A member of the Gambia’s National Assembly is threatening to institute impeachment proceeding against President Adama over the ‘unconstitutional’ sacking of nominated lawmaker Ya Kumba Jaiteh.
Sanna Jawara, United Democratic Party (UDP) member for Upper Fulladu West, said the president had overstepped his constitutional powers when he ordered the dismissal of Ms Jaiteh.
Ms Jaiteh, , a UDP member who serve on the Foreign Affairs and the Local Government and Lands Committee of the Assembly, has had her nomination revoked by President Barrown after she publicly laid into him during a political meeting.
No reason was given for the presidential decision but she is believed to be a victim of the ongoing feud between President Barrow and his political godfather, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe.
A letter issued on Monday to Ms Jaiteh by the Secretary General and Head of the Civil Service, Ebrima Camara said: “I write to convey executive decision to revoke your nomination as National Assembly Member with immediate effect.”
But Mr Jawara has described the move as unconstitutional and is urging the president to rescind the decision.
He said any attempt by Mr Barrow to forcefully eject Ms Jaiteh from the Assembly will be received with an equal force.
“This is an unlawful action and I think the president have to be very careful because they can be met with equally the same force,” Jawara told Kerr Fatou newspaper..
He added: “We can react by invoking section 67 of the constitution (impeachment). We have to defend our house (National Assembly) whatever it takes. If they want to go ahead to enforce this (removal of Jaiteh), it will be met with an equal force.
“Just because you are UDP does not mean that UDP will interfere with how people go about representing their people. Every National Assembly member who is either elected or nominated has a conscience. And in this case, it is one’s conscience that will dictate how to go about issues.
“The president has the power to nominate five National Assembly members but that is where the powers stops… We adopt the nominations and these people become lawmakers with every power and privilege elected officials have.”
Mr Barrow used to be an executive member of the UDP but resigned his membership to lead a coalition of opposition parties, which defeated Yahya Jammeh in the December 2016 election.
He was due to step down from power next year as part of the coalition agreement, which would pave the way for the possible election of Lawyer Darboe as president.
However, Mr Barrow has had a change of heart and is considering forming his own political party to contest future elections.
Some one is not honestly advising the president about the constitution and other domestic problems in the country. Market irregularities and high rate of crimes, rapes and burglary are on the rise. Corruption is a daily basis activities in the gambia, Mr president pay attention to this details, these are domestic problems you cannot ignore them , is affecting many people in the country. Your adviser are not focusing on domestic issues instead they are concentrating on political issues .
Nominated Individuals to any position in government serve at the discretion of the person who nominated the said individual. Therefore, if Adama Barrow nominated this Individual, Adama Barrow can remove her from the position she was nominated for. No Constitutional legal provision would prevent such an act.
Sidi Bojang, thank you for your clear concise and informative comments. As a planned returnee, it is of great importance to me to get abreast of the poliTRICKal situation etc, back home.
Common sense is very important. I believe if you were the SG office of the president, you will be exactly drafting the blunder called “executive order”.
Let’s look at elected NAMs, can their election to the assembly be annulled by their constituency prematurely? In other words , can the people of a constituency dismiss an elected NAM halfway through the legislative period?
As soon as a nominated member is sworned in as a NAM, immediately he/she enjoys the same rights, privileges and obligations as every other parliamentarian.
If not, then why should a nominated member be entitled to equal vote powers as elected members?
Jammeh henchmen aka Momodou Sabally, Sidi Bojang and NRP Garde are now the soulmates in so-called battle against establishment of due process in country.
Unfortunately, many people are affected by convoluted thinking. An elected NAM is not Nominated by a President. He or she is elected not nominated. Therefore, only a loss of position through an election, recall by Petition or removal from the National Assembly by the Proscribed National Assembly Procedures laid out in a given Constitution. No such thing applies to a nominated official. Nominated individuals or officials do not have immunity from being removed or fired by the person who nominated them. No attempt to apply a flawed and repugnant Constitution can change this fact. That is, Nominated officials serve at the discretion of the person who nominated them, in this case, Adama Barrow nominated aka employed the woman and can fire or remove her. She did not run for the position nor did she win the position by being elected by the Voters of a Constituency. This later circumstance and or situation is what immunizes the NAMS who are elected, Not nominated individuals such as the woman in question who was nominated aka employed by Adama Barrow. Gambia and Gambians have more serious issues to endeavor to resolve and this issue is not one of them. It may be an issue for UDP PARTY MEMBERS and those who support the woman but definitely not an issue for the rest of the Gambia and Gambians.
Sidi, then tell us what are serious issues affecting the country?
You can turn it around as much as you like but there is no law or common sense in having a Law maker dismissed by a president as and when the president wishes.
That is Jammeh’s rule book. Trampling and ignoring rule of law to achieve ones political goals. For Jammeh loyalist , that is a pleasant way of doing things but not the majority who voted Jammeh out. Otherwise, they would have let him continue the barbarism.
You have ignored my questions, as in Jammeh mania so I think it is no use to expect common sense from you.
Fact is the people who voted Jammeh out, will not sit by and see the return to nonsense executive orders and arbitrarily dismissal of people without due process. As majority leader said, self entrenchment will only happen upon dead bodies.
Let me make it as elementary and simple as I can. Members of a Cabinet or Parliament and in the present case in the Gambia, a Presidentially Nominated National Assembly Member is not an elected official or individual who is immunized by virtue of the fact that he or she is not employed by the Voters who elects the National Assembly Members to represent them in the National Assembly. As such, a Nominated Member is only a National Assembly Member or Parliament by virtue of a Presidential Nomination aka employment. Therefore, the President who used his Vested authority and power to Nominate the individual may legally fire them or remove them from their Nominated position. As human beings, such an act should be done with care and with the required Protocol (s). However, there is no Constitutional provision in the World’s Democracies where a Presidential Nominated individual who is found wanting cannot be removed just because of an Oath he or she took. If that is the case, why are Cabinet Members who are Nominated by Presidents serving at the discretion of the President who nominated them? Don’t they take an Oath prior to being given their Portfolio as Minister or Secretary of State, Local Government or Foreign Affairs? I am concerned about the manner the firing or removal was done. It should have been on a Presidential Stationary and signed by the President and if the President is indisposed at the time, it should be signed by the designated official (s). Furthermore, it would be nice to have reasons with reference to why the individual is being fired or removed. Let’s be clear with this too. It is not mandated in Political firings or removals for reasons to be stated on the firing document. This is to protect both the one being fired especially, and the one doing the firing or removal from potential legal action for sharing Personnel matters with the Public. There is a destructive fussy and convoluted thinking process among many at this Forums. Unfortunately, it is by those who should know better. There seems to be a Virulent Viruse of “Avoiding Facts and Truth” to wrap onesself in a False Security Blanket of Party Politics at the expense of the Country or Nation, the Gambia. Such acts and behavior are repugnant and insidious and as such Gambians and Gambia deserves better. Gambia is more than the Sum Total of One Tribe, One Region and Party. This applies to the Nominated individual who got fired by the President who Nominated her. The Gambian Voters did not hire her. She was not Voted to the National Assembly. President Adama Barrow hired her and fired her. If she was anyone other than a UDP PARTY MEMBER, THE SILENCE WOULD BE DEAFNING.. May be not. It may have been the opposite of what would have been the UDP PARTY AND SUPPORTERS NARRATIVES. COUNTRY/NATION BEFORE PARTY and ETHNIC POLITICS.
Sidi,
totally contracdictory excuses why a president has a power to dismiss a lawmaker. Did it come to your mind that the US president, even though he nominates a judge, can revoke a Nomination but CANNOT DISMISS A JUDGE ONCE THE PERSON TOOK OATH OF OFFICE AS JUDGE.
IT is called SEPARATION OF POWERS. I am not a fan of the prevailing constitution but while the CRC is busy drafting a new one, I expect a democratically elected president to abide By the rule of due process. And that entails that a sitting lawmaker cannot be dismissed By the executive arm of govt- including the president. If you want Barrow to follow jammeh rule book, we will end up having elected Mayors jailed and stripped off their elected Mandates. We will not sit By and watch that happen. Barrow didn’t come to power with the Barrel of the gun. He can’t do what he likes. I hope you figure that.
Clearly, there seems to be a lot of of gaps in the understanding of the Separation of Powers that American Democratic Dispensation built in. It is called Checks and Balances. Yes, American Federal judges are appointed by the President in power. That is, if, when and where a vacancy exists. However, and this is the significant difference between the American reality and our nightmare in Africa and Gambia as an example. American Nominated judges must be Confirmed by the relevant Committee (The Judiciary Committee) or entire Senate as in when a judge is Nominated to the Supreme Court. If a President’s Nominee is not Confirmed by the designated Committee or by the Senate, the judge is not Seated, his Nomination is rejected, it is null and void. The significance of the Confirmation Process is to allow the People’s Representatives not just the President’s Executive Power to be applied without the Checks and Balance Provision of the Separation of Powers activate and working in the interest of the People. Through the Confirmation Process, the American people, the Voters are through their Representatives, having their “Say” on the character, qualification, and in case of a judge, the temperament of the Jurist or judge being Nominated. Did such a Confirmation Process take place in the Nominated NAMS? No such thing took place in the Nomination of the individual. Instead of spending time and energy trying to justify an obvious Repugnant Act that the Ruling Parties use to inflate and or undemocratically create a false majority in Parliament or in Gambia’s case, the National Assembly, this act that Adama Barrow has the authority and potentially the power to exercise should be exponged, removed from the Gambian Constitution and all relevant Provisions. Unfortunately, until that is done, Presidents in Gambia and elsewhere where such Repugnant Provisions are embedded in their Constitution would be granted the power to Nominate without Legislative Oversight or Confirmation Process and thus, the open door for Presidents to fire or remove the individual they Nominated. Adama Barrow has not violated any existing Provision in the Gambian Constitution of 1997. Where there is no explicit Constitutional provision prohibiting the President from firing or removing an individual from a position he or she is Nominated to by the President, no reasonable and informed Court should allow itself to be dragged into a “Broad” and Unmitigated interpretation of the Gambian Constitution. Where there is no Provision as in the case at hand, the norm is a “Narrow” interpretation of the Constitution and leave it to the “Law Making Body” in Gambias case the National Assembly to come up with Legislation that would then be submitted to the Public for Ratification and Adoption into the Constitution. Let the NAMS perform their Due Diligence of Oversight and Law Making Responsibilities. However, the Gambian Citizens and Voters must demand that the Three Branches deliver….
Oh! A parliamentarian can indeed be imposed on a people and fired at the disposal of an executive ….
Looks like it’s hard to done with this bloody poliTRICKING and rat race at home! Constitutions in my sense of reasoning is not a fact until peoples’ thoughts are ‘constitutionally’ guided in the name of the nobility of the word in its definition. Executive powers to hire and fire and keep quite … That was not the idea!
Isn’t it terribly shocking seeing through some of mindsets of cross sections of our society? Isn’t it clear that some people are of the belief that very conscience of sanity has to be crudely read in a line/s of the constitution.
Many people are all ears to the GBA. We have to take for granted that they have the sanity …
Is there any provisions to substantiate your argument?