By Ragan M. Conteh
Lawmakers in the Sierra Leone Parliament on Thursday 11th April 2024 in the Well of Parliament have denied the approval of President Julius Maada Bio’s proclamation of a Public Health emergency on the substance abuse, kush in the country.
The rejection for the approval of the emergency is due to failure to submit the emmergency regulations in the Well of Parliament. Making his submissions in the Chambers of Parliament; the Acting Leader of the opposition party in Parliament, Hon. Daniel Koroma said, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohamed Lamin Tarawally cannot import regulations to support President Bio’s State of Emergency.
He said until and unless the Minister do the due deligence by formulating regulations as per law that will clearly show the road map for the emergency; otherwise parliament cannot approve such.
Hon. Koroma said the law is very clear; adding that since the President had declared the public health emergency, the Minister should now go and prepare the regulations which will serve as a guiding tools for the emergency operations.
The MP informed others that the local authorities are currently powerless to fight off kush; adding that the approval of the emergency at parliamentary level will pave the path for local leaders to robustly fight to end kush and other drug abuse in the country.
“We don’t want people to misuse this state of emergency and on that note we should not approve the emergency without regulations,” he added.
The Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Hon. Matthew Sahr Nyuma also insisted on the preparation of regulations before the emergency be passed into law.
“We don’t want people to misuse public health emergency. We are worried about people using the emergency as a yardstick to infringe on the right of citizens,” Hon. Matthew Nyuma.
According to Hon. Matthew Sahr Nyuma, they had seen people using the state of emergency in different ways, adding that the regulations will show how public health emergency on kush will be tackled without it being misused.
He urged the Minister of Justice, Lamin Tarawally to go and do the needful, stating that the regulations can be prepared within a short time and shouldf be brrought to Parliament for parliamentary blessings.
“When this issue of kush came up, MPs from both sides of the ailse agreed to fight the kush through state of emergency, but also we should have a guiding tools which will help in the fight and to end kush successfully just like Ebola and COVID-19,” he asserted.
The Acting Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Sengepoh Thomas who presided the sitting as Speaker said, what the Leader of government business and the opposition leader, had said about the submissions of the state of emergency regulations must be followed by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
He said Parliament is a house of procedures and that the emergency regulations are very much significant and the minister should go back and prepare these regulations for action to be taken on the instrument laid on the table.
The speaker said, once this instrument passed into law, it allows the law enforcement agency and other local leaders including citizens to tackle the drug routes and arrest potential dangerous drug barons and ‘smokers’, deviod from misuse of the emergency.
However, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohamed Lamin Tarawally, vows for extensive talks exchanges to defend the instrument; he agreed to do the needful in the coming days.
Notwithstanding, Parliament had agreed to pass the emergency instrument after the preparation of the regulations in the next adjourned date.