By Omar Bah
The main opposition UDP spokesperson, Almami Fanding Taal, has blasted The Gambia’s last legislature for frustrating the country’s transition after they rejected the draft constitution that would have ushered a third republic.
In September 2020, Gambian lawmakers rejected a draft constitution to replace the 1997 Constitution. The document, which was designed to help reform the country’s governance system, could not secure enough votes as 31 NAMs voted in favour of the bill to be passed while 23 rejected it.
“A minority in the house of representative was able to frustrate the hopes and dreams of the majority of Gambians already consulted on the type of constitution they want,” Taal said.
He argued that since 2017 neither the government nor Civil Society Organisations have convened a national dialogue to help forge a consensus for the ‘New Gambia’.
“The closest the Gambia came to an open conversation post dictatorship was the BBC Africa Debate held at the Kairaba Hotel in March 2017. High hopes for economic transformation were dashed and our leaders have failed to put in place measures both to create livelihood opportunities and to distribute political power more broadly among all the people by decentralisation,” he said.
Since then, he added, ‘all we hear are political statements like ‘respect for human rights and the rule of law’, while recommendations from the Truth Reconciliation Reparations and Commission Report are half-heartedly implemented at the expense of the victims of the brutal dictatorship.
