At present Sierra Leone has the singular honour of having two persons and a set of people who are officially referred to as “Excellency”. The Tripartite Excellency in our government is the President, his Ambassadors and High Commissioners to foreign countries and global organisations, and of course, the President’s wife.
In the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone only one person is referred to as “Excellency” who happens to be the President of the Republic from whom his or her ambassadors and envoys derive their “Excellency” titles. However, in Sierra Leone, the first lady, whose title comes from simply being married to the president, is also referred to as “Her Excellency”. This is just too absurd! This aberration or anomaly is a misnomer that is yet to be corrected despite repeated calls from civilized segments of society that this usurped title is not in conformity with standard principles and should scrapped. Interestingly, this popular call is also coming from the ‘suffer-posh’ majority of the very ruling party government who say they continue to suffer from the indignity meted out on them by a first lady who is masquerading around and impressing her new-found power as a pseudo-elected or appointed public official.
According to sources in the ruing Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), this misuse of the official title of the president by the first lady has reportedly caused her to mistake being married to the president as a privilege or right to use his official title and behave in his capacity, as if they were elected as husband and wife team to lead the country.
The aggrieved ruling partisans say not even the vice president that was elected alongside the president to rule the country is being called “His Excellency”. The highly visible first lady, they say, has become so influential that she even overshadows the vice president, the chief minister and other elected and appointed members of the president’s cabinet and government.
The question many have asked is what would the situation in the country look like if the wives or spouses of the Inspector General of Police, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Bank Governor and other prominent people in the government were to go around using the titles of their elected or appointed spouses as if they deputise these individuals.
It is often stated that after God the next in the line of authority is the President or head of the Republic, who is referred to as the First Gentleman. It is expected that all should respect the president regardless of if they voted to elect him or support his party, government or policies. This respect for God’s anointed, as the leaders of Israel were called, was the reason God so loved David, who became the second King of Israel after Saul was killed in battle. Although Saul had wanted to kill David out of jealousy, David, although he had several opportunities to kill Saul would not permit himself or those around him to even speak ill of the King, let alone lay hands on him.
Even for those of us in the media that often write articles, editorials, commentaries and opinion pieces on the president and his government do so respectfully, never doing so to disrespect the president. We write as a matter of obligation and in the interest of the public on what the president and those he appointed to run his government are failing to do in our role as part of the group of people entrusted to do so to ensure our democratic principle of checks and balance on executive power.
Although we are often viewed as being against the government we actually see our role as the ears and eyes of the public to inform them on what the president and his appointed officials are failing to do based on the president’s promises to the people before and during the electioneering processes.
As a democratically elected head of state the president swore an oath to the Lord placing his hand on the Holy Bible to protect the people, the country and the constitution. He derives this executive power or sovereignty from the people’s votes. Therefore he is under obligation to respect and protect the lives and ensure the peace and security of the state and people. This also goes for all his appointed officials including his envoys or ambassadors to other countries and organisations like the United Nations, where they represent or act in the stead of the President.
Meanwhile the first lady is or was never elected or appointed as a public official. Her role is ceremonial as the mother of the nation as wife to the father of the nation, the president. Her title does not qualify her to be a politician or an elected or appointed member of the president’s government. The first lady is not the president’s wife to help him select or fire members of the president’s cabinet, and has no right instructing or lecturing elected or appointed civil servants. She most definitely should not be heard saying: “anybody who is not an SLPP supporter is not a true Sierra Leonean” or “burn all APC offices in the country”. The first lady as mother to the nation should not be a divisive figure but should out of love for the people and respect for her husband be a mother figure to all, especially members of the opposition.
Unfortunately we have a first lady who members of the president’s party have called “power hungry”; who they say goes as far as wanting to assume the position of her husband’s deputy whenever he is out of the country. The ruling party stalwarts say the first lady is so powerful that she travels almost everywhere the president travels to on public funds going as far as collecting the per diems due public workers in the president’s entourage. Although she is not a member of the president’s government the SLPP members alleged that the first lady receives subventions from the office of the president while heads of ministries, departments and agencies of governments don’t get but are in desperate need of such subventions, adding that many public workers go months without pay while the first lady has been accused of receiving pay from the consolidated revenue fund for public workers.
This they say is the abuse of power that comes from the improper designation of “Her Excellency” that has been conferred on the first lady by a government that came to power promising to block financial leakages by public officials. Lonta!