IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE PRESIDENT OF SIERRA LEONE UNDER SECTION 51 OF THE 1991 CONSTITUTION. A CASE FOR THE PRESIDENT

THE REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENT THROUGH IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS UNDER SECTION 51 OF THE 1991 CONSTITUTION. 

The office of the President is established by section 40 of the 1991 Constitution Act No. 6 which states that…There shall be a President of the Republic of Sierra Leone who shall be Head of State, the supreme executive authority of the Republic and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The President shall be the Fountain of Honour and Justice and the symbol of national unity and sovereignty. Under subsection (3) of section 40, the President shall be the guardian of the Constitution and the guarantor of national independence and territorial integrity, and shall ensure respect for treaties and international agreements.
In Sierra Leone, the requirements for a person vying for the office of President are set out in section 41, paragraphs a, b, c and d.

That the person must be a citizen of Sierra Leone; must be a member of a registered political party, and has attained the age of forty years who is otherwise qualified to be elected as a member of Parliament. The president shall be entitled to perform under subsection (4) of section 40 functions concerning all Constitutional matters, including the inscription of his signature to Bills to become laws for the good governance of Sierra Leone, the establishment of relations with foreign states, the exercise of prerogative of mercy, the grant of honours, the declaration of a state of emergency where there is a war or any natural disaster posing as a threat for national security, and public, health and public order. 

We must also note that the President exercises executive powers and that he is entitled to appoint all cabinet ministers and their deputies, the President appoints all the Judges of the Superior Court of Judicature on the recommendation of the Judicial and Legal service Commission. The President appoints all Heads of Departments, and Agencies, the President is a Member of Parliament which is the supreme legislative authority for Sierra Leone. 

Though the appointment of persons by the President to occupy positions in the Judiciary and the Executive arm of government is subject to the approval of Parliament; that does not make him less powerful in the circumstance. 
The tenure of the office of President under section 46 stipulates that, no person shall hold office as President for more than two terms of five years each whether or not the terms are consecutive. There is no doubt that the Constitution conferred on the President enormous powers; in which case, it is implausible to think that He could be removed from office through an impeachment proceedings set out in section 51 taking into account how much powerful the Constitution has made him. Prominent among the many powers conferred on the President is the fact that he is above any civil or criminal proceedings that is to be instituted against him for any act done or omission either in his official or in his private capacity. This enormous power is accentuated and found in section 48 subsection (4). The office of President under section 49 shall become vacant on the expiration of five years after the general elections that brought him to the office. 

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE PRESIDENT IS UNABLE TO PERFORM HIS OFFICIAL DUTIES?

Pursuant to subsection (1) of section 50, if the President is unable to discharge the functions conferred on him by the Constitution either because of physical or mental incapacity caused by infirmity of the body or mind, and the cabinet has brought it to the notice of the speaker of parliament, the speaker shall consult with the Head of Medical Services of Sierra Leone to appoint a team of not less than five trained and qualified medical practitioners registered to practice medicine under the laws of Sierra Leone to investigate the issue, thereafter, the team shall submit a report to the Speaker stating the opinion of the Board whether or not the President is, by reason of any infirmity of mind or body, incapable of discharging the functions conferred on him by the Constitution. In which circumstance, the President shall cease to hold office and a vacancy shall be deemed to have occurred. Where a vacancy has occurred in the office of the President, the provision in subsection (4) of section 49 shall apply which shall allow the Vice-President assume office as President for the remainder of the number of years.

FOUR REASONS WHY I BELIEVE THE REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENT THROUGH IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Since the Constitution is supreme and is the Grundnorm of Sierra Leone from whom all statutes derive their validity; any statute that is in contravention of the provisions of this Constitution shall to the extent of that inconsistency or contravention be void and of no effect, pursuant to subsection 15 of section 171 of the 1991 Constitution. The state institutions of Sierra Leone are established by the 1991 Constitution and the manner in which they operate in the administration of state affairs is stipulated by the Constitution. Whatever power that is exercised by the occupiers of those state institutions is provided by the constitution, these are examples sufficient to emphasise the supremacy of the Constitution. The office of the President is established by the same Constitution conferring on one person excess powers to a point that he is not subject to the direction of anybody and the principle of the rule of law does not seem to apply to him. 

Even though what amounts to a violation of the constitution and gross misconduct was not specifically spelt out in section 51, but let us assume that it will amount to a violation of the Constitution where a sitting President orders the arrest and detention of his political opponent for no just cause thereby violating his fundamental human rights that are protected under sections 17 and 26 of Chapter Three of the 1991 Constitution. Or a sitting President approves the payment of a bill to a luxury hotel for ten of his family members from the consolidated fund, monies amounting to Millions of Leones. Or President accepts a bribe from a businessman for the award of a contract. These acts by the President will no doubt be construed as gross misconduct. 

Nonetheless, it is the same Constitution that provided for the removal of the President under section 51 on the grounds that the President has committed any violation of the Constitution or any gross misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office and specifying the particulars of the allegations and proposing that a tribunal is to be appointed under this section to investigate those allegations. It may seem as though the due process provided by the Constitution in subsections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of section 51 with regards the removal of the President is achievable, but given the political dynamics of Sierra Leone, whereby members of parliament who are empowered to remove the President by achieving a vote of two-thirds majority in favour of his removal are more inclined with partisan politics and are always willing to support their member even when it goes against ethics and their personal principles. 

It is on this backdrop that I submit the following four reasons why I believe that the removal of the President through impeachment proceedings in Sierra Leone is an absolute MYTH and not REALISTIC:

1. It is impossible to achieve a Two-Thirds Majority vote of members of Parliament in favour of removing from office the President for the simple fact that the political party that constitutes the majority in Parliament may not have as many seats as would be required to have a vote that will amount to the Constitutional requirement of Two-Thirds Majority. For example, the current Parliament of Sierra Leone has a total of 146 members of which the Sierra Leone Peoples Party has 58 seats, the All Peoples Congress has 59 seats, the Independent members of Parliament constitutes 3 seats, the National Grand Coalition has 4 seats, Paramount Chief members of Parliament constitutes 14 members, and the Coalition 4 Change (C4C) has 8 seats. To achieve a Two-Thirds Majority vote in favour of the removal of the President is to have as many votes as 97. That is to say, Ninety Seven Members of Parliament must vote ‘Yes’ that they agree for the President to be removed from office. It is true that Sierra Leone has never recorded in its political history an impeachment trial against a sitting President. To achieve a Two-Thirds Majority vote in Parliament for his removal is impossible, taking into consideration the numerical permutation I have stated above. We have seen other jurisdictions such as the United States of America had a few impeachment trials against their sitting Presidents. Quite recently, the infamous Donald Trump survived two impeachment trials because of the impossibility of achieving the Two-Thirds Majority vote requirement in the U.S Congress through the House of Representatives. 

2. The second reason to support my claim of the impossibility of removing a sitting President from office through impeachment is the fact that, no member of a political party in which the President belongs will entertain the thought of voting to remove the President. This is because, there is sworn loyalty among all the members of that political party that they must always support their leader even when it is wrong to do so. 

3. The third reason is the fact that an act by the President that will amount to a violation of the Constitution or gross misconduct may not even come to the public domain for it to be debated, and when it manages to slip through the corridors of power and become public knowledge, nobody would want to be identified as the first person who pioneered a move to invoke the legal proceedings for an impeachment of the President. It will not happen because of the level of sycophancy that is present in the public service, and the civil service. People will be hesitant to be associated with anything that has to do with the removal of the President because of the possible consequences that will follow after the President may have survived the impeachment proceedings. 

4. Finally, the fourth point is that, the President shall still remain in office and shall exercise executive powers in the midst of the investigation by Parliament to substantiate evidence to prove his misconduct, and shall still be entitled to use his executive powers to interrupt the investigation process in any way possible. The investigation tribunal set up by the Chief Justice on the instruction of the speaker of Parliament may be constrained to come up with evidence in order to substantiate the claim that the President has violated the Constitution. We must note that where the tribunal failed to bring sufficient evidence to prove the allegations against the President, no further proceedings shall be taken, and this will signal the end of any investigation against him.