The numbers had always been the challenge but the APC has never realized it. So in a vote in Parliament on any issue, a constructive opposition should have its eyes on the numbers and then on maintaining a firm whop. In both of these, the APC seems to be trailing behind by a very distant margin.
It has always been in the gift of the President to appoint his own candidate to such positions outlined in the Constitution and you may think that for a political party that has been doing exacy this for the eleven of the last thirteen years, that the APC should by now have a list of all such positions, but apparent they don’t.
You may also be excused for thinking that in our democracy, a Presidential nominee will be scrutinised by Parliament and if found unsuitable fornoddice, he would be refused approval, but that is just not the case.
While the focus of this piece is not to scrutinise the Parliamentary approvals process, but the APC ought to have known how this works and also how important some positions are that it takes some amount of pre-planning that goes before the nominee goes before Parliament.
KANDEH YUMKELLA
So when I hear the statement that there is no basis for rejecting the nomination of Mohamed Konneh as Chief Electoral Commissioner, I am aghast that the APC could even make that issue one of such public ridicule and disfavor?
I do not in any way support the contention of Kandeh Yumkella though, he is one person who has brought down the status of education to a new low.
For a man so highly placed with educational and professional accolades in a range of disciplines and and roles, it is shameful to see how cheaply this political anorexic has had to sink when the circumstances behoves him to make a stand, weak as it may seem, for elucidation and truth.
Kandeh Yumkella’s assertion that there is no legal basis for objecting to the appointment of Mohamed Konneh is what is obtrusively nauseating, his academic deceit waylaid when he buttressed this runt oa idiocy by stating that he had legal device to back his position.
Kandeh Yumkella comes to the House of Parliament to say he took legal advice which said advice states categorically that there is no legal basis to object to the appointment, is wrongful and deceitful.
If he had said the advice he is acting upon was that the basis of objection is arguable but for the sake of progress, he would support this appointee, I would have given him more credit.
Barristers’ opinion, as you should know, is to look for the merits of a case being supported by law or precedence and not to determine the outcome of a particular issue.
Otherwise we would not have judges to hear both sides represented by Barristers in the highest courts and making their respective points on both sides of an argument, neither would we have need for the Supreme Court to argue on various Constitutional matters of they can be so unilateral adjudged to be untestable in law or are requiring of an interpretation.
KKY has deemed it fit to support this appointment as so do I, but I would not go any distance to say that the appointment is unshakable in law!
To do that would be a betrayal of a. Good education and a doubting of the constitutionality of political decisions. KKY has cost this country a reasonably good argument against a man so openly biased in favor of the Presidency
The reason therefore why I now blame the APC. For this aberration in Parliamentary proceedings is because they have once again, failed to represent us well.
For a while now, the APC has shown that it is not ready for opposition just in the same comical way that Maada Bio may be seen not to be ready for government. However, Maada Bio is being good at what he is bad at while the APC is seeming to be very bad at what it is supposed to be good at. In the end, we have a government that stumbles but stands straight to walk the line while the APC is a man, sober in his ways yet couldn’t find his real destination.
From the looks of things, the President normally gets his man to occupy the seats he appoints them to. Why should we force issue with the appointment of the NEC boss when the one we recruited to that same position kicked us out?
Otherwise, this appointment can be looked at by the APC as the better of two evils, they accept Konneh and test him to prove his mettle yet this can only be done with a united and try focused party in place, or they reject Konneh and get someone else who may be worse.
Finally, let it go on record that unless the APC resolves its internal squabbles now, it will be a downward spiral from here on end, as this appointment of a NEC Chairman signals the start of the process of reelecting Marda Bio for a second term. Nothing will stop that but a strong and united APC with the rift attitude going forwards, with a message that the International Community can buy into and with a leadership that shows a complete departure from oligarchy.
As the party is unwilling to make the right decisions to achieve all of these in good time for 2023, I look forward to Maada, Bio’s second term!
*©Titus Boye-Thompson*
London 29.07.2020 17:48
