By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
It’s Thursday 11 April, the last day of the first three months of proceedings in the much talked about Commission of Inquiry.
For a first time attendee, the atmosphere in Commission Room 1, one of three rooms housing the hearings in the former Special Court compound, is likely to leave you in confusion. The sound of one of Sierra Leone’s legendary musicians, Daddy Ramanu,is blasting through the public address system. His famous lines of the song ‘Sweet Salone’, is on: “Wetin do we sweet Salone for pwelna we haan”(why should our sweet Sierra Leone be allowed to destroy on our watch?).
In the room today are popular musicians Sir Wahid, Esther Mykel and Milton Coker, aka Collabo, all hooked on that chorus. It almost feels like a VIP music concert. But no, it is the commission starting its daily job on a light note. In fact, two of the musical superstars–Esther and Collabo, are in the dock.
This is Justice Biobele Georgewill for you. He is the director of this latest episode of what’s arguably the most talked about Enquiry Commission ever set up anywhere by a new government to check the excesses of its predecessor.
Justice Georgewill as a person is genuinely funny. And this has helped a great deal in calming down nerves, given the tension that preceded the commencement of the Commission’s hearings. Throughout his proceedings, the Nigerian judge has given the media great quotes and sound bites. The room has sometimes been so lively that you will mistake it for a comedy club.
But this man is not just funny, he is also stern. On several occasions he has stamped his authority in situations where the State or Defence counsels wanted to take wrong turns.
“I will not allow any lawyer to ask a witness any question that will incriminate him. They are here to help the commission with its investigation,” he warned in one instance.
The ice breaker
The first major moment of the proceedings was when Lawyer Ady Macauley sought to challenge the jurisdiction of the Commission to hear the cases. This argument came to Georgewill’s commission just two days after it had been ruled on by Justice William Atuguba of Commission Room Three. It was Lawyer Ibrahim Sorie Koroma who threw the first challenge. Lawyer Koroma has a penchant for disrupting things. In 2018 he infamously altered the original date of the run-off election by filing a petition at the Supreme Court against the National Electoral Commission.
For all intent and purposes, Justice Georgewill could simply have shoved Lawyer Macauley’s argument aside, using the Atuguba ruling as a precedent. But he didn’t. He entertained Lawyer Macauley and made his ruling later that afternoon. That moment was heated but it was what set the tone of respect and mutual admiration among the opposing counsels.
Juma Bah, a colleague reporter who is covering the proceedings for the Awoko Newspaper, believes that Justice Georgewill’s personality has positively influenced public opinion on the operations of the commission.
“Before the start of the commission some people had the opinion that this whole process had been rigged, but overtime we have seen how he has been open, tolerant and fair to both the state and the defence counsels,” he said.
In spite of everything, Justice Georgewill has also been admirably swift in dealing with cases under him, some of them among the most controversial cases being probed by the Commissions. In the last three months, his commission has dealt with close to sixty witnesses in the dock, from the Managing Director of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank to the Paramount Chief of Nongowa chiefdom. He has also closed files on cases like the Ebola response, the ambulance saga, the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank unsecured loans and the inquiry into job creation projects operated by the Ministry of Youth Affairs. Before leaving for his native Nigeria for a much deserved break, he opened a fresh inquiry in to the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources.
In comparison to Georgewill’s commission, Commission Rooms Two and Three have heard just less than 50 witnesses in total.
However, one must note that the complexities of the cases might vary and that might be a factor for the delay in other hearings.
Humour and discipline
Undoubtedly, though, Justice Georgewill’s room is the most interesting one among the three, and all thanks to his persona. The atmosphere has been the same even when he has been dealing with some of the biggest corruption investigations this country has ever seen.
Solomon Sundu, Executive Director of Bianquay Foundation, a civil society organization which conducted a nationwide campaign to raise awareness on the commissions of inquiry, said he was pleased almost half way through the processwith what he has seen so far. He said Georgewill’s humour has helped the public to digest the scale of the revelations they have been hearing.
“Since the inception we have always been advocating for the end of impunity. As an organization, we are pleased. We are no longer hearing cries of ‘it is not going to be fair’,” Sundu said.
“His funny side and disciplined nature has complemented each other perfectly. Our lawyers can learn a lot from him,” he added.
Thomas Moore Conteh is the Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy Network, which, in the build up to the establishment of the commission, was very vocal over the absence of the ‘rules of evidence’ for the commission. Conteh said so far there is no cause to complain.
“The process has been fair, we haven’t seen any major drawbacks,” he said.
Georgewill’s work involves a lot of research, at least to know the context of most of the investigations in front of him. So far this has clearly helped him keep abreast of the situation. A source who works closely with him told Politico that the Nigerian legal mind has an amazing work attitude.
“He reads almost all the newspapers, he listens and watches a lot of television. That is what you need when you come into jobs like this,” the source remarked.
And this has clearly helped him. Several times Georgewill has recognized journalists or prominent civil society activists by what they said or which media platform they appeared on. There was a day when he acknowledged the presence of Thomas Moore Conteh for his argument on TV and other media platforms about the lack of ‘rules of evidence.’
On several other days he has called out newspapers and warned them against sensationalizing their reportage.
Love for Sierra Leone
Throughout his time in the last three months, Georgewill’s famous line has been “This proceeding is all about the people of Sierra Leone.”And he has professed his love and well wishes for Sierra Leone in several cases.
Before that Daddy Ramano song on Thursday, he remarked: “It is our wish that accountability and development be the key things in this country.”
Georgewill left for Nigeria since last Saturday, 13 April to refresh for a month. But when he returns, the burden of that wish will again rest on his shoulders.
(c) 2019 Politico Online
