By Ragan M. Conteh
The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Speaker of Parliament, Dr Chernor Abass Bundu has informed Members of Parliament from the SLPP and Paramount Chief Members of Parliament that in the 1991 Constitution it is proclaimed that, ‘This country shall never again return to the abomination of the one-party system’.
According to Dr Chernor Bundu, ‘Every citizen is enjoined to participate in and defend all democratic processes and practices and render assistance to appropriate and lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order’.
He went further that, ‘That Constitution eschewed the one-party system of government that had governed the country since 1978 and reintroduced a multiparty democratic system as the only legal and acceptable polity that must prevail in this country and be held sacred by the entire citizenry’.
Dr Bundu also informed that if the APC failed to take their seats in Parliament the result could be devastating and detrimental to the country as a whole as well as to their democratic polity. ‘Under their watch and leadership, this country promulgated the extant Constitution in October 1991’, he said.
In a similar development, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon Segehpoh Solomon Thomas thanked President Bio for the appointments of Ministers of Government who are before the House of Law for approval.
He described the appointees as qualified compatriots. The Deputy Speaker patriotically told the presidential nominees to do things differently, in light of national developments.
He also used the occasion to comparatively analyse global situations and passionately asked the Ministers-designate to admonish the civil servants to change the modus operandi, for the purposes of development.