You guessed it from history. Commissions have come and gone but the ongoing one seems to be of a different species characterized by unusual trepidation. Votaries of the ruling and opposition parties have been hoping against hope. It has been tagged a kangaroo court and with the freedom of speech existing it could have been branded a tiger court or a lion court.
There has been a sticking point over Section 150 of the Sierra Leone Constitution of 1991 and this tends to give the impression that previous Commissions under the 1991 Constitution were either oblivious of this section’s provisions or deliberately set it aside. This could be a cause why some of their findings were revisited with those found guilty benefitting in the end. There was no hullabaloo or raving when the SLPP stewardship was being examined. They accepted the fait accompli in a gentlemanly way.
In his keynote address at the launching of the Commissions the President said, inter alia, “As I have said repeatedly this war against corruption is a war we must win. I have fully empowered the Anti Corruption Commission to use all its legal powers to relentlessly investigate and prosecute all cases of corruption even in my administration.’’ What more assurance do the doubters of justice want?
In spite of whatever diatribes are uttered against the experienced legal luminary, Charles Francis Margai, the fact remains that his legal opinion should be respected. Unbidden it was he who recently said that one of the judges of the Commissions, Justice Thompson, is a man of integrity. And if the only Sierra Leonean who should be suspect of injustice is so approved why would the foreign judges carry out their judgments with witches? The Bible states in Proverbs 28:1 “The wicked flee when no one pursues but the righteous are bold as a lion.” This is an innuendo that refers to Victor Foh and the kangaroo howlers. Why would a decent citizen guiltless of his country’s fraud develop cramps at the thought of appearing before a tribunal and proving himself or herself not guilty beyond all reasonable doubts?
The incumbent government has been constrained to clean up the financial debris left behind by its predecessor if it is to earn any credibility. And if a thorough job is done there would indeed be no need for future Commissions of Inquiry as forecast by the President. If only the annual recommendations of the Audit Service had been implemented there would indeed have been no need for the ongoing Commissions of Inquiry. But the crafty APC government did not want a situation in which “himself to himself you are charged for stealing.” They simply swept them under the carpet hoping that the carpet would never be raised.
Attempts to thwart the holding of the Commissions of Inquiry by dishonest devices should be scuppered by all means available to the ruling government. The scenario of halting all the proceeds of the Commissions can better be imagined than described.
It is likely that confiscated property and fines by previous Commissions had been returned because of incompetent proceedings. It is hoped that there would no longer be a repetition of confiscate and return.