By Abdulai Kargbo
During a press briefing at the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, the Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Mr. Alpha Sesay Esq. has updated journalists about the ongoing constitutional review process. According to the Minister, this process is a step to implement the recommendation of the Lome peace accord, alluding that the country needs a new constitution that will address all the problems unfolding in the country, be it political, Economic, or Social. In the past weeks, the president, H.E. Julius Maada Bio, launched the commencement of this process, where he boldly refuted claims of him intending to extend his term limit to seven years or possibly seek a third term in office, which has set the stage of what to follow, “by 2028 I will retire but I want to exit the presidency, leaving the country in a better shape under better and progressive laws, he noted.
Speaking on the time frame of this process, the Minister reaffirmed that the process will be based on the Justice Cawan report in 2013, which is a report from a well-charged committee with national representation. But how national is the representation, the minister stated that the justice Cawan committee conducted over ten thousand consultations, one hundred and thirty-three engagements nationwide, one hundred and ninety-eight ministries department and agencies consultations, eighty expert engagements, presented eighty expert position papers, a media coverage of twenty thousand hours of airtime and a total sum of seventy thousand forms distributed across the nation. The minister further stated that with all these statistics, it is factual that the Justice Cawan report is nationalistic in nature and reflected the will of the people in Sierra Leone, “ the president wants to complete the constitutional review process”, he noted.
Responding to the current stage of the process, the Minister confirmed that the process is at the draft technical stage, which has to do with the identification of entrenched and nonentrenched provisions that may lead to a possible referendum before completion, the white paper put out by the former government, rejecting some of the recommendations in the report, but the white paper put out by president Bio saw the implementation of several rejected laws by the APC, this has to do with expunging the death penalty, repealing the criminal libel law and enacting the GEWE bill”, he noted.
He urged the general public to support the process to attain fairness and progressive development.
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