Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698080741367.pdf (Sierra Leone)
OAU DRIVE, TOWER HILL, FREETOWN P A R L I A M E N T A R Y D E B A T E S ____ [HANSARD] ______________ OFFICIAL HANSARD REPORT SECOND SESSION - FIRST MEETING WEDNESDAY, 29TH MAY, 2019 SESSION – 2019/2020 OAU DRIVE, TOWER HILL, FREETOWN P A R L I A M E N T A R Y D E B A T E S ____ [HANSARD] ______________ OFFICIAL HANSARD REPORT VOLUME: I NUMBER: 5 First Meeting of the Second Session of the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.
Proceedings of the Sitting of the House Held Wednesday, 29th May, 2019.

2 CONTENTS I. PRAYERS II.

RECORD OF VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY SITTING HELD ON TUESDAY 28TH MAY, 2019 III.

MOTION OF THANKS TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT JULIUS MAADA BIO PROPOSER: HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS SECONDER: HON.
FRANCIS A. KAISAMBA BE IT RESOLVED: "That we the Members of Parliament here assembled wish to thank His Excellency the President for the Address he so graciously delivered on the occasion of the State Opening of the Second Session of the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone in the Chamber of Parliament on Thursday 2nd May, 2019" [THIRD ALLOTTED DAY] 3 THE CHAMBER OF PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE Official Hansard Report of the Proceedings of the House _____________________________________________________________ SECOND SESSION – FIRST MEETING OF THE FIFTH PARLIAMENT OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC _____________________________ Wednesday, 29th May, 2019.
I. PRAYERS [The Table Clerk, Mrs Bintu Weston, Read the Prayers] [The House met at 10:20 a.m. in Parliament Building, Tower Hill, Freetown] [The Speaker, Hon.

Dr Chernor Abass Bundu in the Chair] The House was called to Order 4 Suspension of S. O 5[2] II.
CORRECTION OF VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY SITTING HELD ON TUESDAY 28TH MAY, 2019 COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIR THE SPEAKER: Can somebody please Move for the adoption of the record of Votes and Proceedings for the Parliamentary Sitting held on Tuesday 28th May, 2019?

HON.

MOSES B. JORKIE: I so Move Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Any Seconder?

HON.

BOSTON MUNDA: Mr Speaker, I so second.

THE SPEAKER: Thank you.


[Question Proposed, Put and Agreed To] [Record of Votes and Proceedings for Tuesday 28th May, 2019 has been adopted] III.

MOTION OF THANKS TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT JULIUS MAADA BIO PROPOSER: HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS SECONDER: HON.
FRANCIS A. KAISAMBA BE IT RESOLVED: "That we the Members of Parliament here assembled wish to thank His Excellency the President for the Address he so graciously delivered on the occasion of the State Opening of the Second Session of the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone in the Chamber of Parliament on Thursday 2nd May, 2019" [THIRD AND FINAL ALLOTTED DAY CONTINUED DEBATE] THE SPEAKER: Today, as you have heard, Honourable Members is the last allotted day for the Debate and I am going to restrict the Debate mostly to the various Leaders 5 represented here in Parliament.
In that vein I would like to start the Debate by inviting the Honourable Dr Kandeh Yumkella to start.

HON.

DR KANDEH K. YUMKELLA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, ‘Asalamualaikum’ and Ramadan Mubarak.

We the Muslims wish to share this blessed month with everybody in the Well and thank you for giving me this opportunity to make a few comments about the State of the Nation’s Address by His Excellency the President.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I will focus on just a few areas of the Speech.
First of all we commend His Excellency the President for giving us a very detailed briefing for about four hours.

My first comment is that, I think Honourable Speaker, we have to help Mr President in a way that we do not punish him the next time to sit in front of us for four hours to give a Speech that we have a rule that the Speech last for about 45 minutes or an hour and then he can circulate his document [Applause].

I think he has to do that because apparently his briefing is what will be debated.
I do not know if it is part of the rules or just tradition but we can save him a lot of pain if we just have him circulate the full text of the Speech [Applause].

THE SPEAKER: I really want to thank the Honourable Member for that observation.

That is a matter that is under active consideration and we hope between now and next Session something more congenial, something more acceptable will be done.

HON.

DR. KANDEH K. YUMKELLA: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Hold on Honourable Yumkella.


Yes Honourable Kargbo.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, I hope by taking into consideration what you are talking about regarding the Speech of the President, you will also take into consideration a Commonwealth Parliamentary best practice that the Head of State sits in the House and addresses the Nation.

THE SPEAKER: Of course, I do not think he was asking for any exception.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Okay, I was just wondering.


6 THE SPEAKER: Indeed, the primary example I would like to cite, if I may just draw your attention Honourable Members to one particular example which they always claim to be the Mother of all Parliaments and that is the British Parliament and that combines both your observation and Honourable Yumkella’s observation, is the Queen’s Speech.
The Queen as Head of State, her Speech is always a very short one, right to the point and focuses essentially on legislation that her Government intends to introduce during the Session and whatever other embellishments are contained in that Speech, as contained of course and circulated for the benefit of both Members of Parliament and the Public.
So we will be looking at that, not only United Kingdom practice but other Commonwealth countries as well to see how we can distil from their various practices something that we can then adapt to our situation here but certainly, to make life a little more tolerable and acceptable for His Excellency the President.

The speech I think was well noted by all to be rather overbearing.

Thank you.

HON.
Thank you.

HON.

DR KANDEH K. YUMKELLA: Not to beat a dead Horse but the United States’ Seventeen Trillion Economy, the State of the Nation’s Speech is less than one hour, the rest is circulated.

So I do not think we have to punish our Heads of State [Applause].

THE SPEAKER: Let me just make one thing clear because the point you made Honourable I.B Kargbo, my attention has been drawn and rightly so, to Section 84 [3] and Section 47 of the Constitution, the highest Law of the land.
There, that Sub-Section of 84 reads: “the President shall at the beginning of each Session of Parliament present to Parliament an address on the State of the Nation”.

So, it is not a question of just distributing the Speech he will actually come to Parliament to address a Members of Parliament.

HON.

DR KANDEH K. YUMKELLA: So, now my clock begins?

THE SPEAKER: Yes.

HON.

DR KANDEH K. YUMKELLA: Okay Sir.

I will go straight to the Economy.


Our Economy is still not in good shape and if you look at the President’s Speech on page 5, paragraph 24, 25, 26, he gives us an indication of how challenging the Economy still 7 continues to be.

In paragraph 24, he notes that 85% of our domestic revenue goes to debt servicing and salaries so not much is left to invest in agriculture, education or health care.

So, the Ministry of Finance really needs to do some more work in dealing with expenditures.
We commend them on the revenue side; they have done extremely well in boosting revenue collection that is one, they have super credit [Applause].

I know that during the campaign some of us questioned, if the National Revenue Authority [NRA] in the past regime was always exceeding expectations but we had such huge deficits then their estimates of revenue mobilisation were always wrong.
So, we are happy to see that in fact, we are able to collect an additional Trillion Leones in revenue in one year but paragraph 25 is worrying, $530.9mln owed to contractors.

I do not think as a Nation we are paying attention to our procurement processes.

In small developing countries like ours, the biggest business in town is the Government.
When you look at how much we owe contractors and this is a perennial problem from one government to the other, if the procurement is not done right, if there is significant overpricing, we are just denying our children a proper future.

The debt here is $530.9mln owed to contractors.

Are these numbers real?

How much verification is been done?

Can we begin to publish?

In open governments and open societies, they publish those who get Government contracts, for what purpose, when should they deliver?
For me we have done one year in the new regime, we are now going into year 2, year 3, and year 4, we need to see changes in the procurement process.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I used to deal with Climate Change issues, when you want to influence governments to go into energy efficiency, climate resilience, one of the areas you target is how they do their procurements because you can introduce standards, transparency and other expenditure controls.
If Government wants to control expenditures, apart from wages the next place is procurement, you can also go to the past Audit Reports.

I know the Audit Service audited five parastatals just a couple of years ago, it shows that those parastatals lost about Le50bln every year, it just disappears and most of it is from Procurement.

So, if we want to stabilise the economy 8 again we have to look at how we are dealing with procurement and Government expenditure.
Mr Speaker, Honourable, I do not want to beat a dead horse but we have talked about debt.

I commend the Government, according to paragraph 26 they have cancelled an additional $1.5bln of debt that was going to be paid.

We cannot overlook these things, we cannot, accountability must happen [Applause].
My colleague Honourable from Masungbala was right, I have said in this Parliament that maybe 40-50% of the people here are young folks, when you have these kinds of debts taken and they are not invested in future productive activities you and your children will pay the price.
[Applause] so, when some of us call for accountability, it is not about the APC, I want to state that, for me it is not about APC, it is to make sure whether it is APC, SLPP or NGC ‘insha’Allah’ in the future, we do not repeat the same bad things others are doing but there must be accountability [Applause].

So, again, I commend the Government for cancelling another $1.5bln of debt that we did not know where it was to be paid.
No, for SLPP they should take note, that is why some of us are welcoming the Commissions of Inquiry because [Applause] now we are been educated about how the leakages were been done.

If we know how the leakages where been done, we make sure SLPP does not open the leakages, so that they learn.

Mr Speaker, I now move to page 6.

Page 6, we commend the Government again for getting the International Community to re-engaged.
When I look at paragraphs 30 and 31, I added up the numbers there quickly, it seems that within one year there is approval of $681.8mln of projects financing already approved.

That is a good injection into the Economy [Applause].

Again, we hope that those monies or projects will be judiciously implemented.

Already $334mln had been disbursed and the rest are in the pipe line.
That is a show of confidence; we have to sustain that confidence to ensure that in fact, now apart from donor money, the domestic money we are looking for is the private sector investment.

A lot of what we have said about the economy we do not want to repeat them because we have already said it in the Budget Debate.

So, I would save time on that and move on to Page 14.

9 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on Primary Education.
Honourable Bashiru said, indeed, when the idea in the first Speech came about the Free Education Programme, some of us cautioned that it should be done slowly.

You were right; you were bold as a Government in starting right away.
We still maintain the facts that efficiency matters, you should study and monitor how the process is going so that we can correct the mistakes as we move along but my interest here is on ‘quality’ and again here, I see that in paragraph 84, the Government is reviving the Teaching Service Commission that is urgently needed.

I know most of us have seen on Social Media the videos and protests from students saying, it is their right to spy.
This morning on ‘Morning Coffee’ radio programme, they were having another discussion about how teachers were organising very cleverly, when they conduct exams within 30 minutes they finish answering one Question Paper and send the answers to the other kids through a Social Medium [what Sapp].

So, teachers are using technology.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I think we should declare a war, the same war we declared on corruption we should declare war on corruption in education [Applause].
For us NGC, in our manifesto we said we will declare an education emergency.

Let me tell you how serious it is.

When I got the audio clip of the young man speaking I do not know what type of English, demanding their right to spy, I sent it to some of my professional friends in Freetown I said dear colleagues; look at your future medical Doctors, Engineers and Politicians saying it is his right to be a crook at age 14 already.

Think about it and some of us should take this very seriously.
You the young ones, your children are going to hospitals where the Doctor has become a medical Doctor because he cheated, he does not know anything about anatomy.
They do not know our days in Christ the King College [CKC] Secondary School, we could draw the whole Human Skeleton by hand, we would buy Guinea pigs from Tikonko bring it to Doctor Yillah’s compound, about four or five of us who were in the 6th Form and we would do our own dissection, spread it out but that is not happening today this is serious.
So we commend the revival of the Teaching Service Commission but I truly believe, giving what I know is happening, I have spoken to Principals where parents are meeting Principals and 10 Head Masters to say to them, S.O 2 “we wan ib collection so una go ep we pikin dem for pass” parents, this is decadence in Society.

The parents want their children to advance in a crooked way, the teachers want to get extra money by helping kids go forward in their education.
This is the future disaster; they will be our Doctors, our Engineers and our Politicians.

God help this Nation.

I really believe we should call for an education emergency and declare a war on corruption in the education sector [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to move quickly to Democratic Governance.
Page 42, Paragraph 219, His Excellency the President has listed the efforts they are making to revamp some of the Democratic Institutions like the National Electoral Commission [NEC], the National Civil Registration Authority [NCRA] and so on.

Colleagues, depending on which Party you are, you will know that in fact the 2018 Elections were full of malpractices [Applause].

It is fact that the first Political Party that protested about the result was SLPP.
My friend Alie Kabba did the first protest to NEC, he made a list of what was wrong followed by NGC and of course ‘Tolongbo’ joined the game latter [Laughter] but indeed to give them credit, what they did they had more facts than the rest of us and for good reason they were in charge of governance.

Dear colleagues, the evidence of 2018 is, when you teach the wrong lessons people learn quickly and probably they would learn better than you [Laughter].
So, when I saw in paragraph 219 that His Excellency was putting the lens on reforms of Democratic Institutions, I am pleased.

I want to inform this House that I am in a Committee for NEC where they are looking at all the recommendations from all the Observer Missions.

There are 103 recommendations for Electoral reforms.

The European Union [EU] Observer Mission had 38 recommendations, 16 required Legislation from this House.
If our Democracy is corrupt, our governance will be corrupt; our people will be corrupt because we will also put corrupt people in leadership positions.

Mr President, we commend you for putting the lens on that we all want to be part of it as it is in every body’s vested interest that these 103 recommendations are taken seriously.

One of them I am sure the female politicians will be interested is to ensure we have a quota 11 system [Applause].

Let us have more women in Parliament.


In Rwanda, 60% of their Parliament is made up of women.

No wonder that country is progressing well.

Their Cabinet is 50% women [Applause].

So, you the ladies in this House, you should help us to move for Electoral Reforms.

Coalition For Change [C4C] and NGC know that we are the biggest victims of Electoral fraud but what I noticed in that Committee is that SLPP and APC are not fully engaged.
My advice is that we should engage at the highest level with all Political Parties not just leave it with the smaller Parties.

If you look at those 103 recommendations, they touched everything that we all complained about the Electoral system.

So we have four years, we better engage and it is good that it is mentioned in the Speech that Democratic Institutions will be reformed.
Three years six months, the clock is running fast Honourable Speaker, so some of us are becoming jittery now [Undertone] we have to begin to warm up again for the process.

Honourable Speaker says “it is too early, let us focus on development”, I agree with you Sir, let us focus on development.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, as part of democratic reforms, the past weekend some of us were at the Bintumani Conference Centre discussing Peace, Reconciliation and Social Cohesion.
Again, I say here what I have said publicly on radio, I believe it was a good process to begin the dialogue but it is the beginning of a dialogue.

We are hoping as a Party that the APC and others will join this dialogue; it is in all our collective interests to deal with those issues that divide our nation.

So, it is the beginning of a good process but two issues came up proposed by me what I believe this House should take a look at.
One of them was an exchange between me and the Honourable Speaker of Parliament; we need to have a Presidential Transition Act like in Ghana and also in Kenya [Applause].

We have to prepare this country for an orderly transfer of power.

The Ghanaians had to do it because they had a crisis in 2007; the Kenyans also had to do it because they also had a crisis around the same time.

They realised that they better plan for an orderly transfer of power.

‘Alhassan’ and ‘Alhusine’ you have done the same thing.
When ‘Alhassan’ comes in he would purge the system when ‘Alhusine’ comes in he would also purge the system.

‘Gbassay’ is coming [Undertone].

So, in the 12 interest of ‘Gbassay’ [Laughter] and for the nation, whether it is C4C or NGC or another Party in the future, whether it is an exchange between the two of you in the interest of those who serve this Republic, we should have a system of how we replace people in their jobs.
It is wrong, it is unjust to dismiss people who have served this Country unceremoniously, [Applause] it is wrong and it is unjust not to give them their benefits up to a year after they have left service, it is not proper.

They did it in 2007 to some of my own friends like John Karimu and others.

It has happened again [Applause].

So, we are saying for real change, we cannot repeat those things that were wrong in the past.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, what I want to recommend to this noble House is for Mr Speaker to set up a bi-partisan Committee to begin to work on that Act so that it comes from Mr Speaker himself not from any particular Political Party.

If you set up that Committee some of us will be willing to serve on that Committee to move such an Act [Applause].
THE SPEAKER: Before you move on, you remember in the banter we had at the Bintumani Conference Centre, I mentioned to you that the classic example of a country with the best transition arrangement is the United States.

There, the date for Presidential Election is known, it is set in stone.

The date for the inauguration of the President is also known, it is set in stone and the tradition of the loser congratulating the winner is becoming a custom almost crystalizing into a law.
So, these are some of the fine things that we need to borrow from the United States and other countries.

Here, there have been lapses where winners have not been congratulated by the losers and the supporters of the losers think it is business as usual but carry on please.

HON.

DR KANDEH K. YUMKELLA: In addition Honourable Speaker, it is also true that in those countries there is a period observed after the Elections before the swearing in so issues that are outstanding could be resolved.
That is the advantage of an Electoral Act but for us here in 2007 the phrase; the back talk was S.O 2 “go police if u nor happy,” in 2018, the phrase was or the back talk was S.O 2 “if u nor glady go na court” we cannot have that.

Our responsibility as Parliamentarians is also to prepare the nation for the future to avoid these kinds of confusion.
Thank you for the complement 13 [Undertone] but to avoid these things happening in the future we really believe that we should take a look at Electoral reform and possibly the Electoral Act.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I also want to talk about energy that is covered in page 27.

The power supply situation is still difficult in this Country.

Electrification is still below 25%, in the rural areas it is still 5%.
I have been engaging the Minister of Energy because I still deal with energy issues around the World to see how one can be of assistance.

I say this publicly here, we have said we want to be a constructive Opposition, where our expertise and knowledge is needed we will offer to the Government.

In this respect we are planning to have a Conference here in early November.
We have already set up a Committee and so we want to inform the Energy Committee here, this was a Conference that would have gone to another country but I am trying to find ways to make sure that it is done here [Applause] so that we can be recognised as a country that is concern about its energy system.
I have seen how Ghana and others have been able to capture a lot of donor money, every conference, they would suggest of hosting in their home country because they are always benefiting from donor funding and then they always refer to the conferences as the Accra Declaration, the Ethiopia Declaration we want the same here.

So, gradually we want to begin to attract those attentions here.
It also brings investors in every now and again when you do those activities but we are working on some other issues as well.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on Paragraph 139 again, here the Speech says and I quote “regarding power generation, in 2018, Government signed with Karpowership Contract to provide power to Freetown.

The new Contract saved the Government $9mln yearly and $18mln for the two years Contract”.

Dear colleagues, there is more than that happening in the energy sector.
Whatever our views are about the technical audits again, let us put a little bit of partisan aside and delve into those technical audits.

It is important, let us delve into those technical audits.

If you over price an energy project 30% or 40% you are denying this country another Power Plant [Applause].

Lack of energy or low quality energy in African economies is already taken 2% to 3% of the GDP away.
If you are growing at 3%, you loose another 2% to 3% from lack 14 of energy because of power and you have to put the Generator on and the cost to your production systems and the implication for health care and other sectors; you are literally killing the economy.

So let us take a look at the technical audit for the energy sector.

What really happened there, I have some information which I hope the Energy Committee will look into.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Let us look at Bumbuna phase II because this Parliament approves some of those projects.

Parliamentarians if we do not take our Oversight responsibility seriously and Agreements come here we do not check them we just approve, we are also part of the corruption [Applause] because it is our job to scrutinise the Agreements thoroughly that is why Committee work is important.
When we went to Accra, when Bills come to their Parliament, they give it to the Committee concern, the Committee has to examine first before it comes to the Floor because they have the expertise.

They have to do due diligence.

There are practices that has happened before which we should not bring here, not everything is an Emergency; let us give our Committees the power to do their jobs [Applause].
So, Energy Committee take a look at Bumbuna phase II, look at the costing of Bumbuna phase II compare that costing with international costing standards, compare it with Guinea.

How much is Guinea doing one Megawatt of Hydro Power and what is the cost involved, do not even go to Europe.

Is it cheaper in Guinea than we are claiming here?


Again, I repeat every Dollar you take from a legitimate project through corruption you are denying this country another Power Plant and we will keep suffering for Energy [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I move on to agriculture.

The Ministry of Agriculture is going to get a lot of money.

I was reading it; they are going to get about $250mln from donors.

We are very happy, we have to support agriculture.


I will just caution in the area of agriculture to say in the first place do not promise what you cannot deliver.

There is no way you can deliver food self-sufficiency in four years, S.O 2 ‘e nor possible’ [Applause].

Let us be realistic as some of us are Agriculturists.
Let us be real with the nation, we can rather say we develop a plan under the Ministry of Economic Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture that we have a ten years 15 plan to move this country to food self-sufficiency; this is the period it will take, why?

So the next Government, whatever Government it is can keep that agenda going.

One Government cannot give us food self-sufficiency in four years.
Everybody has promised that, former President Kabba promised the same, His Excellency former President Ernest Bai Koroma promised the same, let us not repeat the same here, let us be realistic.

Mr Speaker Honourable Members, Kambia District is the rice bowl of this Nation that is the fact.

This is why the white people during colonial time located the rice Research Institute in Rokupr, we are the rice bowl.
I got a note from the people in Rokupr, that the place is more or less moribund, nothing is happening.

You cannot do proper agricultural development without Research Support it is not possible.

It has to be backed by science as agriculture is a science.

It is agronomy, it is soil science.

It is, yes, and it is Economics.

If the science is not correct we run into problem.

This is partly why the sugar cane plantation here is in trouble.

They did not follow the soil test that was done.


There could have been other better places to grow sugar cane but anyway that is history.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I just want to make a point on the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute [SLARI].

The Agricultural Research institute started in Njala and also partly based in Rokupr I see the monies coming in but I do not see money that will back the science, the extension service that will support the agricultural revolution in this country.
I wanted to make that point [Applause].

[34:11] Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Finally, on the issue of the Diasporas S.O 2 “mi nor to two sim again” but again, I commend the Government for mentioning Diasporas in paragraph 50.

We down play the importance of the Diaspora because of various Political reasons.

In Philippines, the Diaspora send back $10bln every year.
In China the diaspora send back over $30bln, Nigeria is also clocking now $10bln, Senegal about $4bln, in our economy here it is probably $300mln or more and that is a lot of money they send back.

I agree with Mr President about what he says in paragraph 50.

We have to give them space to participate fully in our democratic process [Applause].

16 There are two dimensions to this, the Diaspora can vote without a Bill in Parliament.
The Electoral Act allows the National Electoral Commission to register them where they are.

So, it is an administrative issue.

We want to work with the NCRA, the Ministry of Political Affairs and the Diaspora Office to give them that right to vote as it is in the President’s Manifesto and in the President’s Speech.

Other issues will be addressed later so that there is no threat to anybody here, the other issues will be covered appropriately [Undertone].
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in conclusion, colleagues, you have heard me advocate strongly and I have been maligned by some Members of this House for advocating for capacity building of Parliamentarians.

People think that I say it just to earn income but that is not the case.

This Parliament has sent two groups of Parliamentarians to two countries which cost a lot of money to go and do study tours.

A group of us went to Ghana another group went to Rwanda.
If we have seen as I am pointing at my brother Honourable Emerson, Honourable Dixon Rogers and others and Mr Speaker we sympathise with them, for the accident.

We went to these countries, spent quality time to look at how they work.

Our House is one of the most important if not the most important arm, pillar or branch of Government we need capacity.

We should not be scared to talk about it.

Parliamentarians need offices; we cannot have Parliamentarians lingering in the corridors.
[Applause] that is not what happens in other countries and it is not about poverty.

The Ghanaians were already given offices since Nkrumah’s time, we saw the building.

When you build a Parliament you put offices for Parliamentarians.

Also, they are given assistance.

Parliamentarians need people to do research, we should strengthen our research capability otherwise we will make bad laws; otherwise we will rush and approve Agreements because we do not have the capacity.
We are all alone here, an individual Parliamentarian can become a Member of five Committees and how can you be an expert in five Committees?

In our advocacy, when we talk about capacity building it should not just be understood as welfare issue, the public is misunderstanding.

The powers we are given in the 1991 Constitution are 17 huge, if we do not do our functions right this nation will wreck.

Thank you very much [Applause].


THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Dr Kandeh Yumkella for his very constructive contribution to the Debate.

I am tempted if I may just be a little indulgent to react to one or two observations he has drawn attention to.
The issue of Governance, all of us know that just last week the biggest Democracy in the Commonwealth held their Elections which is India, not a single voice has been raised about a corrupt or a fraudulent Election by the electorate that is more than Nine Hundred Million.

Nine Hundred Million people voted over a period of time and not a single voice has been raised about a fraudulent Election.

I think there are lessons that we can learn from that country.
Honourable Members, the second point that I want to draw your attention to which the Honourable Member touched upon is capacity building.

Since I assumed office, I have been advocating very fervently that we need to build the capacity of Parliamentarians for them to be more efficient and more effective in their delivery.

We have got plenty of lands, we are trying to recover some of the lands that have been encroached within the precincts of Parliament [Applause].
I have given the directive to Mr Clerk to ensure that we retrieve all of those lands as quickly as possible and to protect those lands and we have even gone to the extent of approaching certain Governments I will rather not name them at this stage to help us construct a new building within the precincts of Parliament in other to enhance the capacity of Parliamentarians because I wonder how effective can you be when you come to Parliament, participate in Debate but you do not have any office in which to do your research, in which to do your follow up.
Most of you not even some; most of you I know do not have offices outside of Parliament that you can call your own.

So, by providing offices within the precincts, the urge will naturally come when you will rise from the Well to go to your office not only to attend to your Constituents but also to attend to matters pertaining to State Governance in other to enhance your own efficiency and effectiveness.

That is very much on the card and I will continue to pursue that line as vigorously as I can [Applause].
one Government has 18 even given me the nudge but they say it has to be part of the priorities of our Government.

So, I am engaging our Government to make sure that the building we are talking about constitutes part of the infrastructural initiative and infrastructure priorities of our Government.

Honourable Members, I was very pleased to hear also the Honourable Member touched on a subject that is his strongest forte agriculture.
Indeed, when we come to revisit the composition of the various Standing Committees, I am sure he would not mind giving a helping hand if not a leading role in that context.

So, once again I do thank the Honourable Member for his very constructive contribution to the Debate this morning.

Let us move on, I will now recognise, I do not know whether he is ready; the Honourable Leader of Coalition for Change to take the Floor.

HON.

EMERSON S. LAMINA: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I rise to contribute to the Motion of Thanks to His Excellency the President Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio for His Speech graciously delivered to this August Body on the 2nd of May 2019.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, having perused through this Speech, I came to the conclusion that the Speech delivered by His Excellency is detailed at the same time comprehensive.
The Speech virtually spelt out the effort that were been made for the past twelve months and that are intended to actually be implemented in the coming months.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am gratified to know that considering the dismal economy the President inherited and how he has been meandering since 2018 last year I hold the belief of a great economic fortunes will return very soon.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have been reliably informed by the Ministry of Finance through their monthly brochure that this Administration actually inherited a ruined economy [Applause].

In that, it will surprise us all that for every month, for Sierra Leone to settle its debt we pay about Le120bln.
The ripple effect is that every Thursday this nation pays, tomorrow will be Thursday and tomorrow Sierra Leone will pay about Le22.7bln settling its domestic debt as well as external debt, it is worrisome [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, paying 19 Le80bln to settle domestic debt and Le40bln to settle external debt actually shows that it is worrisome and the economy of this nation is at stake.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I believe with the efforts of us all, with stronger regulations we will be able to actually keep down our debts.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, it is about four hours His Excellency the President actually took to deliver this Speech.

Time will not permit to look at every aspect of it.

For this reason I will limit my statements on this Speech to just three factors and those three for the records directly deals with the District I come from.
I come from Kono District and three activities are predominantly laid for the livelihood of the people.

No.1 is mining, No.2 is agriculture and No.3 is petty trading.

Those three activities, it is through them the people of Kono get their livelihoods.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, speaking on agriculture, mining and petty trading I will end with a summary on national cohesion which I believe will go a long way for the survival of this nation if we are to live together.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I will talk on investment in human capacity.

I will also talk on cross cutting issues that has to do with peace and gender, cross cutting issues will be actually factored in my statements here today.

We believe that the greatest resource that we as a nation must now invest in is the human resource and it was no mistake that from the eighth Clusters of the National Agenda which is education for development is just tailor made by the Speech delivered by His Excellency.
It does have a relationship a huge one with the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, for those that will not actually want to see the benefit of the investment in human capacity, this is how it will benefit us as a nation.

Those that are in the primary school are in the period of input and we will continue to input.
Those in the primary school after five years we will see the output with the NPSE result and those now in Junior Secondary School [JSS] 1 after five years will see the evidence output of West African Secondary School Certificate Examination [WASSCE] result and those that will just complete their WASSCE after four years definitely will become graduates.

So, it is at this point we will begin to realise the output of the 20 investment.
I am actually not doubtful for the many resources we do actually put into education now.

I mean the Free Quality Education.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to look critically at page 7 paragraph 33, the aspiration of His Excellency clearly came out as I have spelt it out and on agriculture Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we must commend His Excellency for fulfilling the Maputu Declaration of at least 10% [Applause].

On Page 9 Paragraph 45 at least 10% which is a fulfilment of the Maputu Accord.
We have been reliably informed that about $22Omln on page 45 has been mobilised to be put into the agricultural sector of this nation.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members before the month of June expires $45mln is expected as indicated in the Speech of His Excellency the President.

This is a big boost and it is now high time for Members of this Honourable House to begin to look at the advantages in inland valley swamp, in fisheries, in the marine sector and in also cash crops.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, a little improvement that will come from the agricultural sector, it is stated in the 2018 Speech delivered by His Excellency the President, we were told that political appointments will now be consequent upon those that will actually express interest in agriculture; we still want to see the modalities.

Those modalities that will show forth we politicians and those in decision making offices are really ready to invest in agriculture.
Should you not know, I come from a district that has about seven poorer chiefdoms.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, this is an humble appeal if only His Excellency the President will factor into His 2020 Speech I am talking of six poorer chiefdoms, poorer chiefdoms because they are not blessed with the diamonds which Kono is known for.

We are talking of Fiama, Toli, Gbane Kandor.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, there is a road in the Kono District.
If this Government invest in that road which links Kono to Guinea, Ivory Coast and Mali, Kono will become another International Trade Centre that will boost the economy over night.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to bring that to your attention.

It will surprise us to know that about 60% of our population today depend on agriculture and the potentials are glaring, are very clear.

If we actually bank our hopes in agriculture we can turn this economy in a twinkle of an eye.
21 Mr Speaker Honourable Members, I want to take you to page 12 paragraph 61.

The sincerity of the President also opines in paragraph 61, page 12.

We realise that the President outlined the deficiencies in the Mining Sector in another words the gaps.

He did that also in his last year Address that most times transparency is not in the mining sector.

We realise that about 25% of our economy today do come from mining.

We also see the collapse of the mining sector because of bad policies.
Mr Speaker about 300 people including our family members depend on this particular sector which is the mining sector.

Over 70% of all the exports today in Sierra Leone do come from the mining sector I consider it very important.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, because of the sincerity of the President’s Speech that was delivered on the 2nd and on the 9th a history was also made, it was an epoch making day for three policies to be launched at the Bintumani Conference Centre these were; The Sierra Leone Mines and Minerals Policy, the Artisanal Mining Policy and the Geo-data Management Policy [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, down memory lane, in 1930 diamond was discovered in Kono District almost nine decades ago.
It was on that day on the 9th of May, 89 years ago; almost 9 decades there was no Artisanal Mining Policy in this nation.

[Applause] what a tap on the back of the erstwhile Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources [Applause] almost 90 years no Artisanal Policy which tells you the reason why my district is poor and why by extension the nation is poor it is because of no Artisanal Mining Policy.
Today the artisans the ‘san san’ boys are now in the state of happiness for them to receive the Artisanal Policy [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, there was no Geo-data Policy.

No wonder today we have about ninety nine years exploration license, five years exploration license even though, the miner or the investor will be doing another thing but today there is a policy.
Instead of giving the longevity of nine years, five years for exploration, as I speak to you now the Geo-data Aeroplanes are now flying; before this year expires we would have captured all our minerals in the district where we have them.

So, there will be no time wasting on exploration license but you go direct to the mining field [Applause].

22 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the process of reviewing the Mines and Minerals Act is almost at it completion stage.
I consider the existing Act to be obsolete, it is moribund, it is of no use and by the time the review is done Honourable Members the people of Sierra Leone will laugh [Applause].

The Extractive Revenue Bills under the mining sector has also been enacted by this House.

It is exclusively talking about tax regime.

There will be no hiding place for tax evaders.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative [EITI] through the help of the World Bank has also done us good for large scale mining companies.

The Country now account for twelve large scale mining licences and at the same time 152 exploration licences; can you imagine that?

That can be found in paragraph 63 of the President’s Address to the nation.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, time may not permit me much but if we are actually to invest, Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, if there is any good this nation can benefit now from it is the building and the promotion of national cohesion, the building of National Peace and Cohesion [Applause].

His Excellency the President is sincere to confess in pages 38 and 39.
The confession of His Excellency the President was very clear and that can be captured in Cluster Four of the Education for Development Agenda wherein the President himself admitted that for the past twelve months His Administration recognises the past governance strategy that was characterised by divisiveness, exclusion, and weakening and subversion of state governing institutions.

It is very clear you can take a look at it in page 38.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, moment like this will clearly show why we Sierra Leoneans are not physically at war with each other [Applause] even though, we are not at war but one can discern daggers, one can discern ammunitions in the heart of men.
According to William Shakespeare, “it is by no act to find the minds construction on the face.” Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, it is very clear that the Sierra Leonean society is characterised and has been for the past ten years characterised by prejudice, corruption, greed, state of lawlessness and mistrust.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the ethnic divide, divisive and toxic politics that was actually practiced is not good for 23 this nation.
The regional divide is very clear, we realised that the North and the Western regions are primarily been reserved or secured as a stronghold of the Opposition.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, it is also very clear that the Southern and Eastern regions with the exception of Kono is also the stronghold of the ruling SLPP Party.

I said with the exception of Kono, this is simple English I am not here to teach you syntax or semantics [Undertone].
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, it is very clear, to succinctly put Mr Speaker, we realise that the healthiness continues but since two of these regionally based ethnic groups handle power we notice marginalisation.

It is because the ‘Stevens’ Constitutions in the late 50s do not actually lay a solid foundation for a National Agenda and today we rip what they have sowed.
Sixty years ago, Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Regional people now feel marginalised, even the Civil Servants they feel insecure for Career advancement why because of Politics.

A lot of factors are actually contributing for the lack of trust in our institutions Mr Speaker and I will name them swiftly.

Firstly, it is the Judiciary.

If we are to attain and maintain National Unity and Social Cohesion between and among ethnic groups here today few institutions will do us good if only they stand firm.
Second is the Police, thirdly is the Civil Service, the fourth is the Government and fifth and finally is the Opposition parties.

What I have to say here today Mr Speaker on this note, we realise that the mission of the Judiciary is this.

With the leave of Mr Speaker, I read this.

The mission of the Judiciary is this and it is very clear that the health of every nation is determined by the quality of its justice system.
The mission of the judiciary number one with your leave Mr Speaker “is to ensure accessibility, fairness and justice for all, to uphold the Constitution and the Rule of Law, adjudicate over matters that have to do with civil and criminal in order to promote National Peace, Security and Development”.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the former Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana’s case in 2015 cast a dent, I do not want to go there but you are now tempting me.
[Undertone] Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Chief Sam Sumana’s case in 2015 nails a dent on the Judiciary.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Sam Sumana’s case in 2015 cast a dent on the Judiciary.

It surprised all for five justices that were in charge of 24 the Supreme Court, not even one gave a contradictory verdict to the illegal and unconstitutional sacking of Chief Alhaji Abubakarr Sam-Sumana [Applause].
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the country almost came to war had it not been that the man was very peaceful.

That was bad and it will take the Executive Arm to expunge that ugly and bad history that befell this nation like a nightmare.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, there is another kettle of fish.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members here we are, it could be recalled that in 2017 on the 1st of May the Supreme Court of Kenya overturned a whole Election result and call for a re-run what a classic example the Judiciary should copy from Kenya.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in May 2019 former President of Kenya Daniel Arap Moi a heavy fine was imposed on him for transacting in illegal land case.

The Former President Arap Moi of Kenya was heavily fined.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, what a rebuke for our Judiciary.

A Former President, heavy fine was imposed upon him for engaging in an illegal land case that happened this May the Supreme Court levied fine on him, a case for the Judiciary of this nation to learn from.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Police also we are calling on that institution for best practice.

When we went to Kenya I hope the day will come very soon when the report will be laid on the Table of this House.
The good lessons that we learnt in Rwanda will be brought here forward.

If discipline should cut across, the morale of the citizens are so low on the Police and these are institutions that should wake up.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, whilst we implore Government also to maintain law and order, I remember very well that one of the flagship projects of His Excellency the President is to curb out indiscipline.
It is still rife in the schools and many institutions will just go to streets to demonstrate even though it is illegal.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, if we are to maintain National Cohesion, let us also look at the role of Opposition parties.

Opposition parties are expected to behave responsibly [Applause].

National interest should come first as opposed to the moribund and the archaic attachment to political parties.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, a new Constitution will go a long way, we have realised that most of these Members of 25 Parliament over there are very competent, I have no iota of doubt in them for their ability to negotiate whether it is political negotiation or consensus building but because of the attachment to the moribund and the braved ideology they are scared of the sacred hook of Section 77[1]k in the Constitution.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, this call for an urgent review of the Cabinet’s White Paper of former Government.

Looking at all recommendations Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the enactment of a new constitution will also go a long way.

If we enact a new Constitution the 1991 Constitution it will go a long way.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I will round up with this Holy Commandment, the Commandment from Jesus Christ in John 13-34: “love one another”.

I thank you very much, Mr Speaker [Applause].


THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Member for his very constructive contribution to the Debate.

Let me take a cue from his last contribution drawing the attention of the House to the Provisions of Section 77[1]k. I know that provision has become something of an albatross around your necks but let me assure you as long as I sit here as Mr Speaker, Section 77 1[1]k will have no place [Applause].
So, do not be afraid of your leadership outside of this Parliament, do not be afraid of the manipulations that might take place outside of this Parliament.

I perfectly know because it is constitutional it is subject to interpretation [Undertone].

I do not want to engage you into any form of argument [Undertone].

I think I can recognise that voice, it will only come from one person Masungbala [Undertone]?

Well the two AKKs seem to have very similar voices today [Undertone].
Anyway, be that as it may, let me now call on the ladies of the House.

Is there one?

I call on the Honourable Emilia Lolloh Tongi to make her contribution.

HON.

EMILIA L. TONGI: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Madam before you start let me again, yesterday I reminded Honourable Members, it cause lots of confusion when you use your microphone for your undertones.
I have always said and I want to repeat again that undertones do form part of the Parliamentary Debate we can never get rid of it but please do not use your 26 microphones, keep your microphones out of your undertones.

Madam, you have the Floor.

HON.

EMILIA L. TONGI: Thank you very much Mr Speaker.

I would have actually been very enthusiastic yesterday if I had taking the microphone to talk to especially my colleagues Members of Parliament.

THE SPEAKER: Has it disappeared now?

HON.


EMILIA L. TONGI: Well it has cooled down though.

THE SPEAKER: So much the better.

HON.

EMILIA L. TONGI: Before I start Mr Speaker, I want to thank the Engineers who actually renovated our Parliament and today we feel comfortable I thank them very much [Applause].
I would like to tell them that there are few errors for instance, my name is not correctly written and yesterday my speaker was actually out of order but all the same I am happy to stand here today and talk on this Address.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to thank His Excellency the President Julius Maada Bio for such an excellent Address.

I want to start with two things.


First of all, by telling my colleagues that Rome was not built in a day [Applause] and I want to also tell them that His Excellency our President has just started and has just worked for forty eight weeks and I want to read what he has already written and said.

His Excellency said: “I am pleased to report rapid development in the agricultural sector.
A total of 3,800 hectares of oil palm is now planted all over the country, 2,000 hectares of cocoa have been rehabilitated, 52 Agricultural Business Centres selected for transformation and 26 of them have received complete post-harvest and processing machines with start-up capital.

Additional 125 Agricultural Business Centres have been constructed.

THE SPEAKER: Madam, please, there is a typographical error.

It is 25 not 125.

HON.


EMILIA L. TONGI: 25 Agricultural Business Centres have been constructed; I think 841 hectares of mainland valley swamps have been rehabilitated.

600 Kilometres of feeder roads have been rehabilitated, 59 small agricultural businesses and 9 medium 27 to large scale businesses supported by Small Holders Commercialization and Agri- Businesses Development Projects are now fully functional.

This is mesmerizing.

For 48 weeks, He has been able to actually realise these it is wonderful.
I would like to thank His Excellency for this start.

I heard Members of Parliament criticising His Excellency for not working as rapid as they are expecting but I would like to ask each and every one of us, what have each and every one of us done in our Constituencies that is so much significant compared to that of His Excellency?

I think we are trying as we have five years to go.

If we start criticising his Excellency in just twelve months of work I think we are actually unfair.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to talk on education.

In the area of revamping the educational sector, the way His Excellency has started is wonderful.

The idea of introducing the loan scheme is extraordinary but one thing I would actually like to help His Excellency about is to tell him that our graduates in this country, as we produce over five thousand graduates in all professions yearly, for the past ten years they have no jobs.
Therefore, if we start giving loans to our students without providing job opportunities for them upon leaving the University, how would they secure jobs in the midst of such a high rate of unemployment of our young graduates to pay back those loans?

It will not yield any dividend.

In Europe, the students are giving jobs immediately they leave the University.

If we start giving loans to our students at the end without creating employments for them, I think we might end up doing nothing.
Therefore, I think in that particular aspect of introducing the Student Loan Scheme without providing jobs as a means of boosting the educational sector in this country is not actually proper for now.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to talk about agriculture.

Agriculture, as my colleague Honourable Member has said, there is huge amount of money coming into this country to support the agricultural sector.
I want to tell this House that where I come from, we have vast land and we are producing so much cocoa, coffee, banana and groundnut.

We have abundance of that but unfortunately the infrastructural set up in terms of roads is very bad.
So, we are asking His Excellency to pay more attention to 28 that part of the country as we are currently taking our goods to neighbouring Guinea and Liberia simply because we have bad roads and if those roads are constructed, I am trying probably in the next six months I might finish the international market which I am trying to put up, we can bring all of these products in Sierra Leone to actually boost our economy but for now we are taking them to Guinea and Liberia and I think we are losing a lot as a nation.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, His Excellency Julius Maada Bio has actually disbursed some resources for the construction of an International Market in Koidu and this is very important.

International Market in Koidu is very good but we still have one problem that has been going on for the past ten years.
The former President, His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma tried his best to resolve the Yenga Border issue but up till date the issue of Yenga is still unresolved and we need the issue of Yenga to be resolved.

If we do not pay much attention to it right now I am afraid the International Market that has been planned and resource been allocated for might probably not be achieved [Applause].
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to talk on the First Lady’s Campaign for the girl child known as the “Hands off Our Girls Campaign”.

THE SPEAKER: I do not want to call names, but some of you are intimidating the Honourable Member, stop harassing the Honourable Member.

Go ahead.

HON.

EMILIA L. TONGI: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, His Excellency actually spoke about Women Empowerment and the way our girls and women are been treated in this country.
His Speech has actually proved that he is backing what Her Excellency the First Lady is doing right now in this country about her “Hands off Our Girls Campaign” [Applause].

There was a case in our SLPP office [Murmurings].

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, no letter has reached me to indicate a desire by the Honourable Member to move from her position as an Independent Member to any other position.

Therefore, I will take her last statement as a slip of tongue.
[Applause] no letter has reached me to indicate otherwise and I will entertain neither Standing 29 Orders nor citations from the Constitution on it.

Please Honourable Member kindly take your seat, leave the Honourable Member alone.

To put in writing and that has not reached me [Undertone].

HON.

EMILIA L. TONGI: I think it was completely a slip of tongue.
What actually I was trying to say Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, is that I was an SLPP those years, about ten years ago, our girls were raped in the SLPP Office and that case is still in Court, justice has not yet been given to those women and the men involved are out on the streets of Freetown bragging about it and when I read about His Excellency’s Speech, I think we should go back and make sure justice is given to those women who are still waiting [Applause].
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I will like to talk also about human capital.

Let us talk about human capital and let us take it very seriously.

A lot of our young boys and girls are dying in the Mediterranean Sea simply because they are running away from Sierra Leone; they are running away from Africa because they cannot find jobs to do.

THE SPEAKER: I notice Honourable Members are moving away from their assigned seats.

HON.

EMILIA L. TONGI: Should I continue Sir?


So, as I said, a lot of our young boys and girls are dying in the Mediterranean Sea, running away from their countries simply because we Sierra Leoneans, as I also mentioned produce over 5,000 graduates yearly and they cannot find jobs in their country.

As my colleague Honourable Member read yesterday about what His Excellency has just created and which is carrying on, that is the Car Wash Project.

He was actually condemning it.


A Member of the last Government who was a Minister, I met him in the United States washing cars and he made money out of that.

It depends on how you implement it; the President is trying; let the critics say whatever they want to say.

It is not easy, our country need jobs and if he is bringing in all of these jobs I think all we need from you on the Opposition is encouragement instead you are discouraging our youths.
We cannot give jobs to everybody and not everybody is educated enough to sit down in an office, not everybody is educated enough to be an Ambassador.

These youths were on the streets 30 campaigning for you, unfortunately, they are less educated and you know projects like the Car Washing Project can be of good help to them that could bring bread and butter at the end of the day on their tables, let us encourage them and not to discourage them.
So, I would like actually to seize this opportunity to thank His Excellency for His good job, He is doing an extraordinary job [Applause].

Since he took office, I have seen our President up and down in planes going out looking for investors bringing them on board just for whom?

For us, for our kids, in order to push Sierra Leone forward.

All of us can do it, when each and every one of us go out of this country, let us search for investors, people who can be of help to our country and bring them in.
I have started it already, when I go out there, I do not just go there to do my job, to study from them but I meet them and I establish businesses with them and trust me a lot of them are coming to this country to start something beneficial for this country because of him alone, His Excellency cannot do it alone [Applause].

That is why we are Members of Parliament, about 146 of us to be his eyes and ears so that we can push this country forward.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I actually want all of us to come together, let us share ideas in order for us to push Sierra Leone forward.

If the past Government had done it to the second level, let this Government do it to the eighth level [Applause].

So, please I am begging, let us come together because Walking out of Parliament by the Opposition has giving a bad image to this country outside.
Today, I was called upon asking if there is instability in Sierra Leone and I said to them no, there is nothing like that, it is just something minor.

So, please colleague Members of Parliament, I am your friend, I am an Independent Member, Section 77[1]K of our Constitution does not affect me, it affects you [Undertone].

I am here to actually attack issues, let us talk about issues in this Parliament that could help Sierra Leone, that could help your kids and that could help friends around the World.
Sierra Leone is the only country we have and trust me I am ready to give my last blood for Sierra Leone because this is the only country I have.

I thank you very much [Applause].

31 THE SPEAKER: I will like to thank the Honourable Member for her contribution to the Debate and I want to take special notice of the arrival of the Leader of the Opposition, welcome.
You know, I keep telling you when these Standing Orders were crafted; they were crafted at a time when you had only two political party’s representation now you have more than two political parties in the House.

Stop using them the way as to the time they were crafted.

We now have to apply the Standing Orders by way of adaptation.

I have reminded you time without numbers.

It is my pleasure to give the Floor to the only Rabbi in the House, Honourable Serajin Rollings-Kamara [Applause].

HON.
HON.

SERAJIN M. ROLLINGS-KAMARA: Thank you Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to invest the first three minutes of my twenty minutes to briefly respond to the two previous speakers one of them is the Member of Parliament from Kychum, Honourable Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella.

I am happy that we almost share the same note.

Him been an economist, I was pleased listening to him and I was really happy because of his vast knowledge on issues.
Unfortunately, he skipped a point I was expecting and that has to do with the World Bank Report as it relates to the Presidential Address [Applause].

May be because he is an economist I expect him to have done better work on that for me being a layman.

I looked at the eight pages on the economy, I think I will not understand better if next year the President comes and something is not reflected on the Dollar exchange rate.
For me, what is meant of improved economy is the stabilisation of the foreign exchange rate.

For instance, let us say the exchange rate was Le9th to a Dollar but when the new regime comes they have fought very hard and now it is Le7th to a Dollar for me as an ordinary person I can understand that.

What I see here is a panegyric of blotting economy, for me as an ordinary person I will not understand.
So, that is why I was expecting the Honourable Yumkella to have done justice to the Debate by relating us to the World Bank Report [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the other issue I want to talk on is already mentioned.

I think I am very much happy that it touched on the issue of the marathon Speech and I will not go to that again.

32 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the other speaker was Honourable Emerson Lamina from Kono District.
He mentioned about debts and I want to believe even the greatest economies in the World are in debt [Applause], but fortunately or unfortunately, we see today within twelve months we have approved loans here which tells you that even the SLPP is doing the same of what did in relation to debts [Applause].
So, the sooner we stop talking about debt the better of course as I stand here I am in debt and I am happy about that because people are praying for me by saying please God bring Honourable Serajin today so that he can pay my money.

That is the reason why you go into debt.

Therefore, we should stop that because naturally we needed the money for development.
He also mentioned about the sacking of former Vice President Samuel Sam-sumana but he failed to mention about the withdrawal of his security and this was unfortunate in his speech.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Honourable Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, his topic on education, I support him and of course it is really disheartening today to see the kids messing up and this is where I gave my heart to the Police.

[Suspension of S.O 5[2] being 12:00noon] HON.

SERAJIN M. ROLLINGS-KAMARA: Thank you Mr Speaker.


In as much as we blame the kids for their failure to study we also want to blame the teachers.

It is only in Sierra Leone where you do hear teachers saying S.O 2 ‘nobodi nor dae pas mi paper’ making education very difficult, people bluff over it as if it is an impossible thing.

So, in as much as we handle the kids, we should also handle these teachers and lecturers who go about making education very difficult.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, about transforming the economy, as I said, it is an eight Pages on the economy and we want to see that reflect on the foreign exchange rate.

Paragraph 4 is saying “we inherited”.

This is one year on and I think the aspect of inheritance should come to an end now.

Yes, you have been giving a year to perform so we want to see performance.
That is why last year we gave room to the President for him to show case what he wants to deliver and now is one year on, we want to see progress because we cannot keep on crying over spill milk.

This is like what we know 33 about the Slave Masters in the United Kingdom [UK]; today their children are owners of Barclays Bank, Liverpool Football Club [FC].

So, forget about what may have happened which some of us were not preview of and let us turn to a new page and move on, that is the New Direction.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on agriculture, page 9.

I want to see these subsidies been cut off on rice importation and the revenue used on the growing of local produce.

We talk a lot but we still import rice, I think we have to work on that [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on Tourism, page 11.

Ecotourism in particular should be the key and many a time we talk about Tourism.

I heard the Minister spoke on many occasions about Tourism.
Last week, I was fortunate to visit Banana Island and Ricketts Island.

I met an 82 years old woman who told me that this is where Sengbe Pieh was kept before he was taking to Goree Island in Senegal but when you go to Senegal, Goree Island has become a Touristic area where Senegal makes a lot of money on a daily basis but for us here Banana Island is almost like an isolated Island the only thing that will tell you that this was a slave place is the Canoes you see on the ground and nothing else.
We can develop these places and make them become Tourist Centres.

Also, we see that most times we negotiate, talk about people like what we have in page 11 about these Organizations that give money.

Maybe, I do not know especially Mr Speaker because you have worked in the Commonwealth, what I have not seen happen here is that we have not had time to ask for reparation.
A lot of African countries for instance, when you go to Senegal they will tell you that about 20mln Africans were taken from that Island to the West Indies and 4mln died.

We have never asked for reparation, we still depend on pittances.

For Israel when they experienced the holocaust the German Government paid them $800mln for them to resettle but for us they took over 20mln people of African descent and nothing is there to show for it yet we continue to depend on them for pittances.
I think it is high time we start talking about it and ask for reparation.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, talking about Human Capital Development on page 14, I think we need more of marketable professions and more of polytechnics.

I think 34 gone are the days when people will say I have BA, Geography etc.
Our Tertiary Institutions have to produce marketable professions, let the universities try to review their curricular so that they can produce graduates who can gain employments immediately they are out of the universities.

It is unfortunate to note that more often than not, our students graduate 3, 4 to 5 years down the line they will still have no jobs.
Mr Speaker Honourable Members, talking on Basic and Secondary School Education on page 14, I expect Mr President to have also countenance the contributions made by us Members of Parliament.

I think we contributed overt Le1.7bln over a year towards the Free Quality Education Flagship Programme but we were not mentioned [Applause].

I think History should have it that we also contributed to that.

I think we also have to put a monitoring mechanism because it is an initiative we have contributed to.
Frankly to say the truth, the quantum of people coming to our houses in relation to school aid has actually diminished because they now have a Free Quality Education and we contributed to it but we were not countenanced.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on Page 22, talking about Sports, whilst we applaud the effort of the Government to bring back football so far, I will equally call on the Minister of Sports to ensure that the Ministry is a Ministry of Sports not just Football.
There are other disciplines that are suffering and I think if we have a robust and direct leading from the Ministry, Parliament will give them that platform to succeed more.

I could recall that even when the Ministry came they met us during the Budget hearing for last year, the Chairman and Members of the Committee on Sports were very instrumental in guiding the Ministry on the Budget and it was approved.

I think if they continue to work along that line we will be happy.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to give credence to the Premier League Board for organising a successful League so far which has actually bring Sierra Leoneans together and I think we the Parliamentarians also played a pivotal role and should be giving the credence because we played against the Executive arm of Government and we defeated them by 2 goals to zero.

We cannot just be criticizing, Mr 35 Speaker, I want to point out somebody who is no less a person but the Stadium Manager.
I think some of us who have business in the Stadium like playing football and other things we have find out that the Stadium and the Hostels have been transformed drastically and dramatically.

Reason been the guy is hard working.

His predecessor was my friend and I was not happy that he was removed but again when you look at the spate of development this manager has brought to that place I would only ask that all appointees of the President emulate his example, he is a very hard working person.
Also, Parliament enacted the Sport Authority Act, making obsolete the Sport Council.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, sometime ago last year or year before last, we enacted the Sport Authority Act.

It has been in the shelf of the Ministry and this is like the success of the Ministry of Sports, but it has been left in the shelf without been implemented.

It also begs the question, how many times do we make laws and they are not implemented?
I think the Sport Oversight Committee should put pressure on that in order to ensure that what is embedded in that document comes to reality because it is going to be a blessing for all Sierra Leoneans.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on disability issues on Page 23, many a time we talk about these people but the more we talk about them the more we see the number increasing on the streets as beggars.
I think we need to come up with a strategy; an Action Plan to remove them from the streets and make them become useful citizens.

Disability is not inability but many a time when you see them the first thing that comes into your mind is to see them as beggars but I think I have worked with few people who have great ideas.
There is a saying which says: “where there is a will there is a way” but in this case they have the will but the way is still left to be found and I think the responsibility of the Government is to make sure that the way is provided.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority [EDSA] in Paragraph 142, Page 27.

I think EDSA continues to give high tariffs and the supply of electricity of late has been very appalling and a lot of properties have been destroyed.
It is only in Sierra Leone that we do not have any compensation but believe me many homes have suffered.

I also want to point out that many people are 36 consuming electricity illegally but again it is through the connivance of some of these EDSA workers.

I am made to understand that the rent on EDSA is very high; it is not only EDSA but MDAs as well.

They need to own their own properties.

The Petroleum Directorate, they built their own office at Kingtom.
We have the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation building where Njala University was occupying, I do not see any reason why the Right to Access Information should go and rent a building while the Government has that mighty building which we only need to refurbish.

I am sure Honourable Bashiru is here as Chairman of Works and Government Assets Committee, I hope you will work with them to make sure that we try to move away from this mentality of renting.
We know that commissions are there but again if we think that the Government cannot own its own properties what do you expect?

That is why the Houses in Freetown they are always at the mercies of land owners.

The case always is; you develop a house today and the next day the landlord tells you that he needs the house.

You can pay $3th or $4th a year for rent and you have nothing to show for it after five or ten years, I think we need to develop a system wherein we introduce a mortgage system.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, talking about Air Transport on Page 29, I am happy that we have read about reduction of charges on tariffs.

We also need reduction on the prices of flight tickets.

In fact, as I speak now SN Brussels just last week raised their ticket cost and I do not think this is fair.

If the Government is doing something to ease the burden on people, I think we should also monitor the process.
For me, I have to usually fly through Guinea because there is always a difference of $400 or $500 in the price of flight ticket when you go to Guinea.

I think we have to do something better.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, talking about foreign affairs on Page 42, the foreignness of the Ministry is actually been realised but the International Corporation aspect is most times missing.
As we all know, as usual we go for Schengen Visas must times in Abidjan or in some cases in Accra but in Ghana, if you carry a Service or Diplomatic Passport, you do not need a Visa to go to Germany.

Also in Sierra Leone here, we have German Embassy but we do not have a Consulate, we have a French 37 Embassy here but we always have to go to Guinea to facilitate our travelling processes [Applause].
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs actually has to take action so that regardless of who you are, you are accorded an easy and comfortable travelling process in and out of this Country.

Mr Speaker, I think I was in your office some time ago, you told me that you have to go to Guinea for Schengen Visa.
To ease off some of those constrains, we need to have some privileges as Members of Parliament such as carrying Diplomatic Passports to avoid the idea of going to Guinea like any ordinary person in a queue just to have a Visa.

Therefore, we need to have robust action from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address such problem.

Why is the German Embassy here?

If they cannot give us Visas what else are they here for?

I think these are issues for the Ministry to resolve.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, also, I think we need strategic partnership with particular countries.

I do not want to see the norm, the conventional way of things been done.

For instance, you see a whole Continent and a country like Australia is still been place under another Mission.

I think we need now to look for new Development Partners.

We always talk about debt because our usual Development Partners are unease with us; they call us all sorts of names because they are tired with us.
Therefore, it is high time we open new embassies that are strategic.

Mr Speaker, I will not hesitate to mention three major countries that could be of help to us, namely: Australia, Canada, and of course Israel.

Two years ago, Israel gave Liberia $37mln which is not a loan but grant.

Also Four years ago they gave them $216mln but always we come here and Debate about Loan Agreement that is $4mln whiles there is somebody who can give you a better cake it is unfortunate.
On that note Mr Speaker, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity and also want to thank Mr President.

The magnanimity on our side as APC Members of Parliament, we want to express here that we want him to succeed because if he succeeds Sierra Leone will succeed and if he fails we all will fail.

So, on that note we want to ensure that there is harmony.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, talking about Walkout, of course, this is where I want to end my note because the last time the Leader of Government Business was on 38 air making all sorts of remarks that are out of his mandate.

By saying: “they will not head any Committee”, that was very wrong and I think we are elected Members [Applause].

You might have been there for three terms or whatever but that is not the point.
Mr Speaker I want to thank you for the kind of heart you have because you have actually tried to bring us together and put two different teams to work for one goal [Applause], but the last time the Leader of Government Business was on the radio, it was really unfortunate because he said things that were out of his mandate and I wish he do not do that in this Second Session, I will assure you that we are going to work and we are going to call things by their names.

Thank you very much [Applause].


THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Member for his very constructive contribution to the Debate.

I now recognise the Honourable Ibrahim Tawa Conteh.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
I think since we returned to this House on the 2nd of May 2019 for the State Opening of Parliament and recalled on the 21st May, us coming back on the 27th of May for the Debate on the Presidential Address, I have not remembered a moment where Members of Parliament have paid tribute to our falling colleague.
So, before I start I will want Members of Parliament to remember our colleague in a different way and in a Parliamentary way by giving a round of Applause in recognition of the Honourable Momodu Eskimo Mansaray [Applause].

Thank you very much.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, governance they say is an activity and it is therefore measurable and gear towards promoting the lives and living patterns of the people of a country.
The key performance tool for measuring the progress and deliverables of a Government is the Manifesto.

Hence, in December 2017, candidate Julius Maada Bio launched the People’s Manifesto which when elected, has become his Bible and Quran to deliver and promote the life and wellbeing of the people of this country.
On the substance of the People’s Manifesto Mr Speaker, President Julius Maada Bio was elected President of the Republic of Sierra Leone starting the 4th April, 2018 to deliver his Manifesto commitment in the next five years.
39 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the fictional contributions from my colleagues on the other side and the seeming attempt to equate the works of ‘Adebayo’ especially what the Honourable Kandeh Yumkella usually refer to as the institutional corruption and leakages, in this particular Debate Mr Speaker, is a no brainer [Applause].
The Fiscal Strategy Statements read in this House by the Minister of Finance in October 2018 set forth the Agenda of this Government as per requirement and in tandem with Section 21 of the Public Financial Management Act which requires the Government to set its priorities for the next five years.
In that vein Mr Speaker, the Minister of Finance sets the following as the priorities of this Government: education, transforming the economy with special focus on restoration of macro-economic stability, diversifying the economy by improving the productivity of the growth driving sector, developing infrastructure and improving governance accountability.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, therefore, I would want to use this opportunity to let the people of Sierra Leone understand what President Maada Bio committed to in his Manifesto before been elected as President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and how far has he gone in meeting those Manifesto commitments.

Mr Speaker, on the SLPP Manifesto, Page 36, His Excellency the President promised to revert from 6344 system of education to 6334 with focus on improving learning and teaching.
It is no secret that the 6344 has giving way to the 6334 with special emphasis on the provision of teaching and learning materials, the provision of teachers lesson note to improve examination performances both internal and external examinations.
Also without been included in the Manifesto, the President in his ambition to ensure that we develop the Human Capital of this Country has incorporated the School Feeding Programme, he has also incorporated the School Transportation Programme in the form of the Public Bus System.

In these, Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, His Excellency Julius Maada Bio has got full marks [Applause].
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Manifesto commitment on page 36, he said he will implement and form a new Free Quality Education Programme for primary and secondary levels.

On Paragraphs 75 and 76, His Excellency was clear on what he has 40 done and the fact that for the first time in the history of this country Mr Speaker, a Government has made a commitment and has surpasses that commitment.
He promised 20% in line with the Education for All requirements, he has delivered 21%, on that again Mr Speaker, His Excellency has scored a full mark.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on Manifesto commitment, on Page 37, he promised to depoliticise the Boards of Schools.

My School is a classic example.

Mr Speaker, at Services Secondary School, before becoming Honourable Member, every Honourable before me was a Member of the Board.
Today, with the New Direction and with the new adage: “talk and do”, no Member of a Political Class is now a Member of any School Board.

On that again Mr Speaker, His Excellency has got full mark.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, increase access to Quality Education, on Page 38, “Free University Education for students pursuing Sciences and Technology courses” Paragraph 97 on Page 19.

Paragraph 97 Mr Speaker, the President has also promised and he has delivered.
Today, students applying into universities who are pursuing courses in the sciences are not paying a single dime.

That is a Manifesto commitment and it is fulfilled.

Again, the President has scored a full mark.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on transforming the economy, before going to the economic transformation with your leave Mr Speaker, permit me to quote exactly what my Honourable colleague wrote on the Sierra Leone Telegraph on the 5th of October 2016 who is the Honourable Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella.

He said; “since we and our children have to repay all those loans, we have right to demand answers to these questions.
Unfortunately the next Government or Administration is already completely tied up in debts and might not be able to function” that was exactly what we inherited and that is inheritance from the Honourable Serajin Rollings-kamara.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on the Extended Credit Facility Programme, the IMF analysis was very clear that the down side scenario for the Sierra Leone Economy on revenue to GDP ratio.
Because our revenue collection was very weak, because our revenue collection was abysmal, what they projected?

They projected that consistently in 2007/2008, our economy or GDP will be 12.0% and on the base line on the higher 41 side, what did they say?

They said, by 2018, if we vigorously pursue effective collection and revenue mobilisation we could achieve 14.0% revenue to GDP.
On Page 2, Paragraph 5 Mr Speaker, the President has moved the GDP of this country from 12.6% in 2017 to 14.0%, which means our GDP to revenue ratio, has moved.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Point of Order Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, it is very clear that a country’s GDP will never be 12 or 14 points as he stated.

That information is absolutely not correct for the edification of the listening public Sir.

HON.
HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, for further clarification, I am sure your ears where very focused to me as I was relating GDP to revenue.

So, it is very clear that the analyses on the Speech and the analyses by the IMF refer to our GDP to revenue.

Mr Speaker, the Government of His Excellency Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio has paid special heed to the fact that he met an economy that was moribund; he met an economy that was dying, what did he do?
He has reduced taxes as against what my colleagues on the other side usually said to the public that taxes have been increased.

In the Finance Act of 2018, this Government reduced taxes significantly.

Tariff on wheat was moved from 35% to 10%, tariff on Beer was moved from $4 as per Finance Act of 2017 to $1.5 and in addition to increase the space, the 2016 Finance Act makes provision for the levy of 20% tax on every vehicle that is $25th.
His Excellency has moved that threshold from $25th to $50th on the same threshold of 20%.

That is to say we talk and we do [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on economic diversification, the Honourable Kandeh Yumkella spoke about agriculture and what we have done as a Government, we promised to meet the Maputu Accord and in the Maputu Accord, the threshold is 10% for budgetary allocation to agriculture.
Progressively, this Government has moved the threshold from 5.3% left behind by ‘tolongbo’ to 6% which shows this Government is committed and the Budget presented to Parliament for 2019, Its shows a progressive increase and by 2020 we will be having 9% allocated to agriculture.

Also by 2021 we will meet the full requirement of the Maputu Accord of 10% that again is a 42 commitment that would be fulfilled.

This is another 100% to His Excellency Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, my colleague from Masungbala, Taala and Kambaca Sections did say and he was waving his APC Handing over Notes by Adebayo.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, can this House know who Adebayo is?

THE SPEAKER: I do not know whether the Honourable Member will like to tell us but I think we can all assume that the name Adebayo has Nigerian origins [Applause].

HON.
HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, I am asking contingent of the fact that there is one Adebayo who uses Social Media on a daily basis.

THE SPEAKER: No, I have not landed.

Having headed the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS] and was based in Nigeria for nearly six years, I think I know the name Adebayo has Nigerian origins but has been imported into Sierra Leonean parlance and not necessarily our culture but Sierra Leonean parlance, is it a Sierra Leonean parlance?
I do hear of people talking about Adebayo.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker Sir, we are asking because the Adebayo we know is almost always on Social Media.

THE SPEAKER: So, you know one?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: I know one.

THE SPEAKER: Then who is he?

Tell the House who the Adebayo you know is.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: The one I know is a Social Media Activist, THE SPEAKER: That is all?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Yes?

THE SPEAKER: Then have a seat [Applause].

HON.


IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Thank you Mr Speaker, you know, as part of the pattern of the APC is to distract.

That was what they did in the National Cohesion Conference.

As we all know, when they left this Well they were displaying placards and on those 43 placards, the issues advanced for them walking out Mr Speaker were all latent.
They said they walked out because they have petition cases that are in Court, they say they walked out because the Election of the Speaker according to them was unconstitutional, they say they walked out because S.O 2 ‘di grun dri’.

Mr Speaker the question that would come to mind is simple, where all of these activities happening in 2019 or 2018?

In the State Opening of 2018, was the APC Present?


They were there seated but because they did not like peace, because they did not want this country to understand cohesion, [Applause] because they want to send a message to the outside World that this country is not stable and it is on that background that most of them have said so much about Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio that he will not be President of this country, He does not have the standing.
Therefore, they find it difficult to succumb to his Presidency [Applause].

So, what they have reverted to is to use blatant actions [Applause].

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, Point of Order.

Mr Speaker, my Point of Order is S.O 34 Sir.

Our Honourable Member over there is clearly misinforming the people about the reasons that precipitated our Walkout.

He micromanaged the truth by only limiting it to what happened before the State Opening of Parliament.

We have written several letters.


THE SPEAKER: You mean he has deviated?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Of course, he has deviated.

THE SPEAKER: And you are bringing him back to Order?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Exactly Sir.

THE SPEAKER: So you are back to Order, continue [Applause].

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Thank you Mr Speaker.

As my Honourable colleague has said, he has brought me back to order and I am in order.
The same hand that is saying he want to dialogue is the same hand that is pushing and causing trouble around the city.

44 HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, my Honourable colleague over there is making this debate difficult.

He cannot allege that people are causing problem in the city.

This is a big allegation that has to do with the credibility of Honourable Members.

Some of us have suffered under the period of time to build up our credibility.

It cannot be water down by him.

HON.


IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: [Singing form the ruling side] you were on the streets and you were causing trouble for peaceful citizens.

Have your seat you do not have my permission [Applause].

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, Point of Order?

THE SPEAKER: Did you do all of those things he is alleging?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, allow me.

Mr Speaker, he has sway away from what we are here for.

THE SPEAKER: I agree.

HON.


ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, seemingly you are supporting him to sway away.

THE SPEAKER: No, he is deviating.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Thank you Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: My only concern is did you do any of those things?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Let me answer you Mr Speaker.

What we did that day, THE SPEAKER: No, did you or did you not?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: If you give me ample time I will explain to you what we did Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Hold it.


From your answer, I can definitely conclude that you are challenging him that you did not do any of the things he is alleging?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, I am not saying we did not do it.

THE SPEAKER: Oh!

You did?

45 HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Yes.

I am saying the actions we did on that day were quite justifiable.

We have reasons for what we did and what we did was Parliamentary and it forms part of our processes.

THE SPEAKER: Were you demonstrating in the streets?

HON.
HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, if you could allow me to explain to you, we matched out of the Well of Parliament.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Mr Speaker, you want to make this House very difficult for us and we are not going to take it lightly Mr Speaker.

You are seemingly helping Honourable Tawa and you should not.

You should be a moderator THE SPEAKER: Take your time, have a seat.

Both of you take your seats.

The gentleman please rise.

If you continue with that behaviour I will ask you out.

HON.
HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, I have not landed Sir.

THE SPEAKER: Carry on.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Yes Sir.

Mr Speaker, I was saying this Debate was called as a “Thank you to the President”.

So, all what we are expected to be debating here is what is entrenched in the Speech of the President.

THE SPEAKER: I agree.

You cited S.O 34?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Yes Sir.


THE SPEAKER: Wait a minute you cited S. O 34 which I agree and S.O 34 it says: ‘‘Any member deviating from the provisions of these Orders may be immediately called to order by Mr Speaker or the Chairman….’’ HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Exactly Sir.

THE SPEAKER: So, I reminded the speaker that he is deviating and should be brought back to Order.

What is happening?

You are strangers here be careful.

I do not want to hear any voices at all from the Galleries.
You are not supposed to participate; you are only there to observe not to be participants.

You are not qualify to be participants here.

46 HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Yes, Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: No, wait.

Visitors in the Galleries, Order!

All of you visitors in the Galleries both lower and upper you are merely meant to be seen and not be heard.

If I hear one more comment from anybody I will ask you out.
You are not participating in this Debate; you are observing it that is the decorum I expect from the upper and lower Galleries.

So, no more of that please.

Carry on.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, I am saying, if the Honourable Member wants to raise a Motion for us to discuss what precipitated our walk out it will be fine.

We are always okay with Debates.


THE SPEAKER: I agreed with you when you cited S.O 34 and I was simply trying to remind the Member that he should not deviate because you have reminded us he is deviating.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Yes Sir.

THE SPEAKER: I want to believe he stopped, did he?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: He did not.

THE SPEAKER: If he did not then come to the point.

No more deviation will be allowed, Honourable Tawa you have the Floor.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

HON.
HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO [Deputy Leader of the Opposition]: Mr Speaker, Point of Order Sir.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: You will not allow me to finish, if it is not Honourable Abdul Kargbo it is the Leader.

THE SPEAKER: Hold on.

I have to listen to the Acting Leader of the Opposition.

No, I will not allow you to be changing seats.

No, you have not caught my eyes, go and take your seat.

Yes Mr Leader.

You have missed the boat Honourable Marah.

47 HON.
47 HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: I am pleading with you as the Speaker to revert to proper parliamentary refereeing because I want to make this point very clear.

THE SPEAKER: The ball went offside?

Let us bring it now to the centre.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: If you take positions Mr Speaker, THE SPEAKER: I do not, you know it.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: If our Membership THE SPEAKER: I do not.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: If you take positions that are not consistent with the truth.

THE SPEAKER: With the?

HON.


IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Truth THE SPEAKER: That was why I asked, hold on Leader.

An allegation was being made, my ears were wide open I heard him make allegations that you people paraded the streets and sang and I ask the question, did you do so and I was informed that you did not.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker with due respect Sir, the question from you was most unnecessary because the question itself is adding more problems to the matter already.
We have spent one whole year trying to keep these people at bail and Mr Speaker if we get tired keeping them at bail we take no responsibility if anything goes wrong here I will take no responsibility because this is deliberate on your path to create a situation that will bring problems here, thank you Sir.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker I stand on S. O 32[9] THE SPEAKER: Thank you.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, if I can quote you THE SPEAKER: Order!
Honourable Koroma has the Floor.

48 HON.
DANIEL B. KOROMA: If I can quote you, at the beginning of yesterday’s proceedings you gave a stern warning that all subsequent speakers of this Presidential Debate must not mention anything relating to criminality of any individual here but Mr Speaker right in your presence and within your hearing of which you can attest to our colleague Honourable Member from Lumley stated here that Members of APC Party paraded the streets and caused trouble and it is in your hearing and there is no diction wherein a trouble maker cannot be associated with a criminal.
If somebody is called a trouble maker is equivalent to a criminal.

THE SPEAKER: Order!

Allow the Honourable Member.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Thank you very much Mr Speaker.

I am just saying for him to impute the APC Members of Parliament as being trouble makers, THE SPEAKER: Hold on.

That is what I did not hear him say.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: You did not hear Mr Speaker?

THE SPEAKER: Hold on.

I heard him say that you marched the streets, you paraded the streets.
He did not add what you are adding now that you caused trouble.

He did not say you caused trouble.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker on that note, I am pleading that we do a replay of his speech and I commit myself to you that if the word ‘trouble making’ or he did not refer to us as trouble makers you can take any action against me as on institution of which you are the Head.

THE SPEAKER: Maybe we do not need a replay; you have made your point.

Honourable Tawa?

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Yes Sir.


THE SPEAKER: You have heard the point raised by Honourable Koroma under S.O 32[9]?

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Yes Sir.

49 THE SPEAKER: For my own edification, because frankly I did not hear you say they made trouble.

Did you make that comment?

Did you say that?

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker, should I say it… [Interruption] THE SPEAKER: No.

Did you say it?

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: I cannot remember saying that but if I said so?
Let it be expunged from the record.

THE SPEAKER: Thank you.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: No, Mr Speaker he has to admit that he did say so otherwise we can do a replay because it is against your ruling yesterday, he has to admit.

THE SPEAKER: Hold on.

Honourable Tawa, I ask you again.

Not a question of should, we are not talking about the future, did you add the words ‘they made trouble’ because that is the point I did not hear.

Hold on.

HON.
Hold on.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker I have said so many things I cannot remember specifics but if I say so let it be expunged from the record.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, that is not enough, it is not enough.

We cannot be satisfied with that reply.

THE SPEAKER: I did not hear the last word that is the only point of departure between what I heard and what you said you heard.

HON.
HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Yes and my concern is based on what you ruled on yesterday and the ruling of Mr Speaker must be heard in silence, S.O 42 must apply.

THE SPEAKER: I am aware of it.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Fine.

The decision should be final and must not be undermined by any Member of Parliament and you said so yesterday and that is my point.

THE SPEAKER: I am coming.

50 HON.


DANIEL B. KOROMA: If he refuses to admit then let us do a replay it is simple and I will commit myself that if that word is not mentioned you can take any action against me head of this institution you can take any action.

He did say so against your ruling.

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS [Deputy Speaker]: Mr Speaker can I be heard?

THE SPEAKER: Deputy, Yes.

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Mr Speaker, I move that we proceed.
Members of Parliament on the Opposition side at every sitting make comments including an individual Member of Parliament who directly confronted you.

Mr Speaker, let us progress please… [Interruption] THE SPEAKER: No, but a particular S.O 32[9] has been cited.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: If we are beginning to discard these Standing Orders then I am afraid.

THE SPEAKER: I am coming.

We are not going to discard it.

Honourable Tawa, I want to refer you to S.O 32[9].


Do not answer for Honourable Tawa please, I am addressing Honourable Tawa.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker can I read S.O 32[9]?

THE SPEAKER: Please.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: “No Member shall impute improper motives to any other Member”.

THE SPEAKER: Correct.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: I have not.

THE SPEAKER: No.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker he did.

THE SPEAKER: No, the point at issue is not only the Walkout.

HON.
HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: But our motive to make trouble 51 THE SPEAKER: That is right.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: And that is improper THE SPEAKER: That is the point that he is making.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Exactly.

According to him our motive is to make trouble.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker, if I have said their motive was to make trouble then let it be expunged from the record.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: You have to be certain Honourable Tawa; you do not have to conditionalise it.

HON.
HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, that is not enough.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: How do you want it?

You want me to say sorry?

THE SPEAKER: I rule that whatever imputation was made about “making trouble” should be struck out of the record.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Yes Sir.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: No.

Mr Speaker one thing I want to make clear THE SPEAKER: In the interest of harmony will that satisfy you both?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: No, Mr Speaker THE SPEAKER: So, there is still no harmony?

HON.
HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: We have seen in several occasions here when Members make imputations that are insulting or that are of ill motive to an Honourable Member they are asked to withdraw and they withdraw but in this case here it comes with ego.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: What is the difference between withdrawal and expunge?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: I am coming.

THE SPEAKER: I have ordered that it is struck out of the record.

52 HON.
52 HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: You did not make the statement Sir, he made the statement and this also has to do with his reputation.

He is on National Television, everybody in this country heard him when he said so and now they have asked he is denying that he did not say so.

THE SPEAKER: I wish I had heard him, I could not hear simply because of the noise in the Well.

HON.
HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: That is the reason for which we should have a replay of what he said because now most of the people out there have believed that we went down to create problems or to cause trouble if I could speak in his words and that should not be attributed to us.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, I have not given any one of you the Floor.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker, if that is their problem I withdraw the statement.

THE SPEAKER: Thank you.

HON.


IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: This is part of the effort of the APC to take me off my sail but I am not called Tawa because I am just a child of my mother.

I am called Tawa because I know exactly what to do and Mr Speaker let it be known that most of my time has gone to exchanges and consideration should be given to me.

THE SPEAKER: You caused it, therefore, you bear the penalty.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker, Honourable Daniel Koroma caused controversy yesterday.
THE SPEAKER: No, you were due to end your speech by 12:35 p.m. HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker then I must take my seat because you have heeded to the exact ploy of the APC to get me off my sail and to take my seat without making my contribution.

THE SPEAKER: No, you were very close to ending any way.

53 HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Mr Speaker, let me end using my time.

THE SPEAKER: Alright.

Go ahead but I give you five minutes.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Thank you Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Five minutes.


HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: On Governance Mr Speaker.

You know, Chinua Achebe once said: “old women are always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in proverbs.” Today is a clear show that the APC, they are always jittery when the truth is said to the public [Applause].

Mr Speaker, His Excellency the President spoke of reform in governance institutions and he also talked about the National Cohesion.
Most contributors made reference to the CRC and I have just heard my Honourable senior colleague referencing the fact that the arbiter in this Well seem to be leaning on a particular side.

I am sure Mr Speaker, you are fair.

THE SPEAKER: I am used to that; do not make reference to that anymore.

HON.

IBRAHIM T. CONTEH: Thank you Sir.

I am sure like you said you are used to it but it also shows that their intention to repeal Section 79 and 80 was not genuine and not in the interest of this country.
Now that the tide has turned they have started crying foul [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I will end with Corruption.

On corruption few people have said, like the Honourable Rebecca said: “Corruption is not only transaction of money” and I agree.
Corruption is also dealing mostly with integrity matters and in twelve months President Bio has not only restored the integrity of this country but has retrieved Le12bln looted from the coffers of this country by the same people who are shouting that S. O 2 “dae gron dri” and they walked out of Parliament because the “dae gron dry” and they caused the “dae gron dry” [Applause].

This is the hypocrisy of politics in the APC.


Mr Speaker, we are serious about the fight against corruption and His Excellency’s commitment to fight corruption must be seen reflecting in our national discourse.

Therefore, as Parliament, His Excellency promised in his Manifesto that we 54 are going to review and we are going to pay serious attention to all Audit Reports tabled in this Parliament and we are sure, we are seeing and getting the benefit out of it.
Le12bln was retrieved not out of anything but out of the Audit Service Report tabled in this Well that were kept in the shelve to gather dust during the regime of our colleagues.

That is the sincerity they had in the fight against corruption.

Mr Speaker, I want to say thank you to His Excellency for graciously delivering his Speech to this House and for him being a Member of Parliament.

I want to say we are with him.


He has achieved so much in terms of Governance measurement in his Manifesto and we are ready to support him.

Those who do not want to support him, in as much as we are pushing for National Cohesion genuinely, if they do not want to support, let us allow those who want to support His Excellency.

Thank you very much [Applause].

THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Member for his contribution.

I wish it was not so controversial.


I now recognize the Honourable Dr Mark Mahmoud Kalokoh.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Thank you Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: I am sorry, I told you Honourable Marah I had been given a list long time ago and I am working on that list.

You came here trying to unilaterally change the list I will not allow that, take your seat.

HON.

LAHAI MARAH: Mr Speaker, I was the one who submitted the list to you, I submitted a list to you and on that list Mr Speaker my name is there.
THE SPEAKER: No, you wrote your name just now in my own presence.

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, he is the one organizing us over here Sir.

He is the one organising us.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Dr Mark Mahmoud Kalokoh you have the Floor.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Thank you very much Sir.

Mr Speaker in as much I have several things to say but I want to declare for my senior colleague.

55 THE SPEAKER: I will not.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Okay, let me continue.


Thank you very much Mr Speaker for giving me the opportunity to contribute, to add my voice, to give thanks to His Excellency the President.

THE SPEAKER: Your twenty minutes starts now.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: As I started I say thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to add my voice in thanking His Excellency the President Dr Julius Maada Bio.

Mr Speaker before I proceed [Interruption] HON.

LAHAI MARAH: Mr Speaker Point of Order.


THE SPEAKER: I will not recognize your Point of Order.

Honourable Dr Mark Mahmoud Kalokoh please go on.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Before I proceed to the Debate proper, let me just debunk some of the issues raised yesterday by some of my colleagues particularly on the other side.

The Honourable Member representing Constituency 080 did mention lot of things yesterday about the APC been invited to the Bintumani 3 Conference and we refused to attend.
Mr Speaker, the APC is a formidable party and we are important in the governance of this country.

So, inviting us to a conference of that nature must connote some respectability and because we did not see any respect attached to what he described as we were invited and we refused, we did not refuse but we were not invited properly.

Mr Speaker, we are the Majority in this Parliament and by extension we are the Majority in this country and the nation recognise that [Applause].
Mr Speaker, we cannot attend a conference where we were not invited with respect, Mr Speaker we cannot attend a conference as mere observers, Mr Speaker we cannot attend a conference where the issue of the killings at Mile 91, at Tonko Limba are not properly addressed by the institutions and the authorities responsible.

Since the killing took place at Mile 91, Tonko Limba and Lumley no report has been produced by the authorities concern.
56 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let me move to an issue which somebody mentioned yesterday.

One of my colleagues Honourable Members spoke about the constitution of Committees.

Mr Speaker I refer this House to S.O 72[1] “the Constitution of Committees”.

The Member of Parliament said yesterday that during the APC regime when Committees were constituted, they were left out, they were given only few representations.
The constitution of Committees depends on the strength of political parties in Parliament [Applause.]

In this particular Parliament we have the strength in Parliament we are in the Majority.

Mr Speaker, APC is a strong party everywhere in this country.

THE SPEAKER: Please allow the Honourable Member.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: When my colleague was speaking this morning, the Honourable Member said the stronghold of the APC is the North and the Western area.

APC is strong everywhere in this country.


We are a national party and we are a Sierra Leonean Party so we are strong everywhere.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, going further on Public Debt Management, let me refer this House to the Presidential Address of 10th May, 2018.

The 10th May Presidential Address, Page 10 Paragraph 39.

Refer to the reference if you have it or if you do not have it then listen.
Mr Speaker, on Page 10 about Public Debt of the Address, the 10th May, 2018 His Excellency the President Julius Maada Bio set himself targets and he never fulfilled those targets.
Let us listen he said: “In the New Direction, my administration will introduce the practice of Annual Budget ceilings beyond which Government cannot borrow and link the borrowing ceiling to a clearly laid out medium term debt management strategy.” Mr Speaker, it was not reported to us here as he set these targets for himself and we expected this particular Address that he made here on the 2nd May, 2019 should catalogue what he has achieved on some of these five points he set for himself, but this particular speech did not portray anything.
So, for Honourable Tawa to say it is a score mark for the President, that is a fail mark.
57 Mr Speaker, the current Address on Page 5 on Public Debt Management, Mr Speaker the President said: “The current debt situation is unsustainable and constitutes a critical risk to effective budget management.” Mr Speaker, the Handing-Over- Note of His Excellency Former President Ernest Bai Koroma; I refer you to Page 16 it reads: “The public debt is not on a high risk.” I refer you to Page 16 and if you want me to read it verbatim I will do for your understanding because you do not understand.
Mr Speaker, Page 16, Mr Speaker, the last sentence says: “As a result Sierra Leone debt has remained without any high risk of debt distress”.

I refer you to the Handing-Over-Note of the Former President Ernest Bai Koroma on page 16.

For us to say here the current debt situation is unsustainable and constitute a critical risk to effective Budget Management, please try to put measures together to ensure that you manage the economy well.
The issue of saying we inherited a battered economy, those of your pronunciations has scared investors away from coming into this country to invest their money because you cannot expect the investors to come and invest their monies, to build up our economy whiles we cannot manage the economy due to propaganda, you cannot.

The realities have to be there and you are not saying the realities [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let me go to the Basic and Senior Secondary School Education.
Mr Speaker, I know our President will definitely not address this House under false pretense.

I know whatever he says here is correct but let me tell you one thing Mr Speaker.

On the 27th March, the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education came to this House of Parliament to update Parliament on their activities.
So, to see the President on Page 15 Paragraph 76 talking about School Feeding when the Minister at the Ministry of Education came to update Parliament on the 27th May, it was categorically stated by the reporters including the Minister himself saying that: “As I am speaking let me tell you the truth not a single dime has been given for the School Feeding.” [Applause] So, I do not understand when this issue started and if our Honourable Leader of Government Business mentioned the School Feeding Programme I do not understand when this School Feeding has started while the 58 Minister of Education who carries the mantle has said not a single dime has been issued to his Ministry by the Ministry of Finance towards the School Feeding Programme.
When the Leader of Government Business came out yesterday with a Paper and we do not know whether that document or that Paper emanated from the Ministry of Finance or the World Food Programme [WFP].

So, Mr Honourable Leader of Government Business, on the 27th March the Ministry of Education has told us that nothing has been paid to the Ministry in terms of School Feeding [Applause].

So take it from me Mr Leader of Government Business.
THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, will you agree that those statements are made relative to the time that they are made?

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: I beg your pardon?

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, would you agree that statements are made relative to the time that they are made?

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Not long yet.

THE SPEAKER: No, at that particular moment in time without the Minister spoke, he was telling the House what the situation was.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: I agree.


THE SPEAKER: Things may have changed since.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: From 27th of March?

THE SPEAKER: Yes, to May 29th today.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Let us have the distribution chat?

THE SPEAKER: No, I am only saying you should relate the Minister’s statement to the time that it was made.

59 HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: That is why I quoted the date, I have related the statement of the Minister giving to us here on the 27th of March, 2019.
THE SPEAKER: This statement was delivered on the 2nd of May.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Yes this was delivered on the 2nd of May.

THE SPEAKER: I just want to draw your attention to the time.

HON.
HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Mr Speaker, candidly speaking, if the Minister has informed us since he is in charge of that Ministry that he has not received a single cent up to the 27th of March 2019 nobody will tell me from that period to the 2nd of May distribution of food has been done or School Feeding has been carried [Applause].

THE SPEAKER: The relativity of the statement, go on.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker I now move to Page 6 paragraph 31.


It further stated “As a result of our good record in Economic Management we have also benefited from a number of development Projects in various Sectors.

The number of donor Projects approved in twelve months of my administration is unprecedented in the history of Sierra Leone.

A total of eleven projects were approved by the International Financial Institutions amounting to $196.3Mln of that amount 59% were loans and 41% grant in June 2019.
Additional five Projects amounting to $230Mln will be approved by the World Bank.

We are negotiating for this entire amount to be grants”.

Mr Speaker, the current debt situation is unsustainable, if that is unsustainable then you are adding more burden to the unsustainability [Applause].
While the Former President Handing-Over-Note clearly stated that our debt burden is not on that high risk but it is so moderate and now you are saying the current debt situation is unsustainable then you are asking for more loans to make it more unsustainable where are we heading to?

If you look at this document it collates both loans and grants.

I am now speaking about loans and you know we have approved several loans in this Parliament.
So, if the loans alone are 60 59% and the grant is 41% where are we heading to as a nation?

It means more loans and more burdens on the nation.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on Page 48 of the Presidential Address on the Rule of Law, promoting Justice and Human Right Mr Speaker, it is very unfortunate.

During the last Address I stood tall to defend the Judiciary but today I am in a different mood.
The institutions that should promote Rule of Law, the institutions that should promote Justice and the institutions that should promote human rights are not been given the political will needed to function well.

Let me refer you to what happened to the Human Right Commission in Sierra Leone.

When the New Direction came they sacked all of the Commissioners even when their tenure of office are yet to be completed, but they asked them out [Applause].

Where is the human right we are promoting?


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, promoting justice in the Judiciary of this country is farfetched.

The Judiciary of this country is now been influenced by the Executive Arm of Government and they are no longer independent.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, in 2018, the APC Party filed petitions to the Judiciary as I am speaking at this time nothing has been done in terms of hearing those cases of over 30 petitions been committed to the Judiciary [Applause].
Where are we?

Let me tell you Mr Speaker, the Judiciary definitely, they have a very key role to play in terms of fostering peace and tranquility of any state but that Judiciary today not independent.

They are always been influenced by the powers that be.

HON.

JOSEPH WILLIAMS-LAMIN: Mr Speaker Point of Order.

THE SPEAKER: What is your Point of Order?

HON.

JOSEPH WILLIAMS-LAMIN: Mr Speaker I am standing on S.O 32[6].
According to my colleague Honourable Member, he is referring to a matter that is ongoing in the Court and he has no right to do that.

61 THE SPEAKER: Order!

I have not heard the speaker make any reference to the actual merits of the matters in Court, just a general reference.

I think it is acceptable.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Thank you Mr Speaker.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I now move to Page 17 but before I hit the nail let me refer this House to Paragraph 56 Page 14 of the previous Address by His Excellency the President Julius Maada Bio done in 2018 about teachers.

Mr Speaker if I may read with your leave he said: “None of us would have been here today without our greatest asset.” Referring to the teachers, yet they have been least recognized and least rewarded.

This is demotivating.


These are the words of His Excellency the President Julius Maada Bio, this is demotivating.

Let me simply state that without qualified teachers our Free and Quality Education Programme will not be fully implemented.
Mr Speaker, what is factually demotivating here is the issue of salary increase of 5% that would not take the teachers anywhere and I tell you for free for the Flagship Programme of His Excellency to yield fruits the teachers have to be taken seriously and I tell you Mr Speaker the teachers are the instruments that will make the Free Education become quality but if these teachers are not taking care of very well, their welfare and their daily living definitely the Free Education will be there but the quality will be absent.
That is just a caution Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Let me advise members in the Galleries.

You are not allowed to unless you are members of an accredited Press; you are not allowed to record the Proceedings of Parliament.

I notice some action of recording and I will ask you to desist immediately if not I will ask the Sergeant at Arms to go and retrieve the relevant instrument you are using.

You are not allowed to record the proceedings; you are not an accredited media house to do that.

HON.
HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Thank you very much Mr Speaker.

Furthermore on the issue of the teachers, His Excellency promised that any teacher that has taught for ten years, scholarships will be given to three of his/her biological children and we want 62 that to manifest.

It has not yet happened but we want to ask that it is manifested [Applause].

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, I have been very indulgent and accommodating but I will grant you just two more minutes to end your contribution.

HON.
HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Thank you, I will do Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, on Page 45 of Paragraph 236 about the Fire Force, Mr Speaker, we were told in the Committee of Supplies that Fire Force has recruited additional staff of 100, they are about to recruit 200 additional staff but already they have recruited 100 and we advocated for Fire Force Budget to be included into the Supplementary Budgets for the speedy payment of those recruited men and women who have already started work without salary.
Mr Speaker, we want that to be manifested, up to this point in time research has shown that nothing has been done towards that.

HON.

FRANCIS A. KAISAMBA: Mr Speaker, the issue of Supplementary Budget lies with the Ministry of Finance.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Point of Order, please I will not give you the permission if you do not cite the relevant Standing Order.

HON.
HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Mr Speaker, if he did not cite the relevant Standing Orders, he will not get my permission with your leave Mr Speaker.

HON.

FRANCIS A. KAISAMBA: You are not in charge here so there is no Supplementary Budgeting.

That is the point I want to make.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Mr Speaker, on the Sierra Leone Police [SLP], general security crime and public disorder.
Mr Speaker, few days ago the issue of our colleague Member of Parliament who has faced attack by unknown persons was raised in this Well.

63 THE SPEAKER: I did say yesterday we should avoid making reference to that.

I think the Leadership of the various parties and I met on that issue yesterday and came to a certain decision.

HON.

DR MARK M. KALOKOH: Okay thank you, I withdraw that statement Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker on that note I want to rest my case here.

THE SPEAKER: Thank you.


I want to thank the Honourable Member for his contribution.

I now recognise the Honourable Segepoh Thomas the Deputy Speaker [Applause].

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to start my contribution by thanking firstly Members of Parliament who have contributed to this very important Debate.

I thank His Excellency the President for this solid Speech which is His Policy Statement.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, very soon we will have the quantification of this Policy Statement in the form of a Budget Speech that would be brought to Parliament, debated and passed eventually.

The primary reason why the Speech of the President is brought to Parliament is for Members of Parliament to be able to do their inputs.
That is where we look at the Speech, we look at the Policy and we put in our contributions to make it perfect or to make it very good for the people of the Republic of Sierra Leone but I have come to realise Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, of late that Members of Parliament, particularly the Opposition pay more attention to criticizing bits and pieces or elements of the Speech instead of making contributions or providing solutions to certain issues that are stated in the Speech.
That is all the more reason why Mr Speaker, I thought it necessary to just bring that to the attention of Members of Parliament.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the population of Sierra Leone is not as gullible as we think.

Those 1960s or 1970s kind of politics does not exist anymore [Applause].

The people of the Republic of Sierra Leone know exactly what they want and I submit that this Speech, this Policy Statement is good for the Republic of Sierra Leone and our people appreciate this Speech.
It does not matter what the Opposition says this Government remains unruffled.

Whatever you say, we are focused and we are going to 64 ensure that we deliver so that at the end of the five years you would have come to realise that our people are not as gullible as you think.

So, the sooner you know this the better it will be for you.
You know I kept on saying this during the last Parliament, we kept on saying it and we kept on making indications for our colleagues on the other side to learn from certain signals but they refused.

That is all the more reason why only we the strong ones are here.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I would start by drawing your attention to Paragraphs 5, 6 & 10 of Page 2.
Sometime in the recent history of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Members of Parliament and other workers in this Nation were heavily impacted by the concept of austerity.

Our Conditions of Service, our remunerations were all very much impacted by austerity.

Little did we know Mr Speaker, Honourable Members that the solutions could be found in some simple mechanics.
I am totally impressed by the recent mechanisms put in place by His Excellency the President and his Government to ensure in the first place that revenue collection is hyped [Applause].

For which I want to proudly tell His Excellency the president a very big thank you.

Little did we know Mr Speaker, Honourable Members that there were huge tax waiver, very huge tax waivers that could have been used to cushion the effect of the meltdown we had.
Instead, poor workers, poor teachers and even we the Members of Parliament were impacted by the concept of austerity instead of using this simple mechanics.

At the end of the day it is only for a President or a Government that is foresighted that could have come up with the answers and for which Mr Speaker, Honourable Members I say thank you to His Excellency the President.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, this nation is impressed by the Free Quality Education.
No matter how we look at it this nation is impressed by the Free Quality Education.

I would have thought that Members of the Opposition would have gone to their people preaching good messages, getting their people to support wholeheartedly the Free Quality Education but that is not the case.

In fact, they have decided to play politics with what is in the interest of the people.
65 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I can say with authority that there are so many good people over there, there are so many good Members of Parliament seated over there I can assure you Mr Speaker, so many of them are very good but they have allowed their party policy to dictate whatever they do and that is the sad aspect of it.

When I listened keenly to Honourable Serajin I was moved.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I was moved.


Sometimes when I listen to them I am so moved by the kind of passion they have for the development of this nation but the only unfortunate thing is that Mr Speaker, Honourable Members [laughter], whereas we are here, whereas Members of the NGC, Members of the C4C, Members of SLPP or even the Paramount Chiefs or Independent Members can speak up their minds independently, our brothers have to be told what to do in Parliament.

That is so unfortunate [Applause].


Our brothers have forgotten the fact [Interrupted] HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, Point of Order Sir.

THE SPEAKER: Are you standing on S.O 32[9]?

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Yes Sir.

Of course you know it is S.O 32[9].

Obviously, you know it is S.O 32[9].

As your instinct tells you, you know it is S.O 32[9].

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: What is S.O 32[9]?

Can you edify this House about the import of S.O 32[9]?

HON.
HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Yes, I am ready to edify this House.

As Mr Speaker has already predicted what is obvious, Mr Speaker for my colleague Honourable Member from Bonthe to say Members on this side have to be told what to say borders on our integrity and we are here as Members of Parliament individually representing our Constituencies so we have to be told by our Constituents not by any other Power and as far as we are concerned we are Members with integrity.
We are responsible Members of Parliament, so our motive here should not be misinterpreted.

Our motive here is not to please any powers to be.

We do not have to be told what we think is correct.

At least let the Honourable Member respect our integrity as Members of Parliament, even S.O 32[8] is not happy with his statement Sir.

66 THE SPEAKER: So you have responded to him?

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Yes sir.

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, Honourable Daniel Koroma is my brother.
He knows me; I know he is a good man.

I know him; he is a very good man.

Sometimes when I see him strenuously defending certain issues, I know he is not the kind of Koroma I know, I know him very well [Applause].

THE SPEAKER: Quite frankly if I were in your shoes, Order!

I will not take umbrage at that if I were in your shoes because as a Member of Parliament, it is the right of your Constituents to tell you what their interest is, what they want you to come and say on their behalf in Parliament.

HON.
HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, he did not refer to the Constituents.

THE SPEAKER: No.

He did not mention anybody.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Even his final word, having commended me that I am a very good person then how can he say that what he is hearing me say is not coming from the Koroma that he knows?

It is like I am been hypocrite.

That is improper motive and very demeaning to me as his colleague Member of Parliament [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I know him equally [Laughter].
THE SPEAKER: So it is tit for tat.

You know each other very well, so let us not make that an issue.

It is a moment to reminisce that is all.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: We were in college for eleven good years.

So please deviate from that because I know you equally.

You know I know you.

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Honourable Koroma, you know me to be a very good Lawyer is that not so?

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Very well sir.

I know you my Deputy Speaker [Laughter].


THE SPEAKER: Especially from University days.

67 HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, come to think about it.

Like my friend said, they are here individually to represent their people, beautiful!

THE SPEAKER: And to reflect their thinking sometimes.

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Yes, Sometimes.

Mr Speaker, it will interest you to note with the kind of technology now we do not have secrets anymore.
So, if we are here representing our Constituents then do we need to meet at party offices to walkout at the same time?

Do we actually need that?

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, you see?

[Laughter] now you can see where he is coming from.

So, you see what I said and Sierra Leoneans are listening, they are watching us.

You see what I am saying?

What is wrong with party meetings?

Party meetings have nothing to do with my personal conviction.
How can you link my personal conviction and the conviction of my Constituents to party meetings?

THE SPEAKER: But save for three Members, all of you are here by virtue of your party.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: How can you improperly interpret my motive of going to party meetings?

What does party meetings have to do with Walkout?

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Mr Speaker, I have not said anything about motive.

I have just mentioned the fact.

This is the fact; I have not referred to any motive.
Can I move on My Speaker?

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: No.

Mr Speaker, I know you are always true to yourself.

That is what he has said just now and he is improperly interpreting our motives.

THE SPEAKER: He did not go that far.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: He did.

In fact, he even went to the end.

You need nothing more to interpret exactly or to know where he is coming from.

You need nothing more and Sierra Leoneans are listening, they are listening.

HON.
HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Mr Speaker, I have just asked a rhetorical question, I have not even concluded.

68 THE SPEAKER: Will you repeat the question?

I did not quite hear it.

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Yes, let me repeat the question.

Like I said Mr Speaker, if we are all here individually representing our Constituents then do we need to meet at party offices and decide on walkout of Parliament at the same time?

That is the question.

THE SPEAKER: And that is what, a rhetorical question?

HON.
HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: It is a rhetorical question.

I have not referred to any motive.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, it is incriminating and it borders on our integrity.

THE SPEAKER: But did you meet as he is saying?

It is a rhetorical question.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Of course we met but there is nothing wrong.

How can he link the meeting with the Walkout?

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: I have not even referred to a particular political party.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: No.

Who walked out?


He mentioned it.

THE SPEAKER: Order!

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: You people are not honest.

If you are talking of walk out then which party are you referring to?

THE SPEAKER: Order!

Let me say this please.

Honourable Members, let us be practical here.

Walkouts are not a new thing nor are they peculiar to Sierra Leone Parliament [Applause].

We have seen Walkouts take place in various parts of the World.
One thing though I know for certain, Walkouts do not win you elections nor do they win you public sympathy.

So let us forget about that.

Walkouts are not a new phenomenon at all.

HON.

HASSAN A. SESAY: Mr Speaker, I stand on S. O 34.

THE SPEAKER: Yes, go on.

69 HON.

HASSAN A. SESAY: Mr Speaker, we very well know that what we are here to Debate is the Speech delivered by the President on the 2nd of May.
Indeed we walked out but Mr Speaker, I want you to be the moderator in this House and leave us with our colleagues on the other side to battle it out.

Why I am saying this Mr Speaker, the Deputy Speaker over there was definitely talking about our side going to the party office and walking out of Parliament afterwards together.

Definitely Mr Speaker, I do not think that is part of the Debate of the President’s Speech.
THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, I think you really want to make a moment out of this word ‘Walkout’.

That is why I intervened to just draw attention to the fact that it is not a new phenomenon nor is it unique to us.

It is not unique to us.

Walkouts happen all over the place so let us not pay too much attention to it.

Let us stop bringing it up that is one and secondly, let us stop making too much substance out of it please.

HON.
HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Okay, I would not refer to that particular fact again.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, like I said, we tend to downplay the effect of paying school fees for our people that is what we are trying to do.

Mr Speaker, as Honourable Members of Parliament, we can afford to pay school fees for our children without even knowing it.
Especially people in the city can pay for their kids to go to school without even knowing it most of the time but the effect of paying fees for children in the provincial areas is so huge.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I had a particular kind of discussion with a poor mother, a widow.

She goes to the bush every morning to fetch wood, sell before they could even eat and to her, paying Le25th a term for her kid is like a fortune.
We have several of our citizens, most of our citizens in the villages cannot even afford up to Le100th savings a year.

They cannot afford to save One Hundred Thousand Leones a whole year.

I mean a calendar year and you actually want to downplay Free Education?

Let me tell you what our people are thinking now.

Most of these people in the villages would think that with the change of the SLPP Government they are going to start paying fees again.
That is the kind of impact you are going to get in the 2023 elections 70 [Applause].

You will come to realise that the SLPP would score over 60% of the votes just because of the Free Education [Applause].Mr President.

THE SPEAKER: This is the second time you are calling me the President.

I am not acting as the President [Laughter].

HON.


SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, if you cannot applaud the President for this kind of initiative, do not criticize him because so many people thought it was impossibility Mr Speaker.

So many people thought it was unachievable.

We only needed a President that is development oriented to have taken this bold step.

So, as Members of Parliament, Honourable Members, we should be thanking him.
I personally paid school fees in my Constituency; I paid school fees for over 500 children.

It became a burden on me Mr Speaker.

So I have all the reason to express my gratitude to a President that has removed that burden.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I paid for over 500 kids that is all the more reason why Mr Speaker, Honourable Members in my Constituency I always go unopposed [Applause] because when you go to my Constituency I am like the father of so many of these children.
I always go unopposed, nobody dares challenge me even for symbol and even their APC candidates would come to me and say S.O 2 “bra na fo di moni normor duya nor men wi” [Laughter] because even for their own candidates; their kids and sons I paid fees for them, they are all on my payroll.

So, this is just to tell you that this Free Quality Education that you are underrating will be your undoing.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am also very happy and of course I want to thank His Excellency the President for making particular reference to members of the Fourth Estate and Civil Society.

We refer to journalists as members of the fourth Estate because just after the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary they represent the Fourth Arm of Government.

Most of our people out there cannot come to Parliament to talk or to express their feelings about issues of governance.
They cannot be part of the Executive branch of Government directly, they cannot be part of the Judiciary directly, so they use the Fourth Arm; members of the Fourth Estate to express their feelings on issues so also is the Civil Society Organizations but I have noticed a pattern Mr Speaker, 71 Honourable Members, that is all the more reason why sometimes I start entertaining this feeling that we must begin to define the role of Civil Society in this nation or the role of Civil Society in Governance because I have come to realise that even for clear issues, clear things that would be in the interest of the people of the Republic of Sierra Leone or that would be in the interest of peace you see Civil Society Organizations taking sides.
The question is, on whose side are they?

Because if we are talking about a Peace Commission, for the whole nation to gather to talk about peace and some members refusing to be part of that process and you get Civil Society supporting that kind of action then it is about time we redefine the role of Civil Society in this nation.

Sometimes for clear issues you see members of the Fourth Estate taking sides on issues that are so clear to the citizenry, people they should be talking for.
These are all the issues Mr Speaker, Honourable Members.

Instead of hiding yourself behind some form of Civil Society activism or some form of media activism, it is better you join a political party if you want to be political because by saying civil, civil should be on behalf of the people and not otherwise.

So I thank His Excellency the President for clearly indicating, and clearly reminding them of their role in good governance.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I wish to refer to our educational system generally in this Nation and thank God His Excellency the President referred to not only the Primary and Secondary Education, he also referred to our Tertiary Education.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, our Educational System is dire.

Of course the evidence is all over you Mr Speaker.

Where we have our children, our brothers and sisters going as far as Masters Level, some have Doctorate, sometimes the delivery is poor.
That is all the more reason why sometimes I am purely embarrassed.

Sometimes when we have strangers at certain podium we are vicariously embarrassed.

That is all the more reason why Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the educational system of the nation has to be looked into with a kind of serious lens because sometimes when you go out to other countries, you see school children, you see Primary School children that have no problem with delivery.
So, sometimes we need to look at some of these little things and for which I thank His Excellency the President but apart from the mere academic, I also 72 crave the indulgence of His Excellency the President to see how our educational system can a little bit shift towards technology, innovation and all of these things.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members do we know that up to date in our universities we are offering subjects like Greek and Roman History?

What is that?
What is that?

While the World is moving on, we are here studying Greek and Roman History.

Perhaps, if we want to learn anything about history, that should be the history relating to us as a nation.

If you want to know extra things about Europe and so on, go to the internet read for yourself but these are not the subjects we should be offering in our universities because they are not relevant to our development [Applause].

They are totally irrelevant to our development.


They are totally irrelevant and somebody would just get up to say I have double Masters in Latin History and so on.

So, perhaps we need to begin to look at some of these issues and in the circumstances we urge His Excellency the President to look at some of these issues because I have come to realise that the problem is really with the educational system; the public educational system because when we send our children to private schools they deliver.
So, perhaps we need to begin to look at the missing link.

Why are these children going to private schools are comfortable and they have no problem with delivery whereas the public schools have this kind of problem?

Perhaps we need to find out the missing link to cure some of these defects.

THE SPEAKER: And worst of all, they are claiming a new right; the right to spy.

HON.

SEGEPOH S. THOMAS: Just imagine Mr Speaker and do you know Mr Speaker the sad thing about it?
They are using that kind of occasion for politics.

Just imagine our children going all out misbehaving in the streets because they said they could not allow them to spy.

They are there misbehaving in the streets and politicians wanting to use that for politics.

That is how pathetic our situation is Mr Speaker.

That is how pathetic the situation is in this nation, everything has become political.
We the parents, we the Members of Parliament should be brandishing our canes; we should be out there in the streets chasing them.

SLPP, APC, NGC and C4C we should be there chasing them but there is one group or this other group wanting to use that for political capital.

73 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I became extremely disappointed when some of our brothers and sisters refused to attend Bintumani 3.

It is a huge disappointment Mr Speaker.


I never thought that this kind of situation should have happened.

I never thought about it.

I never thought Mr Speaker, Honourable Members that we could have entertained a situation where we would refused as a nation to come together but in any case, I thank His Excellency the President for his resilience [Applause].

Let him keep up the good work, we who are in support of him, we who want this nation to develop are in the majority [Applause].
Therefore, we urge him to proceed unruffled when come 2023 the evidence would be there [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, finally, of course His Excellency the President in his Speech said that he is going to get rid of the Seditious Libel Law which I wholly support.

We should get rid of this particular law [Applause] but getting rid of this law Mr Speaker, Honourable Members has become a sing sung.

Governments upon Governments said so but they refused.
I know my President, I know he is going to do it [Applause] and when that Bill is brought to Parliament, I am not too much of a Media person but I will be all over the Media telling people that His Excellency, when he says things he does them.

What people do not know, this is how I look at the whole Seditious Libel thing; I personally believe that this nation can correct bad Media practice by civil litigation [Applause].
This Parliament would do a law, probably I would come by Private Member Motion, we do a law, if you write anything bad that is not the truth, we take you to a civil Court, we have a particular fine, five or ten million minimum, then we have other penalties like withholding your license so that you cannot practice journalism and all of these things so that at the end of the day we would have only the responsible journalists in this nation.
We would have only the responsible ones, there are so many journalists that are responsible Mr Speaker, so many of them that are responsible, so many Civil Society Organizations that are responsible and that are ready to help inspire Good Governance but we have a couple of bad eggs here and there.

These are the bad eggs that we should try as a Nation to target so that they do not tarnish the image of 74 the good ones.

So, I believe we can promulgate this law and get rid of it speedily.
I thank you very much Mr Speaker [Applause].

THE SPEAKER: Alright, I thank the Honourable Member and Deputy Speaker for his brilliant contribution [Applause].
We are now at the point of winding up the Debate, the only two speakers on my list, I will start with the Honourable Acting Leader of the Opposition, he will start the process of winding up the Debate and it will be concluded by the Leader of Government Business but let me crave your indulgence Honourable Members, I have been sitting here for more than three and a half hours at a stretch, I think you would not mind me standing down Parliament for at least five minutes.

Thank you.
Thank you.

[The House was stood down at 2:05 p.m. and resumed at 2:10 p.m.] THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, I now call on the Acting Leader of the Opposition to help us wind up this very important Debate.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, Members of Parliament, I want to use this opportunity on behalf of the Membership of the APC on this side of the House to make it clear that we are part of this house today to congratulate His Excellency the President for the Speech he rendered in the Well of this House recently.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I will want to emphasise the point that the APC Party is a party of the people, [Applause] it has a large following whether you like it or not and because of the largeness of its following sometimes we are misunderstood but we will not allow ourselves to be misunderstood.

We believe in the concept of Democracy, we believe in Good Governance and we believe in the Rule of Law.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am going to restrict myself to issues that you are well very familiar with.

For example, I will discuss agriculture very briefly not because you were Minister of Agriculture, I will discuss Tourism and it is important in the development of this country not because you were also one time Minister of Tourism and I will also talk about Good Governance not because you are the Speaker of this 75 House.
The important thing Mr Speaker is that the President made the point very eloquently that His Government wanted to address certain issues that have to do with the development of this country but we on this side are aware of the fact that we do not need to quarrel about the development of this country.

We have seen the development of this country ranging from electricity to infrastructural development, roads development etc.
Therefore, we are not new to that but also very importantly what we will always insist on is the issue of giving respect to whom respect is due [Applause].

Five years from now I will stand in this House or my son will stand here and make the point clear that this was what the SLPP did to develop this country.
I will not encourage anybody to discourage the good things that the SLPP would have done but what I see happening in this country Mr Speaker is that we are too quick to condemn even the very best of things that we do for the development of this country [Applause].

Whether we like it or not within this very short time we recognise the fact that President Bio has done a few things for which he should be congratulated [Applause].
Equally true, history will also mention that the former President Ernest Bai Koroma did what he could do for the development of this country [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to look at the road infrastructure in this country and the current President did mention it as part of his programmes.

The former President Ernest Bai Koroma always mentioned in public places that one of the fundamental commitments of his Government was to ensure the roads of this country were improved.
Whether we like it or not there are roads you can point at today that are improved [Applause].

I listened to somebody talking yesterday about Kailahun but believe me the road from Kenema to Segbwema is one of the best roads in this country.

If we have a road system of that nature, it is our business Mr Speaker to say it openly so that people can respect us.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, you and I together with other Members of Parliament travelled to Conakry for no other reason but to get Visas and Mr Speaker after traversing the road on the Sierra Leonean side and when we entered the Guinean side, it was you who said our part of the road is excellent [Applause].
That was the 76 road constructed very recently by the Government of former President Ernest Bai Koroma and when we compared our own part of the road to the Guinean part of the road we had no choice but to congratulate ourselves.
So, history will always record it that certain people do their best to develop their countries and I am saying this Mr Speaker because we do not need to develop a culture of merely stating the worst for our own country otherwise we will drive away even the investors who would want to come here.

How come Sierra Leone is a country of weeping boys and girls?

Every now and then everything about Sierra Leone is the worst.
We cannot even send a good massage for our own country and I think it is necessary for us to begin to send good massages of our country.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I listened to a programme carried by the Voice of America [VOA] and that programme was simply stating that too many things are going wrong in this country including the governance system.
In fact, including the election of the Speaker they mentioned it but what we are saying on this side is that when things are done and are done well, we should say so.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, what has gone wrong in this country must be stated.

I entered a shop a few days ago and I asked the owner of the shop how business generally and he said his business was almost collapsing [Applause].

So what do we do to correct these irregularities?


The Man says we are overtaxed; we are overtaxed to the extent that some of us are thinking of shutting down our shops.

You do not develop our Private Sector with that kind of mentality Mr Speaker, you do not.
Also, we must make it very clear that any country that wants to develop especially the development of the people themselves, that country must insist that it develops the Private Sector but the Private Sector cannot be developed if the rules are too difficult for the people.

I also listened to that man and he said one of his friends has already shut down his shop and these are some of the things we are talking about.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, having stated that, let us look at the other aspect of our development strategy which is energy.

Energy has become very important in the development of this country not only because the President himself mentioned it, not 77 only because it is a priority in his Government’s strategy, not only because he has a Ministry in charge of Energy but what has become very difficult is that electricity is deteriorating rapidly in this country.
Makeni had a very good record of having frequent electricity but I was there over the weekend and I slept in the dark and it is becoming difficult for people to further visit Makeni because we are sleeping in the dark but Mr Speaker, when I drove back to Freetown with the hope that I will go to bed and sleep with the lights on, I slept in the dark again in Freetown.

This is a clear indication that things have gone wrong in the area of energy [Applause].
I sat in my Living Room and my nephew in Bo called me and I asked him a simple question; how true is it that there is no electricity in Bo?

He said Uncle, to put it simply, there is no Electricity here, and we are in the dark.

So even Bo who at one time had reliable electricity, thanks to the Danish Project, somebody was trying to explain to us how come Bo and Kenema had half of the electricity.

We want to tell you that it was the APC that installed the Danish Project [Applause].
It was again the APC that brought in the Chinese to do the Kenema side of it all.
So if you have this system today that allows Bo to have electricity half of the year and then Kenema the other half of the year it was our own arrangement [Applause] but because we are magnanimous, because we are quiet people, we do not like to go about boasting about what we have done and because we are not boasting about what we have done this is why those people who oppose us believe that we did nothing but we have done a lot for this country.
Mr Speaker, let me state one thing that the electricity system in this country is almost collapsing and one thing that is very clear is that it has to be corrected.

If it is not corrected we will find ourselves in difficulty.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, whether you like it or not Fibre Optic was one thing I brought to this country and today it is operational [Applause].
Let me tell you about Fibre Optic; I am the only Sierra Leonean who brought the Submarine Cable and Fibre Optic here [Applause] and today we have provided jobs for young men of Sierra Leone and in certain areas I am also a consultant when sometimes it becomes difficult.

What we are stating Mr Speaker, is that in our efforts to develop this country we must work 78 together in concert and it is also very important for us to accept the truth.
Where a mistake has occurred accept that it has occurred, where you have made a successful point we will say so.

To us it is important that we continue to be honest to ourselves.

We are not going to continue to humiliate people just because they belong to another political party because it will not be good for us in this country.

Why do we need to talk about humiliation?


I was in Makeni over the weekend and I discovered that the former President had no security and this was the man you really wanted him to go to the public to attend a meeting?

So let us be very careful about how we make these demands.

HON.

OSMAN W. JALLOH: Mr Speaker, no, I stand on S.O 34.

Mr Speaker, he is deviating from what is in the President’s Speech.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, Order!

When you stop the shouting handover the Parliament back to me.
HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Mr Speaker, the Parliament is all yours.

THE SPEAKER: No, the shouting contest, have you finished?

HON.

OSMAN W. JALLO: Yes Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Now let me take over Parliament again.

Please carry on sir.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, the President expressed concern about the state of the environment.

He mentioned the environment as a very important component in national development.

We on this side of the House we think likewise.


Mr Speaker, if we decapitate the forest cover of this country we will run into serious difficulties that will negatively impact on water supply which also has to do with even the environment itself.

Mr Speaker, the decapitation of our forest cover is becoming a real problem in this country.

Today we are talking about a situation wherein part of a country has no water supply at all.

Why do we not have water supply we are lamenting about?
We do not have the water supply simply because we are destroying the forest cover and now there are people who were actually selling timber, destroying the forest cover and yet they lament that there is no water.

79 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we must come to reality; we must be honest to ourselves.
If you are a Member of the Government and you lament about the non- availability of water and you know fully well that one of the source of water would be the forest cover and then you sell the forest cover, why do you complain then?

This is what is happening in this country.

There are people who hold public offices and are taking part in the selling of the forest cover and that will not be accepted anymore Mr Speaker because to us the very future of our children is also very important.
So when we talk of water supply Mr Speaker, we are stating a very important point.

We are worried that Sierra Leone is running into a situation whereby we may have no water in the very short run and to us it is very important.

That again was a point raised by the President himself.

Water to him is very important except if you say that is not important but water is very important.

Just like we also believe that we should have water supply that can help us to develop our structures, develop our forest.
Therefore, you have to ensure that we have water for the good of the people of this country.

So, Mr Speaker, I thought that we should raise that kind of important point, the point been that the destruction of the forest cover is becoming a real problem.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have already mentioned electricity supply and people did not like it.

Water supply and electricity are also related.


If you have for example Hydro-electricity which can provide water for you and at the same time provide electricity that of course is very important to us.

Mr Speaker, both electricity and water are very important in the development of any given country.

Mr Speaker, today, we want it to be noted that the destruction of our forest, our trees, can no longer be tolerated because it destroys the environment.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I drove to Falaba recently; the road was almost impassable because people are very wicked in destroying the forest.

You would run into serious difficulties before you get to Falaba itself and I am sure there are people here from Falaba.

They have complained and complained nothing is been done and the forest is been destroyed consistently and persistently Mr Speaker.

So, something has to be done.


The Committee on Environment should do something about this because what 80 has happened in some parts of the country is the total destruction of the forest cover which is most unacceptable.

It cannot also be seen to be the case that it is a Government Policy, if it is seen to be a case that it is Government Policy then of course, we would run into serious difficulty.
The fact of the matter Mr Speaker is that what is happening now in the handling of our forest is not acceptable.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am very certain that the President himself also mentioned the youths of this country.

Those of us who have decided to be on this side of this House have great faith in our youths [Applause].

This is why we mentor them to be great debaters and very intelligent people [Applause].

We are aware of the fact that we cannot be Leaders all the time.
Sometimes you prepare your younger generation for future Leadership and this is why after occupying this part of the House, when sometimes we are tired, we hand it over to this other part of the House, these are capable people.

Mr Speaker, the youths of this country must be treated very seriously.

I do not like this business of making statements about youths without us meaning what we are saying.
We need to develop the youths of this country and when we talk about the youths of this country by my estimation Mr Speaker; I am not just talking about the youths in Freetown I am talking about the youths in the rural areas as well.

What have we done to address the issues relating to the youths in the rural areas?
Sometimes when we talk about the youths people think it is just about those here in Freetown or the ones in Bo or Kenema but in the actual fact when we talk about youths we are also talking about the youths in the rural areas or even the mining areas.

For too long we have abandoned them and I think when we put together policies and frame work relating to the youths of this country we should not forget that we also have youths in the rural areas and we should cater for their interests Mr Speaker.
To us it is also important.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, somebody was talking about how Elections were conducted recently in certain parts of the country.

I can easily state Mr Speaker that if what was said about the conduct of those elections is true then of course we are setting very bad examples for our youths in the future because it is now that they should begin 81 to be part and parcel of a properly organised and structured youths Electoral system.
If the Electoral system is not honest and if it is fraud it would affect them.

We do not want our younger generations to begin to think in that way in the future.

To us it is very important.

Mr Speaker, the point I want to further emphasize is the importance of our youths in this country.

They are very important people.

We want to make sure; we want to be very certain that these are people who can probably be utilized for the development of this country.
We do not just want to talk about them by just merely paying lip service saying the youths, the youths.

What are we doing to make sure that they are useful in society?

They must be seen to be useful otherwise there is no point shouting about the youths of this country.

To us, it is important that we take that into consideration Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the attitude of Sierra Leoneans to us must also be seen as a very important aspect of our development.
When we were young going to school, it was so easy for us to be friends and to call ourselves nick names, to even joke about our tribes but today you do not even do that.

You cannot, you dare not do that.

When I was in Bo going to school, my Mende friends used to say “ten Themnes make one Mende”, then I will say no fifteen Mendes make one Temne we had these kinds of jokes but it was accepted in those days unlike today.

Now can you really try it again and think you will get away with it?
It is the attitude of our people, our unwillingness to see ourselves as one United People is becoming a problem.

Simple jokes can be totally misunderstood.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I remembered if I should just quote a statement during a Debate here in Parliament.
The one-time famous teacher Y D Sesay of the Bo School came to this House and made an announcement that the British High Commission had donated to his Ministry of Information at the time equipment in his Ministry but apparently, he did not pronounce the word well and Kutubu Kai-Samba then, responded saying “teacher that is not the way they call it” and teacher Y.

D Sesay said, “Kubutu Kai-Samba the reason why you failed all your exams was that you never knew how to pronounce hard words”.
That was a hard word which you would never 82 understand but it was a joke everybody roared in laughter.

Today, there is no way in which you can make joke without difficulties.

Simple arguments; people do not see them as arguments anymore.

It is a matter of us looking at ourselves as enemies.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, one thing that we will always insist on is that this country must be a united country.

Somebody said to us why we did not go to the Conference?
I want it to be stated and it is in the records that on two, three or four occasions, some Members of this side of the House put together a structure, a mechanism to make sure that all of us work together as one united people.

There was a meeting and in that meeting was Honourable Rado Yokie, John Benjamin, Yansaneh [Secretary-General of the APC], Honourable I.B.

Kargbo and Ambassador Dauda Kamara.


We said we are the elders of this country we should not allow this country to collapse, let us find ways by which we can resolve these difficulties and bring the country together.

We held a meeting in Honourable Rado Yokie’s office; we came up with suggestions which were supposed to be given to the President but up to date we have not received any response, no reply.
This is a clear indication that the Conference we are talking about cannot be the final opportunity for us to resolve the difficulties of this country.

In other words, some of us in our own way have attempted to bring people together so that we can address the issues of this country.

We want this country to be holistic, one cohesive country and we have no reasons for standing in the way of anybody who wants to bring peace to this country except if your motives are not genuine [Applause].
You will not get us on board but if your motives are genuine you will get us on board.

One of my friends, a Lebanese friend, telephoned asking me “Mr Kargbo I did not see you at the Conference” I said yes, I was not at the Conference and he said “why”?

I said because I had no invitation you expect me to go to the Conference where I was not properly invited?

I cannot go to a place where I was not properly invited.
THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, I keep reminding you, undertones are an accepted part of Parliamentary Debates but you know when two or three people are 83 making undertones at the same time; you know it becomes a rather destructive business please.

HON.
HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, we have no difficulties with undertones and we also want to make it very certain that we know what we are talking about but the important thing is that I was merely talking about the last conference and the reasons why some people did not participate.

You cannot invite some of us to a meeting without security especially a former President and also what is important is the fact that the distribution of information was poor.
The information came rather very late and believe me, we would not accept it Mr Speaker.

I am very certain that even your own invitation came very late to your office.

Let us tell the people who organised this conference that they made errors.

You cannot deny me; you also received your own invitation late but you have very good reasons to go there.

Mr Speaker, I want to make it very clear that we had no hate for anybody.
The President who has eloquently presented this Speech, talking about the development of this country, I am sure he is also aware of the fact that on our own side he has friends and on the other side possibly he has people who want to get jobs but Mr Speaker, some of us knew President Maada Bio when he was a young man and he will tell you exactly what some of us did to befriend him and how we became friends.
We are not even going to go into the details but what we want to say is that the more important Commission, the more important Programme, the Peace Meeting which the President himself organised was one Conference which I attended and I tell you for free that even before the meeting the previous day, I held a meeting with President Maada Bio in his house to discuss the format of that meeting so it is not about today [Applause].
The President knows, he knows that my late younger brother Ibrahim was his classmate at the Bo School and both of them were very close to me.

I am not going to go into all these details.

So, what we want to emphasize Mr Speaker, whether President Maada Bio comes from the APC or whether he comes from the SLPP it really does not matter.
He is the President of Sierra Leone and this is why we are here to take part in this Debate and for people to believe that we hate certain people just because we took 84 certain decisions, they are making a very grievous error.

Mr Speaker, we do not hate people but we belong to a Party that has policies and programmes.

Mr Speaker, I will not take my Members of Parliament to a Party House only to be told how they should come and behave here.

I will not do that.
I will not do that.

Notwithstanding the fact that I am a member of the National Advisory Council [NAC], I do not know whether you belong to your own Party’s structure.

Okay, I am a member of NAC the National Advisory Committee of our party [Undertone].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, contrary to what the Deputy Speaker said, we would not tell our young people, highly educated people, to go and listen to somebody to whisper into their ears before they may come here to Debate.
These are highly educated people they can take decisions on their own.

To us, we simply believe that the Deputy Speaker did not know what he was talking about but we will leave him as he is.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, as I round up, let us make a very important point about the infrastructural development of this country but more importantly, the development of the Information and Communication Technology Sector [ICT].

The ICT Sector Mr Speaker is very important in the development of this country.
I see some efforts on the part of the Regulatory Authority to improve on the ICT Sector and already we are talking about the possibility of them installing a roaming system in Sierra Leone.

For those who do not understand, that is very important for the development of this country and already they have taken the roaming system up to Kailahun to make sure that Kailahun too becomes part of the roaming system and very soon it will be taken to Kambia and other parts of the country.
In other words Mr Speaker, when you talk about the roaming system it means that you can sit here and make a telephone call to Bo, Makeni and even Kailahun.

You can also talk to Accra, to Lagos and we are now part of that system.

To us, it is important that we take that into consideration.

I think we on this part, we congratulate the Regulatory Authority for been part of that system.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I mentioned when somebody wanted to make a statement that we decided as a Government to make sure that the terrestrial backbone of this country was installed.

Well the terrestrial backbone simply means that you install 85 a system that will connect your maritime system to the rest of the country and by installing the maritime system we have prepared this country for the terrestrial backbone as well.
So, already I am talking about a system which is the Sierra Leone Cable Limited [SALCAB] has been installed and I think they are doing well in that area.

To us, it is important.

Mr Speaker, Members of Parliament, we all have made the point that the President made a Speech for the development of this country and we on this side are not against it but what we want to emphasize is the fact that some times the Ministry of Information gives us wrong information.
The Minister sometimes tells us one thing today and tomorrow tells us some other thing else.
I was going to quote from one of their own documents to prove that the Ministry of Finance is not doing the best thing in developing this country but the reason why I am going to leave the Ministry of Finance now is because I know that very soon the Budget will be read and once the Budget is read all the information that has to do with the development of the Financial Sector will be raised and once it is raised then of course we will be in the position to challenge some of these issues that have been raised.
We make this point because we discovered that a good number of information that is given to us is not true, it is totally not true and because it is not true we will challenge it.

I think time is not in our side and therefore we will wait until the Budget is read and when it is read we would raise some of these issues that are totally wrong when they are been presented to members of the public.

Mr Speaker, Members of Parliament I thank you very much for listening to me [Applause].
THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Acting Leader of the Opposition for his very constructive contribution to this Debate.

He has certainly not surprised me at all.

It is now my pleasure to invite the Leader of Government Business to wind up and bring this important Debate to close [Applause].

HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to thank His Excellency the President for presenting to this Honourable House a detailed Address of the situation in this country.

Mr Speaker, 86 Honourable Members, this is my twelfth year serving as a Member of Parliament.

I have never ever seen or heard of a detailed Report like this [Applause].

I therefore, want to thank His Excellency the President.
I also want to thank Mr Speaker for allowing our colleagues to participate in this Debate considering the fact that they chose to walk away and not to listen to His Excellency the President.

I thank you very much Mr Speaker because I was definitely going to approach you in your Chambers to appeal to you to allow them to participate in this Debate I am happy that you did allow them Sir.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, a lot has been said about the President’s Address and I am very happy to note that with the exception of few areas both sides of the House have approved this Address by over 95% [Applause].

I would therefore, really not waste too much time on it but I would want to make few clarifications starting with the last speaker who is the Acting Leader of the Opposition.

The Acting Leader of the Opposition spoke about the deplorable situation of Energy in the Western Area.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members I want to refer the Honourable Member to Page 27, Paragraph 143 of the President’s Address.

With your leave Mr Speaker, I read: “overall between February 2018 and January 2019, Energy sales increased by 46.9%” not even 4.6% but 46.9% “and the number of EDSA customers also increased to 195,094 in March 2019, from 175,315 in April 2018” [Applause].
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we cannot have a deplorable energy situation in the country and still have our customers increased from 175,315 to 195,094 in just twelve months it is not possible.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Honourable Member also spoke about him hearing on the VOA issues relating to the Election of the Speaker.

I so admired His Excellency the President.

Honestly, this is one man who has so much wisdom.


I mean this is the man, as young as he was he introduced the Bintumani 1, Bintumani 2 and then when he looked at the situation in the country he decided that we must have a Peace and National Cohesion Conference.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, if you check in the Social Media, there had been a lot of talks including what the Honourable Member has talked about just now which is the Election of the Speaker from the Bar 87 Association and their President.
This is exactly what the President wanted, the President wanted citizens to actually go to Bintumani Conference Centre and say what they wanted to say.

Unfortunately, for our brothers on the other side, to have a Leader who asked his followers by saying S. O 2 “wi dae go or wi nor dae go”?
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, as citizens of this country I believe that Bintumani 3 was the greatest opportunity that all of us had to come back as brothers and sisters to ensure that we have a National Cohesion and like I said at the Bintumani Conference Centre that even though my colleagues on the other side did not attend but I am 100% confident that they will abide by the conclusions of the Bintumani 3 [Applause].
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, coming back to the Bar Association, like I said earlier on, honestly, I admired the lady, I admired her a lot.

I admired her for the fact that she stood up there to talk about the Election of the Speaker, she stood up there talked about dismissing people without security of tenure, talked about constitutional violations.

My only question is and I really want Honourable Members to think about this.

When was the current Bar Association executive actually formed?
Was it in 2018 or sometimes in 2019?

You know the reason why I am asking this?

the reason why I am asking this question is the fact that the very lady talking was around, from what I heard she is a lawyer of a very high repute and I know she has been a member of the Bar Association for a very long time exactly, that is my point not as President I agree with that [Undertone].

Honourable Members please my question is, where was the Bar Association when we had a Governor of Bank of Sierra Leone dismissed?
Where was the Bar Association when an elected Vice President of this country was sacked?

Where was the Bar Association when our women were raped in the party office in 2007?

Honourable Abdul Karim Kamara, you are a young Member of Parliament, you said something for which I admired you a lot yesterday and you reminded your colleagues.

Honourable Members, I advised you yesterday to please make sure you use the mikes judiciously [Undertone].
The young Honourable Member over there on the other side made a very salient point yesterday, when he said “majority of the Members in this House are very young”, they are very young.
In the next ten years when His Excellency 88 Maada Bio will be leaving office, some of us will also be leaving, some of us will be leaving with him but one thing I want us to understand Honourable Members is that the institutions we have in this country like the Bar Association is an institution that we must ensure is far away from politics [Applause].
It must be far away from politics because if we have a President of the Bar Association who actually stood up in that Conference to say; make comments of that nature then I am sorry for this country [Applause].

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, like I said to you a lot has been said already about this Address.
I do not have to go over it again but there is a point that I will also want to bring to the attention of this House because for the past three days since we have been Debating, Honourable Members on the other side have been bringing it up and that is the economy.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have two Reports here, this one is from the International Monetary Fund [IMF] which is the recent release in May 7th then I have this other one which is from the internet from Honourable Lahai Marah.
[Laughter] No.

I will read it [Undertone].

They said according to them, “latest World Bank Report on Sierra Leone assessment of ‘PAOPA’ New Direction Economy” etc.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, this Report is talking about the situation in Sierra Leone as at early 2018.

This Report is referring to the first quarter of 2018 starting from 2017.

Let me tell you what happened.


The Mission that came to this country which wrote this Report was here in June 2018 just about two months after His Excellency Julius Maada Bio took office.

So tell me will this Report be referring to the two months of this new Government in Office?

We are talking about a Report which is from 2017 to the first quarter of 2018.

Go and read this, this is the second Report Mr Speaker, Honourable Members.

Mr Speaker, this is the IMF Report, dated 7th May, 2019.
It says: “An International IMF Mission led by Karen Ongley visited Freetown between the 23rd April to 7th May, 2019 to conduct the first review of the Extended Credit Facility [ECF] arrangements approved by the Executive Board on 30th November, 2018, the economic land scape in Sierra Leone remains challenging yet the authorities navigated these difficulties well in the year 89 since taken office helping to stabilise the Economy real GDP look set to pick up this year to 5.1% thanks in fact to the resumption of the Iron-Ore mining after picking above 19% last September inflation moderated to 17.5% in March and is projected to continue tracking down over 2019.
Faced with the serious constrains on Budget Financing the Authorities kept the Budget in checked through stronger programmes, revenue performance and spending well below the budget, as a result, the overall deficit narrowed from 8.8% in 2017 to 5.8% in 2018.
The IMF Executive Board is expected to consider first ECF review by the end of June 2019, completion of the review would make available another $21mln bringing total disbursement under the programme to about $43mln.” [Suspension of S.O.5 [2] being 3:00p.m.]

HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let us continue to appreciate His Excellency the President.

He has a very good economic team which he has put together in the interest of this country.
By the end of this year, the Dollar thing you are talking about will be a thing of the past I can assure you of that by the end of this year.

I can assure you that the Dollar issue will no longer be a problem in this country.

Finally, Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am again appealing to my colleagues on the other side to work with us.

I am very determined like I said the very first day I entered this Parliament as Leader of Government Business that I would work with them.
I assured them that we would work together to develop this country.

I am appealing to you, as Parliamentarians; we have our Political Parties out there let us make sure we do not subject ourselves to S.O 2 “wi dae go or wi nor dae go”.

Thank you.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, as your Speaker I will continue to urge and implore all of you as indeed stated by the Leader of Government Business to continue to dialogue, to continue to consult and to continue to work together.
90 [Question Proposed, Put and Agreed To] [Motion of Thanks to His Excellency the President Julius Maada Bio has been carried] [The House rose at 3:20 p.m. and was adjourned to Thursday 30th May, 2019 at 10:00 ADJOURNMENT a.m.] 91