Former interim president Dr. Amos C. Sawyer, now head of the Governance Commission, questioning why Article 54 is not amongst constitutional provisions slated for referendum, has urged legislators to ensure the superintendents and other officials are elected in the process of decentralizing governance.
At a public hearing Friday, he said government's failure to include Article 54 (d) of the Constitution for current referendum will deny Liberians the opportunity to move forward with some of the critical aspect of having a local leadership structure that will be accountable to them.
Dr. Sawyer told legislators that, "failure to act now (to amend article 54d of the constitution), will deny Liberia the opportunity to move forward with some of the critical aspects of the preparation for the implementation of a system of local government for at least 6years..."
Article 54(d), which empowers the president to President to appoint superintendents and District Commissioners, states:
The President shall nominate and, with the consent of the Senate, appoint and commission-
d. Superintendents, other county officials and officials of other political sub-divisions;
Dr. Sawyer noted that given the cost of holding a national referendum, it will be important for the said amendment to be done in order to enable its inclusion into the just enacted Referendum Act so as to avoid the cost of holding separate referendums here.
He to the public hearing at the legislature, that the people are "desirous" of having a local government in which they can elect officials such as Superintendents and DCs who will be directly answerable to them as electorate
The GC chair reminded the legislators that the establishment of a local government is a long term program indicating; "we estimate that 5 years would be required before we begin to experience the establishment of the initial institutions under a new system of local governance."
"This is not an overnight process, it may well require 7or more years before we are able to elect our Superintendents, that is, if we pass this law at this time and so if we are to make some progress for the immediate future we have to pass this law now."
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I hope the current Legislators will see reasons to enact this law so Liberians can elect their own superintendents and district commissioners. If this happens, it will rather speed up the poverty Reduction Strategy because it will introducce competition at the local level among the counties. If the Legislators kill this bill, then they are just rebuilding a nation that will bust into another brutal civil war within 15-20 years. The reason is that if people feel maginalized and they believe they don't have a voice in their local governance, they will act in a negative faction. The result will be another civil war. We don't need another civil war just to allow the people to elect their own leaders at the county levels.