President Kabbah Inaugurates Newly-Elected Councils

As Sierra Leone moves towards reinstating decentralised local government throughout the country, the President Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has inaugurated the newly elected Councillors for nineteen Local Government District, Town and City Councils in all twelve provincial districts of the country and the Western Area.

The inauguration ceremony which started in the Kambia district on 21st June 2004 and ended in the Western Area on 28th June 2004, witnessed the swearing-in of a total of 456 (four hundred and fifty-six) Councillors, of which the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) had 330, the All People's Congress Party (APC) 116 and 10 Independent Candidates. There are still ten outstanding wards, mainly in the Southern Province, where councillors are to be elected. Elections in those wards were deferred.

At every locality visited for the inauguration, in presenting the elected Councillors to President Kabbah, Local Government and Community Developmment Minister, Mr. Sidikie Brima, told the audience that the resuscitation of local government councils had been the dream of President Kabbah since he assumed office in 1996. Local Government Elections were last held in 1972, about 32 years ago, when the APC government dissolved all district councils in the country and later introduced the one-party system of government. He said the return of local councils was therefore a major milestone as it heralded a major milestone in the country's political history.

As chairman of the Task Force of the decentralisation programme, Vice President Solomon Berewa, during each of the inauguration ceremonies explained certain salient aspects of the Act in simple, easily-comprehensible language so as to assist the Councillors properly understand their functions, rights and responsibilities.

According to the Vice President, most of the functions of central government, which involved community development activities, that were originally performed by government Ministries have now been devolved to the Local Government Councils. The Vice President said that the Local Councils were the highest political and legislative organs in their localities (district, town or city) with executive authority to make bye-laws for the effective and efficient administration of the Councils and their localities. Mr. Berewa referred to the resuscitation of the councils as a way of ensuring that the ordinary people of this country are given the opportunity to participate in the governance of their communities. The ruling (SLPP) party, he said, believes in democracy and participatory government, and this is what they have offered the people.

Going through the several functions of the Councils, the Vice President inter alia informed the Councils that they will from now be responsible for the total welfare of the people of their locality, including resource mobilization and project planning and implementation.

For the Councils to operate effectively, Vice President Berewa continued, the Councillors must set up committees responsible for various activities and programmes. Although the Councillors have the authority to form unlimited number of committees, the Local Government Act clearly spells out that the Councils must set up at least three committees: the Development Planning Committee, the Budget and Finance Committee, and the Ward Committee.

The various Committees of the Council have the right to co-opt persons and specialists from the local community or elsewhere, although the co-opted persons do not have voting rights. Every councillor must create ward committees to be made up of ten members from the locality, five of whom must be women, and these members must be ordinarily resident in the locality.

The Vice President also informed the Councillors that all Council meetings including committee meetings must be held in public, and conducted not necessarily in the english language but in a language that can easily be understood by all Councillors, as long as the record of meetings is kept in the english language. He said that any committee which falls short of its functions and is unable to operate effectively and efficiently can be dissolved by the Council. Among devolved functions are community development programmes including the provision of social services like primary and secondary health care, promotion of Primary and Junior Secondary School education, feeder roads development, agricultural activities, markets, water supply facilities etc. The councils also have responsibility to levy taxes according to the needs of their localities.

Talking about the relationship between the councils and the Central government, the Vice President said that the Councils have two broad functions. These include the power to perform functions that were formerly performed by Ministries, that is, the devolved functions and delegated functions. The local councils, he said, must promote participatory democracy, good governance and cooperate with central government for the development of the people in their localities. The councils should be seen to adopt and promote all major government policies and take it to the people; for example, the food security programme. The Ministers formulate policies and when their implementation is devolved the councils must be provided with technical advice and grants tied to the devolved functions.

Vice President Berewa informed the councillors about the Provincial Co-ordinating Committee which he said is a committee provided under the ACT to facilitate relations between local councils and that its mmembership consisted the Resident Minister as Chairman, Provincial Secretary, Chairpersons and Chief Administrators of councils in each region.

Vice President Berewa also told the councillors that there shall be a Ministerial Committee to oversee the proper implementation of the Local Government Act. This Committee shall arbitrate in disputes between the local councils and central ministries, departments and agencies. Members of this Committee comprise the Vice President, who is the Chairman of the Committee, Minister of Local Government, Minister of Finance, Minister of Development and Economic Planning, Minister of Education, Minister of Health and Sanitation, the Attorney General, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Works, and four chairpersons of local councils elected to represent the interest of the councils.

The Vice President, however, advised the Councils to operate devoid of party politics. He said that the councils were developmental organs, solely created for promoting the development of the localities and the welfare of everybody in the localities.

Delivering his address during the swearing-in ceremonies at various localities in the provinces as well as in Freetown, President Kabbah congratulated the newly elected Councillors and expressed his appreciation to the people for the manner in which they comported themselves during the elections. He said this is a clear manifestation that Sierra Leone is now prepared to adopt democratic principles of which violence-free elections are the starting point.

The President said that since the assumption of the SLPP Government to power, they have conducted four elections, all violence-free. He thanked all the international partners, and specifically the UNDP, DFID, UNAMSIL and the World Bank for their invaluable support in helping to bring back the noble institution of local government machinery that was abolished thirty-two years ago by the APC regime. The local councils he said were a means of giving power back to the people so that they can elect their representatives freely, participate in local democracy in their respective localities and undertake actions and decisions geared towards community welfare and development.

President Kabbah said that he and his government initially wanted the elections to be non-partisan as they wanted well meaning people in the communities who shy away from party politics to be involved in the development of their communities. But unfortunately, the APC misinterpreted it to mean that the SLPP was scared of going to the polls on party basis for fear of losing the elections. But he said that the results showed that the people still have confidence in the SLPP government, and that out of 19 councils, 15 were won by the SLPP and only four went to the APC. This, he said, spelt a resouinding victory for his party. He, however, disclosed that the conduct of the elections which was peaceful demonstrated that the country's hard-won peace was taking firm root and that instead of a "win-lose" affair, Sierra Leoneans must appreciate the development as a "win-win" for the country as a whole.

In the border district towns of Kabala, Koidu, Kailahun and Pujehun, President Kabbah appealed to the people to facilitate the movement of people in accordance with Mano River Union and ECOWAS protocols but advised them to be very security conscious and report any subversive movements to the security officers in their localities.

He particularly appealed to the people of the North and East to encourage their women folk to participate in the governance of the localities. He asked them to send their girl child to school and stressed that women also have great leadership potentials that must be tapped.

President Kabbah made special appeal to the people in all parts of the country to embrace Government's Food Security programme. This country, he said, has enough resources to be able to grow our own food. Government does not determine the price of imported food stuff like rice, he explained, and disclosed that the cost of shipping rice from Asia to the country amounted to one-third of the toatl cost of rice per bag. This situation, he said, must be avoided by working hard to cultivate rice and other food items in order to realise food self-sufficiency and security. Otherwise, President Kabbah said, this country will export job opportunities to other countries while our citizens continue to remain jobless because of our inability to work hard for our own development.

He told the elected Councillors to perform their duties diligently as the development of their communities is purely in their hands now. He advised them to cooperate with each other and the central government and ensure the promotion of participatory government in their localities.

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