By Asmieu Bah
It is good to give a brief historical background to our country’s constitution and legislature to appreciate how the House has evolved over the generations and even centuries. That history of our parliament is traceable to as far back as 1863 when the then Freetown colony had its first constitution named after the then Governor Samuel Black Hall. The 1863 Samuel Black Hall constitution was just the beginning of a long protracted journey to freedom. Perhaps not a perfect analogy that constitution can be likened to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s constitution of Medina which was the blueprint of the Islamic state. Ours was also the blueprint of the Sierra Leone state.
The 1863 Samuel Black Hall constitution was also a reaction by the colonialists’ call for self-rule after the rebellion by the Nova Scotians in the Province of Freedom. It made provision for legislative and executive councils and two Africans who were appointed by the Governor sat on the legislative council.
The constitution had many flaws and inefficiencies, but it was a good start at least. For the first time since the colony was established in 1808, Sierra Leoneans had the opportunity to “make” their own laws to govern themselves.
Sixty years after the inauguration of the 1863 constitution another one was born. The 1924 Slater constitution was named after Governor Sir Ransford Slater. It shifted little power from the colony to the protectorate. A legislative council of 12 members with a majority of British officials. On the unofficial side of the constitution we had three Paramount Chiefs, two European representatives, two Africans and three elected colony representatives. This constitution added more hope and impetus to the call and fight for independence by Sierra Leoneans thus adding more lubricant to the wheel, as it were.
The Slater constitution opened up more room for representation as we saw the number increase from two to ten. It was a moment of another optimism, that with time Sierra Leoneans would have the opportunity to legislate their own laws. Less than thirty years later the Colony baptised another constitution called the Stevenson Constitution of 1947, which, like the erstwhile constitutions, was also named after Governor Sir Hubert Stevenson. The Stevenson constitution also made significant improvement from ten to twenty three representatives.
In 1957 there came an unprecedented change in the country’s constitutional progression, this time the Legislative Assembly became a House of Representatives with a total of 56 members and Sir Milton of the SLPP led the first self-government. Here again the country moved to another political ascendancy with Sierra Leoneans at the top echelons of power. The penchant for self-rule was still unquenched so another goal was scored in 1961 when the country gained her independence. The Duke of Kent opened Sierra Leone’s unicameral house of parliament on 26 April 1961. That U-turn in the country’s history made Sierra Leone the one hundredth member of the United Nations. Parliament Building at Tower Hill is symbolic as it sits on a hill overlooking Freetown. It also signifies our sovereignty, with a strong and elegant Israeli stone-built structure overlooking Freetown. It shows we have come of age, from a crown colony to a colony and a protectorate and finally to a sovereign state that merged the former colony and protectorate under one country that now creates its own laws. I am told it was around where we have the imposing parliament building right down to where State House is that was referred to as the Province of Freedom.
In 1978 Prime Minister Siaka Stevens introduced the 1978 one party Republican constitution. It was this constitution that the country was ruled under until 1991 when the Peter Tucker constitution – in force now – was written and passed by the House but could not come into force owing to the military coup of 1992.
In 1996 the country was again returned to a multi-party system after four years of military rule. The 1996 elections left us with six parties in the House of Representatives.
The 1996 elections under the Proportional Representation system gave the SLPP 27 seats, UNPP 17, PDP 12, APC 5, NUP 4 and DCP 3. The 1996 parliament was also a watermark as the people braved the guns to elect their law makers.
In 2002 the second parliament of the second republic was elected comprising 124 members. The SLPP got 83 seats, APC 27, PLP 2 and 12 paramount chiefs representing the twelve districts in the country. Members of this session had the opportunity to enjoy their tenure uninterrupted as the country had moved from war to peace.
In 2007 the outgoing parliament was elected after a hotly contested election in August 2007. The SLPP party that had enjoyed popularity since 1996 received a blow from the electorate who removed them from that enviable majority position and handed it to the opposition. APC got 59 seats, SLPP 43, PMDC 10 and 12 seats for paramount chiefs totalling 124.
The life of the fifth session of the Third Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone came to an end on the 25th of September 2012 marking five years since they were elected. The out-gone parliament passed 60 bills into law and ratified 81agreements. As legislators they also overturned laws that their predecessors had passed, implementing the principle of law which says parliament cannot bind its successors. We saw much wrangling between and amongst the political parties in parliament especially between the APC and SLPP. We also witnessed many walkouts of parliament by the opposition SLPP because of their disagreements with the majority party. Whether all those disagreements were in the interest of the nation is another kettle of fish. Whether also the passing into law of the bills were in our interest posterity is left with the conscience of the legislators many of whom have now been booted out and more may be sent packing.
We also saw during the life span of parliament bills that were hurriedly passed sometimes at night for that matter, under the title of certificate of emergency. The Mines and Minerals Act was hurriedly passed in to law ignoring voices and concerns of civil society activists. The mining lease agreements are perhaps the most anachronistic.
One episode that will continue to linger in our minds for many years to come was the visit of the now slain Libyan leader Muammar Ghadafi. During his pomp and pageant visit to Sierra Leone, the Libyan leader was given an honorary title of a Member of Parliament of Sierra Leone even if the Speaker later denied that did happen. That visit in 2008 December saw the display of wealth by Ghadafi to an impoverished host country like Sierra Leone. We also witnessed our members of parliament cataloguing to Sierra Leone’s benefactor their poor conditions of service.
The award of honorary Member of Parliament to Ghadafi was greeted with lots of criticism from members of the public and Western allies who thought we were just being ungracious especially when one realises the role of Ghadafi in the country’s rebel war as documented by our country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. Instead of awarding leaders whose men died so that we could live, our MPs made Ghadafi a legislator, a man who did not even believe in our style of governance - DEMOCRACY.
Our now former parliament will also be remembered as the law making body that was present when the country celebrated its golden jubilee of self-rule. In 1961 what was bequeathed to us by the colonialist was the Westminster model of democracy. In 1961 we had a Prime Minister. 50 years later we have a president.
We will also not forget the drama in that great house when the National Electoral Commission announced new nomination fees for president, parliamentarians, councillors, mayors and paramount chiefs. We saw MPs almost resorting to blows when both the APC and SLPP gave different interpretations to the fees. The stalemate was only settled when the President announced that government would further subsidise NEC. The proposed nomination fee was never debated as it had been in parliament for twenty one days giving it automatic ratification.
During the five years we saw the deaths of up to five parliamentarians. The last deaths were those of the former minority leader Momoh Pujeh and Chukuma Johnson the deputy speaker of parliament who met his death in Makeni whilst attending the funeral of the President’s mother.
It is without any iota of doubt that our immediate past parliament did pass well intentioned bills that the citizens of this country will not forget in a hurry, bills that helped change the governance of our country. The SLBC Act, the Anti-money laundering Act, the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008, and the Bank of Sierra Leone Act are just a few of the many bills.
All was not rosy in the house of parliament during the last five years. The President, a former MP himself, helped ameliorate their welfare by increasing their salaries and other benefits. Parliamentarians were given special registration number plates for their cars.
The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and Society for Democratic Initiatives were the vanguard in the fight for the Freedom of Information Bill. I am sure they will not forgive the House for not passing it into law. They dragged their feet to pass a law that would have helped shape debates on policies in a country where more than 60% of the population is uneducated. The refusal by parliament to pass the Freedom of Information bill is a disservice to the electorate who put them there in the first place.
During its dying days we saw how many bills the House passed in a rush and hurry but chose to ignore the Freedom of Information Bill for reasons that defy reasoning.
I know many parliamentarians who have been denied symbols by their parties, my question to them is what they will tell their people who gave them that golden opportunity which does not come often.
Did the out-gone parliament do justice to us the electorate who stood in long queues in 2007 to cast their votes for them? Did they serve us well? Did they return to us to tell us the state of our union? Did we see debates that focused on national and not partisan interests? More often than not African parliaments don’t read from a book that is different from their party’s. Did we see SLPP or APC members of parliament coming up with a position that was different from their party’s interest?
From my research I know of many parliamentarians whom you can count with your fingers the number of times they visited their constituencies. Some of them took their people for granted cloaking under the guise of party colour.
I only hope our next Parliament will learn from the mistakes of the past. After November we wish to see a vibrant parliament that will be difficult to rubber stamp, a parliament that will pass laws in the interest of the nation, a parliament that will truly represent the wishes and aspirations of us the electorate.
I will end with a quote from Barack Obama in his book Audacity of Hope: ‘’It is to say that after all the trappings of office, the titles, the staff, the security details are stripped away , I find the President and those who surround him to be pretty much like everybody else, possessed of the same mix of virtues and vices, insecurities and long buried injuries , as the rest of us”.
Asmieu Bah is a broadcast journalist working for the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation
(c) Politico 2 October 2012
