News:
Hon Bah
December 1, 2021
Head of the Sierra Leone’s delegation to the Community Parliament, Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah has appealed to the President of the ECOWAS Commission Dr. Jean Claude Kassi Brou to send a high-powered delegation to his country to look into the prevailing issues if not addressed urgently may get out of hand.
Mr. Bah made this call on Wednesday, December 1, 2022 in Abuja when the Commission’s president presented the Community report at the ongoing Second Ordinary Session.
“Mr. President, there has been several complains in my country; we have talked about the judiciary, their independence, that of the police being biased and not being friendly with civilians. ECOWAS did a follow-up mission the last time but how far we have gone we don’t know”, he stated.
He told the plenary that as he speaks, there is a pending census that the government is attempting to hold but it does not have the support of the Majority of the population and the census being organised is for the people.
They have challenged it and raised issue with the international community divided, whiles the EU election observer follow-up mission was in Sierra Leone, they also raised questions about the independence of the judiciary.
And it is not only coming from within as the ECOWAS Commission should provide leadership in this matter. On Tuesday, November 30, 2021, “we learned that quite soon you would be taking your exit, we believe you have done a great job and want to exit gracefully, so doing follow-up mission between now and the time you leave is also very important”, he said.
He further pointed out that there are challenges with bye-elections and the local council elections are just around the corner this year, and the general election in 2023 so the high-level visit would send a good signal
He also revealed that recently, a new Electoral Commissioner for the Western Region was approved by Parliament, again there was no consensus. There are several other issues, “so Mr. President; I want to encourage you to get a team to Sierra Leone as soon as possible”.
In addition, he pointed out that most of the time when missions come to his country, they only know about the facts only when they have left the country, and stated that they want the process that would share experiences.
They are in Abuja – Nigeria representing the people of the Community, so if the country is visited without touching base with them, it would not serve the purpose for which they represent them, as the Speaker of the Community parliament has been making a lot of efforts to ensure they are visible in their respective countries.
According to him with poverty in the sub-region, food security should not be mortgaged; it should be the top priority on their list and at their last session they talked about early warning signs on which the Commission has been doing its bit but resolved that more needs to be done.
Ghanamps.com