In a small village called United Kalia (UK), there was this greedy man who never gave anybody anything. Even when he had a lot of resources, he still wanted more from other people.Ofcourse you know that the hand that gives is more blessed than the one that taketh. This old man, Pa Viviwa, fell into the village well one day. The villagers came around to help him out. They said, ‘Pa Viviwa gee you ahn’. Because he was not used to giving, he could not give his hand. The word “give” was definitely not in his vocabulary. People were bemused. Here was a man struggling not to drown but yet refused to stretch out his hand to grab a rope. It was only when his friend came and said Pa Vivi “take” that the man in the well sent out his hands and took the rope. Sure we still have many Pa Viviwas all over the place.
We have some of them were among our African leaders. Most of them thought that with independence it was okay to take over and manage or mismanage their countries” affairs, but of course the emphasis was on mismanagement. During the electioneering period in 2012, there were many stories published about political party fanatics splashing shit around the houses of political opponents within and without parties. Inhuman, do you say? I agree with you because shit is one thing that even its owner does not like and would want to get rid of it in a hurry. Tell me is there any living thing more cruel than the human being? I say no. Even now I hear Sierra Leoneans are showing solidarity with their Chinese friends and eating dogs. Yes dogs which are part of our domestic animals, the best among them. Come on; do not tell me they were made for you to eat.
Do you remember that time-honored Sociology WI Thomas Theorem which is also known as the self fulfilling prophesy? It states that when men define a situation as real, it becomes real in its consiquencies. When the issue of constitution review was first pronounced there were some negatively interesting vibes coming out from the public especially regarding the presidential Term of Office, powers of the president and the like. Well as you know, Sierra Leoneans are very good at peddling rumors, but please do not ask me which rumor! After the review, some Acts and other statutory documents will definitely be reviewed.
The new constitution will warrant the review of laws that are affected. Take the 2004 Local Government Act from which many unanswered questions keep coming. Take the dilemma of whom or what is the highest political body in the locality, especially with the return of the District Officers. I will really want to see their job description if they were ever given any. To fill the 124 plus Parliamentary seats by itself is not enough. We have to consciously clear the grey areas already popping their ugly heads up and challenging our fledgling democracy.
Shakespeare will tell us that to be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus. Times are changing just too fast and as a nation, we should be running where others walk and fly where others run. We definitely cannot afford to plait our hair when we know there are a lot of lice in it. We must first of all try to kill the lice and then plait the hair; otherwise all the efforts in plaiting will go in vain.
The decentralization Secretariat in 2010 or there about did A decentralization policy with sound analysis and recommendations. One would have thought that that should have formed the basis of the Local Government Act review. There is also the question of whether local government elections should be held in partisan basis. Do we still know the role overlaps between the national elections Commission, the PPRC and the Parliament? How about the Police and the PPRC? The gaps are indeed many. They need to be filled or perhaps maybe we are going to wait until the shit hits the fan like it did over the 2012 elections candidature fees. The people should help set the priority areas especially when it comes to law review because when obnoxious laws are made, it is the generality of the people that feel the brunt. Did I hear you say that they want the 1965 Public Order Act to come robustly alive, or some areas expunged? Well that is another story altogether.
I am sure you might be saying that what about the current laws that are not followed and flouted left right and center. True, like I always say, what is the use of laws if they are not made to work? Over the years we have seen a lot of lapses that have left our laws with so many gaping holes, too many for them to work. Take the case of assets declaration which has been shrouded in secret transparency. Can you imagine living very Big fishes and asking ordinary foot soldiers to declare their assets? Some of these guys barely have a cheap type Sunny transistor radio. Just as in those days people actually went to school to become white people, so many people enter politics to get rich and make it in life big time. Is this not why many professionals abandon their posts for politics? I wonder why politics seems so magnetic, that it appears so irresistible especially in these days of austerity.
You might be wondering why the Public Elections Act was horridly put together only for it to create more complex problems. The isolated way in which our laws are made continues to prove quite flawed, to say the least. There is so much critical connectivity between the governance and livelihood sectors, that they are constantly experiencing interplay.
Take mining for example; it has direct bearing on human rights, livelihoods, governance, the environment, demography, and infrastructure. So formulating laws on mining means all the other aforementioned sectors need to be on board so that it gets a more holistic outlook. Another important angle is the need to clearly delimit the roles of the various players in the governance line from the macro to the micro levels. So much synergetic cooperation is needed if democracy is to survive. Members of Parliament and the Councilors are very critical to the smooth running of our growing democracy. The two might be poles apart in terms of levels of authority and even roles but definitely seem rather close in terms of how they should relate to the communities they represent. Are their roles statutorily made clear?
Is it not high time we knew the use of the budget allocated under the name Constituency facilitation or constituency development Fund? The other day a sitting MP was struggling to explain what that money is meant for. Now do the people know what this is all about? The laws of Sierra Leone make provision for the payment of salaries to MPs. On the other hand Councilors are not paid. What we can hardly overlook, is the power dynamics between the Councilors, the MPs, the Chairmen of the Councils, Paramount Chiefs and the controversially reinstituted District Officers, not to talk of the barrage of party stalwarts strewn all over the place. Do you see what I see? Politicking at district level has become more challenging and interesting. Do we have to wait until the shit hits the fan?
By Beny SAM
Thursday July 14, 2016
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