Cabinet has no Works Minister & No Energy Minister! & So What? AWARENESS TIMES (14th May 2014) Special Executive Assistant to President Koroma at State House, Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, has dismissed claims that the President is wrong to supervise Ministry of Energy from State House leaving the Ministry without a Minister or Deputy Minister for weeks now whilst leaving Ministry of Works without a substantive Minister for months now. According to her, the Sierra Leone Constitution mandates “only two specific Cabinet Ministers” whom she named as “Minister of Justice and Minister of Internal Affairs”. She said Section 64 of the Constitution mandates the President to appoint a Minister of Justice whilst Sections 156 & 167 specify post of Minister of Internal Affairs as a must. “For other positions, President has a tremendous amount of flexibility in appointing Cabinet Ministers. Even positions of Minister of Finance and Minister of Defence are not directly referenced or created inside Constitution,” Blyden said adding “rather, Section 112 makes allowance for who will be the minister responsible for financial matters and Section 167 makes similar allowance for whosoever is the minister to be responsible for matters pertaining to defence”. “All other Cabinet positions are created according to how it pleases His Excellency the President. So, if it pleases the President to dissolve his entire Cabinet today and, let’s say for argument sake, re-appoint only five Cabinet Ministers, that is his total prerogative. He is the President and as per dictates of the Constitution, a President only has to ensure he has a Minister of Internal Affairs and a Minister of Justice. No other Cabinet Minister position is indispensable,” she lectured. Furthering her arguments, Blyden opined that foresighted leaders who see an intractable problem in a certain ministry, will bring that ministry under their direct examination for a period of time so as to properly diagnose what could be various ailments afflicting it. “So, if President Koroma has determined that he does not want a substantive Cabinet Minister for Energy but wants the department under purview at State House until such time as he thinks fit, then it is very wise of him,” Blyden said. Dr. Blyden furthered that Section 56.(6) of Constitution makes it even clearer that a sitting President, though he has appointed Cabinet Ministers to be responsible for Ministries, still “shall be responsible for such ministries as he may determine”. She asked that if the President now determines Ministry of Energy should be temporarily run from State House, “so what is wrong?” “Frankly, as far as supervision of any ministry is concerned, Section 56 says the buck stops at President’s desk,” she said. Blyden however commended a journalist who constructively criticised delays in appointing members of an important bank board but she then observed that those specific criticisms were redundant as by the time they got published, President Koroma had already nominated the said bank board members.
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 00:34:57 +0000
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