Therefore it is extremely disingenuous for the President and his Cabinet, after cleverly orchestrating the collapse of the Draft Constitution only to now act as if they were ever interested in it! Not only have they wasted D116M but more seriously they have set the democratization process of the country back to 1997 by leaving us to continue with the current Constitution! That’s treasonous!
When the President and the Coalition went to campaign to Gambians in 2016 they came with the promise of creating a new Gambia. The people voted for them on the promise that one of the first things to do was the review the current constitution or write a new one altogether. This is precisely why the CRC Act was created to kick off the constitution building process.
It is therefore such a huge disregard of the aspirations of Gambians that the President refused to give the necessary and appropriate attention to the final draft constitution.
The President did not only fail to support the document and the CRC itself but the entire Cabinet refused to state their position at the right time publicly and constructively such that they have effectively created the scene for the failure of the draft constitution. Rather what the media was able to get out from the Cabinet was that they were opposed to all the fundamental good governance provisions of the draft constitution.
For the Cabinet to now mandate the Justice Minister to initiate a so-called dialogue to bring consensus around the draft constitution is hypocritical and diabolical to say the least! Is it that after the collapse of the draft when the President and his Cabinet got aware of the contention around the draft?
A responsible President would have constructively engaged the people the first time the draft was produced to join the debate by building consensus in support of the draft constitution. This is because the entire constitution building process is their initiative for which they should have taken the lead all the way.
Therefore why did the President and his Cabinet refuse to take their rightful position at the right time but to stand back and manipulate the fall of the draft constitution?
Until today neither the President nor the Cabinet has ever come out to publicly state their position on the draft constitution. That is indeed a demonstration of gross leadership failure that is injurious to the nation!
Therefore what consensus is the Cabinet seeking? Before mandating the Justice minister to initiate dialogue the Cabinet should first of all state its issues, concerns and proposals on the failed draft constitution as a show of leadership and goodwill.
I wish stakeholders who will be engaged in this so-called dialogue would not go into it blindly and unthinkingly. But they would first demand that Cabinet gives its position on the collapsed draft constitution as the start of the conversation! Without knowing the Cabinet position it will be clear that there is ulterior motive on the part of the Cabinet.
Stakeholders must recognize that the draft constitution failed because of the President and his Cabinet. They failed to take their rightful stance to support the draft and did everything to undermine it.
Therefore no stakeholder should allow to be used as soap and water or sanitizer to cleanse the mess created by the President and his Cabinet. Let stakeholders demand the President to take full responsibility first and foremost for this mess and then the conversation begins from there.
Any stakeholder who ignores this is either wiling to be fooled and used as a tool or you are a party to this mess! Time will tell.
For The Gambia Our Homeland
