The Office of the Executive President in Sierra Leone has a history that is both peculiar and problematic with regard to the power it bestows on the holder.

Peculiar in the spirit with which it was conceived: Siaka Stevens made Justice Okoro-Cole ceremonial president for a day as trustee of the absolute power he would wield in ushering in the republican constitution free of any British interference (curiously,Okoro-Cole had been sack by Albert Margai and the job handed to his buddy Justice Gershon-Collier).

Problematic because it offers too much powers to ‘His’ (as there is yet to a ‘she’ there) Excellency, such that every government appointee serves at his behest and pleasure. The 1991 constitution which was operationalized in the advent of multiparty democracy in 1996 embedded the office of the Executive President, and only three people have inhabited it; one is dead, and of the living, one, an ex, goes around with a sense of entitlement and unfinished business and the current incumbent is forced to rule in looming shadow of the ex.

One recent act by the leadership of one of the nominally independent arms of government, the Legislative, shows glaringly the anomaly of too much power with the Executive and how it has the other branches completely wrapped around their POWERFUL finger. The Speaker of the House of Parliament, Chernor Abass Bunds resigns and tenders his resignation to the President. Such a move is not only wrong, but strikes at the very heart of the reason(s) we had the 63rd anniversary of our independence and little or nothing to celebrate, why we are slipping on gains made in consolidating democracy and good governance. There were many comments, mostly of condemnation, that accompanied the event, but I am only going to mention two. Why? They come from the country’s shallow pool of elite in the opposition likely to form any alternative government that will rule this country anytime presently.

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Let me start with the first, Andrew Keili of ‘Ponder My Thoughts’ notoriety. He wrote in his column claiming chiefly that the reason we are not going anywhere is that we are a cuckoo nation, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Keili (Congrats to him he just celebrated three scores and ten) is not exactly extricated from all governance in Salone history. I have known him for almost three decades and knowing of his role in the inception, at least, of alternative third force political formulations, one would not be wrong to call him the designated Running Mate. Add that to his manifold consultations with successive governments via the engineering conglomerate CEMMATS, he cannot reify Salone governance separate from his person, neatly. Crucially relevant, is the time President Kabbah actually did something different and imposed CEMMATS as the management for then National Power Authority (NPA), now EDSA, when it was notorious for superintending those marathon blackouts in the capital and environs.CEMMATS was there, they saw, I am not sure they conquered. Blackouts in Freetown is the only enduring tyrant and seemingly invincible party in every arrangement up to and including the CARPOW/EDSA one. To be fair with them they recommended privatization of the service. But ah ya, the government wouldn’t consider a total hands-off of the electricity business, then or now.

Then there is Dr Prince Bull. Dr Bull a social media politician who gave an independence message from the vantage point of social media blogging and punditry, whence he gives score cards, endorse and defend APC politicians and pontificates about the sour grapes that are not on his table. I CAN’T tire of talking about Prof Alusine Jalloh and the work he is doing by taking an early retirement from his tenured job at University of Texas at Arlington, and helping salvage the Fourah Bay College (FBC) Department of History and African Studies. Prof Jalloh has scholarship and relief projects at all the schools that he attended from Trinity Primary School through St Edwards Secondary School (where he spear-headed the fencing of all of its grounds) to FBC. He does not have to be in politics actively to be beneficial to Salone. I wish I can say the same about you and Samura Kamara whom you endorsed for President. The latter will do the Thanksgiving March Past crowd pulling. It is either easy or lazy to do nothing, have no record of work with everyday citizens to uplift them, have no constituency to speak of, but have full-throated criticism and sucking one’s teeth about ParanTarawalism and KandehYumkellaism in a video that titles one as Prof. Dr Prince…Right there Title-ism! Andrew Keili may be called Engineer Keili, but has better sense than to sign his columns ING. Keili. None but the current president ever attempted a PhD, yet they have proudly flaunted the Honoris Causa the University of Sierra Leone confers on them. Ah, but I digress plenty. This piece wants to talk beyond the title Executive President to the actual powers the occupant of the office wields.

I don’t believe in player-hating. Blame the game and the rules by which it is played. The 1991 Constitution which is law of the land is a product of prevailing circumstances of its conception. Heck, the American constitution is not perfect with all its amendments. It provides for the Executive President with veto powers and Executive Orders. However, there are checks and balances in a bicameral House of Congress in-built as correctives, with electoral cycle ying-yang, against any potential tyrant in the Oval Office. If even only procedural, there is the real threat of impeachment. It is important to note that Siaka Steven was trying to move away from the British dominion and style when he opted for republican constitution and ditched the Prime Minister office for that of Executive President. In a similar vein, the 1991 (a hybrid of the American and British governance arrangement) retained the designation and gave it the power to appoint just about everybody but chiefs (excepting regents), councilors and members of parliament who are elected. The American constitution, though old, contains so wide ranging liberties in letter and spirit that it does not need replacement, only amendment. ANY new president might make appointments to key positions, as elections have consequences, but most of the public officials are secure either by tenure or by just fair employment protections that make their careers protected despite their personal political leanings. It offers a lot of independence when a career public servant knows that their first obligation is to the public and that such service is not determined by and outlasts the Oval Office or in our case State Lodge. It is the reason we have a Public Service Commission to appoint people into positions such as the clerks of courts or parliament. Such jobs are civil service jobs and way down the food chain for any Executive President, save for micro-managing. The only way to keep the Executive President and his arm of government accountable is if we have judges, Anti-Corruption Commissioners, Auditor-Generals and their staff who are tenured and can outlive governments or presidents. It is the only way measures like asset declaration can even matter. The status quo empowers the President with undue hiring and firing leverage with which to meddle with other arms of government, via contractual judges and every unelected position in the country. It matters not who holds the office, there is too much room for abuse, and in a winner-takes-all political environment it becomes a proclivity.

I argue not that the Executive President’s powers are not useful when instrumentalized in a fair and expedient manner. Take the tenure of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He was able to, amid tough resistance from even members of his cabinet, sign the ceasefire that ushered in the Lomé Peace Accord that was later ratified by parliament. Did he use it against perceived adversaries? Yes. Kabbah used the ACC (which was then a toothless bulldog) to ruffle the feathers of Dr Harry Will and Momoh Pujeh because it was rumored they would challenge his reelection bid. He declared Elizabeth Lwanga then UNDP Resident Representative to Sierra Leone persona non grata for empowering Charles Margai then Local Government minister to initiate the consultation process that would usher the local councils we have today. Rumor was that the two were dating. Beyond rumor, when the government seized the property of one Dr Chernor Abass Bundu for allegedly issuing a bounced check in relation to the passport selling saga, he went to court and won back his property; President Kabbah told the courts to go to hell, essentially. Ernest Bai Koroma did or said a number of overreaching things that were fueled by the, unquestionably powerful, office he held for over ten years, the most abominable, verging on the impossible (well that is until he did it), was to sack a Vice President that he shared a ticket with, was voted for! I can only imagine how it feels like for someone who has been God’s own representative, assistant or deputy on earth to live in the same country where you have exercised absolute power, as an ordinary citizen. Tough! Tougher when you are not like Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, nursing your ulcers on the check out line, but harbor fantasies of “After Me, Nar Me Back.”

As it stands today Rt. Brig. Dr Julius Maada Bio wields the power of Executive President and the 1991 is like the Torah. Bio is using every inch of leverage he could find, with the judiciary and legislative especially, to move his agenda along using blind spots like bill tabling and maturation, installing an amenable Speaker of more Yeas than Nays, contractual judges and everything he would have issues with if he were in the opposition. The ex, president Koroma is currently in the opposition (not entirely in retirement) crying foul, millions of direly needed development dollars, a laborious Cowan Constituional Review Commission and some years removed from the chance to have changed that constitution not for a third term but a better one.

We hope Bio is not in that same position tomorrow. But we can’t just hope. The way things are, I don’t see any president giving up the Executive powers as currently constituted, willingly. It’s not going to happen! Sierra Leoneans especially the so-called civil society must demand it, pronto!