Why we should not always emulate the wrong and bad examples especially in decision making in leadership, because we are looked forward to by our youngsters as role models and people they aspire to emulate in the nearest future.Thus we should always avoid those examples and instances that have the propensities to mislead our coming generations, as we position to correct our mistakes moving forward, instead of repeating the same wrong doing by our past generations.
Reason for a talk on the emulation of awful examples by our leaders is that contemporary political leaders of Sierra Leone are governing along with deliberate mistakes with the laws of the country.
Recent among their political blunders is the appointment of the former Director of Financial Intelligent Unit, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh as the new chairman of the National Electoral Commission, amidst deafening controversy over his qualification for the position.
Konneh is known to have been a full time worker at the FIU, a position he is said to have held up to his new appointment as chairman of NEC, which completely disqualify him to head the elections commission and the more reason President Bio should have withdrawn the nomination of his candidate.
So by mere principle of integrity Government and President Bio should have in the first place avoid the embarrassment by reversing the questionable nomination of Konneh to do away with opposition suspicions’ that Government and the ruling party might want influence the outcome of the elections come 2023.
Yes Kanneh is now the new man at the helm of affairs at NEC and he is going to be there to conduct the 2023 presidential and other elections free and fairly as expected, though his placement was not ‘fair.’
A very awful example which we hope and pray that it won’t happen again and the next time such is coming up those concerned should go through the laws in ensuring that deliberate mistakes do not occur in their own interests. So the NEC chairman in future would be highly respected with full public confidence reposed in him/her.
The position that is being constitutionally challenged by opposition politicians right from the well of Parliament onto where it is now at the headquarters of NEC as chairman of the commission, on grounds that the president’s nominee is not qualified and was never expected to have emerged as NEC chairman, provided legal considerations concerning his qualification and competence for the position were taken into account. As by law all political parties were expected to be fully consulted which according to them didn’t happen at all.
That certain procedures that were required to have been followed by the Government and President Julius Maada Bio in the process were not regarded by the president, which calls for serious concerns from among political parties, with their positions cleared on consultation, legal and constitutional provisions that disqualifies the candidate Konneh from being appointed as NEC chairman. Your errors will always go down in history so we must be careful in taking certain decisions not to make over and again.
Such deliberate wrong doings by Government and the president must not be seen always happening in the unethical name of his predecessors had done similar thing before.
Correctively, bad examples are meant to be learnt from not for emulations, and we must start to learn from our mistakes now going forward before always replicating them for retaliation purposes.
Therefore wrong doing should not be copied going especially by our leaders moving forward but to corrected as means cleaning our governance and societal systems altogether.
For corrosiveness purpose, the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone makes it clear that much as the candidate is a holder of a public officer he/she is not qualified, but we went ahead and positioned Konneh to head NEC with all concerns from opposition actors, which probably fell on deaf ears.
We expected President Bio and the Government to have considered the basics in making such a critical appointment of NEC chairman-who according to on the basis of 32(1) (a) (b), and 75, 76 (1) (b) and the Public Elections Act 2012 is not competent and qualify to serve in the position he was Tuesday worriedly swear-in to office for.
Challenging it wherever doesn’t matter, as it has already been done with a huge point scored against the embattled main opposition All People Congress, except why should we as a democratic dispensation should sit by to see the laws of the country being flagrantly violated so many times with impunity, refusing to follow right legal procedures in the appointment of Konneh as NEC chairman.
He is now at work which we are known but he didn’t go there by merit which are the concerns that matters in this, and we are expected to be doing thing in sync with international best practices, rather than doing it the doctoral ways, which goes against the democratic wishes and true spirit of the laws of the country.
And we can’t be always doing things the awful ways
