Dear editor,
Barely a fortnight ago, our foreign minister Dr. Mamadou Tangara in his epic interview with Kerr Fatou responded to the interviewer’s question on why Alassane Ouattara, president of Ivory Coast and Alpha Condé president of Guinea Conakry were violating their nations’ constitutions in running for third terms by declining to comment on the postulation that the issue in both countries was an internal affair. That no country, organization or observer more or less had the right to meddle in their internal business
Well, we still can recall the defiant position of the Gambia executive, particularly the cabinet members after the submission of the draft constitution to the president with almost all expressing their dissatisfaction with some of the contents deemed unfavorable to the Barrow presidency. Indicating that all ministers and their associates not camouflaged as wolves in sheep skin wanted to see the new constitution killed in the exact way it was done yesterday and never to be enacted into law of the Gambia.
However, my question now is how the foreign minister was not duty bound to tell the EU, Americans, British and UN to butt off and stop interfering in our constitutional palaver when they tried to influence the decisions of our lawmakers? Was that not a blatant interference in our internal affair?. If the foreign ministry couldn’t reprimand the overreaching intruders, I wonder who then should have in President Adama Barrow’s government. Information minister or government spokesman?
Such critical moments require sincere and honest players whose positions must be known to the government, opposition parties and of course general public; hence I stand to challenge all journalists to find out from every minister and the vice president their candid opinion on the demise of the constitution now infamous for squandering GMD116 million, and what next for the future. Mark you most, or should I say all of them until now had been denouncing the 1997 constitution as an illegal document owned by President Jammeh that had merely helped him to indefinitely remain a dictator and a self-perpetuating leader. I sure would want to hear from these chameleons what they think of the overall outcome of the current constitutional crisis emanating from amateurs zealously trying to create a perfect one but now settling for the imperfect one responsible for the nation’s “misery”. For pointers, I would like to hear answers asked by journalists on whether the Jammeh constitution will not turn Barrow into a dictator and a self-perpetuating leader for more “misery”? If not, why not?
But most importantly, they need to tell us whether they support the downvoting yesterday or not and why they didn’t say anything about foreign intruders attempting to influence what was clearly an internal affair.
Samsudeen Sarr
