Deputy Prime Minister Francis Sade has assured Guadalcanal Province that its long-standing aspiration for statehood will remain a priority for the Government.
And he pledged the GREAT Coalition would advance constitutional reforms while refusing to commit to the province’s proposed 2028 deadline.
Responding to Premier Willie Atu’s call for Guadalcanal to become a state by 2028, Sade said the GREAT Coalition was committed to progressing the country’s transition towards a federal system through bipartisan constitutional reform.
“The GREAT Coalition’s commitment is on record: to advance constitutional reform toward federalism and statehood through a bipartisan approach to the 2018 Federal Draft Constitution, and to re-invigorate the Constituent Assembly through proper legislative change,” Sade stated.
However, he cautioned against setting unrealistic expectations.
“Premier, you have proposed a year.
“I will not stand before the people of Guadalcanal and promise a date that does not lie within my gift, for a promise lightly made and then broken has wounded this relationship before, and history is our teacher.”
Instead, Sade pledged that the Government would continue the process “in good faith” and ensure it remained transparent and inclusive.
“What I do promise is this: good faith, real momentum, transparency at every step, and a government that will neither shelve this question nor inflame it, but will carry it forward through frank and fair discussion, within the Constitution, until the nation reaches a decision it can hold together,” he said.
Sade was delivering the Government’s response during Guadalcanal Province’s 42nd Second Appointed Day celebrations in Honiara on Monday after Premier Atu renewed the province’s push for statehood under a future federal system of government.
Earlier, Atu declared that “statehood for Guadalcanal Province is not negotiable” and proposed that the province become the State of Guadalcanal in 2028.
In response, Sade acknowledged Guadalcanal’s long history of seeking greater autonomy, saying it was an aspiration he personally understood, having previously served as the province’s premier.
“Your aspiration for statehood does not go unheard. I, of all people, cannot pretend not to hear it, for as your former Premier, I once voiced it myself from the very platform you spoke from today,” he said.
“The socio-historical and political currents that shape this dream are deeply understood, and they matter not only to Guadalcanal but to the entire Solomon Islands.”
Sade outlined the milestones that have shaped the country’s constitutional reform journey, including the 2000 Townsville Peace Agreement, the work of the Constitutional Congress and Eminent Persons Group, the completion of the Federal Draft Constitution in 2019, and the unsuccessful attempt to pass the Constituent Assembly Bill in Parliament in 2024.
He said the bipartisan committee established after the bill’s defeat, together with the nationwide cost-benefit analysis currently underway, would provide the evidence needed to guide future constitutional decisions.
Sade also welcomed Guadalcanal Province’s decision to establish a State Office and prepare a report assessing its readiness for statehood.
“I acknowledge the Guadalcanal State Office’s report on the province’s minimum criteria of readiness for statehood, adopted by your Assembly and to be submitted to the Constitution Reform Unit. That is exactly how a serious aspiration presents itself—with homework done,” he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that constitutional reform required broad national support, noting that any amendment establishing a federal system must secure a three-quarters majority in Parliament.
“Constitutional change requires three-quarters of Parliament precisely because our founders understood that a nation’s deepest architecture must rest on consensus, not conquest,” he said.
“The task before us all—Government, Opposition and Provinces—is to build that consensus. Guadalcanal’s voice, spoken as it was spoken today, brings that day closer, not further.”
The Government’s response comes as discussions continue on introducing a federal system of government, a reform that has been under consideration for more than two decades.
