WHY PRESIDENT SIRLEAF SHOULD NOT RESIGN? Written by Manyou MAS Bility,Contributing Writer, manyoubility@yahoo FrontPage Africa Published: 09 September 2014 Milwaukee, WI - For quite some time now, and as the Government of Liberia, patriotic Liberians and our humanitarian friends of Liberia continue to combine their resources, efforts and forces to battle the deadliest outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease ( EVD), there also on the other hand, have been some unscrupulous group of people and anti-democratic agent and beneficiaries of the spoils from unaccountable past interim governments advocating for the resignation of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who was democratically elected just less than three years ago to serve another six -year term or her second term for short. The intention of this group is to distract the government and its partners, Liberians who mean well for Liberia and the international community in the fight against the insane killer called Ebola. This is a clear manifestation that those people’s only interest in Liberia is power and nothing else. One would think that this should be the time for all of us to rally around our government to help eradicate this deadly agent called Ebola that is on a special mission to eliminate families, communities and throw us into a state of a failed state. Instead, some are trying to use this moment to further expose how greedy they are and to show to the world why our country has not been able to progress in keeping with her age and existence as the oldest African republic. This article is not to argue in defense of this government, but to address the illogical call for resignation. To me, this is the most irrational call for resignation that I have ever seen or heard in our nation’s history. It’s comparable to Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky and a Republican Senator and his colleagues calling on President Barrack Obama to resign because of their belief that Beyonce Knowles lip-synched the National Anthem of the United States of America during her performance at President Barrack Obama second inaugural program in January of 2013. Where is the connection between Beyonce not knowing the national anthem by heart and president Obama’s performance as a leader in office? In 2005, the world watched Liberia returned to multi-party democracy as we; Liberians exercised our powers given us under article 1 of our 1986 constitution, “All power is inherent in the people. All free governments are instituted by their authority and for their benefit and they have the right to alter and reform the same when their safety and happiness so require. In order to ensure democratic government, which responds to the wishes of the governed, the people shall have the right at such period, and in such manner as provided for under this Constitution, to cause their public servants to leave office and to fill vacancies by regular elections and appointments.” When an interim government is formed, this power is taken away from the ordinary people and placed in the hands of a bunch of unaccountable people who institute those governments by their authorities and for the sole benefits of themselves. What an undemocratic campaign!!!There is no accountability to Liberians in this kind of government that I call an ELEPHANT MEAT government as its officials are only accountable to their various factions, camps or groups that they are representing. The proof that those faked campaigners do not believe in democracy and our constitution is that, they are not arguing that the vice president takes over from the president upon her resignation. They are not arguing in favor of any of those succession clauses in our constitution, but an interim government without any constitutional backing. The constitution says, when the president resigns, the vice president takes over; and when both the president and the vice president are removed from their offices or when they both resign at the same time or when their positions become simultaneously vacant, the Speaker of the House of Representatives takes over and it goes on and on and on. Are they saying that they trust no one in the corridors of government? What a shame!!! Coordination in such government is usually lacking as some officials are only accountable to themselves, paving the way for the entire government to go on a looting spree of state coffers because of the fact that they are just temporary. Usually, though interim governments are short-life, they steal more money than elected governments and there is always no accountability as there is always this focus on the return to governance by election by the citizens. Let me give you a scenario. It was reported after the ousting of former Guinean Junta Leader Moussa Dadis Camara that for the short time he spent as President of that country, the money stolen from the Guinean people was more than the one stolen during the 24 year rule of President Lassana Conteh. So, that’s the reason for which some would be brave to ask for an interim government when we don’t need one. They want to steal!!! For this reason, I am calling on president Sirleaf not to resign!! She was duly elected and must be allowed to complete her unexpired term for the following constitutional and other reasons: Firstly, as you all clearly read in article one above, the power or a way for Liberians to cause their public officials to leave offices, or to fill vacancies is by regular elections and appointments. Appointments imply that elected officials bring around people who would help them and work at their will and pleasures. Secondly, the issue of resignation of a President was mentioned in article 63 (B) which reads, “Article 63b. “Whenever the office of the President shall become vacant by reason of death, resignation, impeachment, or the President shall be declared incapable of carrying out the duties and functions of his office, the Vice-President shall succeed to the of the President to complete the unexpired term. In such a case, this doesnt constitute a term.” In law, the intent or the reason for which a law is made is the most important issue. And as we all can see, this clause only came about to address the issue of vacancy in the presidency in case of death, resignation, impeachment, or when the president shall be declared incapable of carrying his or her duties and functions of his or her office. It wasn’t intended to give power to the people to ask for the president to resign. If that’s the case, then one must also argue that it also gives the citizenry the power too to ask the president to die since death is also mentioned in the same clause if that make any sense. Thirdly, resignation lies within the power of the person asked to resign, not the one asking the other to resign and so the decision for a president to resign is the sole decision of that president, not the one making the demand. That is, when one asks an elected president to resign and he or she refuses, your rights weren’t violated there. That President is only exercising his/her right to reject the call to resign for reasons best known to himself or herself. Furthermore, if the proponents of the call for the President to resign are serious and for which they think that they have legitimate reasons not to wait for elections, they must exercise their rights under article 43 which reads, “The power to prepare a bill of impeachment is vested solely in the House of Representatives, and the power to try all impeachments is vested solely in the Senate. When the President, Vice President or an Associate Justice is to be tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; when the Chief Justice or a judge of a subordinate court of record is to be tried, the President of the Senate shall preside. No person shall be impeached, but by the concurrence of two-thirds of the total membership of the Senate. Judgments in such cases shall not extend beyond removal from office and disqualification to hold public office in the Republic; but the party may be tried at law for the same offense. The Legislature shall prescribe the procedure for impeachment proceedings which shall be in conformity with the requirements of due process of law.” Yes, as citizens, you can petition your representatives to introduce a bill of impeachment accompanied by all necessary pieces of evidence to make your case for impeachment. This case must be in line with Article 62which reads, “The President and the Vice-President may be removed from office by impeachment for treason, bribery, and other felonies, violation of the Constitution or gross misconduct”. Thanks to God that our lawmakers who are representing us, are not only Unity Partisans and were not appointed by President Sirleaf. This is what we want!! Functioning democracy!!! If you have any case, follow the due process!! Finally, if we should give credence to every Tom and Dick to ask our elected leaders to resign, we will be setting a very bad precedence for future generations. It means that anybody without a reason can just ask and it will happen just like that. Then, where is the country? If Americans had given credence to Senator Paul and his collaborators’ call for President Obama to resign over Beyonce’s inaugural performance with the national anthem, then some might have asked his successor to resign for taking a selfie with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and British PM David Cameron at Nelson Mandela’s funeral as he wouldn’t have been in power by then. So, you tell me, how many presidents, Americans would have caused to resign by now? You do the same math for Liberia too wherein in a day after the President’s inauguration, some would ask him/her to resign because of oversleeping after the inaugural ball and not waking up soon to do the Liberian peoples’ business!! Scratching my head!!! Let’s not encourage an act or a campaign that will derail our free flow of democratic elections and our democracy, especially so when we had two opportunities and we still elected the same persons. The fact that this president was elected for the second time by AME University, Liberiaans after her first term; which was also condemned by her detractors as an era of misrule, means that only the Liberian electors/electorates can be right in this or any case as to whether they are satisfied or not with a sitting president, not hustlers. Let’s unite now and focus on this deadly disease that is killing our people instead of focusing on something that will lead us to lose the battle. In as much as the government’s strategies initially were not very effective, I have also come to the understanding that most of our people didn’t die because of the government’s strategies, instead, many died because of denials people exhibited and continue to exhibit as a result of misconstruing their own religious, cultural and traditional teachings. But by God’s wiling, Liberia will rise again and Ebola will not only be kicked out of Liberia, but the world. May the souls of all of our fallen heroes who died battling this disease rest in peace, may Allah heal all those who are battling the disease and protect those who haven’t contacted this insane virus from contacted it, ameena.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 20:20:26 +0000
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