By Aminata Phidelia Allie
The constitutional review committee is yet to start public consultations and civil education proper because government has failed to make any financial disbursement as promised, says the commission’s chairman at a recent plenary in Freetown.
Justice Edmond Cowan said that although they had completed their pre-consultation visits across the country and had commenced public education in the form of jingles, TV and radio discussions and text messages, the commission “has not been able to make any trip to the provinces because we are currently financially tied down”.
He, however, said that they could no longer sit and wait for the government to finance them and would go ahead to hold meetings with various ministries, departments and agencies, as a follow-up to letters they had earlier sent to permanent secretaries.
“We are now at a point from where we are ready to take off as soon as financial fulfillments are made”, the CRC chairman said, and encouraged citizens to be zealous and cooperative in the constitutional review process.
An opposition PMDC representative on the committee, Dr. Habib Sesay, noted that the fact that the constitution was a very delicate document as per fundamental law could not be overemphasised. He added: “I am deeply concerned that donors are not doing justice to us”.
Dr. Sesay said donor partners should not be allowed to provide even technical advice, urging the commission’s chairman to see to it that they were immediately funded.
He explained that when the review process was officially launched in 2013, the president promised to provide whatever financial support that was needed for the CRC work.
“Here we are, locked in our offices and the civil society organisations are doing the work that the committee is mandated to do”, Dr. Sesay complained.
Chairman and leader of the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party, Chief Somanoh Kapen, observed that if funding for the process was derived from donor partners then messages to communities and groups would obviously be dominated by what they wanted and stood for and not what the real helpless Sierra Leonean wanted. “Donor partners have a way of disrupting programmes”, he said.
UNDP’s chief technical adviser, Sana Baloch tried to allay fears that donor partners might try to steal the process, by noting that “all I have done so far is to provide technical advice when and where necessary. No coercion for my point to be taken”.
He said the UNDP had never thought of being on top of the CRC process, adding that the constitution belonged to Sierra Leone and must be reviewed by Sierra Leoneans. He discouraged the meeting not to see UNDP as a bad partner because all they wanted was a better constitution for the country.
(C) Politico 11/06/14
