The King is dead, long live the King
The nightmare is over; at last we all can now breathe a great sigh of relief. The Supreme Court, the country’s highest legal decision body has given its final verdict on a matter that had caused anxiety and created an atmosphere of uncertainty among us. It had raised tensions and sometimes strained our nerves almost to yield point. Need Dr. Bu-Boakei Jabbie have taken the party to court over the legality of holding a convention for the purpose electing a flag bearer without going through the exercise of electing a new delegates’ conference. Several of us felt we could do so as long as the National Executive Council (NEC) and the Delegates’ conference, the highest decision making organ of the party had given the mandate to do so. (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya, author)
Dr. Jabbie argued strenuously that it was not a discretional matter but mandatory to renew the authority of the delegates before proceeding with the flag bearer election. The thrust of his argument was the word “shall.” He therefore went to court. The view of our Legal advisers though NEVER WRITTEN, was that with the authority of a legally constituted delegates’ conference such a procedure was not necessary. Unfortunately they also failed to submit a written response to Jabie’s legal argument.
As laymen we were caught up in the legal tangle of ‘shall’ or ‘may.’ On those bases and with the legal submission of former Vice President and formal Attorney General the honourable Solomon Berewa, we felt that the elections should take place. That Jabbie may or perhaps even obviously may not win his case, but for us IT WAS A MATTER OF TIME.
Mr. Berewa in his submission cited two cases which were still before the Supreme Court from as far back as 1996 and which still remain undecided up to this day. By coincidence they were brought before the court by Dr. Jabbie and with him Mr. Berewa defending. Some of us used the phrase intransigent when we referred to Jabbie’s penchant for pursuing matters right to the end or in Mr. Berewa’s words, if perhaps “only to prove a point.”
There was much name calling especially of some of us who took the position and pressed the point home for elections to take place. As they say, “all is well that ends well.” Some people had expressed skepticsm as to whether the Supreme Court would stay impartial and independent. those of us who maintained confidence in the system have been vindicated by the court ruling.
The Supreme Court has thrown out the consent judgment and discharged Jabbie’s injunction adding that the matters raised were more or less internal and not the business of the honourable court.
It was odd, very odd AS WELL AS STRANGE that with all that had passed, the learned constitutional luminary WAS NOT IN COURT to hear the final decision of the court. As expected that was not lost on the court which levied a fine, or was it costs of five million Leones on Dr. Bu-Boakei Jabbie.
It was also interesting that the learned attorney continued to campaign among people “whose mandate had expired.” In a previous opinion I had expressed gratitude to Almighty God and for the patience and diligence of a number of colleagues, the aspirants, the Parliamentary council and of course the National Executive. We have even been ridiculed by a section of the press but whatever the arguments, whatever the disagreements and the accusations as well as insults and counter accusations, the Supreme Court has laid the whole unfortunate episode to rest.
“The King is dead, long live the King.” We will, or should I say SHALL? We shall now turn our attention to the very serious business of electing a Flag Bearer and Leader, one who will take us to victory in 2012. It is a very heavy responsibility on all who will be voting in the process; it is an even greater challenge on the nineteen aspirants to remember that there will only be one winner.
They have all indicated that they would throw their weight behind whichever of their colleagues who will emerge as the choice of the delegates. Their behaviour has given no cause that they would act otherwise. I am confident that we shall have no Charles Margai among them who would participate fully and then cry foul at the outcome because he was not the choice of the delegates.
In the coming weeks we will continue to be bombarded with the virtues and not the sins and transgressions of each aspirant. From what I have gathered, discussions will continue on the decision of the electoral commission to have NINETEEN ballot boxes instead of ONE box for all candidates.
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