Indeed – the time for Attitudinal Change is here!

As a court reporter, I took pleasure in listening to the plea mitigation (the last word by the accused before judgement is passed) and the comment by the bench before judgement is pronounced on any accused found guilty by a competent court of justice.

In some rare cases, some accused, after coming back from the world of illusion, will show remorse by making last minute confession/s, belated though it most times be, justice could be tampered with mercy: on the other hand, in very rare cases, some will make defiant statements, even going to the extent of threatening either the Bench or prosecutor/s or both, because of their perceived connections.

But in spite of these, the judges and magistrates will continue with their respective work unabated by acquitting those that should be acquitted and discharging those that should be discharged or convict those that should be convicted according to the law.

From my own experience, lawyers for the accused always take the lead to put in the plea, before the accused puts in his own plea mitigation, apparently to minimize the pending penalty. If the accused is not satisfied with the judgement the convict can appeal against the judgement and sentence in a superior court of judicature.

My mind ran to my early experience at the Court House, because of an incident which took place in my neighbourhood, in Dakar, Senegal, while undergoing four weeks training in News Agency reporting, some years back.

On the fateful morning of one Friday, a middle age lady who got employed under a very controversial circumstance entered into the office of one of her superiors, management staff to be precise and breached office decorum.

I mean controversial circumstances, in all the sense of the word.

During an altercation between the lady and her superior, I got to know that the administration was coerced to get her in the employment of the service.  

As a result, she thought she was above the laws of office decorum, consequently, she became a canker worm, and a law unto herself, with the full backing of the only individual she considered to be her employer. 

She entered the office of one of her superiors and not only reigned insults on him, but also ranted. When her complaint was officially made, by the gentleman, to the Head of Administration, the complainant was penalized.

Allegations formally made by the complainant, immediately became the crime of the complainant, and the overall boss opened a kangaroo court and became the prosecutor and judge: and without any form of investigation, pronounce judgement on the complainant.

Without any investigation, pervasion of justice became the order of the day, and an immediate suspension was informally and unilaterally slammed on the complainant. But thank Goodness, the unilateral pronouncements met with administrative rules, which exposed the naivety and ignorance of the proponent, regarding administrative rules and procedures.

In addition, the name of the complainant was struck off a pending travelling list on the basis of very weak excuses, (no money & the complainant cannot behave himself) after Air travel arrangements had been made, and DSA worked out.

The boss of the institution began using fake influence and creating bogus impressions on the closeness of his relationship with some Government Ministers to taint the gentleman differently. That was there.

In Sierra Leone, one of the major causes of the concluded decade old civil war was injustice.

Although the late rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Corporal Foday Saybana Sankoh said it, it was again reaffirmed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that injustice was one of the major causes of the just concluded decade old war, and it is an accepted fact.

Though former presidents were hammering the point home that injustice was one of the major causes of the war, it was perceived as paying lip-service, because they failed to live by example.

Not even George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” which intends helping readers to catapult their imagination beyond the horizons of dogmatic adherence and idealistic or Utopian thoughts to realism, could help them.

Now, President Ernest Bai Koroma is leading by example.

His actions can say it all. This is where I am in total agreement with Essa Thaim Kurugba, who said and I quote, “I would like to reiterate to my fellow colleagues who are currently holding positions of trust in our nation’s government offices of political trust, this president and his able team in his Political Power House (APC), are not prepared to condone or tolerate “Nonsense or Monkey Tricks Games” from any of his ministerial officials.” End of quote.

But are all his assistants living by example? I have witnessed several cases whereby some political appointees not only overlap their functions, but take pleasure in demonizing professionals and impose unfair criticisms on hard and sincere workers.

When hotly-disputed allegations were made against Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, about mistreating staff, including assertions that he swore at staff, grabbed them by lapels and shouted at them, I honestly did not believe it, except that I was privy to view a movie December last year, wherein I saw it myself.

After giving it a thought, I nodded and asked: can one continue to put up with this stuff, which is part of the daily experience, almost part of the furniture and air that blows?

In the UK, there exists a National anti bully helpline, it is also in the USA and some parts of Africa.  In other parts of the World except God Almighty, otherwise …

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