By Sylvanus Fornah Koroma (WHAT A MAN!)

There is not much time to waste and no more pampering of the opposition parliamentarians to redeem themselves from being labelled as the weakest Opposition ever in the history of this country’s Parliament. The opposition parties in Parliament, particularly the All People’s Congress (APC), have a considerable task to redeem its present image and reputation. Like all other parliamentarians, the APC parliamentarians were voted in by the people and are therefore answerable to them. Should the Parliamentarians fail in their duties and responsibilities, the electorate and their parties reserve the right not to re-elect them. Conscious of the fact that they need to clean their image, some proactive parliamentarians are determined to seize the current recess as an opportunity to consult with their constituents on a range of pertinent issues before Parliament resumes on September 30, 2021. On the agenda are topical issues ranging from the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act of 2021 and the referendum issue around it; Presidential orders, some of which contravene due process and run contrary to the 1991 Constitution, infringe on fundamental human rights of people living in Sierra Leone. 

In addition to these agenda items, there is an emerging issue that the Opposition Parliamentarians should not fail to address or ignore – the blatant tribalism and ethno-regionalism present in every nook and cranny of the current Administration of the Bio-led SLPP Government. This matter screams for the urgent need for an Ethnic Audit of all state and public institutions. We need not remind Parliamentarians that they risk losing their positions should they fail to address these burning issues and concerns.

From its inception on Friday, May 25, 2018, Sierra Leone’s fifth Parliament has been particularly hostile to the Opposition, especially the All People’s Congress (APC). The elections of the Speaker of Parliament was marred by violence, leading to the installation of a Speaker from the ruling Party and not one from the opposition APC Party which then had a majority in Parliament. As if that was not enough, and indeed not, the violent installation of a Speaker was followed by the petitioning and removal of nine (9) opposition APC Members of Parliament who were hurriedly replaced by members of the Ruling Party and were sworn into office as Parliamentarians the very night the High Court judge made the rulings. The opposition APC Party’s numerous petitions filed more than three years ago are yet to be heard in the Courts. And the same situation applies to the appeals filed by the removed opposition members whose appeals are yet to attract the Courts’ attention. What a travesty of justice! The action to remove the Opposition APC Members of Parliament and to deny them the justice of their right to appeal does not go in line with the spirit of the constitutional provisions as stated in Section 78(2) and 78(4) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone 1991, Act No. 6 of 1991. The Section and the subsections stated clearly the timing of the ruling after the commencement of proceedings of both the petition and the appeal. Section 78(2) reads: “The High Court to which any question is brought under subsection (1) shall determine the said question and give judgement thereon within four months after the commencement of the proceedings before that Court.” Whereas Section 78(4) reads: “The Court of Appeal before which an appeal is brought pursuant to subsection (3) shall determine the appeal and give judgement thereon within four more months after the appeal was filed.” What a travesty of justice again when one considers how the Courts have been snail-pacing in adjudicating on time-bound matters! 

However, it is interesting but reassuring to note that the drafters of the 1991 Constitution made room for Parliament to have a say in such decisions on the determination of the question as to membership of Parliament in Section 78(6) reads: “For the purpose of this section Parliament may make provision, or may authorise the making of provisions with respect to the practice and procedure of the High Court or the Court of Appeal, and may confer upon such Courts such powers or may authorise the conferment thereon of such powers as may appear to be necessary or desirable for the purpose of enabling the said Courts effectively to exercise the jurisdiction conferred upon them by this section or by any law relating to the hearing of appeals from the High Court.” The quote mentioned above implies that Parliament can have a say in expediting the Courts to do the needful. As such, the aggrieved APC opposition should ensure to use these constitutional provisions to get justice. 

Therefore, the purpose of this article is to wake up the Opposition from its prolonged slumber and encourage the APC, in particular, to use the law to restore hope and bring back sanity in the governance of our people and country. The prudent use of Section 86(2) of the 1991 Constitution can minimise the malaise the Opposition and the country are currently undergoing to a large extent. Parliament can then turn around and streamline our country to fit into the desired good governance suitable for the 21st century. The saying, ‘Time and circumstances will restore the genuine’ will come into play handy at the end of September when Parliament shall resume from recess to address these long overdue issues. The ruling Party’s bullying cannot continue to go unchecked, and as representatives of the people, parliamentarians are mandated and protected by law to speak on the people’s behalf. For failing to address these issues at this critical point in time, some of us are openly advocating for the review and overhaul of the entire leadership of the current APC parliamentarians not to award them Party symbols anymore to represent their constituencies. Any failure or delay to do the needful when Parliament resumes on September 30, 2021, to articulate the burning concerns of their constituents and the Party, these parliamentarians would risk being perceived as a sell-out to the course of the people and Party that they represent. I am obliged to draw the attention of our parliamentarians, and especially the opposition parliamentarians to Section 86(2) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, Act No. 6 of 1991, reads: “Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (1), at least twenty per centum of all the Members of Parliament may request a meeting of Parliament and the Speaker shall, within fourteen days after the receipt of that request, summon a meeting of Parliament.” This component throws light on the sittings of Parliament, and Section 86(2) speaks about the power or authority given to Parliament to summon a sitting of Parliament to address, among others including but not limited to issues that arise concerning Section 78 in a bid to fast track and address Court issues in the determination of the question as to membership of Parliament. The current statistics regarding the per centum (percentage) required requesting a sitting of Parliament in terms of parties and independent strength is as follows:

PARTY	NO. OF MPS PER CENTUM
SLPP	59 MPs  = 40.4%
APC	58 MPs = 39.7%
C4C	08 MPs = 5.5%
NGC	04 MPs  = 2.7%
P/Chiefs	14 MPs = 9.6%
INDEPENDENT	03 MPs  = 2.1%
TOTAL	146 = 100%

Accessed from https://www.parliament.gov.sl/members-of-parliament.html 

From the above, it is clear that the APC has well above the required percentage to request a meeting or sitting of Parliament, and APC Members of Parliament are knowledgeable about this provision. Therefore, we believe that the time and circumstances are now favourable for the APC to apply this Section 86(2) judiciously to help the Government govern efficiently.  

The Opposition should use this Section to draw the Government’s attention to its excesses and find amicable ways to resolve problems before they degenerate into crisis. Parliament has to have frank and open discussions on these burning issues. Let no one be fooled that any government can continue to suppress the much needed open dialogue to address the unfairness of these issues, which may explode if left unattended or continued to be repressed. In fact, these discussions continue to flare up daily in people’s conversations everywhere and at every time. Paramount among the issues that many Sierra Leoneans would want our fifth Parliament to address urgently is ‘Ethnic Audit’. Ethnic Audit is a discussion that we should have in our Parliament! We cannot shy away from it because it is conspicuously visible in our society, and it is not suitable for the unity of our nation. We are now at a point that no amount of deliberate suppression would hold to prevent its open discussion. The discussion about Ethnic Audit has to be treated with the utmost urgency and importance attached to it. Recently, Dr Denis Bright has painstakingly brought it up at a meeting sponsored by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the National Electoral Commission (NEC). The Chairman and Leader of the National Grand Coalition (NGC), the third most popular Party nationwide and the fourth largest Party in our fifth Parliament, has recently raised the concern of biases in regional and, in effect, tribal or ethnic imbalance in the composition of staff at the National Electoral Commission (NEC). The concern pointed out by this Statesman, Dr Denis Bright, cannot go unnoticed as his statement resonates across Party lines. Unfortunately, his NGC Party does not have the numbers to request Parliament to sit on this issue. However, the APC has far more than is required to invite Parliament to sit on this matter. As Opposition and for the common good, the APC must lead in the request for Parliament to sit on the issue of ethnic Audit, and Parliament should call on the following institutions for ethnic Audit: 

1. National Electoral Commission (NEC) 

2. National Civil Registration Agency (NCRA) 

3. Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) 

4. Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL) 

5. Sierra Leone Police (SLP) 

6. Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) 

7. Office of National Security (ONS) 

8. Central Intelligence Security Unit (CISU) 

The above institutions are mainly chosen for the start of the ethnic Audit of their management because they are directly related to elections, data processing, and security and safety. These are critical factors for crystallising our country’s unity and stability and being regarded as a united and peaceful nation. As Local Council Elections are expected to be held in 2022, followed by General and Presidential Elections in 2023, there is an urgent need to restore confidence in the people about the neutrality and impartiality of these institutions and particularly their staffing in terms of ethnic balance. Should the Government and the International Community ignore the call for an ethnic audit, severe challenges are likely to be encountered in the upcoming elections. This is primarily because the credibility of these institutions would be greatly questionable and contested as there are enough reasons to justify these legitimate concerns. Let us take, for example, what happened in the second round of the three elections held for the parliamentary seat of Constituency 110 in 2019. Many people believed that the series of untoward incidences that led to the cancellation of the polls were closely connected to tribalism/ethnicity. Many people in the constituency and indeed throughout the country believe that culprits were not arrested because of their affiliation to a certain tribe irrespective of the fact that the individuals publicly destroyed ballots boxes in the presence of the police. Because no arrests were made even though the evidence was made viral with videos of the destruction of the ballot boxes by thugs allegedly spotted with the current Minister of Transport and Aviation prior to and immediately after the event of the destruction of the said ballot boxes; and the self-confessed statement of a thug called Arata which went viral, the confidence in these institutions has drastically eroded so much that people do not rely on them to protect their votes any longer. So, the issue for Parliament to request an ethnic audit for a cohesive nation would be timely and helpful to stabilise the already tense and fragile security we are facing wherein President Bio has described Sierra Leoneans as terrorists. 

So, the issue for Parliament to request an ethnic Audit for a cohesive nation would be timely and helpful to stabilise the already tense and fragile security we are facing wherein President Bio has described Sierra Leoneans as terrorists. 

The President himself has expressed sentiments connected to tribalism. That was so glaring, especially when considering the spate of sackings from public offices of people not affiliated to the President’s Mende ethnic group or linking. Certainly, many people must have archived the President’s response to a question during his third year Town Hall rally/meetings in Freetown. His response revealed that he did not prioritise appointments of individuals to national offices based on competence but instead on whom he knows! No qualms, but…!!! But the questions most people have asked down the line regarding his response is, ‘What is the effect on the economy for such cronyism of the President in prioritising appointments to public offices based on his relationship with the appointees? Does such an effect warrant any reason for its review going forward as a nation?’ Without mincing words, ‘tribalism’ or ‘ethnicity’ is at its highest peak ever during the President Bio led administration. Tribalism is one element people resent, and the population is no longer going to be quiet about it when it is evident that the Government is using it to perpetuate injustice to hold on to power. And until the issue and injustice of tribalism/ethnicity are treated with the attention it deserves, the confidence in the authority of these imbalanced and biased institutions would continue to dwindle. Therefore, people should ensure that Parliament, particularly the opposition APC, should implore and use Section 86(2) to carry out ethnic audits to make room for fairer and more equitable balance in terms of region and ethnicity in government institutions. 

Besides ethnic Audit, the Minister of Development and Economic Planning, the Chairman of the Board of Statistics Council and the Statistician-General should be requested to face Parliament for failing to adequately inform and advise the President on issues surrounding the complicated and confused Midterm Census. Their wrong advice may have led the President to invoke his powers based on Section 86(1) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, whereby he called Parliament from recess on Monday, April 19, 2021. The outcome of that meeting was disastrous and left many parliamentarians injured. On the one hand, the ill-preparedness and ill-advice demonstrated by the Minister of Development and Economic Planning and the Statistician-General of Sierra Leone, and with the concurrence of the board’s Chairman, has exposed their incompetence. They are not only unable to execute the diabolical plan in the so-called Midterm Census, but they blatant disregarded and neglected the Census and Statistics Acts to have tabled them before Parliament. These Statutory Instruments were mandatory to have presented them to Parliament prior to commencing any census activity. Section 170 (7) (a) of the Constitution states that” Any orders, rules or regulations made by any person or authority pursuant to a power conferred in that behalf by this Constitution or any other law – (a) shall be laid before Parliament”.  Therefore, their actions and inactions amount to grave breaches of the law, and they should face Parliament. Parliament has to particularly summon Professor Malam Osman Sankoh to address the issue of his alleged infringement of Section 37(1) of the Anti-Corruption Act, 2008, which states: “Any person who, being a member or an officer or otherwise in the management of any organisation whether a public body or otherwise, dishonestly appropriates anything whether property or otherwise, which has been donated to such body in the name or for the benefit of the people of Sierra Leone or a section thereof, commits an offence.” The Statistician-General was heard on-air informing the population that he had procured tablets from the Kenyan Government using funds he solicited from the World Bank to conduct a census. How ridiculous could he have wrongfully solicited funds and procured equipment for a process that has not been enacted into law, not to talk about being in existence? That was/is dishonesty, and it was done to forcefully impose what many people believed was unnecessary. For this reason, it is incumbent on Parliament to request for a sitting wherein Parliament would address all the long-standing issues surrounding the ineffectiveness of the people staffing these significant offices but failing to advise the President correctly. 

In conclusion, this article calls the attention of all stakeholders (i.e. the Government, the Judiciary, Parliament and more so the Opposition, the International Community, Civil Societies and the electorate) and urge them to cooperate to avoid a potential conflict. We cannot continue to turn blind eyes on issues that can spark unrest and pretend that the aggrieved parties would continue to be silent. Enough of the pretence; it is time to do the needful to ensure peaceful coexistence and make Sierra Leone a better home. Therefore, all stakeholders should treat Ethnic Audits in all government institutions with the severe concern it deserves in a nation full of ethnic diversity. The dominance of one tribe has no space in a country striving to coexist after a long civil war. The National Electoral Commission and the National Civil Registration Agency should be the first two institutions that should be reviewed to restore confidence and credibility for their work to be acceptable by all. The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Good Governance has emphasised the role of the Electoral Commission to reflect the makeup of the people; hence, ethnicity is a key component of the people of Sierra Leone and should be reflected in the composition of every institution (and NEC is not an exception). It must be reiterated that Sierra Leoneans would not appreciate a one tribe dominant institution or its reports; that people are looking forward to a positive Sierra Leone with inclusivity of its diverse ethnicity in government institutions, as highlighted by Dr Denis Bright.