By Mustapha Sesay
The civil society group Campaign for Good Governance (CGG) has launched a drive aimed at motivating citizens across the country to participate in the ongoing constitutional review process.
Its executive director, Valnora Edwin, said the project, “Advocacy for a Citizens’ Responsive Reviewed Constitution in Sierra Leone,” was an 18-month long advocacy intervention with a view to create a broader engagement within the constitutional review process.
She explained that they would be talking to people from different tribal and cultural backgrounds and would continue to do so until all voices and opinions were reflected in the process.
Sierra Leone is currently reviewing its 1991 Constitution following recommendations in the Lome Peace Agreement of 7 July, 1991 and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which marked the end of the 11-year civil conflict.
After a long clamour by the public for the review process, President Ernest Bai Koroma launched the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) on 30 July, 2013.
The process was supposed to last for just over a year, but the outbreak of Ebola affected the work of the committee, according to its head of outreach, Mohamed Faray Kargbo.
However, there have been calls by the civil society groups and the political opposition to suspend the process during the health crisis that claimed the lives of over 3,000 citizens.
Reading from a press statement at the launch at their Freetown office, CGG board chairman, Dr. Abu Bakarr Kargbo, indicated that through broader outreach the project would add value to the work of the CRC and would in particular promote the participation of citizens and account for their views in the final analysis.
Dr. Kargbo noted that the “thematic areas of focus will be human rights and state policy, local government and decentralization, the executive, natural resource governance and the environment, citizenship and representation of the People.”
He also said that the cross-cutting themes would include women’s rights and empowerment policy, separation of powers, economic, social and cultural rights.
The board chairman added that though most people in the country were unable to read and write, they were positioned to articulate what such people wanted to be added to the process.
Executive secretary of CRC, Samuel Coker, said CGG’s effort was in line with the committee’s aspiration to meet people of all languages and cultural orientations.
“By so doing they will be involved in the process and their concerns and recommendations will be reflected in the position paper the committee will eventually come up with after their nationwide engagement”, he said.
Coker disclosed that they were going to embark on consultative meetings with the people and that they would start from Kailahun in the east of the country in May and progress to other parts of the country.
Meanwhile, he urged the media to partner with CRC so that it could achieve its goal.
The CGG project is funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
© Politico 05/05/15
