Honour and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honour lies.-ALEXANDER POPE.
An army is a large body of soldiers trained to fight on the land. When there is complete peace there is no fighting and the army is seen as an excrescence on the body politic. Therefore, most citizens think that the expenditure on the army is not justifiable. Now that every state has its standing army to defend it the question is the amount of expenditure on them so that they would not bite the hands that feed them in such a way that they amputate those hands.
“The Greeks by their laws and the Romans by the spirit of their people took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make repair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible and the same remedy will make us so”. –THOMAS JEFFERSON
Since that time the United States now has the largest army on earth and short of conscripting every man, carries on conscriptions. It goes without saying that governments ought to protect themselves against external aggression. The army has always been the basis of power and it is so today.
MARY WOLLSTONE CRAFT opined that “Standing armies can never consist of resolute, robust men; they may be disciplined machines, but they will seldom contain men under the influence of strong passions, or with very vigorous faculties.” Another writer THE HITOPADESA 111 stated that “A small army consisting of chosen troops is far better than a vast body chiefly composed of rabble, for when the bad give way, the good are inevitably broken in consequence”.
A recent publication in an opposition newspaper stated that salaries were not paid to civilians but to the army so that they would not rise against the government. It sounded like old wives tales. It was no news to anybody who has been following news for all the colonial period and the following decades. It has been a tradition which President Bio cannot breach. Thus, the political point was not scored here. It came as the newspaper started running out of ideas.
The army also helps in civilian tasks such as building roads and bridges as well as securing our borders. Paying them first is no appeasement. They are a contented and loyal crop of citizens earning their keep responsibly.
DOCTORS & LAWYER’S
Time was when doctors and lawyers were two of the most prestigious professions. That was before independence when there was no ministerial system. With the advent of Ministers this category of citizens with all their appurtenances have been dwarfed into second place as it were in the estimation of the public. Nonetheless they are still prestigious.
Many students are attracted to these professions oblivious of the seamy side of them. The prospective doctor should have a lion’s heart to face mangled bodies, an eagle’s eye for successful surgeries and a love of the profession out of human sympathy. Little do they realize that medicine is the only profession that labours to destroy the reason for its existence.
Others opt for the mercenary legal profession. Here is the profession which was lambasted by Jesus Christ in the following words: “And he said, ‘Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers” Luke11:46. They are selfish and disingenous.
The bottom line is that there should be due diligence in whatever pursuit we find ourselves in. The postman is as important in his delivery as the gynecologist. If all of us were doctors and lawyers the world would not be worth living in. The doctors would have no patient and the lawyers would have no client.
By way of illustration, our incumbent Head of State Brigadier (Rtd) Julius Maada Bio started his life’s career as a non-commissioned officer and has now risen to his present status. Incidentally, only one medical officer has been head of state of Sierra Leone and one lawyer.
Like all organs in our bodies, Sierra Leone needs the participation of all citizens each playing his/her role and not abstaining. All professions are important in the national synergy.
By Rev. S. M. Williams J.P.