendously
D – Deeds of honor and glory
T – The man who brought back our peace
E – Ernest Koroma’s greatest benefactor
J – Jaded by military interventions
A – Addressed the situation adroitly
N – Non-commital on his Party’s crucial issues.
K – Keen of pampering the official opposition
A – Anxious for an enduring legacy
B – Blessed with religious and moral tenets
B – Bequeath ultra-democracy now in tatters
A – Aberrant in African style politics
H – He is survived by the whole nation and the rest of breathing humanity
(C) Politico 03/04/14
