By Joseph A. Kamanda
In what appears to be hullabaloos over the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) national leadership blunder in the appointment of the Chair of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), there are emerging concerns bordering on the transparency, credibility, neutrality and fairness of the whole constitutional review process. Grassroots and the general membership concerns are propping up from within the party in the wake of what is being widely described as the President Julius Maada Bio’s bias appointment of his Chief Minister, Dr David Moinina Sengeh as Chair of the SLPP Constitutional Review Committee.
Long before his appointment to lead the party’s CRC, Dr Sengeh had displayed his ambition for the SLPP 2028 flag bearer. SLPP and Paopa loyalists consider Sengeh as a complete oddball for purpose making him unfit for the SLPP CRC Chair. And President Bio is blamed appointing the wrong person amid dozens of competent academics in the SLPP. Critics say President Bio should have brought in a more competent legally qualified professional to preside over the law reform committee instead of Dr Sengeh, who is completely blank in that area of the laws of the SLPP.
The need for the amendment of the SLPP 1995 Constitution emerged from the decision of the National Executive Council – NEC which mandated the President Julius Maada Bio-led Poapa national executive to setup a committee to review the party’s 1995 constitution. The move initially didn’t come with a proposition to have Dr Sengeh as Chair of the SLPP CRC.
The processes of amending the SLPP 1995 Constitution is aimed at modernizing the party and reform its internal governance structures. But NEC being that influential in determining who the next presidential candidate of SLPP becomes and paves a path for the party’s projection has precipitated serious moral concerns from the grassroots and the entire membership, with most of the questioning President Bio in the constitutional amendment process.
However, the national leader, President Bio went ahead and imposed Dr Sengeh on the SLPP as Chair of the CRC; an aspirant for the party’s 2028 flag bearer. The SLPP leader’s decision is being largely questioned at many party quarters including Dr Sheku Sama Banya, for which they have therefore urged President Bio to prevail on Dr Sengeh to relinquish his position as Chair of the CRC. But the call that seems to have fallen on deaf ears, despite growing criticisms from within.
The cloudy situation that hangs over the position of the double role of SLPP CRC Chair, Dr Sengeh provokes the tendencies of undermining the democratic principle and core values of the party. The more the reasons senior members of the Grand Old Party – OGP calling for the resignation of Dr Sengeh and restore the democratic credentials of the SLPP.
Moreover, Bio’s imprudent decision of appointing Dr Sengeh, as a Chair of the constitutional amendment committee is also deemed as a move that will go a long way in affecting the SLPP even beyond the Paopa era. The simple reason is that Sengeh is not mature for the role as Chair of the SLPP CRC. He in fact lacks the legal knowledge to preside over such an important political engagement, let alone the institutional knowledge about the SLPP. So much should not be expected from him rather than social media jokes.
Besides, any other extra assignment out state governance official assignment will serve as more distractions for Dr David Moinina Sengeh on a job he is yet to meet the desired benchmarks.
The failed and incompetent State House CM in the Office of the President is under pressure for being at the wrong place. His boss, the Chief Executive Officer of their Sierra Leone Company, Julius Maada Bio, who also serving as President and as Leader of the SLPP is faced with similar internal tension from partisans, which is why they both have since then to date not proved well on their jobs in governance due to divided attentions. Dr Sengeh serves as Chair of the SLPP CRC and as State House CM whiles his boss, Bio, also as president and at the same time as leader of the SLPP. What a conflict of interest?
People working at the level of the presidency should avoid having issues with double functionalities as Dr Sengeh and his boss, President Bio. Considering the thick line between state governance and partisan politics Dr Sengeh should have no business to do with the SLPP CRC. He is a frontline government worker and should focus attention on the assignments on his desk. For President Bio, he stopped being a key party functionary since he was declared president of the nation. He either chose to serve the state or relinquishes SLPP party position and pay premium towards addressing national issues. You cannot serve your political party and at the same time equally wants to serve the country at president. You cannot be a player and a referee simultaneously.
Serving as a referee player therein on the CRC is grossly unfair, undemocratic, and unprincipled, and largely unacceptable on the part of Dr Sengeh. For any serious political governance entity, people like Dr Sengeh should be fully punctuated by his boss, President Bio, to pay attention to the letters of his self-designed terms of reference for his job as Chief Minister.
Dr Sengeh’s office was charged with the tasks of monitoring, assessing, and evaluating Ministries Departments, providing the executive with the necessary policy guidelines on the implementation of key government flagship deliverables in the necessary sector(s). That now remains unfelt under the Chief Ministerial leadership of Dr Sengeh due to his attitude towards work. Rather, premium is paid to the promotion of radical inclusion on the Dr David Moinina Sengeh official social media handles than that his official assignments at the Office of the Chief Minister.
To avoid further distractions, someone need to please tap Dr Sengeh on the shoulder and tell him to refrain from promoting radical inclusion, his presidential ambition and focus a bit on monitoring, assessments, and evaluations of MDAs to ensure the successful implementation of if not only government’s ‘Feed Salone’ self-food sufficiency agenda but also other projects.
Refusal to stay focused on official assignments and deviate from the promotion of his personal ambitions will clearly expose President Bio’s off touch of his anointed disciple, as having Dr Sengeh at Chief Minister was the biggest mistake made by the Bio presidency not to mention him also serving as Chair of the CRC.
In view of that political blunder from the top, the SLPP continues to urge President Bio to look into the placement of Dr Sengeh as Chair of their party’s CRC, review his appointment, prevail on him to relinquish his position and appoint a more neutral partisan with no presidential aspiration but with the required legal background to serve as a chair of the SLPP CRC process. By so doing will sanitize the SLPP 1995 Constitutional Review process and restore the once admirable democratic credentials of the party.
