Greetings Mr. President,
It is with reverence that I write this letter to you, and in consonance with the earlier one I wrote to you about a couple of months ago – or so – I would first of all like to commend your strides towards the fight against the deadly corona virus pandemic. Let me seize this golden opportunity to thank you, the doctors, the nurses, and all other frontline workers. Thank you very much indeed!
Mr. President, having said that, I wish to remind you that you campaigned on the platform of providing an effective and efficient management of the state's resources and developing the human capital through the provision of free quality education, amongst others.
While I personally appreciate your frantic endeavours towards the provision of the free quality education, kindly permit me to respectfully submit to you that our economy was not ready for a provision of free quality education, our institutions were not ready and Sierra Leone was not ready.
In my unreserved opinion, what the people of Sierra Leone needed was a human capital development through the creation of jobs, through which parents could adequately take care of their children's educational expenses, and also adding taste to our country's economy, instead of giving them free education the quality of which they question.
According to a study, much as your people don't undervalue education some parents had to unavoidably stop their children from attending schools on certain days because they needed their contribution in their petty trading if only to earn a living.
Your Excellency Sir, let me also respectfully submit to you that the enactment of the law that allows pregnant pupils to attend schools, could be seen as a means of ensuring their human rights. But a well-meaning Sierra Leonean would agree with me that it is more of a curse than a blessing. This will certainly open a floodgate for expectant mothers in our schools. Apart from the fact that this decision negates and/or contradicts your wife’s efforts in her "Hands Off Our Girls" campaign, it also begs the following questions:
1. Did you imagine a pregnant pupil having to spit all over the school's environment, with little or no concern for hygiene.
2. Did you imagine a teacher having to allow pregnant pupils to disrespectfully sleep in class due to some of the discomfort that comes with pregnancy?
3. Did you take into account the fact that the presence of pregnant pupils coupled with the circumstances that surround their conditions, will also certainly disrupt the learning atmosphere and will make uncomfortable hundreds of other pupils wanting to learn? This could be seen as discriminatory but it is the sad and hard reality of our culture.
Mr President please permit me to submit to you that your advisers need to be advised, otherwise they will shove you into doing things and/or passing resolutions that will make your subjects trolling or taunting you, and questioning your competence. ln fact I wonder where our parliamentarians left their heads on the day for such a debate.
Let me also thank you for the implementation of the National Food Basket program that is championed by the First Lady. It is, undeniably, a great move, and a very considerable and laudable gesture. Nonetheless, your people want you to create the platform for them to be able to fish instead of giving them fish. We want to be employed.
Your Excellency, Sir, in one of your recent speeches some people, especially opposition sympathisers were left fuming. They took offence at your use of the word "Terrorist" in referring to those causing unrest. I, personally, have been challenging those I could, and I have been defending that Statement to my sweat-drops. For me, you would not take offence to that statement if you are not involved in, or plan to be involved in, the use of violent actions in order to achieve political aims, or to force the government to act.
Judging you from the context in which you used the word "Terrorist" and the happenings at the time, I would like to wholeheartedly say to you that the statement was fair, and was not offending any peace wanting Sierra Leonean.
We overwhelmingly voted you into the highest office of this land because we wanted change. We wanted a change from the political and economic instability at the time. We wanted a change from the heightened rate of unemployment of our youths. We wanted a change to the alarming rate of police brutality and the arbitrary arrest of suspected and innocent citizens at the time. But it seems as if the things we voted against are hunting us.
Your Excellency, you may want to blame our stagnation on the outbreak of the corona virus. While I understand that the pandemic has wreaked havoc on our economy, I believe it has only added salt to injury. I wish to make bold to say that we had been under this jobless and financial scourge before the corona virus invaded our shores and introduced itself.
Having taking a very thorough study of our democracy and its institutions, permit me to present to you that, our democratic institutions need sanity.
Also, you would agree with me that, by policy, the anticorruption commission is supposed to be accountable to the people of Sierra Leone. What negates this policy is the fact the power of appointing its commissioner is vested in the executive (the president).
It's also quite obvious that the power to appoint the Inspector General of police and his Deputy is solely on the President.
In light of the above, Mr President, I'm humbly suggesting to you that, the bold step to the sanitization of our democratic institutions must begin with you. It'll seem like I'm asking you to eat your own finger. But this is for the future of your children and their unborn generation.
I therefore humble recommend thus:
- The Speaker of Parliament should not vacate his seat even if the president should be present in a session. The Speaker should remain to be the independent head of the legislature, and in fact provision should be made for the election of the speaker of parliament through general elections.
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The president should cease appointing the Chief Justice, the anticorruption commissioner and the Inspector General of police. The positions should be made to be contested for by qualified citizens who meet their individual requirements, and voted for by eligible voters.
Mr President, you would agree with me that certain provisions in our constitution were obnoxiously enacted because they favored a particular group of people at the time.
Until we revisit those provisions, and sanitize our democratic institutions, even if we bring in Jesus as president we will continue to circumnavigate in the wilderness.
Mr President, these are my respectable submissions, until there's need for further comments or clarifications, I beg to say goodbye.
Long live Your Excellency.
Long live Sierra Leone.
Long live our entire citizenry.
Your faithful subject,
Henry Munda Abdulai
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