Democracy Watch Gambia (DWG) is filing a suit at the Supreme Court of the Gambia to challenge the country’s Constitutional Review Commission Act 2017 which was passed by the National Assembly on 11th December 2017 and assented to by President Adama Barrow on11th January 2018.
According to DWG, the Act is unconstitutional and wholly inconsistent with the dictates of Section 226 of the Constitution of the Republic of the Gambia and taking the case to courts is an absolute necessity if Gambians are to preserve their democracy and new found international dignity and respect.
“The Act is wholly inconsistent with the Constitution of our Sovereign Republic and, its implementation will constitute an irreconcilable but preventable treason which will inevitably amount to a mockery of our democratic existence – something which no patriotic Gambian citizen should allow to happen in this modern age,” it group stated.
It added that having carefully considered the Act Act in its entirety, it has come to the reasoned conclusion that firm citizen partnership action is required (from the entire Gambian citizenry) for the purposes of taking the required steps (Supreme Court Petition) to prevent our democracy being disrupted or subverted and salvage those concerned from committing such treason.
To help with its legal challenge, GWG has already contacted parliamentary opposition political parties, several voluntary and civil society organisations and wider Gambian civil society entities inviting them to, and requesting their meaningful participation in the ‘noble cause’ to conclusively disrupt the emergence of another dictatorship.
I wonder if most NAMS understand the revised contents of the constitution presented by the Review Commission. How much participation was accorded to our legal practitioners for a more conscientious editting of the clauses/articles is anyone’s guess.
As for the ILLITERATE fat-bellied “president” I am SURE he knows nothing about the text to which he blindly appended his signature.
So my blame lies on those who grace the hiring of UNQUALIFIED people (the president, his ministers, most semi educated NAMS) to very responsible positions in this era of very advanced technology in all spheres of our life.
Democracy Watch Gambia has an uphill fight but reallyn patriotic. I’ll urge them to work even harder with other civil organizations and opposition parties to see this fat-bellied illiterate out of office!
Willing to blame the electorate(our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins, nieces etc, etc) for their constitutional duties of electing the man, woman of their choice for the position of President or member of Parliament but unwilling to blame monster Jammeh the man who raped, robbed, tortured and killed our people for 22 long years for a single wrongdoing. A classic example of blind loyalty to a politician or a political class, trend mostly associated with the uneducated, the tribal allegiance political followers, but if it is from a self proclaimed professor, then one wonder what the motive is/was. When was democracy watch allowed to do their work in the Gambia without the threat of death, imprisonment, torture hanging over them? What is Yahya Jammeh’s qualification? The titles of Professor, Doctor, Sheikh before his name is fooling an already foolish and hateful mind. A paupers son who had never seen the inner workings of a college classroom may ascend to the highest office of the land, thanks to the bravery of those whom he later shunned, imprisoned and killed before being undone by his own arrogance and stupidity. Those pompous faked ass professors of dishonesty with their brand of impartiality and willful amnesia ravaged by hate and jealousy inflaming the tribal disharmony of a failed dictatorship are still in our midst but we shall defeat them with our ideas and our love for humanity. Days of arbitrary arrests, tortured, false imprisonment, force disappearances, rapes, the abrogation of our constitution and misuse of state funds are over. The Kanilai orgies and the hiring and the firing cultures of impunity which characterizes the 22 years of Jammeh’s misrule is also over. The Jungullers on the run namely Sana Manjang, Borra Colley, Saul Badjie and Babu Soli etc, etc should know that their days as a free man is coming to an end. They shall pay for their crimes against the Gambian people together with their discredited boss, monster Jammeh.
Long live our mother land!
This is a patriotic move. Democracy Watch Gambia have started really good and we need to help them in any way we can. I am 100% behind their move.
I was in the National Aseembly when an opposition to this bill was made but i can tell it does not make sense. Basically, if i were to summarise the basis of the opposition to the bill, those opposed are saying that constituting a panel to review this 1997 constitution means abrogating it. Therefore, it act amounts to treason. Those that make sense to you? The panel that has been established by the parliament does not make a constitution, therefore the current one is still the law of the land. So the issue of saying the parliament overthrows, which is the key word here, is not there. So do not waste your time on a childish argument when we still do not have media laws repealed, no foi law and the indemnity act still in place.
Mustapha K, I respectfully disagree.
The inconsistency lies with s.226 of the Constitution. To paraphrase, this section states that:
amendment of the Constitution should be done in Parliament by the elected MPs. It also stated that there has to be a Referendum.
However, the CRC Act disregards all these. Instead, 11 people handpicked by the President and minister of justice will draft and assent a new Constitution for a whole nation of about 2 million people. This only happens in banana republics and we thought we left that behind. This is not okay at all.
MANSWANKA CHILD. YES, I AM. IN THE MOST NOBLE TERMS!
Because I was born and bred on the noble sweat of my Manswanka parents. A humble minority tribe that has NEVER been engaged in cheating the sweat of her fellow country people. A humble minority tribe that has NEVER said the Gambia belongs to them. A humble minority tribe that has NEVER said the Gambian resources should exclusively be enjoyed by them alone. A humble minority tribe that has NEVER looked low/doesn’t look low on her fellow compatriots. We are just proud to be honest, hardworking and pious and patriotic.
But which of the Gambian tribes do you belong to? I know that tiny country, her people and the behaviour of each tribe, because I worked and lived within the breadth and width of that country. Tell me your tribe and I’ll tell you your behaviour.
I think Ex-President Jawara didn’t continue the blame game of vilifying the British colonial powers when he took over in 1963. In the same vein President Jammeh didn’t continue the blame game of vilifying his predecessors (the Jawara government) when he took over in 1994. Those two administrations immediately settled down to look into the welfare of their people. Successful or not, they NEVER continued to levy all their shortcomings on their predecessors. So why the damned naive, silly and incompetent attitude of this INEPT Barrow administration in continuing to levy all its INEPTITUDE and INCOMPETENCE on President Jammeh’s government?
Those (Barrow surrogates and henchmen) who believe this would give us lasting solutions to our country’s present predicament are equally naive, shortsighted and out of touch with realities.
Gentlewoman/man, I am not like you. I can’t take stories from any mouth to be true. A RADIOKANKANG attitude, NO!
May I ask you? Can you swear before Allah, The Almighty (SWT) or anything you believe in as your Creator that you bear witness to the numerous “atrocities” that you claim President Jammeh had “commited”? I’m not to judge the man on what your foolhardy head believes or thinks. That’s the work of the law courts and the “affected people”. Until Jammeh is rightly judged where he can defend himself, I am here to give him the benefit of doubt and exonerate him for any wrongdoing. Instead I praise him for ameliorating the decadent state of our country when he took over.
The reality is that people are still being arrested and coarced in The Gambia. The reality is that NOTHING absolutely has improved since your fat-bellied illiterate “president” took over. The reality is that we are witnessing more suffering of our citizens while this CORRUPT administration is lavishly spending our “meagre” resources for their personal aggradizement. The reality is that our people are finding it hard to make their three(four) daily meals because of irrational/unbearable price hikes in absolutely EVERYTHING! Is Jammeh to be blamed for that? Or should that blame game continue while no solutions are found? What a blunder in this era of rapid advancement!
When I say, you are not in touch with matters, I’m right. In the Gambia, our people do not elect their representatives. They only vote for parties or personalities. The election of their representatives is always IMPOSED. It comes from the top and put before the people to cast their votes for or against the personality. Where the personality fails to amass the necessary votes, the party sees that constituent area as an “enemy” area. Thus, Ousainou Darboe’s insult of the Bansang people, recently.
The blame in electing a bad representative should therefore be squarely laid on the people who elect a personality and IMPOSE her/him on the electorate. An electorate who are misled into making difficult decisions at times.
Dear Babu Soli,
you have mentioned “tribe” a couple of times in your last comment and qualified the term with various adjectives such as honest, humble, hardworking etc.
I thought this will be an opportunity for me to learn something new. By extension, for you to teach me something that I have been struggling with for a long time ago, and it’s as follows:
What is tribe? In other words, what character traits both biological, physiological, neurological or genetical must one possess to be qualified to be called a Manjago, a Fula, a Jola, a Mandingo, a Wollof and all what not?
Yours in the service of The Gambia and Africa, I remain.
Babu…
You memory is indeed weak and short. Jammeh NEVER stopped blaming others for his own failures. Why do you think he fired so many people? I wouldn’t be surprised if he holds the Guinness Record for the most cabinet sackings.
No one escaped his blame games; not even the ordinary common folks who could be accused and manhandled for “tarnishing the image of the country” by merely complaining about everyday hardships.
And the thing! Can you speak for every Manswanka? Do you know every single Maswanka in Gambia? I’m not saying they are not what you claim, but tribal generalisation is a trait of tribalists.
How can you claim to be able to tell the behaviour of a person from their tribe? That is very disturbing, coming from a highly educated person.
Brother Bax
” Coming from someone who claimed to be highly educated” May God forbid our highly educated elites to become the likes of Babu Soli or we are surely doom as a nation and as a people. Babu Soli either have no memory or he is just outright dishonest, impartial or a pathological liar. Babu Soli inhibit all the traits of everything he purported to disagree with, dislike or tend to fight against. The man/woman/boy/girl is a contradiction and one doesn’t have to look far to see the inconsistencies of all his claims and counter claims. The blame game of Yahya Jammeh which became the bedrock of his daily rants against all, from the colonialists, the women with bleached skins, to the Mandinkas who formed the majority of his support base have no bounds. I wondered where Babu Soli was hiding or is just another of his untruths. He gave Yahya Jammeh the benefit of the doubt and exonerated him from any wrongdoing when he gave the order to kill innocent Gambian school children in cold blood. He gave Yahya Jammeh the benefit of the doubt and exonerated him from any wrong doing when he ordered the deaths of the Mile 2 9, Chief Manneh, Ebou Lowe, Dehda Hydara, Sirreh Jammeh and her brother, Solo Sandeng and forced disappearance of countless more.He gave him the benefit of the doubt and exonerated him for any wrong doing in spite of all the revelation of financial malpractice. He gave him the benefit of the doubt and exonerated him of any wrongdoing even after his false claims of being able to cure aids, parading aids suffers on national television as a final insult before their hasty demise. Babu Soli is in no position to exonerate anyone when he is not exonerated himself. He is a Junguller on the RUN!
Don’t blow your own trumphet.
Lamin,
I’m not quite sure I can answer your question/equation/probe in giving you definitions of tribe that would characterize a person as Manjago, Mandinko, Suruwa, Kasinko, Fulo, Jola, Bainunko, Balanto, Akuwo, Karoninko, Jolinko.
I think it’s better you pose your question/equation/probe to a social scientist (a sociologist, a psycholinguist, a socialpsychologist, a linguist…). I’m a Maths Professor, I also followed a lot of certificate courses in ICT, so I’m not in terms with such knowledge on “tribes”. Maybe Lamin Darboe(if not the same Lamin posing this question) or Andrew Pjalo, who on one occasion argued extensively on this tabloid about Language/Linguistics would help you. I think they would be able to give you a better explanation.
If I can, I will only quote the Oxford/Cambridge dictionaries’ definition of tribe which might not suit you because of your wider curiosity to know the biological, physiological, neurological or genetical traits that qualify one as a member of a specific tribe. I know my ethnic group, the Manswankolu, would be described as a minority ethnic group, a tribe, spread over Guinea Bissau, Cassamance and some areas in The Gambia. We have our own language and traditional customary values and conducts that make us slightly different from other tribes. Some of our people are still Christians/aethists but like my family many have since embraced Islam. I rest my answer here.
Babu Soli,
you are using tribe and ethnicity interchangeably. That means you don’t know the difference between the two. It’s astounding you cannot mentioned one single trait that makes you a “Manswanka” but still call yourself one. You mentioned (own) language and traditional customary practices that make you (plural) slightly different to “others” in The Gambia. That’s a non starter because am sure there are many who speak the Manswanka language and enjoy the customary practices whom you will not consider to be a part of that group; for no tangible reason.
Now am gonna teach you by posing a few more questions that will make you ponder about what makes you what you say you are.
1) Do the people who identify as Manswanka have exclusivity to “their language and their customary practices”?
2) Where does being a Manswanka begin and where does it end?
3) Let’s assume (just for a moment) that tribe or whatever that is, is fluid and is an intangible category, what central elements are making shifts for one human being to move from one class (group of people with similar language and cultural practices) to the other?
4) If one is a psychologist and belongs to the school of Carl Jung or Sigmund Freud, is this person in the same tribe as any other person who subscribes to the same school of leaning? Remember the emphasis is on PRACTICES here.
To sum up, I don’t expect you to be able to answer any of the above questions, however, for the benefit of the general readership I thought it prudent to ask these critical questions on and of tribe and ethnicity. In my mind, these are two very problematic ascriptions to the post colonial African identity, an identity in constant crises.
Millions of Africans have died because they are said to belong to one tribe or the other. Who decides who is what in these cases is often buried in power dynamics that are ignorant at best. I think Gambians and Africans at large should move beyond these limitations and embrace the concept of AFRICANNESS as an all encompassing super identity trait.
Peddling the language of tribe and ethnicity has aggravated our divisions that the whiteman has created.
Languages and cultural practices can be democratized and made accessible to ALL. That in turn will generate millions if not billions in value to our common heritages.
Yours in the service of The Gambia and Africa, I remain.
Babu
I dont know how you will categorised me. My uncles are Badgie, Janko Badgie for that matter. My dad’s mum is fulani and my mum granny serere.
In Gambia we had a rich interwoven tribal web through cross-tribal marriage.
I really don’t believe you are really concerned with development of democracy the Gambia because you seem too rigid on tribe and that is fodder for disharmony. Yaya is voted put by the people because they dissatisfied with his government. What is your problem with that. If this government too misbehave and fail to meet our needs, we will kick them out, I hope yhey understand that. Yaya is possibly regretting some of his excesses because he knew he will not live forever in that place and he cannot sustain himself as before. Remember also the many people who lost their life and their families..If you were in their position, how would you feel.
Secondly I want to ask you whethet you care about self respect as the amount of vitriol you exchange with your perceived opponents is astronomical and undeserving of a gentle man.
A man loose my respect if he can blatantly creat a lie against another person. I think it is advisable to stop debating than involving yourself in needless insults. You can used your time usefully somewhere than accumulating sins everyday. This advice is true for Natty and others who sadly are now becoming adept at throwing bitter insults and profanities.
Sulu
Thanks for your advice.
1. Lamin,
Why are you so obsessed about trying to manifest your sociological knowledge about the definitions between tribe and ethnic grouping? I think you haven’t read my posting of the 11th to discern my information. I have told you that I am NOT in the field of the social sciences. I’m not a scientist either. I’m a Maths Professor who followed certificate courses in ICT. As simple as that! It would be absurd to ask you to give me Mathematical terminologies after learning that you are not an expert in the subject. What do you want to portray with your innocuous questions?
However, I’m glad that you have finally written to teach the wider readership but not Babu. One thing I know is that the Manswankolu are going to be ascribed as a tribe.
Your obsesion on definition, your well versed thesis on these terminologies from your western school of thought will neither change nor erase that social stratification of the Manswankolu as a tribe.
Babu comes from and belongs to the Manswanka tribe!
I’ll respond, SULU!
Babu Soli,
your reply is not surprising to me and I guess to most people here. So, I’ll leave the readers to glean for themselves what’s beneficial in terms of rhetoric and substance and what is poisonous.
Thank you for holding out.
Lamin,
I mean your first reply was surprising and out of touch. I wonder what your real intention was after asking a question that was initially answered but yet you continued to weigh on your sociological understanding of an innocuous definitions. What you were really driving at was definitely beyond my guess.
I told you that my career and profession do not enter into such terms but your obsession and insistence showed the conduct of a child who wants to manifest his/her feat in an area of dominance.
It would be absurd to ask Lamin to define and give solutions to: algebra, algebraic equations, polinomials, algorithm, trigonometry, trinomial, hyper geometry, quartic/quintic equations, binomials, binomial coefficients etc, etc…. after learning that Lamin is not an expert in Maths.
What logic do we try to gather from our discussions/arguments? Or what do we want to manifest? These are very important. You field of studies is yours, my field is mine. Don’t interfere much to show your field which is just a minute area of the wider KNOWLEDGE! Be careful!