*A WEAK OPPOSITION FUELS POOR ACCOUNTABILITY CULTURE IN GOVERNMENT*:
Culled from the COCORIOKO Whatsapp Forum
While the government has acknowledged that it has failed to deliver on many fronts, many say that the Opposition Party did not play an effective role in keeping the government on its toes.
A weak opposition that has failed to put a check on the government’s actions by unanimously questioning them fuels poor governance, and also supports poor accountability culture in the government.
The Electoral Commission did not remove quatre of a million names from opposition strongholds in hiding. They did it and told the opposition to see whether any of them have balls. Although some some would say the crooked government had violated the Constitution, but the Opposition maintained silence on the issue.
Although the opposition has questioned the government on a few issues, including inflation and unfulfilled pledges, I would say that the voices have not been effective and loud.
They say that it is also the responsibility of Parliament to hold the government accountable but that often opposition MPs in our Parliament are not seems united in tackling issues. Most use party rivalry in Parliament at the expense of poor voters 😢
Lack of enough support from paramount chiefs members of Parliament is also seen as one of the problems. Infact having unelected paramount chiefs in our Parliament is just a bonus for the ruling party. They are as useless as a fork in a bowl of soup 🍲 🙄.
Therefore It is important for an opposition to have the temperament to play an effective role in providing checks and balances irrespective of the obvious challenges.
“The tone of the opposition’s voice in Sierra Leone has become very mild and gitery. It’s unfortunate that the government is getting more pressure from social media users than the Opposition,”.😪🇸🇱
However, we have also seen that important issues raised sometimes by the opposition had failed to receive due attention from members of the ruling party. “The opposition could be indirectly responsible for the government’s lapses.”
Now that is clear to everyone what’s diabolic intentions of this one tribe government, the Opposition’s role had become more crucial to hold the government to account.
Any democratic institution mandated by the people failing to do their job is disappointing and unpatriotic. Patriotic citizens are concerned about “weakening governance” and other issues concerning the economy and human rights.
In a democratic society, opposition is just as important as the government, that’s why the Constitution provides for a strong opposition through the multi-party system to maintain checks and balances.
Democracy would flourish only if the opposition is strong. In the case of Sierra Leone, I would say although the country have opposition parties with experienced members, they have not lived up to expectation.
It is clear to us all, that the Opposition’s voices on the unabated killings of citizens, indiscriminate arrests and imprisonment of dissenting voices are weak.
I would say that the current opposition parties in our Parliament has set very low standards for future opposition parties, which is not what patriotic democratic citizens thought of.
The recent address by the spineless twit occupying state house summed up the true state of the nation and the clown himself had acknowledged his government’s failures.
Sierra Leone has been receiving wake-up calls from various social platforms for over 4 years now and we have miserably failed to come out of sleep. We must not relent and must all try to stand united to save the nation and redirected her to a new course.
