By Kabs Kanu
Today, there was more chaos in Sierra Leone when the ruling SLPP, accused by the opposition of ignoring the constitution and the rule of law, attempted to bulldoze their way to force the tabling of documents for a midterm census that all the opposition parties have opposed because they claim it is being conducted for clandestine purposes.
The census could have been conducted today Monday April 19 , but last week the SLPP Government announced that the census had been put on hold and also that President Bio had called for an emergency parliamentary meeting to be held on the same matter today. But the sitting was disrupted by protests from the opposition, which resulted in serious chaos.
Inside the modeled, make-shift parliament at the Bintumani Hotel, it was like a war zone with bitter row between opposing politicians and tables being overturned, chairs being flung and census proclamation documents being shredded in anger
The opposition says that it wants the census to be conducted by law. They accused The SLPP, on the other hand of not believing in doing things according to law. They believe that the SLPP wanted to bulldoze their way to table the census documents with the knowledge that once successfully done, the opposition does not have the two-thirds majority vote to stop it from being enacted.
The leader of the opposition APC told the media that “The sitting cannot go ahead because it is illegal. As leader of the opposition I was not consulted about the sitting in accordance with Parliamentary Standing Order 4(3), which stipulates that the Speaker of parliament must consult with the leader of the opposition prior to summoning a sitting”.
The Speaker of Parliament, for his part, using Section 86 (1) of the 1991 constitution, ruled that the ground norm should take precedence over provisions in the Standing Orders of Parliament.
Sierra Leone has been mired in bitter chaos since President Bio came to power and set in motion a repeated and disconcerting pattern of one-tribe rule, human rights abuses, violation of the constitution and the Rule of Law. For three years now, there is no peace in the country and it has been one chaos after the other, to the point that the IMF has warned that if the trend continues, it will undermine investor and donor confidence and stop money from being invested or provided in the country, even in the forms of loans or grants.
Today’s chaos in the parliamentary sitting at the Bintumani Hotel heightened fears among Sierra Leoneans that the country is heading for war, if nothing is done to calm down the SLPP and the APC.
Even the international monitoring institutions seems to know that tensions has escalated to dangerous levels in Sierra Leone . Sierra Leoneans are predicting that at the rate things are progressing, Sierra Leone is heading for war once again or a pro-people military coup. “When we say these things, people think we are wishing them. We are not. Nobody wants war or a coup in his country. But at the rate we are going in Sierra Leone, we have to face the truth. We are on the cusp of war or military intervention because there does not seem to be any government in control”, Suliman Sesay said in a Whatsapp Forum.
The future does not portend peace with the way tension is escalating everyday in the country. And one thing international stakeholders must note is that despite the AU’s avowed aversion for military coups, if any one takes place now in Sierra Leone under the present circumstances, it will be largely supported by the people and very difficult to reverse. No multinational force or superpower will be able to overturn a people’s coup in any country.
Let the international community stop playing down the dangerous levels to which the animosities and hatred between the SLPP and the APC have exacerbated in the country and how frustrated and angry Sierra Leoneans have become with President Bio’s bloody, tribalistic and lawless governance.
The international community are fully apprised about the breakdown of peace, unity and law and order in Sierra Leone. It is not late yet for them to intervene and save the country, but that is the problem with the international community—-They always wait until it is too late as it happened in Liberia, Rwanda, DR Congo, Sudan and Somalia.
There was rain, thunder and lightening in Freetown after the brouhaha earlier today between our elected officials.
Shifting from our Force for Good, the week starts with our Members of Parliament fighting on TV, Bintumani Hall was spacious enough that no one is reportedly hurt.
Please ring up your Member of Parliament, go meet him/her and ask why were they fighting on live TV.
They won’t fight on issues that directly affects us, their disagreement is always on politics and politically motivated.
APC and SLPP don’t even trust themselves, they will become violent and show disregard for rule of law, processes and procedures for their selfish political interests anytime, any day depending on who is in power or who is in opposition.
Jamaat mek God mek this week end fine for we all without watching grown men fight on TV again, mek the next big news be good news
