By Omar Bah
The Minister of Justice Dawda Jallow has defended the amendments made in the CRC 2020 draft constitution by Cabinet, saying they reflect outcomes of rigorous consultations.
In 2020, a handful of 23 lawmakers sympathetic to Barrow allegedly voted against the CRC draft on arrival at the House floor, alleging it was discriminatory against the president on term limit among other things. The new draft just gazetted by government received wide spread criticism for its ‘lack of transference and self-serving nature”.
In response to this criticisms, Minister Jallow told journalists that the 2024 draft emerged from a long consultative process and it reflects the outcome of the efforts at many mediation activities over it. He further argued that the draft incorporated adjustments based on lessons learned from the failed draft constitution of the CRC.
“Moreover, the draft represents a renewed attempt to make a constitution that can garner the necessary support in the National Assembly and be endorsed by the Gambian people at a referendum,” he said.
This, he added, aims to establish a legal framework that will not only address the historical injustices of the past but also lay a solid foundation for a democratic and prosperous feature for The Gambia.
“The government remains committed to ushering in a new progressive constitution that is an embodiment of our collective will and resolved for democracy, good governance, separation of powers, sustainable development and equitable distribution and use of resources, rule of law, and equitable observance of principles of fundamental human rights and freedoms,” he noted.
Minister Jallow refuted allegations that he misled the public on his claims that there were consultations ahead of the amendments.
“That is not true,” he charged, adding that there is a report that emanated from those consultations.
“The political parties that converged in Abuja—and they are still here—Dr Ismaila Ceesay was in the opposition at the time they went through every clause of the constitution, and agreed to disagree. At the end of the consultation, there was a report that emanated, which is at the Ministry of Justice and accessible. If I am misleading the public, you will be able to tell,” he said.
He said the government will make available the names of political leaders and CSOs who participated in the consultations.
AG Jallow said the report that emanated from the Abuja dialogue formed part of the documents sent to cabinet.
“The cabinet reflected on these documents. However, it is a different thing whether everything is captured as it was agreed in Abuja, but yes, it forms part of the documents that were available to cabinet during the consideration stage,” he added.
Minister Jallow said the National Assembly has the legal authority to now look at the draft and make amendments.
“If they took their time and made whatever amendments they would want to make, I see no reason why they should not pass the draft to a referendum,” he said.
Leadership chapter
Responding to a question on why the cabinet decided to omit the chapter on leadership, Minister Jallow said the cabinet is of the opinion that the chapter is too prescriptive, very detailed, and at the end of it, there are punitive provisions for violations.
“So, issues of conduct that are usually very difficult to enforce or implement are better handled in subsidiary context legislation than a constitution. It is not even traditional to have issues of honesty and integrity of public officials in a constitution. There is a Public Service Conduct and so many other instruments that address the behavior and conduct of public servants, so putting that in the constitution and making it punitive, including a live ban for violators, would be very difficult to implement,” he said.
Asset declaration
Reacting to queries on the removal of the requirements for the president and ministers to declare their assets at the Anti-Corruption Commission when leaving office, Minister Jallow tensely said: “The position of government is that the president and cabinet ministers can declare their assets when coming into office, but upon leaving office it depends on the Anti-Corruption Commission. They can call on anybody, including the president, to come and declare his assets when they suspect anything abnormal. We only remove the automatic declaration of assets after leaving office,” he said.
