WE HAVE COME TOO FAR TO GIVE UP

[saloneamadu]

*PERSONAL GLIMPSES*

*WE HAVE COME TOO FAR TO GIVE UP*

*By: Winstanley. R. Bankole Johnson*

My best 63rd Independence Anniversary goodwill message came from a Banker colleague from Wilberforce, Mr. Prince Williams. It was captioned: “Hope”, with a befitting bodyline reading thus: “We have come too far to give up”

That message conjured up wider interpretations in my mind, the main thrust of all of which I find appropriate for our situation as nation mired in deep post electoral confusions that nearly approaching a full year cycle, the candidate of the party the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone claimed emerged convincingly victorious at the first ballot could not muster the courage to arrange his own second inauguration, nor has he received commendations from any of our major international allies to date. That simple message further revived luster within the greater majority of our compatriots that indeed we have come too far, and made tremendous sacrifices in our struggles in defense of sound democratic values and with much expectations hinged on the Tripartite Committee, to give up in our defense of democracy. Finally it was an admonition applicable not only to us as Sierra Leoneans enduring the yoke of near political enslavement in the last five years, but also to our international partners and moral guarantors who have stood with us shoulder to shoulder throughout, in stout defiance since Mohammed Konneh and ECSL questionably pronounced Julius Maada Bio as winner of the June 24th 2023 Presidential elections.

But I shall start with our International partners and referees – The National Elections Watch (NEW), ECOWAS, AU, Commonwealth, United States, EU, Germany, France and Ireland. It will be foolhardy if after all of them could have come this far in telling us that the elections results showed mathematical and statistical incongruencies and inaccuracies, and that they were neither credible nor reflected the will of the people, to now turn around a year later to tell us the reverse. Should that happen then they will have to show us by convincing proofs of such evidences that informed the decisions of Mohamed Konneh/ECSL. And in the event that happens, then the entire group (National Elections Watch (NEW), ECOWAS, AU, Commonwealth, United States, EU, Germany, France and Ireland) will have to tender their unqualified apologies to President Julius Maada Bio for the year-long embarrassment they have caused him and his political party. And I can’t wait to hear the American government taking the lead for that.

*Accountability*

However, should the original combined stance of our International partners and referees remain germane (that those elections were neither free, nor fair, nor credible and were further neither transparent, peaceful and accountable), then obviously those responsible for what stands out now as the greatest electoral scam in Africa must bear the full legal consequences for their actions (or inactions) irrespective of their political status or the party they belong to. That will include all those involved from the planning and conduct of the elections – and ranging from enacting flawed regulations such as the Proportional Representation system, conducting the botched mid-term census, printing or procurement of ballot papers and distribution of same and voters’ registration processes, tabulation, collation and announcements of final results. To that category should also be added those who perpetrated actual physical violence on lives and properties with the view of obstructing democracy, whether done on their own volition or under “orders from above”. It is via this process of accountability that will determine who within the APC and SLPP are to be tried and jailed here and those who will be recommended for trial by the International Criminal Court of justice (ICC). We certainly could not have come this far to give up in persecuting and prosecuting all those who were committed to destabilizing our country through elections rigging. And unless serious actions are taken to serve as deterrents, palpable fears exist that their actions will be repeated or replicated elsewhere in the sub-region.

*Alternative Method*

Those who wish to twist or misconstrue the American Ambassador Hunt’s statements regarding the expected Tripartite Committee recommendations are free to do so. As far as I am concerned I find no fault in him. The Ambassador’s statements (though “doctored” to APC disadvantage) were spot on and delivered along lines he knew the SLPP would always want to hear. Any deviation from that would have prompted attacks by putative APC members within the SLPP accusing Ambassador Hunt of violating the Vienna Convention (like they did to UK High Commissioner Lisa Chesney last year), and that would have stampeded an immediate SLPP boycott from the Tripartite Committee at this critical stage, just to delay the process. 

The United States could certainly not have come this far as to even single-handedly financed the Tripartite Committee processes with US$1.5Million only to undermine it at this stage. That was exactly why David Hunt couched his statements with the semantics of “an alternative method of resolution” that the APC had chosen to pursue. If that “alternative method” was irrelevant and illegal the UN Security Council would not have sanctioned/approved the logical steps agreed and taken thus far, and all of which had prior ECOWAS, AU, Commonwealth and United States government’s endorsements to protect and defend democracy globally wherever it becomes exposed to threat. 

To have lit the “ICC Flame of Justice” at the precincts of the Residual Special Courts Complex and not at the Law Courts Buildings was evidence of an alternative method by the UN Security Council to demonstrate that even with the complete loss of trust and confidence in our Judicature and all justice service delivery sectors by Sierra Leoneans, a possible alternative method still exists to seek and obtain redress under the influences of the United Nations. So the “alternative method” sought by the APC to resolve all irregularities pertaining to the elections outside the Judicature of Sierra Leone as provided for in our 1991 Constitution is as much in order as the ICC sideling our Judiciary to administer clean justice through its Residual Special Coutts here as and when the need arises.   

By their Terms of Reference (ToR) it is of no significance to the UN whether any member or group within the Tripartite Committee decides to withhold their endorsing signatures to any recommendation in blind loyalty to their political Party, and in the hope of negating the progress of the committee. The fact remains that any two out of three is majority and those recommendations will be carried insofar as the UN believes their implementation will be in the best interest of the majority of Sierra Leoneans. 

*Derelictions*

There is a (despondent) school of thought that believe the recommendations from the Tripartite Committee will focus more on electoral reforms than on a need for fresh elections. To that I will beg to differ because if there is anything lacking in Sierra Leone they cannot be laws or regulations. As a matter of fact we have a surfeit of them in our books. As far as electoral malpractices are concerned what happened here throughout the last multi-tiered elections did not happen because of lapses in our laws and statutes. They happened because of complete derelictions of duty and for which those responsible ought to pay the full penalty. For example Mohammed Konneh/ECSL were derelict in their responsibilities by deliberately disregarding specific demands of the Public Elections Act (PEA) to wit:

1. Sec. 51 – Declaration of Elections Results

2. Sec. 52 – Certification of Election and Publication of Results

3. Sec. 92 – Certificate of Results by District Returning Officer

So my argument here is that new laws to be recommended by the Tripartite Committee will not matter. And for as long as we continue to have recalcitrants like the “Konnehs” of this world at the ECSL, nothing will work, unless we begin to invoke the full penalties for their blatant violation of laws on motivation of blind political party loyalty. It is a commitment to inflict or pronounce penalties across the board (when necessary) that is the bedrock of accountability. That is the only way we can stamp out the Machiavellian antics of inter and intra-party 5th columnists.  

Meantime we certainly could not have come this far to give up hope on the efforts of our International partners and referees. So it remains my conviction that the greatest responsibility of the Tripartite Committee (apart from all other recommendations) will be to certify or recommend in clear and unambiguous terms that either:

A. Julius Maada Bio actually emerged victorious in the last Presidential election (and with disaggregated/granular results based evidence too) OR

B. The results announced by Mohamed Konneh/ECSL for the June 23rd Presidential elections reflected mathematical and statistical incongruencies, inaccuracies and inconsistencies and do not reflect the will of the majority of the electorate and for which reason those results are to be declared null and void. 

As things stand, there is absolutely no way that the recommendations of the Tripartite Committee will not favour the greater majority of Sierra Leoneans. Until those recommendations emerge, the mandate of Julius Maada Bio to continue in office as President is at best irregular and at the worst, stolen. To be even sitting on the Tripartite Committee that is investigating their own legality is an acquiescence by the SLPP that their mandate to continue in governance is questionable, which clearly implies that the mandate and tasks of the Tripartite Committee are by far bigger than the individual interests of Dr. Samura Kamara and Dr. Julius Maada Bio (as well as than their respective political party’s interests). Whatever recommendations emerge from the Tripartite Committee should be embraced by all Sierra Leoneans as the Road Map in the best interest of the majority and without rancour or recriminations. But even though we have indeed come too far to give up, we cannot continue like this.

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