By Alusine Fullah and Amara Suwu
Hon. Dr Abass Chernor Bundu, the speaker of the sixth parliament has addressed a battery of newly sworn in members of parliament after the oath-taking and election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Hon Abass Bundu emphasized the importance of unity and cooperation among all political parties. He highlighted that it would be an unforgivable act of betrayal if members of the All People’s Congress (APC) failed to attend the proceedings of the new parliament. He stated: “Staying aloof from the proceedings of the Sixth Parliament is a betrayal of the people’s trust and an unforgivable act. The people voted for you, and it is your duty to come and represent them faithfully…”
Hon. Dr Abass Bundu extended a profound olive branch to all APC members of parliament, urging them to join the parliamentary session on the next adjourned date and actively participate in the democratic process. Stressing the significance of addressing their difference internally, he called upon all MPs to find common ground without relying solely on external intervention.
Speaker, Dr. Abass C. Bundu, extended an olive branch to the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) to see wisdom to come to Parliament, not for any other reason but on their volition that they stood at the elections and told their people to vote them to power, during Tuesday sitting said to colonial matters, who came to observe elections in Sierra Leone, not to interfere into the domestic affairs of Sierra Leone, especially on who should govern them.
Going hard on the west, the Speaker mentioned the notion of regime change that was being bandied all over. As a lover of history, he lamented on slavery, which he explained that decimated and meted out the human capital of Africa that was the most important resource they had at that time; by taking able bodied men and women out of West Africa and transporting them to the plantations in North America and the Americas to go and work for the benefit of other people.
Fast forward, he said after slavery came, religion served as the recourse to another way of exploitation steered by the colonialists. He said when the colonialists came, they focused on the country’s natural resources; they plundered on the natural resources to go and develop their own industries and their own countries. He said now that they (Sierra Leoneans) had fought and acquired their independence the doors are shut, and they are shut by the instruments of independence that they could no longer access the resources of the country at will.
The Speaker said that the picture is changing because China and Indians are with them as friends and the field is becoming more competitive, especially when the Russians are out there anyway. Therefore, he said there is now an intense competition for their natural resources, and some of them think with the access to their natural resources they could interfere with their domestic affairs and electoral processes and thereby determine who should govern them. So, he said they must always be alert not to stop to defend and protect their country from those whose only interest is not to come and promote their (Sierra Leoneans) development but quite frankly their primary interest and their own development, not theirs.
Having said that, he cautioned the APC, for them not to go to represent their people would be an act of betrayal and there can be no penalty as the remedy to the people – people who had stood through thick and thin to see that they are represented. Reflecting on the elections in 2007 and 2012, when they (SLPP) were extremely annoyed after losing those elections to APC, they (SLPP) had to reconcile themselves with reality though they were told to go to the police when they protested, but they accepted the results and allowed the process to go on. He said the country is bigger than any political party.
He advised that, after over 60 years of independence, they should take pride in the fact that sixty years is not sixty days or months, and fort that, they should learn to resolve differences between and among themselves and not rely entirely on the dictates from outsiders. He said relying on outsiders is only half truth and half a solution, it is better to rely on oneself to save times recovery. He assured that it was a storm in a teacup that would blow over, and their brothers and sisters in the APC would come when the storm would have subsided; emphasizing that together they would put their shoulders to the wheel and move the development of the country forward. So, he said they should not be angry, they do not wish to run a one-party state because the constitution will not allow them even if they intend to. He hoped that the APC would see things that way and advise themselves, for in the end, if that still persists, they would be the greatest losers.
