By Musa Bah
Although we have been continuously talking about Constitutional Reform since you took office, the idea was to have a total overhaul of the Constitution so that we can usher in a new one and thus the Third Republic. The cherry picking of individual clauses was not at all what we demanded.
I read in the newspapers yesterday that a bill to change the upper age limit in the Constitution has been passed. This reeks of nepotism. The only explanation one can come up with is that this was done to enable your political godfather, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe to run for office in the next election, and/or to enable Madam Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang to become the Vice President.
Mr President, while I have nothing against these two fine people, I am not happy that the Constitution of the Republic of the Gambia – the most important document we have – can be amended just because a law in it bars one Gambian from doing something. Why do we have to amend a clause in our Constitution just to enable Madam Tambajang to become Vice President?
True, Madam Tambajang is a patriot, experienced and hard working but she is not the only woman capable of being vice president. There are many other women who could be appointed. In fact, there is nothing in the Constitution that suggests that the vice president must be a woman. So, you could appoint anyone – man or woman – from a host of qualified patriotic Gambians. If indeed you want to make Madam Tambajang the vice president, no qualms about that, just expedite the Constitutional Reform and appoint her according to law. We cannot accept nepotism which we fought against leading to the defenestration of Yahya Jammeh.
Many will argue that a law introduced by Yahya Jammeh should not deprive us of the expertise of someone like Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang. Well, let it be clear that Gambia equally belongs to all of us and no one individual is more Gambian than the other. No one is indispensable and there are no sacred cows.
I have said this before, fighting evil is a daunting task. You can either defeat evil or allow yourself to be defeated by evil. This happens when one starts doing the very thing you were criticizing and fighting. We must not allow ourselves to be guilty of the things we accused and fought Yahya Jammeh for.
We must guard against evil at all times. Remember, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. You must expedite the Constitutional Reform to make it inline with current Democratic trends.
Have a good day Mr President.
