OODAT WORWOR GO GET WATA; BABU BOSS CRY!!

By: Winstanley. R. Bankole. Johnson

To say that I was disappointed at the rather aspersive statements attributed to the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone’s (ECSL) South, Mr. Edmund Alpha against the Resident European Union (EU) Commissioner on the suspected issue of a “Regime Change” would be a serious understatement. For someone among whose job prerequisites include integrity, objectivity, independence of mind/impartiality, Edmund Alpha’s alleged comments were a revolting crying shame.  And the very first questions that sprang to my mind was, what has any “Regime Change” got to do with any Electoral Referee and why should s/he be concerned about whichever political party or whomsoever becomes president after 24^th June 2023?

Vacate

The more I think about the public controversy stemming from Mr. Alpha’s statements of concern the more confused I become.  From his gripes (yes they were gripes), one could easily discern that they are clearly partisan and biased in favour of the ruling SLPP party, which for his position automatically makes him unsuitable for the post, and for which reason he should either do the right thing and voluntarily vacate it, or that the President who appointed him into that office should have sacked him pronto/instantly. There can be no two ways out of this. And it is on that note I am also calling on all opposition political parties to insist on the sacking of Mr. Edmund Alpha because they also played an integral part in his recruitment, given that their respective consultancies were sought prior to his appointment (Ref. Sec. 3 (2) of the 1991 Constitution).

But perhaps to justify my recommendation that Mr. Alpha either voluntarily recuses himself or be relieved by the President I shall invite the attention of the readership to cursory references to three scenarios:

1. The alleged innocuous comments of the European Union Commissioner
2. The unbridled and uncalled for vitriolic reactions of ECSL Commissioner South – as alleged
3. The laws governing appointment of ECSL Commissioners per our Constitution

Irked

We are not privy to the verbatim utterances of the Resident EU Commissioner on the issues under reference but from his alleged reactions, Mr. Alpha would appear to have taken umbrage at this rather harmless personal observation that there would always appear to be more people visible in the North-West than in the South-East. Those observations could have been borne out of several issues but chief of which could have been (a). The rather low figures churned out by the Statistics Sierra Leone from the botched mid-term Census for the North-West regions as against those given for the South-East regions and (b).The actual visibly humongous turn out of people participating at APC convergences in the North-West regions compared to the disappointingly low turnout of supporters at SLPP convergences in the South-East. I hold no brief for the Resident EU Commissioner but I honestly think he was tactfully eliciting a civil dialogue with the ECSL Commissioner South. But Mr. Alpha would have none of that, which surprisingly left him much irked (possibly inadvertently betraying his political allegiance in the process) to have misconstrued the EU Commissioner’s alleged statement as a calculated ploy by the West to influence a “Regime Change” in Sierra Leone come June 24^th. For anyone to further insinuate that the Resident EU Commissioner’s observations were tantamount to an interference in the politics of a sovereign nation, when the same such intervention by a previous Resident EU incumbent in 2018 were not so misconstrued could only be interpreted a cowards of the SLPP figuratively dying many times before their actual political deaths. And that is pretty sad!!

Now let’s look at the alleged unnecessary and unbridled reaction of the ESCL Commissioner South about the EU Commissioner wanting to influence a “Regime Change” in this country come June 24^th this year. What business is it of any Electoral Referee – whose primordial role it is to be neutral, objective, impartial and non-partisan – as to whichever political party or party colour or choice of the voters emerges victorious in any election? But even if that were true why should a “Regime Change” upset the SLPP only now and be of concern to a government appointee whose responsibility it is to be objective and neutral, when those same EU interventions did not upset him/them back in 2018 only leaves me confounded.

But as we would say in Krio: Dem say leh oodat worwor go get wata; Babu boss cry”. (Let the ugliest go and fetch water, the Baboon shed tears)

Betrayal

How can Mr. Alpha be a Referee and Player at one and the same time? It is a situation like this that would warrant the question in Yoruba land of: “Which one concern vulture and a Barber; or Aero plane and bridge”? Because neither the former, nor the latter has nexuses or any connection.

In the same way apart from the fact that as a registered voter he definitely has his preferred political party, for Mr. Edmund Alpha to have publicly insinuated fears of a “Regime Change” like he allegedly did on social media was a gross betrayal of the high level of confidence reposed in him by President Bio after consultation with the other political parties that endorsed his choice, and for which reason he should be sacked pronto/instantly.

The laws governing appointments of ECSL Commissioners (and the Third Schedule Oath they are to subscribe to) are clear in Sec. 32 of the 1991 Constitution. Any breach thereof that call to question the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of any Commissioner must be critically investigated and promptly addressed. The alleged utterances of the ECSL Commissioner South Mr. Edmund Alpha to have misconstrued a rather innocuous inquiry from the Resident EU Commissioner about the persistently seeming supporting crowd density in the North-West against a persistently seeming supporting crowd paucity in the South-East regions are in my view clearly biased, partisan, inappropriate, lacking in objectivity and indecorous.

A man with such prickly disposition cannot and should not be relied upon to collate, assess, interpret and correctly relay election tally favouring any opposition party let alone those of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) Party – especially in our kind of intolerant and volatile atmosphere – so he should either voluntarily recuse himself from his post, or failing which the President should do the correct thing and sack him immediately. Ideally as a last resort the opposition parties that endorsed his appointment should collectively call for his axing.

In my view and in the person of Edmund Alpha objectivity is lost, and his continued retention on the job is untenable.