By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone will be better off under a parliamentary democracy, argue a group of concerned citizens who are part of a new campaign pushing to return the country to the system it abandoned nearly four decades ago.
The group, calling itself Sierra Leoneans for Parliamentary Democracy (SLPD), says the current presidential system is characterised by ethnic politics and is responsible for the poor state of the nation.
They say too much power is concentrated in the hands of the President which has encouraged politics of cronyism and ethnic bias, so that the wrong people are running the country.
The campaign was launched on Thursday at a ceremony at the British Council with presentations by a representative group of from market women, academics and politicians.
The campaign group comprises citizens living in and out of the country especially in the UK. And, according to a documentary screened at the launch, they also have the support of Sierra Leoneans from a wide range of public life among them politicians, business people, religious leaders and every day people.
Like many African countries which were colonised by Britain, Sierra Leone had the Westminster (parliamentary) system with a Prime Minister as the head of the government, immediately after independence. But along the way, it became a Republic under President Siaka Stevens who later introduced a presidential system with him as an Executive President. That was followed by a one-party system under which he ruled until he handed over to his handpicked successor Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1985.
The country also experienced military regimes, before a presidential multiparty democracy was finally introduced paving the way for the 1996 elections that brought President Ahmad Tejan Kabba to power.
"The current system has not worked for us all, why not we reconsider from where we were," Dr Habib Sesay, Political Science Lecturer at the University of Sierra Leone, a professed supporter of the parliamentary democracy idea, said at the launching.
Executive powers
The SLPD envisages a parliamentary system under which Executive powers will be vested in the hands of parliament, rather than an individual.
A Prime Minister will run his government with ministers who, like him/her, are lawmakers with are tested and proven as worthy to serve, the group says. It also envisages a system where the main opposition serves as a shadow cabinet, paid for by the state to scrutinise the government in power.
SLPD also says this scheme will guarantee an independent judiciary, a robust and independent audit and anti-corruption commission, an independent and free press, as well as ensure transparency and accountability.
“Parliamentary Democracy is about giving primacy to institutions over personality cults that had dominated African politics for the last 50 years,” it says in a statement issued to reporters.
“The time for a return to a Parliamentary System of government is not just ‘fiercely’ now, but a matter of responsible patriotism. We owe it to ourselves, and our less-informed and disadvantaged compatriots to make that call,” the statement adds.
SLPD says it is taking advantage of calls by President Ernest Bai Koroma for Sierra Leoneans to come up with ideas that would make governance better, deepen democracy, and make everybody feel part and parcel of government machinery.
“We must hold him to that call by embracing Parliamentary Democracy,” it says.
Sierra Leone is set to go to the Polls not later than February 2018. The plan of the SLPD is to present a position paper on the issue ahead of a referendum expected early next year to conclude the ongoing constitutional review process. But first it has to get a place in the final draft.
But Dr Sesay, who is a member of the constitutional review committee is hopeful this will happen.
SLPD’s documentary is set to be aired on all of the country's TV stations.
The 1991 Constitution, which is under review, was done to reintroduce multiparty democracy to the country. But before it could be implemented the military had seized power.
Although some of the factors that led to the 1991-2002 rebel war were blamed on the deficiencies of the then constitution, some people, like Professor Thomas Yormah and Dr Kandeh Yumkella believe the problem is on how the laws were implemented rather than the constitution itself.
Other critics of the present system say it has left the rulers out of touch with the ruled. MPs, once elected, never go back to their people and do not feel accountable, they argue.
They also say that because the president has virtually unchecked powers, he has appointed anyone to ministerial and other key positions to the detriment of the masses.
Under the current system, cronyism is the highest order of the day, says Professor Yormah, who chaired the launch. He says under the current presidential system people who have no business in government are in cabinet, some he says is unlikely to happen under parliamentary system.
But all the speakers at Thursday’s launch appeared to agree that the problem with Sierra Leone had less to do with the system of governance than the caliber of people running it. Dr Yumkella, a former UN diplomat who is aspiring to run for president under the opposition SLPP party, especially illustrated that point in his statement. He said the vetting system for appointed officials was what needed an overhaul, emphasising that “the poor vetting system” in place was what had led to the election of “the wrong people”.
"Bad political governance gives you bad economies. That's what we are now facing," he said. For Yumkella, if Sierra Leone is to go the parliamentary way, he wouldn’t mind it, so long there was an Executive President overseeing a government run by a less powerful Prime Minister.
(C) Politico 2016
