The High Court ruling in the case of Saio Kamara & Others v. the Freetown City Council and the Councillor for Ward 438 is baffling, as the judge threw out the application of members of the Congo Town Community who seek to challenge the Council’s action to grant a 50-year lease to the Faith Healing Bible Church (the Church), for the building of a church edifice with a health centre on the land of the Ephraim Robinson Primary School (the Congo Town municipal primary school), without the consent of the community and in contravention of the Local Government Act 2004 which requires that the Council consults the community widely before any such project is undertaken.
The crux of the matter is that the council failed in its duty to observe the basic requirements prescribed by its own statutes and offered the lease, signed by the Mayor and Chief Administrator in March 2021, for a pittance of 1,000 Old Leones (NLe 1.00) per year for 50 years which, in the current economic climate, does not represent value for money.
Also, a better-suited site in Congo Town, away from the school, with none of the associated health and other risks (noise pollution, ill patients, hazardous medical waste, etc) had already been identified by the Council for the construction of a Community Health Centre. If the Church really wants to gift a health centre to the community, that is where it should be constructed.
The Council, in its desperation to proceed with this lease without the consent of the local community, not only did not consult Congotonians before agreeing the lease, did not inform us after it was signed, but also deliberately ensured that the Congo Town Community was not provided with the copy of the lease we requested, in time for us to examine and contest the lease within the prescribed time allowed by law.
Clearly the Council has not only demonstrated bad faith but has jeopardised the optimisation of this land in favour of a private entity, the Faith Healing Bible Church, at a time when the Primary School is operating a two-shift system due to lack of classrooms.
Our children need more classrooms to receive quality education so that they can be able to realise their full potential and, in time, make a valuable contribution to society.
The granting of this lease will squander the opportunity for the expansion of the school in favour of building yet another branch of the Faith Healing Bible Church.
What our community needs is a bigger primary school and, in time, a secondary school, not another church. The Council, and in turn the Church, should realise that it cannot impose its will on the Congo Town Community.
There was no consultation, as should have been the case, and the project should be scrapped. The righteous course of action would be for the Council and the Church to walk away from this lease and for the Council to spearhead a development plan for the land in consultation with the Congo Town community.
This is not what councillors are elected for. They have a salutary responsibility to represent the views of the community. The Council has not served the best interests of the Congo Town Community.
Instead, it is promoting the interests of the Faith Healing Bible Church over the immediate and long term needs of the community and against our wishes.
Even more intriguing is the fact that, in the week leading to the Court ruling, the Church resumed its construction efforts by delivering sand and granite to the disputed site. This act is not only suspicious, but can be seen as an act of provocation. It demonstrates a callous disregard for due process and the rising discontent and division that the Church’s actions are stirring up in the community. It is astounding that the Church expects to peacefully co-exist and operate in the community under such circumstances.
At this point, this project is tainted and trust in the Council is eroded. It will be seen as something that is being forced through against the will of the community, that will put the future education of children in Congo Town at considerable risk and will deprive the Community of our only multi-purpose communal activity space as the recreation field is used for car parking and other functions by the Church.
This blog was originally published in November 2022.
