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  By Pa Louis Sambou    A key objective behind the design and concept of republican governance is, to prevent a total autonomy of any of the three arms of government (the Legislature, the Executive or the Judiciary) from the other or the rest of the State edifice at the expense of the State and hence the existence of checks and balances as a countermeasure to tame any excesses. Historically, in our case that is, it is the Executive (the President and Cabinet) which has the infamous reputation of being the naughty partners out of the trio — usually transgressing, stretching and testing boundaries of acceptable conduct as well as allowances of their lawful authority, an adventure which the current administration hasn’t had the luxury to excel in thanks to unprecedented legislative scrutiny by this 5 th  National Assembly.    Whilst there’s little to fault in this 5 th  Assembly’s exercise of its oversight functions in comparison to previous ones, the same cannot be said of its commitment

By Pa Louis Sambou   Commissioned to “ create an impartial historical record of violations and abuses of human rights from July 1994 to January 2017..., establish and make known the fate or whereabouts of disappeared victims, provide victims an opportunity to relate their own accounts of the violations and abuses suffered and, grant reparations to victims...”,  the Truth Reconciliation and Reparation Commission (TRRC) carries an enormously heavy burden on its shoulders. With a duty so fundamentally salient, it isn’t controversial at all to say that it is one which must be discharged with due care and skill and with a degree of moderation which doesn’t give the impression of a deviation from the TRRC’s raison d’être — whether perceived or real. It’ll be hard to disagree that the TRRC’s reaffirmation of the orthodox briefed wisdom in relation to Coup d’tats is in harmonious sync with this statutory duty and expectation. However, this isn’t to say that such orthodoxy isn’t due a rethink o