The Night Watch team is bringing excerpts from the handing over speech of Late President Kabbah to Ernest Bai Koroma. Readers and members of the public would have an opportunity to read what the former President has said in this speech on certain critical national issues and be able to assess the state of affairs ten years down the line.
Public debt
“My Government inherited a public debt of $ US1.6 billion. With stringent financial practice, today, we enjoy total debt relief and over Le.500 billion at the Central Bank for use by your Government.”
Road Construction
“The following roads have either been constructed or are under construction: the Koribondo-Blama-Gendema Ferry Road in the South; Makeni-Kamakwie road in the North; Kurobola-Kabala axis and the Masiaka-Makeni road also in the North. Work is in progress on several other roads such as the Masiaka-Bo road mainly in the South and the Tokeh-Lumley road in the Western Area, thereby completing the Waterloo-Freetown/Peninsular road”.
“Funding has been secured for several planned road projects such as the Bo-Kenema road; Kenema-Koindu road; Makeni-Matotoka road; Matotoka-Koidu road; the Rogbere Junction-Pamelap road; the Songo-Moyamba road and the Moyamba-Moyamba Junction road. With regards to the Hillside Bye-Pass Road that will run behind Pademba Road Prison and exit behind Kissy Road Cemetery, delay in starting this project has been too long with protracted negotiations with property owners”.
“We also have funding for the construction of 1,150 kilometer of feeder roads throughout the provinces, as an integral part of our food security program”.
“The National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) has already allocated seed money for the construction of a modern international market in Koindu. Your Excellency may wish to pursue this matter further with your colleagues especially after your recent interaction with them”.
“Let me also add that feasibility studies for the Freetown-Lungi link road, the Lungi-Port Loko road and the Bandajuma-Mano River Bridge road have been completed and it is now urgent to secure funding for their construction. Perhaps, you may want to consider the involvement of the private sector for the early construction of the Freetown-Lungi link road in the context of a toll-system arrangement”.
On the fight against Corruption
“I was amazed to read in our press that my Government was soft on corruption and that our development partners may have withheld funding because of this. Let me state that my government maintained a very robust stand against corruption. Before I assumed office, corruption was a taboo subject in this country. It was so endemic that the word corruption was never used. I personally led this fight against corruption and in this process; I requested and obtained.”
“At the inception of our own Anti Corruption Commission, we were able to prosecute and convict high profile officials among whom were an appeal court judge, ministers and other senior officials.”
“The Anti Corruption Commission sensitized and continues to sensitize the Sierra Leone public about the evils of corruption through very effective radio and TV messages. I personally have referred to corruption in my address in Parliament as a national security threat. What I have refused to do is to play the counter-productive game of the politics of anti-corruption by which the fight against corruption is misused as a political weapon against one’s political opponents.”
“I may add here that certain strong positions taken by our international partners may have been counter productive in the fight against corruption. For example, DFID insisted that we change the prosecution process of corruption cases by removing the Attorney-General’s fiat to determine who should be prosecuted and relegating this function to a team of three prosecutors, two of whom are their appointees and the third, a nominee of the Attorney-General. This was contrary to the provisions of our constitution. They threatened to withdraw their financial assistance unless we agreed to their prescription even though they were informed that the Attorney-General’s fiat was an entrenched clause in our constitution. Yielding to pressure, a high profile case was taken to the court presided over by two DFID recruited judges. The case was thrown out of court for the very reason that my government had given. Even then DFID has maintained its stand.”
“Making the Auditor-General’s Report available to an international agency before it had gone through Parliamentary scrutiny as required by our laws was another area of difficulty. Even the President is not entitled to this document until after parliamentary scrutiny”.
“Our government could not tolerate, even from a friendly country, the use of financial leverage to undermine our sovereignty.”
“A further concern was the high-handed manner in which the Deputy Anti Corruption Commissioner, a DFID appointee, treated Sierra Leoneans suspected of corruption. One case was the dawn raid on the residence of a Minister, without a search warrant or an arrest warrant. The Minister was detained for a whole day in his pyjamas in the ACC office although no corruption evidence was produced.”
“To cite yet another disagreement was the treatment the Deputy Anti Corruption Commissioner meted against a Sierra Leonean, Ms. Newman-Smart, who had decided to return home from the United Kingdom where she practiced law, to serve her country. Ms. Newman-Smart was employed by Government as Chief Immigration Officer. She was arrested, her premises searched, her personal papers put in the internet, thereby depriving her of her privacy. This harassment and shock may have led to the lady’s premature death, as she was a hypertensive case.”
On National Cohesion
“During my tenure of office, I endeavored to make my government as inclusive as possible so that every section could have a stake in the security of the state. At one time, for the sake of peace, I even included former rebels who had been waging war on the state and killing our people.”
“We are emerging from a bitterly contested election that threatened the very essence of our state with confrontations, intimidations and harassment among party supporters. One of your biggest challenges will be how to reconcile all of these opposing groups and heal whatever frictions and misunderstandings that may have been created by the electoral process. On that score, I hereby openly declare my willingness to offer you any assistance you might need because the peace and cohesion of this country have always been among my principal objectives.”
“Therefore, the role and responsibilities of a president in a country that is just emerging from conflict are enormous and particularly challenging. Throughout my presidency, I was guided by four main principles:”
1) Seek the interest of the state;
2) secure the welfare of the people;
3) Create opportunities to enable the people to realize their potential; and
4) Build national cohesion.
‘’You may wish to consider these principles in formulating your program for moving our country forward.”