By Amin Kef Sesay
In line with President Bio’s plan to set up a national infrastructure for peace, an Independent National Commission on Peace and Cohesion to help address ethnic and regional divides along political lines across the country as well as to strengthen peace and national inclusion, it is significant that the main opposition All People’s Congress at the passage of the National Peace and Cohesion Commission Bill walked out on the grounds that the Commission would be subject to political control.
Certainly, APC has a point – A Commission that is supposed to unite people across all segments of society, as well as mediate civil disputes cannot be said to be neutral if it is subject to political control through a Minister.
Social cohesion at national and regional levels remains a big challenge for the country. Due to recent disrupting political events, it has been extremely complex to engage in meaningful peace building and state building processes by local, national or international actors.
Various approaches and strategies have been set in place, but a sustained attention towards peace at all levels has been lacking.
Thus, sustainable peace and development as central issues to achieve a just, inclusive and peaceful society, as described in SDG 16, must play a central role both at a global and at a national level.
Government as such should focus on key elements such as inclusion and participation in order to achieve national cohesion by ensuring that the Commission is reflective of the national character and seen as independent of any form of political control.
It is important to establish infrastructures for peace as a dynamic networking of skills, capacities, resources, tools and institutions that help build constructive social and political relationships and enhance sustainable resilience of societies against relapse into violence.
To make the Commission effective, all political parties should agree on the need for an inclusive and independent peace infrastructure to enhance national cohesion and development in Sierra Leone on the understanding that the envisaged mandates of a Peace Commission included among others the promotion of a culture of peace, the support for the prevention and management of conflicts and enhancing traditional conflict resolution mechanisms.
The need to make the Commission as independent from the current political climate as possible must be stressed and translated into its composition and sustainability.
Otherwise the opinion of the majority of people is that it would be another exercise in futility in bringing the nation together.
