The Native Iowan

 

PRIME Minister Danny Philip has been called on to resign.

 
Opposition Leader Dr Derek Sikua made the call yesterday stating Mr Philip was not fit to run the country following his decision to sell the government-owned house on at Tandai (Lot 23/111/H) to the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Honiara Namson Tran.

Dr Sikua said the decision was done without the consent of the Cabinet.

He said the action by the Prime Minister was an abuse of power calling on Mr Philip to resign or voted out of office.

Dr Sikua said any sale of Government property should have been approved by the Cabinet.

“For the sake of national interest, parliamentarians both in the Government and the opposition should work together to remove the Prime Minister from office and elect a Prime Minister with leadership qualities.

“We parliamentarians must rise up to the challenge of providing quality leadership to the people of Solomon Islands.

“We must not allow self interest and greed to overshadow our vision to create a better Solomon Islands.”

Secretary to Cabinet John Tuhaika early this week told this paper that Cabinet did not contemplate on a paper for the sale of government houses in its meeting last Thursday.

Therefore, Dr Sikua said the decision to sell the Tandai property to Mr Tran was an independent decision taken by the Prime Minister.

He said this was also confirmed by the sacked Commissioner of Lands Silver Dunge in a letter offered on the property to Mr Tran.

“The letter stated that and I quote “Following the approval by the Hon. Prime Minister for the sale of the property on parcel 191-009-88 being Lot 23/III/H, I am pleased to offer you a fifty (50) years fixed term estate for the same,” end of quote.”

Earlier on, when Dr Sikua exposed the sale of the house, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement denying the sale.

However, he said the Prime Minister did otherwise ordering the sale of the house which later came out publicly.

It is understood the house was sold for about $250,000.

Meanwhile, Dr Sikua admitted the National Coalition for Reform and Advancement (NCRA) has some very good policies for the advancement of Solomon Islands.

But he said the successful achievement of these policy objectives boils down to quality leadership.

“We have reached a stage when we must have a good leader to lead the government in order to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.

“We should not tolerate a leader with a questionable character to lead the government.

“We need a leader who executes powers vested on him in the best interest of the nation and not one that is engrossed in enriching himself and his cronies,” he said.

Attempts to get comments from the Prime Minister were unsuccessful yesterday.