Mr. President Adama Barrow (Barrow hegemony),
I am writing to your esteemed office regarding the above captioned matter.
Recently, the above-named group of people have been visiting offices under the charge of GID personnel, requesting renewal of their national identification cards.
However, having received a legal opinion from the Justice Ministry, which, to my understanding, concluded that while the former President has the power to grant citizenship to non-Gambians, the due process was not followed. Therefore, GID deems it necessary to hold off on issuing them national identification cards until further notice.
I would kindly request that the Immigration Department collaborate with the Ministry of Interior to facilitate a discussion with the Office of the President regarding the regularization of the status of these Ghanaians and African-American nationals who were conferred citizenship by former President Yahya Jammeh as proper due process was not followed.
It could be recalled that in 2006, the former President, Yahya Jammeh, made a verbal pronouncement granting Gambian citizenship to a group of people believed to be Ghanaians residing in Ghana Town, Brufut. A similar gesture was extended to African-Americans during the official opening of the 10th edition of the International Roots Festival in Banjul.
In 2010, the Office of the then-President, via a letter dated December 8, 2010, gave Executive Approval in the form of a directive to the Ministry of Interior to issue national identity cards to 123 residents of Ghana Town. The said list of people is believed to have been the subject of the former President’s verbal executive pronouncement in 2006.
By letter dated December 13, 2010, the Ministry of Interior wrote to extend the Executive approval contained in the letter of December 8 to the Gambia Immigration Department to issue national identification cards to the said residents. A similar letter dated March 1, 2011, was received by the office of the Director-General, Gambia Immigration Department, from the Ministry of Interior with an attached list of twelve returnees granted full Gambian citizenship by the former President Yahya Jammeh as per his pronouncement during the official opening of the 10th edition of the International Roots Festival on February 5, 2011, at Arch 22 in Banjul.
As per the said orders from the Office of the then President through the Ministry of Interior, the Gambia Immigration Department issued national identification cards to all concerned.
Under Gambian law, the President has the power to confer citizenship on a person who is not a citizen of The Gambia. This power of the President to confer citizenship on a non-Gambian is provided in Section 8B of the Gambia Nationality and Citizenship Act Cap. 16:01 Laws of The Gambia, 2009.
The Act states: “Subject to section 7 of this Act, the President of the Republic of The Gambia may; where he or she deems it necessary, grant a Certificate of Citizenship of The Gambia to any person, and the person to whom the certificate is granted shall, on taking an oath of allegiance in the form specified in the First Schedule to this Act, be a citizen of The Gambia as from the date on which the Certificate is granted.”
Section 7 of the same Act provides: “A person shall not be registered as a citizen of The Gambia or granted a Certificate of Naturalisation as a citizen of The Gambia unless he or she has made a declaration in such manner as the Minister may prescribe renouncing any other nationality or citizenship he or she may possess.”
The requirements for acquiring a national identity card in The Gambia are prescribed by the Act. Section 15(2) of the Act provides: “A national identity card shall not be issued to any applicant under this Act unless such applicant proves to the satisfaction of the Registrar that he or she; is a citizen of The Gambia; has attained the age of eighteen or more; and has complied with all the provisions of this Act.” In the present case, the evidence provided to GID is that they are non-Gambians.
The above analysis shows that in the absence of a Certificate of Citizenship granted to any of them by the former President, they have not acquired Gambian citizenship. On that basis, as per the legal opinion from the Ministry of Justice, none of them is qualified to be issued a Gambian national identity card, as they did not meet the requirement for citizenship under Section 15(2) of the Act before one is issued a Gambian national identity card.
RECOMMENDATIONS: The Gambia Immigration Department may engage the Ministry of Interior with a view to involving the Office of the President for possible discussion on regularizing the status of these affected persons. This can be done by issuing them Certificates of Citizenship and complying with the provisions of Sections 7 and 8B in relation to taking the oath of allegiance and renouncing their previous citizenships.
This recommendation, if considered, will undoubtedly pay dividends, for revoking the documents of the affected persons on grounds that they are not Gambian citizens may greatly affect their status and that of their children born after their acquisition.
