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No parliamentary Consensus… Peace Commission Crumbles

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The much-trumpeted Peace Commission is crumbling from within on the day members of parliament voted it into law. Media reports indicate that the commission lacks the necessary consensus to be passed into law. Opposition members of parliament sitting in the legislative committee walked out of the deliberations leading to its passage into law.

They argue that the Peace Commission has to be an independent entity noting that it must not be supervised by any minister of government. MP’s of the main opposition All People’s Congress advanced key arguments that went in support of the commission’s independence. Daniel Koroma is an APC MP representing one of the constituencies in Koinadugu district, northern Sierra Leone.

As a legally minded personality, he does not subscribe to the notion of government to have a minister supervising the Peace Commission. During the deliberations in parliament, Daniel Koroma argued that the President had the sole right to appoint any other person outside party politics.

The person, Hon. Koroma further argues, must not be a politician noting that any judge of the superior Court of Judicature or any other person could be appointed in the same the way heads of the National Electoral Commission and the Human Rights Commission are appointed.

Another notable legal personality Ajibola Manley Spaine made similar arguments. He told his co-parliamentarians on the other side that when the Constitution and the Public Elections Law wanted to give independence to the Chief Electoral Commissioner; no provision was made for a minister to supervise the commissioner.

Despite resistant positions taken by the opposition, the commission was voted in to exist signaling that that the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party still continues to ignore the interest of the opposition. What makes it worse is the seeming determination of the Chief Minister, Professor David Francis to head the Peace Commission.

Prof Francis remains one of the most unpopular ministers within the APC fold. Many Sierra Leoneans continue to remember him for his infamous Governance Transition Team (GTT) report in which former APC ministers were tagged as racketeers and plunderers.

As he presides as Chief Minister on the governance of the state, fingers continue to point at him as the man who sowed seeds of discord between the two main political parties, the APC and the SLPP. It has been said in several circles that the seeds of conflict sown by the Chief Minister has germinated and grown very strong.

This means Prof Francis stands on no moral grounds to preach peace and set up a peace commission after he has derailed and undermined peace in the country. An APC parliamentarian, Hon Abdul Karim Kargbo adds to the argument that the Chief Minister’s GTT report went a long way in tarnishing the image of APC by calling them thieves even before they were tried by a competent court of law.

It is against this background that Hon Abdul Kargbo said that his party outrightly rejected the Chief Minister and rejects any other minister to supervise the commission.

On 6th April, 2018, two days after President Julius Maada Bio was sworn into office, an announcement about the setting up of the Commissions of Inquiry (COI) came from State House. The COI was tasked to investigate governance policies, programmes, activities, processes and procedures of the former APC Government.

But, most importantly, the COI must vigilantly look into management of state finances. A team referred to as GTT was quickly formed and mandated to carry out the task. Several personalities who many people say are SLPP stalwarts formed the GTT comprising Dr Morie Manyeh, Dr Abass Bundu, Mrs Kona Koroma, Jacob Jusu Saffa, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, Dr Alie Kabba, PC Charles Caulker Denis Vandy, Denis Sandy, Sahr Jusu and others with Professor Francis as the head.

The team wasted no time in quickly putting together a 135-page report accusing the APC government to have displayed high levels of recklessness in the management of state resources. In Page-2, the report says: ‘An astonishing level of fiscal indiscipline and rampant corruption by the former APC Government of President Ernest Koroma had led to the near collapse of Sierra Leone’s economy by the time Government of President Julius Maada Bio was sworn into office.’

The report further shows that owing to the reckless spending and racketeering, the country’s economy was left burdened with an external Debt amounting USD1.6Bn and domestic debt amounting to Le4.99Tn. Servicing the debts, the report says, requires the sum of USD262M per annum.

The report also touched on the inclusive governance system in which the former APC Government was similarly accused to have pursued a policy of tribalism and regionalism in its recruitment of personnel at State House, government agencies and commissions and in diplomatic postings.

Ethnically favoured appointment, the report says, constituted approximately 71 per cent of all senior and middle-level appointments and postings to the country’s foreign missions. These claims championed by Prof Francis compelled Government to speedily set up the COI to humble former government officials of the APC.

After a year’s investigation by the COI, a White Paper has been released calling for the seizure and confiscation of all assets owned by former government officials. Others including the former President have been referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation.

Little wonder that former President Koroma has been a constant target for the ACC since the New Direction Government came to power. The report also fuelled a strained relationship between the erstwhile APC Government and the Government Of President Julius Maada Bio.

The strained relationship is seen in the rampant dismissals of civil servants deemed to be APC sympathisers and supporters. Ambassadors, high commissioners, consuls and other principal representatives abroad were also not spared.

No protocol in relieving them of their duties was observed. They became strangers and stranded in foreign lands they have sojourned for years to serve their nation. Almost three years into president Bio’s presidency, a peace commission is now being championed by the Chief Minister to turn situation in his favour.

This is not the first time the main opposition has rebuffed calls for peace and reconciliation from the SLPPP Government. The APC also embarked on similar moves when it blatantly refused to attend the Bintumani-3 peace conference. Sierra Leone waits to see whether the Peace Commission would bring peace to Sierra Leone.

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