It seems these days that the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) is falling by the day to the distractions of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC)Party and their operatives as they undertake critical governance issues bordering the state.
As a ruling party, they should be able to focus and move with the agenda of fighting corruption and also improving on other social services without recourse to the many distractions the opposition continues to make.
APC distractions and internal party wrangling continue to have a toll on the ability of the government to effectively pursue its New Direction manifesto.Party stalwarts, who are power-thirsty to clinch party executive positions in the next SLPP convention, should wait and give peace a chance largely because the government is yet very young.
The Commissions of Enquiry, which the opposition have vowed not to cooperate with, are finally here and the APC has presented a battery of lawyers to save their fate.Overwhelming evidences keep on unfolding by the day (as the Commissions approached one week of sittings)about rampant corruption which has marred state governance in almost every sector.
Amidst all of these, the social media is still awash with propaganda rantings by APC operatives, both within and outside the country, castigating government and referring to the Commissions as a witch hunt directly targeting tribal and regional set of people.
Corruption in Sierra Leone knows no boundariesjust like poverty knows no boundaries.Politicians do not steal state resources on behalf of their tribesmen nor their regions or political parties but on behalf of themselves and their immediate family members.Why should they want a shield to cover them when it comes to accountability?
Since the start of the hearings, the three judges, who are of very high repute and international legal standing with proven probity, have continued to use the principles of natural justice and fairness side by side with the relevant Sierra Leonean laws as applicable to the holding of Commissions of Enquiry.
Government should move on and work towards the mandate for which they were voted into power by the electorates and refuse to be distracted.The APC has done everything in their power, starting in Parliament, to ensure that the Commissions of Enquiry do not hold,but alas the Commissions are here and their initial revelations are startling.
The latest ploy now devised by the APC operatives is to discredit, through the social media, persons representing the state as witnesses as well as the credibility and high moral standing of the judges.Government should not fall prey to this and they should move on with a very strong sense of security to move the process of accountability to its logical conclusion.
The APC is notable for their 99 tactics especially when they are in opposition, but it has proven in recent times that such tactics had their potency way back during the Siaka Stevens and Momoh eras. Sierra Leoneans have got the tendency to now resist such tactics to save the future generations of Sierra Leoneans from the current state in which we find ourselves.
Let the APC face the Commissions squarely and account for their stewardship.This trend will continue and politicians have to realize that it is no longer business as usual for them to use state authority as a short cut to wealth.This should also send a clear message to the current ministers of government and officials that the game is over and the country is ready to march on and compete with the likes of Singapore, Uganda and Tanzania.No amount of threat and intimidation will reverse this trend.
We are tired of being rated as the third hungriest country in the world, whereby we take a perpetual beating in the lower ladder of the Human Development Index of the world with all the numerous natural endowments.