By Rtd Lt Colonel Samsudeen Sarr
Since the publication of The Gambia’s ill-fated 2020 draft constitution by the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), I have followed its turbulent journey with firm scrutiny and have written extensively on its structural defects and political impracticalities. My prognosis, once dismissed by many as alarmist, has now materialised in dramatic fashion.
On the 7th of July, 2025, the National Assembly resoundingly rejected the revised 2024 draft constitution, just as it did its 2020 predecessor, both documents having consumed close to D200 million in public funds. It was a predictable return to the 1997 Constitution, intact, operative, and, whether one likes it or not, still the supreme law of the Republic. It was, as I had long warned, an elaborate and costly journey to nowhere.
What first alarmed me about the 2020 draft was the damning scholarly revelation by the eminent legal mind, Mr Lamin J Darbo, that large sections of the document had been lifted from Kenya’s 2010 Constitution. This was not a passing resemblance, but wholesale intellectual appropriation. Rather than contest the charge, Justice Cherno Sulayman Jallow QC, Chair of the CRC, cavalierly brushed it aside as a “common global practice.” Had Mr Darbo not brought this deception to light, this unholy grafting of foreign jurisprudence onto our national legal framework might have escaped public scrutiny altogether.
In my August 30, 2024 essay, “Stop the Ongoing Drama and Keep the 1997 Constitution,” I substantiated Mr Darbo’s claims through independent analysis. Astonishingly, the Minister of Justice, Dawda Jallow, conceded that segments of Kenya’s Constitution were indeed replicated, justifying this by alluding to an alleged “special attachment,” which, to this day, remains as mythical as the political will to disclose it. The 2024 draft, promoted as a corrective to its discredited predecessor, merely repeated the same intellectual laziness, copying vast portions of the 1997 Constitution itself with little more than superficial edits and formatting tweaks.
This leads to the critical question of why, in 2017, did our political elites not heed the prudent counsel of Halifa Sallah and the PDOIS party to amend, rather than discard, the 1997 Constitution? Had we chosen that wiser path, we could have preserved nearly a decade of fruitless deliberations and saved the nation hundreds of millions of dalasis. The 1997 Constitution, ratified in a nationwide referendum in 1996, was the product of some of the most distinguished and principled Gambians of the era-luminaries such as Dr Lenrie Peters and Bishop Telewa Johnson. Though not infallible, it was rooted in national realities and moral integrity, unlike the legal patchworks of 2020 and 2024, which were neither homegrown nor coherent.
Regrettably, partisan self-interest has stifled every effort at genuine reform. The main opposition party, the United Democratic Party (UDP), categorically rejected the 2024 draft on the grounds that it permits President Barrow to contest in the 2026 presidential elections. Conversely, Barrow and his loyalists opposed the 2020 version precisely because it would have retroactively barred him from seeking re-election. This tragic clash of political egos, more than any legal deficiency, has condemned our constitutional review process to a repetitive and futile task that never leads to any meaningful progress or conclusion.
In my September 5, 2024 piece, “Right Constitution or Not—Take the Battle to the Ballot Box,” I again reiterated that democratic leadership transitions must be resolved through the sovereign will of the electorate, not through manipulated charters or chaotic street protests. President Barrow, often underestimated and maligned, has nonetheless exhibited a commendable tolerance for dissent rarely seen among African incumbents. He is unlikely to vacate office without contest, nor should he be compelled to-so long as he seeks legitimacy through the ballot box and under the law.
Moreover, I continue to decry the disingenuous campaigns aimed at delegitimising the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). This is the very institution that delivered the historic 2016 electoral verdict that unseated former President Yahya Jammeh. To now malign the IEC as incompetent or partisan simply because political calculations are shifting is not only hypocritical, it is dangerously destabilising.
In February 2025, in my article “Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas: A Spent Cartridge or a Masterful Opportunist in Gambian Politics?” I took a firm stand against the meddlesome overtures of regional diplomats like Dr Chambas. His ill-conceived effort to mediate between President Barrow and Ousainu Darboe amounted to nothing more than political theatre. The Gambia’s constitutional destiny cannot and should not be outsourced to expired bureaucrats chasing relevance. Sovereignty is not a suitcase to be handed to every passing envoy with a diplomatic passport and an inflated ego.
Now that the National Assembly has rejected both constitution drafts, rightfully, I argue, it is time to halt the wasteful charade and return to a pragmatic, cost-effective course. That course is clear! Let us amend the 1997 Constitution, introduce presidential term limits, eliminate archaic provisions that bar dual citizens from holding elected office. As a Gambian-American and father to children with the same heritage, I find it unjust and exclusionary that we remain second-class citizens in our own motherland due to outdated legal constructs.
Most critically, if President Barrow wishes to run in 2026, let him. Let the people judge him at the ballot box. Political legitimacy must be earned through votes, not vetoes from partisan legal drafters. Any attempt to engineer political outcomes through constitutional gimmickry is an affront to democratic principles.
To those now attempting to caricature this as a clash between “Jammeh’s autocratic 1997 Constitution” and “Barrow’s autocratic 2024 draft,” I have one word for them; grow-up. Such binary, intellectually shallow framings insult the intelligence of our citizens and trivialize the profound constitutional questions at stake. Gambians deserve better than the empty rhetoric of recycled slogans and ideological stunts.
The moment has come for sobriety and courage. Let us conserve the public treasury, respect the democratic process, and do what is both reasonable and righteous; let’s amend, not discard, the foundational legal document we already have. Let the people decide. That is, in its purest form, democracy.
All referenced articles are available in full on my Facebook page.
