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REVIEW OF SIERRA LEONE CONSTITUTION BEGINS
In an interview on the popular 98.1
radio station breakfast show, Attorney General and Minister of Justice Frank
Kargbo revealed that the process to review the 1991 Constitution of Sierra
Leone is underway. He maintained that government is committed to see the
process all the way to its final stage, which will be a national referendum
to secure the approval of the people of Sierra Leone. There will be wide
ranging consultations before this, involving all major stakeholders and
representatives from a wide range of organizations in Sierra Leone. A commission is to
be appointed to steer the process along, with an eminent Sierra Leonean as
its chair.
This will be the second major
attempt to reform the 1991 Constitution. In 2007 a commission was appointed
by then-President Tejan Kabbah under the chairmanship of Dr Peter Tucker, a
retired senior civil servant. It held wide-ranging consultations and came up
with a comprehensive range of constitutional amendments. These included the
establishment of a two-chamber parliament with a senate as an advisory body
to the house of representatives. There were also modifications to the
citizenship laws, which drew criticism from some Sierra Leoneans. The Peter
Tucker proposals never got to the referendum stage, however, as the incoming
APC government did not give the matter high priority. Read the
2007 Peter Tucker proposals here
In his address at the state opening of parliament in December last
year, however, President Ernest Bai Koroma had this to say on the subject, “In our second term, we will act to
revamp the constitutional review process, open up the constitutional debate
to many more people and a wider range of issues. Of great importance will be
putting in place constitutional guarantees for overcoming the challenges of
ethnic divide in the political life of the country. We will put the resulting
draft constitution to a national referendum…. We
will ensure a review of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone to ensure that it
truly supports a true democracy thriving on a multi-party but inclusive
system of government”
Later in the speech, in a single enigmatic
sentence, President Ernest Koroma had this to say on the subject of the dual
land tenure system in Sierra
Leone, “We will work towards
ensuring a more equitable, non-discriminatory and fairer land tenure system
in the country.” Was the President
signaling that he favours moving away from the dual land tenure system that
has been fiercely criticized by particularly the Krios of the Western
Area? Could this be part of the
planned constitutional revision? Only time will tell.
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