By Paschal Obed Egbenda
Another interesting debate is gathering momentum – this time whether Ministers of government should enjoy the title “Honourable”.
I will present my own argument by first explaining the meaning and use of the word “honourable”, what obtains elsewhere and implications of the 1991 Constitution with regards the title.
In the 6th Edition of the OXFORD ADVANCED LEARNERS DICTIONARY, the word honourable means “deserving respect and admiration. Showing high moral standards”. In Britain it is the title used by members of parliament when talking about or to another Member of Parliament during a debate. This is also the title in Britain, used by a child of some rank of the nobility.
In the Australian Journal of Politics, I found the following:
Honourable Members; What to call politicians
Honourable
Originally, all members of the first parliament in 1901 were granted the privilege by the King to use the title “Honourable” for life.
Since then members have chosen not to hold this title except in the following cases:
- Members of the Executive Council have the title “Honourable” while they remain Executive Councilors.
- Former Prime Ministers such as Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and John Howard and Ministers in the governments, enjoyed the title “Honourable” even though they were no longer in government.
- It is also a tradition that the elected speaker has the title “Honourable” both during their time in office and for life if he or she has been speaker for three or more years.
Former speakers Tim Cope, Harry Jenkins Suv and Bob Halverson were given the title even though they each served less than three years as speaker.
Honourable Members
One of the conventions of parliamentary behavior is that a member must not be referred to by name. Instead a member is referred to by the name of the electoral division he or she represents. E.g “the Honourable for… or the member for…”
The Sierra Leone Constitution 1991
The constitution of Sierra Leone describes the elected president as:
“The Fountain of Honour and Justice and the symbol of National Unity and Sovereignty”.
The dictionary definition of a fountain is “A structure from which water is pumped (sprayed) up into the air, found as an ornament in parks and gardens/yards”. A fountain gives out sprinkles of water.
The president pleases to appoint Ministers and Deputy Ministers to do his job. The Ministers and Deputy Ministers are sprinklets of his Fountain of Honour and should enjoy the title “Honourable”. They are “Honourable Ministers”.
In fact any presidential appointee of any of the two other arms of government, namely the executive and judiciary is a sprinklet of the fountain and should be accorded the title “Honourable”.
Thus the Chief Justice and other Judges must be referred to as the “Honourable”. The Inspector General of Police must be referred to as Honourable Inspector General of Police. Etc etc
We don’t need to spell this out in the constitution as long as it calls His Excellency the President as the Fountain of Honour and his appointees of the three arms of government do his job. The president opens the parliament and parliamentary bills require his assent before they come into law.
In the light of the above, I submit that the title “Honourable cannot be limited to parliament alone.
We should have respect and honour for our ministers both present and past.
This is the opinion of Honourable Paschal Obed Egbenda, former minister of Internal Affairs.
The author is a former minister of Internal Affairs
(C) Politico 14/06/16
