By Omar Bah
Pastor Francis Forbes of the Abiding Word Ministries has expressed his disappointment over the government’s lack of political will in having a new constitution.
He said the National Assembly Members who voted against the draft constitution do not deserve the title of “Honourable”.
“When you are engaged in things that are dishonourable to the detriment of your nation, you don’t earn the term honourable. So you don’t make noise about it. You represent your people like all of us do. It is not a badge of impunity. If this country sinks, the title ‘Honourable’ will not help us,” he stressed.
The respected pastor made these remarks at a multi-stakeholders dialogue on the 2020 draft constitution and the future of democracy in The Gambia. The forum held at the International Conference Centre was organised by the Centre for Research Policy Development.
“If we could remove our former president in 2016 … we can remove another, and another and another. The process we used is still available and rather than waiting for the top-bottom approach maybe we should start with galvanising now and when we vote, our votes will speak. There will be an answer and we can move forward. If we did it in 2016, we can do it in 2021,” Pastor Forbes said.
He said “the reminiscences of joy” after the 2016 presidential election still linger in his mind.
“I couldn’t vote unfortunately because I was in the US. But I will never forget the fact that after the election my two phones rang off the hook and everybody was praising The Gambia. That Gambia has done it! So The Gambia has a methodology that we can now remove anyone we want to remove,” he warned.
Draft Constitution
The National Assembly Member for Wuli West, Suwaebou Touray, said Gambians should accept the fact that the current government has failed the country.
“Those who rejected the draft constitution are people in line with the government. They were clear in their decision that the constitution was not good for the president and so they believe it should not pass the second reading for us to scrutinise it. They mentioned all the other things as cover-ups but the only thing they were interested in is about the term limit because they want to stay for fifteen years or even more. They are taking us back to what we fought against. They want to encourage self-perpetuation rule,” he said.
John Charles Njie, chairman of Tango, said: “The failure of this constitution would be because of wickedness and self-centeredness of our political class. Why do I say this? We all know the problem with our constitution is one major issue and that issue is its retroactivity.
“Who are these politicians to think they can decide for Gambians what is good for us? What Gambians decided is to have a new constitution and a referendum to decide. I have heard the leader of the UDP at a dinner with Goodluck Jonathan saying the problem is between him and President Barrow. Why should our destiny rest in a fight between two people? Can two people be enough to decide what happens in a country?” he argued.
Njie said Gambians should not allow politicians to use political expediency to have their way.
“If the president insists that his first term will not count, the opposition should allow him to have his way and galvanise and campaign to remove him in December. Let them tell Gambians that Barrow doesn’t keep his words and for that reason he doesn’t deserve a second term,” he said.
