An Unsung Hero of the Soil Has Fallen!

By Ibrahim Sillah, Saudi Arabia

Heroism is neither restricted to winning military battles; nor is it   limited to emerging a victor in political debacles, and nor is it solely meant having the supernatural wit to invent things beyond the human imagination.

Rather, it also entails sacrificing the self on behalf of one's people and nation. And this is exactly what has made Dr. Sheikh Umar Khan a national hero. With tenacity and patriotic spirit, Dr. Khan volunteered to cure his Ebola infected compatriots. And as destiny would have it, while treating the infected patients, he acquired the lethal virus and died so that others would survive.

Now that he is no more, our paramount task is to learn the numerous lessons that could be derived from Dr. Khan's heroic performance. In my humble opinion, the following could be some significant lessons that our most revered physician taught us so that we would measure up to truly show our patriotism when faced with challenges.

1.     Good education should be embodied and proven in rendering needed services to one's own people when the need arises to do so. Dr. Khan proved beyond all reasonable doubts that he was educated to selflessly serve his nation; otherwise, being fully aware of the hazards of his mission, he could have backpedaled at some point to save his life. Instead, realizing the magnitude of the epidemic, he exerted every effort to save the lives of others until he eventually succumbed to the scourge. 

2.     Dr. Khan taught us that life is not about the luxuries one enjoys; it is not about the numerous possessions one may acquire. Rather, it is about the significance of the sort of life one lives vis-à-vis one's environment and locality. The useful individual is one whose contributions to societal development are felt by his surroundings.

  3.         

         Our national hero demonstrated that in the face of daunting challenges, we should stand undaunted because   the job must be done by somebody; and recoiling should be no option. The advanced world has attained the height we    see today because their great and selfless ancestors  measured up to the challenges of environment and the   challenges of poverty they were enormously confronted with. They tenaciously stood up undaunted so that generations coming after them would be relieved from such challenges and hazards.

4.     Another glaring lesson to be learned in this episode is that it is high time African leaders gave great momentum and long overdue consideration to putting in place all the infrastructural tenets so that Africans would be saved from such unexpected stressful and heart-wrenching situations like the epidemic that the sub-regional  nations are prone to suffer from right now. Sound education, sound and the state-of-the-art health facilities, sustainable and permanent electricity, good road network and hygienic water supply are the basic needs for any country. A country without the aforementioned facilities can hardly be deemed to be at the threshold of development.  Actual development takes off from the availability of those tenets.

5.     The magnitude of the Ebola outbreak being witnessed in Sierra Leone at the moment could have drastically been averted if earlier warnings of the epidemic were given the seriousness, awareness and care the situation required. However, such alerts were, unfortunately, downplayed by the concerned authorities and hilariously described to be mere rumours. Of course, there is no need now to cry over spilt milk, because that would certainly take us nowhere. All the same, the outbreak in neighbouring Guinea and Liberia should have sounded the alarming bell that Sierra Leone, having such porous and uncontrollable borders with its Mano River Union neighbours, was highly likely to acquire the virus at any time and, thus, was by no means safe. Hence, all necessary measures should have been put in place there and then. The lesson to be learned here is that procrastination and failure to look at things from the right perspective often bear regrettable repercussions, as it is in our case.

 6.     Fortunately, Ebola has apparently united all politicians and the nation as a whole. No doubt, Ebola is now viewed to be a national concern, irrespective of tribal, regional, religious, sectional and political affiliations. We are all determined to combat this carnage so as to put an end to the slow but certain annihilation of the nation, if not stopped once and for all. Never before had the nation been faced with such a calamity. Presumably, Ebola is worse in nature than the RUF war waged on Sierra Leone in the 90's. It is worse in the sense that rebels were more or less visible, but here is now an invisible enemy looming so horribly and so speedily with its devastating and fatal venom in the midst of the nation. Hence, the situation requires more robust actions and measures to be taken to halt this carnage, which if not timely halted, could cause more fatalities than perhaps any war could.

 7.     Dr. Khan must have called upon his colleagues of the same profession not to shy away from rendering needed services within their reach. It is the responsibility of the medical society to answer the national call. This is a call Dr. Khan must have made to physicians in and outside Sierra Leone that it is highly time they proved their mettles and patriotism as he himself did before losing his life in the fight against the merciless Ebola. 

8.     Finally, I think the most significant lesson our national hero, Dr. Sheikh Umar Khan, taught us is that each and every one of us can make a positive difference through motivation, determination and with a sincerity of purpose. This is the legacy Dr. Khan has bequeathed us. Can we truly and practically embody and immortalize this golden heritage?

With all  humility, the above are some of the lessons that I believe could be derived from the heroic performance and demise of our national hero, Dr. Sheikh Umar Khan. Definitely, from however aspect you look at the sacrifices of this giant son of the soil, you would uncover many implicit and explicit lessons to be learnt.

Now that His Excellency, President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has declared a medical state of emergency across the country there is every hope that the epidemic will be faced with a fierce fight by all, each in their capacity. All hands must be put on deck now to eradicate Ebola from our midst.

On the other hand, one of the most effective weapons we should use to fight the war against Ebola is the spiritual weapon. We must inwardly cleanse ourselves from all evils and desist from all malpractices of all sorts. We must return to Allah with our heads and hearts. We must repent from all heinous sins and crimes that we have committed and from now try to be Godly fearing people. We must love each other and see ourselves as one nation with one destiny. We must realize that there is only one country on Earth that we call Sierra Leone and it is to it that we all belong. May Allah save Sierra Leone and its neighbours from the evils of this carnage.