-IGR
By Morlai Sesay
The Institute of Government Reform (IGR) has at its headquarters unearthed that the November 26th failed coup was not Carried out by political parties, but rather by unknown violent entrepreneurs who wanted to capture the state in a way similar to 1997 for their self-regarding ends.
The executive Director of the Institute of Government Reform Andrew Lavalie, made the above-mentioned proclamation on Monday, 11th December 2023 at the official launching of a report titled "violence entrepreneurs, understanding the actors and incentives behind the November 26tb failed coup.
Lamenting on the IGR's initial analysis of Sierra Leone’s Nov 26 failed coup, Lavalie stated that the localized violence that took place on November 26th and the chain of other incidences in the last few years revealed that Sierra Leoneans are fighting enemies that live in the same communities with them. To support institutions responsible for building peace and security, he noted that Sierra Leoneans must employ social science techniques, and primary and secondary evidence to analyze the incentives and solutions to the November failed coup.
"Our basic conclusion is that although individual political party members might be named as suspects, there is no evidence that the 26 November incident was carried out by a political party, ethnic or regional grouping. Rather, the event was merely an attempt by known ‘violence entrepreneurs who wanted to capture the state in ways similar to 1997 – for their self-regarding ends.
Political party sentiment, ethnicity, and economic hardship are simply tools exploited to gain public support forward their cause; shielding their real desire to control and loot the state," he affirmed.
On the aspect of lessons learned and the way forward, the Executive Director stated that the localized violence on November 26th revealed that Sierra Leoneans are fighting enemies that live in the same communities with them. The release of prisoners, including some dangerous ones, on the street of Freetown he noted, further showed the scale of vulnerability of the country and the weakness of institutions to provide peace and security. This section according to Lavalie, highlights three lessons distilled from Nov 26th for the country’s security and peacebuilding programmes:
He added that a potent network of anti-democratic forces at home and abroad are willing and capable of disrupting the peace and security of the country for their ends. While the characterization of November 26th as a failed coup might be right, it should be understood that this is not a stand-alone event. From their point of view, Lavalie said the event followed a pattern of
political violence Sierra Leone has seen since 2020 with three attempted coups and two prison breaks during the period. Lavalie described the event as an organized network of anti-democratic forces at home and abroad who are ready to disrupt Sierra Leone’s democracy for their own ends. Political party affiliation, ethnicity, and economic hardship he averred, are only a veil to hide personal agendas, which is to capture the state for material rewarding benefits.
He disclosed that the calls for dialogue and the economic hardship could easily be perceived as a tacit endorsement of a coup; and undermine efforts to deal with potential criminal networks. "There is a need to separate the criminal
conduct of individuals from political party bickering against one another," he emphasized.
Also, the report revealed that access to information technology and social media is creating more transnational opportunities for deception, coercion, and violence. ICT and social media according to the report, had enhanced the capacity and speed of subalterns to organize and wreak havoc. Over the last 24 months, it is stated in the recently published report that three violent protests had been coordinated by Adebayo, a blogger based in Holland. Extremist bloggers they stressed, do not promote debate around issues of national development; rather, they exploit every negative situation and actively troll anyone who disagrees with them.
He intimated that IGR analyzed 10,000 text messages generated on Facebook pages of two popular programs (AYV and 98.1FM). Lavalie furthered that almost 2,000 messages in the course of one month were sent by
just 10 texters largely based in the Diaspora. Extremists troll guests on radio and TV to rig media conversations and lay a basis for wider acceptance of violence.
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