By Lamin J Darbo

In an extraordinary assault on law and truth, Mr Buba Sanyang (the Permanent Secretary) at a press briefing 02 June 2020 stated the position of the Ministry of Lands (the Ministry) on demolitions: “We are planning to embark on another massive demolition in areas where lands allocated to people by government are annexed by people who have decided to build structures on them. This will come as the second phase demolition to be carried out to enable those people to acquire their lands. Government will not allow people to annex these spaces.”

Herein the lawless propensity of the Ministry!

Under the law, Government can only acquire in the public interest and lands so acquired must be used only for public purposes. The Permanent Secretary must study his critical brief.

He also asserted “… the government will not allow people to take the law into their hands by appropriating public places for their own personal use”.

It is the Government acting badly, and in complete defiance of the law.

In a bid to make more effective use of the Government megaphone, the Permanent Secretary claimed “… the Department of Physical Planning sent a letter to the alkalo of Sukuta in August 2007 informing him that the state was planning to use the land located between the Old Salagi Layout and Pateya village as a residential layout…The alkalo was advised not to process any documentation for land transactions or development for that area and that anyone who had questions should consult the department. This was made very clear to the alkalo”.

Contrary to the assertion of the Permanent Secretary, the competent lead department on land acquisition is the Department of Lands and Surveys not the Department of Physical Planning that purportedly “sent a letter to the alkalo of Sukuta in August 2007”.

As if to put the icing on the cake of state vandalism and utter lawlessness, the Permanent Secretary rather pleadingly intimated to the briefing that “section 38 of the Physical Planning and Development Control Act 1991 prohibits people building without obtaining development or building permit”, and that “… all developments without permit have consequences”.

I am aghast at the cruelty of the Ministry, at the cruelty of its constituent departments of Land and Surveys, and Physical Planning and Housing (DPPH), at their routine violations of the law, and the evasive and secretive conduct underlying their operations.

Aghast at the unwillingness of government to step in and wipe the tears of numerous ordinary citizens dispossessed of their lands by the cruel twins of land administration under this lawless and rampantly corrupt Ministry.

In my possession is documentation including a completed lease originating with the Department of Lands assigning dozens of plots, in some cases more than seventy compounds to individuals out of lands stolen from their customary owners in Salagi. They are refused clearance for development or other purposes but those who purchased these lands through dubious channels including from staff of the Ministry’s constituent departments of evil have no issues with clearance.

And all these lawlessness under purported colour of law and public authority!

Irrespective of the Permanent Secretary’s position on the State Lands Act 1991, the Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 1991, the Physical Planning and Development Control Act 1991, and their subsidiary legislations, the controlling law on land acquisitions is section 22 of the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia (the Constitution).

Any law at variance with the Constitution is void to the extent of the inconsistency.

In particular, the lands at Brusubi, Salagi, and Nemasu in Sukuta, and those involving New Yundum, and Brufut, all in the Kombo North District of the West Coast Region, Brikama in Kombo Central, Tujereng and Tanji in the Kombo South, and Bakau in the Kanifing Municipal Council, were trespassed upon by agents, or purported agents of the Ministry on the pretext the lands concerned were confiscated and reserved by Government.

Absolutely preposterous!

Complete nonsense with no iota of truth!

As Government has no land in these areas, it cannot confiscate and reserve same.

In the event Government requires use of private land, it must follow a stipulated legal process. It is for no reason that “Protection from Deprivation of Property” is included among the fundamental freedoms and entrenched.

According to Section 22 of the Constitution:

No property of any description shall be taken possession of compulsorily, and no right over or interest in any such property shall be acquired compulsorily in any part of The Gambia, except where the following conditions are satisfied:-

• the taking of possession or acquisition is necessary in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public health, town and country planning or the development or utilization of any property in such manner as to promote the public benefit; and
• the necessity therefor is such as to afford reasonable justification of the causing of any hardship that may result to any person having any interest in or right over the property; and
• provision is made by law to that taking of possession or acquisition:-

• for the prompt payment of adequate compensation, and

• securing to any person having an interest in or right over the property a right of access to a court or other impartial and independent authority for the determination of his or her interest or right, the legality of the taking of possession or acquisition of the property, interest or right, and the amount of any compensation to which he or she is entitled, and for the purpose of obtaining prompt payment of that compensation.
  ….

• Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting the making or operation of any law for the compulsory taking in the public interest of any interest in or right over property, where that property interest or right is held by a body corporate which is established directly by any law and in which no moneys are provided by an Act of the National Assembly.

• Where a compulsory acquisition of land by or on behalf of the Government involves the displacement of any inhabitants who occupy the land under customary law, the Government shall resettle the displaced inhabitants ….

• Any such property of whatever description compulsorily taken possession of, and any interest in or right over property of any description compulsorily acquired in the public interest for a public purpose, shall be used only in the public interest or for the public purposes for which it is taken or acquired.

• Where any such property as is referred to in subsection (5) is not used in the public interest or for the public purpose for which it was taken or acquired, the person who was the owner immediately before the compulsory taking or acquisition, as the case may be, shall be given the first option of acquiring that property, in which event he or she shall be required to refund the whole or such part of the compensation as may be agreed upon between the parties thereto; and in the absence of any such agreement such amount as shall be determined by the High Court.

Of significant import, the Government must pay adequate compensation.

I must stress that the compensation envisaged by the Constitution is not stealing lands from two people and relocating one of them in the other’s property. Where appropriate, there must be both monetary compensation and resettlement as enjoyed by those in Half die affected by the Banjul Port expansion who were monetarily compensated and settled on Bakau lands.

More fundamentally, the acquisition must be in the public interest and for a public purpose, and “any such property of whatever description compulsorily taken possession of, and any interest in or right over property of any description compulsorily acquired in the public interest for a public purpose, shall be used only in the public interest or for the public purposes for which it is taken or acquired”.

Under section 2 of the Land Acquisition and Compensation Act (LACA), “public purposes” is defined as including:-

• for exclusive Government use or for community use;
• for or in connection with sanitary improvements of any kind, including reclamations;
• for or in connection with the laying out of any new Government station or the extension or improvement of any existing Government station;
• for obtaining control over land contiguous to any port or airport;
• for obtaining control over land required for defence purposes;
• for obtaining control over land subjected to environmental protection and conservation;
• for obtaining control over land the value of which will be enhanced by the construction of any railway, road or other public works or convenience about to be undertaken or provided by the Government; and
• for planning purposes.

It is only after land is acquired from its owners by the Government in accordance with the law that it may be designated a State land. According to section 3 of LACA, “any land acquired under the provisions of this Act shall be designated as State lands and shall be administered under the provisions of the State Lands Act”.

And contrary to the assertion of the Permanent Secretary, section 4 of LACA states that “the Minister may acquire any land for a public purpose, paying therefore such consideration or compensation as may be agreed on or determined in accordance with this Act”.

It is a fact that senior employees of the Ministry’s twin departments of evil are living on lands stolen from their customary owners. It is also true that they sold many other lands across Salagi either directly or through third parties to private buyers.

A victim of land gangsterism in Sukuta was told a number of stories by agents, or purported agents of the Ministry’s twin evils. Some told him there are underground cables on his land placed there for special purposes, and others that the Government was creating a housing complex to be used as rest houses by holidaying Gambians settled abroad.
Whatever the truth of these claims, they have nothing to do with the proprietary right of the traditional owners of these ancestral Salagi lands.

The Salagi lands were stolen and not acquired by delineated legal processes.

Consequently Government cannot allocate what it does not own through legal acquisition.

Assuming these are lands which legally belong to the Government – and I reject that emphatically – the Salagi demolitions were conducted in violation of due process according to procedures laid down by DPPH itself.

The Ministry is wrong and the Permanent Secretary must reassess his position. I am in no doubt the land owners will be the ultimate winners as against the public gangsters hiding behind the façade of law.

Gambians are outraged and rightly so by the killings of George Floyd, and Lamin Sisay in the United States of America. I hope we direct part of that energy for justice to victims of Government lawlessness at home over lands in Salagi and elsewhere.

Halifa Sallah has said the George Floyd is the ‘sacrificial lamb’ for America to ‘repent’ and ‘heal’.

Below is the Serrekunda MP’s statement under the title ‘A Nation Caged and on Fire Cannot be at Peace with Itself to Prosper; George Floyd is the Sacrificial Lamb for the USA to Repent and Heal’.

When the worst is seen by a people, be rest assured that better times are around the corner, waiting for those who hate to see the worst to take the measured steps to address the challenges of destiny. Each has a duty to discharge our contract with destiny. The options are two. There is no middle road.

We will either live in the hell or the heaven of our own creation. This is the verdict of history and common sense and it is incontrovertible.

This is why COVID-19 is caging the USA and prejudice is burning it into ashes. History has its turns, convulsions and convolutions, its trials and tribulations but it also has its confessions, concessions and conciliations, its dialogue and healing. Hope always dawns when it is almost lost. The might of hope, unity and awareness is much more powerful than the strong current of hopelessness, antipathy and ignorance. The wisdom of the ages teaches that; behind the dark clouds, the glorious sunlight is always waiting to shine and it will shine someday. That is inevitable!

The convergence of the whole world for justice because of one incident is a glimmer of hope for a better world. Millions around the world became tormented as they saw a handcuffed human being lying on his side, unable to pose any threat to any officer, being subjected to excruciating pain by putting the whole weight of a well-built police officer on his neck, with a knee strategically placed on his jugular veins which ferries blood from the head to the heart thus depriving him of breath by relying on his weakest point to rip his lungs to pieces and send him to his grave.

What type of order will allow the transformation of a protector of life and property into a murderer? What property is more precious than personal freedom? It was not difficult to conclude that brother George Floyd was sent to his death without due process because of pride and prejudice that nourished contempt and ill will in the heart of the law enforcement officer. Where law enforcers become law breakers, the law is left without guards and fences. Society becomes a jungle where the fittest survive.

Burning, stoning and looting may continue to vent frustration until it becomes clear that such actions are not sustainable and cannot proffer solutions to the anguish that prejudice, inhumane treatment, alienation and injustice inflict on others.

It is therefore our duty not to provide the unjust with the excuse to legitimise the shooting and torturing of the weak because of their colour by exceeding the bounds of peaceful protest. Those who shook the USA to its knees did so in the 60s through the might of civic awareness and peaceful protest.

The belligerent and incorrigible hate mongers became consumed by the hell fire they lit and lost control of power. The peacemakers who took charge of governance assumed their responsibilities in separating the grain from the chaff, apologised for wrong doing while promising justice to the aggrieved families to cool the last embers of hate and revenge and allow sanity to be restored.

Hence, as we seek for a solution in these tumultuous times, the multitude should leave the street to COVID-19 and return to their separate chambers to speak to themselves in quietude and ask this fundamental unanswered question:

How can there be peace and tranquility, law and order without justice and respect for human rights irrespective of colour or creed?

George Floyd is posing this question for everyone in the USA to answer, each morning when starting a new day until a new USA is born. The USA is now crying for New Citizens and new leadership that could meet the expectations of those new citizens. Destiny makes the USA the nexus of world peoples and civilization.

The Union was founded and built from the blood and sweat of democrats fighting for a sovereign Republic in 1776, abolitionists fighting against those who defied the principle of sovereign equality of human beings, by trying to enslave other human beings, anti secessionists, 170, 000 of whom were Afro-American soldiers who defied disease and death to keep the nation together.

The wealth of the USA cannot be separated from the toil and moil of the enslaved, the indentured servants, the workers, the trillions in trade and investment in USA Bonds from all over the world. The USA is a corpus of world civilization without distinction to colour or nationality.

That is why when the USA is caged, the whole world feels the agony. When it is in flames, the whole world feels the heat. This is why the USA deserves a world class leadership in order to send the torch of justice, love, peace and harmony all over the globe where their ancestors hailed either by force against their will or due to flight from injustice perpetrated against them.

To all those who empathize with George Floyd, I have this to say: He is the sacrificial lamb of history, heralding the end of the days of prejudice based on colour.

Today, each person of African descent in particular or of any descent in general, whether in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa or any where in the globe should dispose of any inferiority complex that may have plagued one’s mind by prejudice and ignorance of one’s embodiment of inalienable dignity and self-worth.

Each must recognize that inferiority complex is a by product of self-hate and self-degradation. It leads one to engage in self-pity because of the inhumanity of others or become inhumane to react to the inhumanity of others. Instead of empathy, we should all celebrate the birth of a new day of awakening, a day when we will mutually commit ourselves to honour with total disregard that there is a white race or black race or red race or yellow race. We must now trumpet from mountain tops for the whole world to hear without any ambiguity or dissonance that there is only one race of people in the world – The Human race.

To look at the sun and say it is the moon is a symptom of mental ill health. To look at a person of African descent and say he or she is not a part of the human race is a symptom of mental ill health. All peoples, irrespective of colour, nationality, gender or place of origin are members of the human race who are endowed with similar capacity to think, invent and build a civilisation they would be proud to bequeath to their children and children’s children (ad infinitum), to eternity.

We must take this opportunity today to declare in George Floyd’s honour that his humanity and standing as a member of the human race stand shoulder high above his murderer. We must affirm that the human race comprises only two types of human beings; the human and the inhumane, the just and the unjust. We must reveal our discovery in his memory that any human being who looks at another human being and display signs of fear because of his or her colour is suffering from neurosis and needs treatment for his or her illness. This is the scientific truth.

It goes without saying that, any person who becomes obsessed with fear, hatred, pride and prejudice to the point of enjoying the perpetration of violence against another because of the colour of his or her skin must be seen to be suffering from psychosis. That is the unalloyed scientific truth. History has placed on the shoulders of all humane and just citizens of the USA in particular and the world over to begin the battle to screen and treat the ill and the unjust in our countries so as to ensure healing and peaceful coexistence. They must no longer be given the credit to think that they are displaying superiority over others by displaying contempt and hate.

The world must put an end to colour prejudice by exposing its source.

Those suffering from colour neurosis and psychosis must be identified and cured. The more they are allowed to increase and go on the rampage the more we have a society of psychopaths behaving like chosen people.

Then hell fire will be our home on this earth for eternity. History has put the salvation of the world in the hands of those who have suffered historical injustice the most, that is still unabated. However, history has rewarded the African people with land, human, material and financial resources in the USA, the Caribbean and Africa due to the vicissitude of destiny. We must now convert this strategic advantage into asset to save the world from the hatred of people that have lost all sense of obligation to humanity.

Once they learn to forgive after all the psychopaths are restrained and humanised, the twenty first century would evolve a human civilization that would guarantee peace on earth and good neighborliness throughout the world. All humane persons in the world must unite to save humanity from the insanity of the inhumane and the unjust.

This is the clarion call of destiny. We must answer to this call or face the abominable peril and the unaffordable cost of chaos, licentiousness and impunity.

By Madi Jobarteh

We are deeply saddened at the news of the shooting to death of a Gambian youth Momodou Lamin Sisay today by the US Police even as we continue to grieve the senseless, deliberate and racist murder of George Floyd by the same US Police. As usual the US Police has come up with their narrative that they came under fire from Momodou and so in the exchange our boy was killed. False!

I reject this narrative 100% which is nothing but the same typical pattern of fabrications that the US Police are notorious of spreading anytime they kill Africans. Once again they victimize the victim! For that matter we demand the release of the police videos to show exactly what happened to Momodou.

At this moment, Gambian activists in the United States are actively engaged on this matter. They are seeking the support of lawyers to ask the courts to make the police release their videos publicly as well as have human rights organizations raise the issue across the nation.

In the Gambia let us raise the issue as well. Let us demand the Gambia Government to summon the Ambassador of the United States to State House to make it clear to him in no uncertain terms the painful grieve and deep concern of the people and Government of the Gambia for the killing of Momodou.

Let our Government make it clear to the US Government our uncompromising stance for justice for Momodou and George Floyd and all those victims of US Police Brutality. Let our Government make it clear to the US Government’s representative in Banjul that we will not tolerate Gambians and African Americans being killed by the US Police with impunity.

Furthermore, let us make our political parties to speak up. America is NOT the Almighty. Let us reject that sense of helplessness and small and poor nation mentality that America is a huge and invincible super power that we cannot do anything about. Let all political parties in Africa begin to act like governments and leaders and take a proactive and definitive stance on fundamental issues affecting African lives across the world.

Let all governments in Africa stand up and speak with one voice that the blatant, indiscriminately and racist attack on our kith and kin in the United States will never go unnoticed and unchecked.

In the name of Kunta Kinteh and Olaudah Equiano and millions of our ancestors of blessed memory who were forcefully removed from Africa to be enslaved in the Americas, let us defend our brothers and sisters in South American, Latin America, Mexico, United States and Canada. We have a duty to stand for them!

Finally, be informed that there are efforts being planned right now to stage a peaceful protest against US Police Brutality against Blacks in America in front of the US Embassy on Kairaba Avenue. You shall be informed as we gather news and progress.

Stand up for the rights and dignity of your people. Today!

Africans for Africans Worldwide!

The Gambia is a land of pristine beauty neatly carved into two for a zigzagging river pouring crystal clear water from the Atlantic Ocean. A nation and region of people and places and cultures under Almighty God, pivotal to world events as humanity tethers towards the unknown.

The article was occasioned in response to press reports about the European Union (EU) scheme to manufacture homosexuality in the country. The Gambia, where a closer look unearths centuries old kingships and legacies under the banner of Islamic governorship.

But has the triumphs of fearless warriors as Foday Sillah, Maba Jahou, Sundiata Keita ever reached you?! How about extraordinary stories in Sheikh Omar Futi Tall, Sheikh Amadou (Touba) Bamba, Sheikh Ibrahima Baye Niasse, Sheikh Seedy Lamin, and many such blessings? And what of the rise of Islamic scholarship in later years as, Oustaz Omar Bun Jeng, Oustaz Barra Kanteh, among countless witness ‘colossal’ [sic].

The LGBT thing is “heresy”, unnatural to be exact! Condemned in Islam for an accelerant that ire the wrath of Almighty God. It breeds nothing good, except for destruction – thus, a duty of all of us to educate and protect our children & young people against deviant understandings.

It has to be emphasized that Islam has laws and set limits, intertwined into our every day life. Even before the advent of constitutional democracies, Muslim societies throughout Arabia & Africa erred on righteousness, as civility define social relations.

In Surah “Hud” of the Glorious Quran, Almighty God relates the story of the people of Prophet Lut ( Lot) who transgressed far beyond for the very abominable. Punishment came down for their destruction.

The Holy Bible’s position on the subject as far as Christianity is concerned is that “homosexuality is forbidden by God!”(Leviticus). It is a sin in all the Semitic Books – so why would mortal man ever think resourceful enough to change the Word of Almighty God for his barbaric delinquencies?!

The issue of human rights often comes up, but human rights by design is subjective. It is a social construct filled with desires and wish list tick-boxes. See how the West is filled with single women desiring for men. Surely, the solution is for man to marry more than one wife as eloquently laid down. But Muslims aren’t going around looking to impose will – double standards is the height of hypocrisy.

The narrative on human rights has been weaponized nowadays. For by choosing to impose such an flawed seed as LGBT issue upon a high cultured people and region as [Sene]Gambia, the EU has overstepped acceptable bounds on protocol. Any such directives tied to EU foreign policy and that of the United States does NOT make it any right, nor might. People need recognize Sub-Saharan Africa is quite unique, a special case as that: Had the ambassador better advised, or cared to trace through time on the country’s historical mat, he might have acted wise.

Making enemies of friendly states only loses you ground to China across Africa. A sensible advice is take note of an sovereign people charting their own course without outside interference. Contrarian to which you stand to encroach – and oppress – and violate – country specific laws. The statute the Ambassador was quoted as saying is lame, weakened on account of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs [Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations].

The Gambia government shall not allow nor legislate that which goes contrary to Devine Scriptures, Quran and Bible respectively.

After all, democracy only came to administer colonial borders, and with it, invent the corruption problem.

The usual channels of cooperation will need to address the unease; EU has to recognise The Gambia is a population highly devoted to one True God – Whose Command in the Glorious Scriptures transcends all other laws and pronouncements. For, whenever etiquettes on social conduct come into conflict with external accords, [Sene]Gambia values always take precedence!!!

It is an insult on the conscience of Gambians told to debate that we already knew to be deeply immoral; a deviant corrupted seed to Muslims and Christians alike. I call on the administration to protect a solid moral base in society given trends in the world. While this does NOT necessarily mean religious intrusion into politics, it sure damn well means stepping in to regulate against harm imposing cultures seen to pose threat to the country’s religious-cultural dynamic.

The Tourism ministry need speed up efforts to attract family-type visitors as with the Jawara Era. For it is vital to address the scourge of loose ‘items’ frequenting the shores of ‘Kololi’ for a bit of this & that: Learn from Egypt, enforce stringent laws to arrest and prosecute paedophiles feigning on helpless children. Govt and the police are held responsible for failing to prosecute child abusers; Impose mandatory sex-offenders register – be it diplomat, tourist, or resident!

The EU need recognize that raising the issue garners anger, offensive to the population. To drape the country’s flag in homosexual colours was provocative for which it knew. Ambassador Lajos ought summoned to the foreign ministry in Banjul to explain. And with this publication, I hereby put government on notice for a population dead set against it, with that, amplify the voices of millions of peoples of the region.

Gibril Saine

By Zakaria Kemo Konteh (ZKK)

We take no pleasure or pride in reminding ourselves of our dark, painful and difficult past. If anything, we were hopeful, upbeat and highly encouraged when our fellow citizens surmounted their fear, confronted their abuser, humiliated him at the polls and sent him into involuntary exile – a culmination of courage, patriotism and triumph leading Adama Barrow’s Presidency. The journey to achieving this victory was long and arduous and filled with the exploits, tears and blood and many acts of sacrifice of the patriots.

Cognizant of the deliberate, wilful and systematic insituatonal damage, impunity, mistrust and division amongst the citizenry, the architects of the transition were determined to set in motion various reform processes and programs necessary to get our country ready for a fresh start ahead of the general election. This New Gambia Project was to proceed with speed, total focus, serious dedication and profound efficiency. But the designed wholesale approach was threatened by a race for political power and dominance.

First to cause cracks in the hitherto formidable transition programs was PDOIS when the party bigwigs did not take cabinet positions. For a party that was very instrumental in selling the Coalition agenda to the Gambians to take a back seat when it was time to roll out the programs was serious betrayal of covenant they had with the electorates. They were allegedly not happy with cabinet-level positions offered to them and they decided turn their backs on their colleagues with spite! The excuse that PDOIS was going to serve better in the National Assembly instead was ridiculous at least and divisive at best. What better place there was to serve the urgent, transformative demands of the Gambians than in cabinet?

Another theory was that Hon Halifa Sallah and Hon Ousainou Darboe do not like each other. Their differences transcend politics and ideology. Hon Sallah was very proactive in the Coalition programs when Hon Darboe was in jail and he was effectively in charge but as soon as Hon Darboe came out and assumed influential roles and gradually eclipsed Hon Sallah’s position, the latter decided to go for the exit. But whether PDOIS principals refused to occupy what they had considered to be “inferior” cabinet positions or they were not offered any, what resulted was the beginning of a monumental fractious relationship within the Coalition. The party became the first visible and public opposition to the Coalition it helped created and put to power and receiving the infamous State House response ” It is easier to criticize than take responsibilities”. Thus, it can be safely argued that PDOIS was more interested in political showmanship than working together with the colleagues for the good of the country.

Then there is the opportunistic UDP that is complicit in shirking away the country’s historic responsibilities just to expand and flex its political muscles. From the beginning, the party’s commitment to the letter and spirit of the transition programs was questionable, arguably insincere, frustratingly insufficient and shockingly self-serving. In fact, UDP started preparing itself to replace Barrow as early as the formation of the new administration. Its principals worked in the government from Monday to Friday and rallied supporters on the weekends to discuss political strategies to replace the very government. UDP was the first to open its doors to former APRC top officials, creating both a new precedence and the eventual competition over APRC remnants. In doing so, UDP was sending a clear message that when it comes to politics and its attendant game of numbers, values and principles can take a back seat. What resulted from the UDP’s political gamesmanship was a party totally immersed in and focusing on expanding and solidying its base for the next election and very little to safeguard, strengthen and consolidate the gains of our nascent democracy.

Alarmed by UDP’s very clear and direct efforts to make him a one-term President even after initially backing him to renege on his promised serve only 3 years, President Barrow first employed appeasement strategy to win UDP over by elevating Darboe. When that failed, he went for the jugular by plotting a political coup in the UDP during its Congress with little success as the vanguards of the party resisted fiercely and Barrow had to withdraw. As he withdrew, he managed take with him some former disgruntled members of the UDP.

But Barrow wasn’t done. Although his assault on UDP was repelled, he initiated another sweeping and far-reaching plot and this time against our very institutions. To succeed in this treacherous process, he began firing and replacing UDP newbies with former spineless officials who have both the institutional memory and experience for anything and everything toxic – men and women with tainted integrity and questionable professional competence to carry out enormous systemic and systematic damage. Those who will mortgage our country to the highest bidder at a moment’s notice to satisfy themselves and a sitting President. After all, they were there for Yahya Jammeh and Barrow needs them too for the same reason : to help him in any way to get richer from state coffers and use the loot to finance and influence elections. Janneh Commission provides adequate clarity and papery-rail on their wanton and audacious schemes.

The Jawara-era elites – a group of entitled, mischievous and compromised cabal – and their children and grandchildren are also gradually making their way up and establishing their foothold. President Barrow is presiding over and coordinating this eerie, reprehensible comeback because he believes it will work for his self-perpetuating efforts.

Stuck in this political firestorm, uncanny recklessness and wholesale insensitivity is the vulnerable, helpless and battered Gambian people who have suffered for far too long and continue to be unwitting victims of vicious cycle of bad leadership, political opportunism and purposeful carelessness. We can’t continue in this path.

Thus, as we move forward, we must shun political blindness, embrace the bitter truth and chart a new way for political responsibility, accountable leadership and robust citizen engagements.

At the Paradise TV televised national discussion, and in its aftermath, the issue of the commencement of the Presidential term has dominated the public conversation headlines.

By section 100 (2) (c) of the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia (the Constitution) the National Assembly (NA) is prohibited from depriving “…any person retroactively of vested or acquired rights…”.

Subsections (a) and (b) of the same section precludes the NA from establishing “a one party State” or establishing “a State religion” respectively. Given the importance of the principles implicated, section 153(2)(c) of the Draft ring fenced the values therein protected from legislative vandalism by entrenching the provision.

Eager to remove the protected values from tinkering by “transient majorities”, the identical provision is entrenched both in the Constitution, and in the Draft.

Rather extraordinarily, a Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) with five distinguished Barristers, including a Justice of the Supreme Court, ignored the clear command of 100(2)(c) of the Constitution, and 153(2) (c) of the Draft by mandating in Schedule 4 (5) (2) thus:- “Notwithstanding anything contained in this Constitution or any other law or any rule of interpretation or rule of construction, the term of office of the person holding the Office of President as at the effective date shall be construed to include the existing term and the person may contest election for the Presidency for only one more term as provided in this Constitution after the expiry of the existing term”.

By coincidence, section 190 (1) (a) of the Draft states that “the President shall appoint the Chief Justice and other judges of the Supreme Court, acting on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission, after confirmation by the National Assembly”.

After confirmation by the National Assembly!

In my view, assuming this Draft is given a pass by the NA and the people, even handed application of the law must mean that every serving judge of the Supreme Court must face confirmation hearings to maintain his or her judgeship.

In pondering the incomprehensibility of Schedule 4 (5) (2) when juxtaposed against 100(2)(c) of the Constitution, and 153(2)(c) of the Draft, I travelled back in time to a speech I delivered in 2006 to the Second Congress of Kombo Sillah Association, at the St Nicholas Primary School, Bristol, on THE RULE OF LAW, for a clearer perspective on this democratic value.

Those opposed to the incumbent President must work tirelessly to remove him from office but we must reject the use of unlawful means to achieving our political objectives.

“Mr President, Executive Committee members, the general membership of Kombo Sillah Association–United Kingdom (KSA-UK), distinguished guests, gentlemen and ladies. I am humbled by the honour and privilege of returning to Bristol at the behest of KSA-UK as one of its speakers this 27th day of May 2006.

Exactly two years ago today, European Dabananians, their friends, and well wishers, gathered in the Easton Community Centre to appraise and celebrate the widely acknowledged vision that goes by the name KSA-UK.

That first Congress, in this foremost city of the West of England, this informal capital of Dabanani in the British Isles, was a memorable and distinguished gathering with attendees from as far afield as one of the lands of the midnight sun.

For Congress 2, the Swedish contingent tripled, and spectacular further success is recorded with Finnish and Gambian representation. I am referring – gentlemen and ladies – to our distinguished and celebrated Dabananians in the persons of Jainaba Bah Jallow, Mamakaddy Bajo Coma, Bob Touray, Omar Chaw Touray, Fatou Touray. Yes you are right, and no I’m not hallucinating. I indeed confirmed from the President that non-negotiable exigencies have kept Jainaba away. As her commitment to be here with us was never in question, and if only in spirit, I’m happy to acknowledge her presence in this audience. If it makes anyone feel better, you have permission to double your eyes on MBC.

I wish to reassure sister Fatou Touray that she is not a victim of sexist discrimination in that the preceding line-up remains faithful to the protocol of first-past-the-post. Notwithstanding their majestic and time-defying elegance, the sister- and brother-duo in that line-up of personalities all inhaled our earthly breeze before the sister. If that rationalisation is unsatisfactory to her, I apologise profusely.

Mr President, distinguished members of the audience, I take for granted that no celebration of KSA-UK may be considered complete if done in isolation of recognising the organisation’s architects, and even more crucially, its expanding crop of sustainers. As a project in progress, and if only for keeping the power of vision alive, I now petition this convocation to applaud KSA-UK for maintaining its pride of place among Dabanani’s pantheon of civic champions.

When I accepted the invitation to this Congress, I did so for the primary purpose of engaging the intellect of a vital segment of Dabanani’s present and future leadership on a crucial matter of timeless significance to humanity in general, and to Gambians in particular.

I take no issue with the proposition that a full, vibrant, and complete community must have its sports personalities, its entertainers, and other artists, its blue- and white-collar workers, its farmers, its agitators, even its myriad of habitual offenders against generally accepted social and legal norms.

I also accept the proposition that no society can even begin to approach completeness in the absence of explicit rules which are understood by, and applicable to all without distinction. Stated differently, I accept the contention that no society can meaningfully endure in a climate where lawlessness pervades the spirit of its public life. And this notwithstanding the existence of all other requisite components for a full, vibrant, and complete community!

At this stage of the game, there are no prizes for guessing the transiting theme to my assigned task for today. In its collective wisdom, the Executive Committee of KSAUK prohibited me from commenting on matters beyond the scope of my competence. Anxious to avoid any misadventure on my part, the leadership of the organisation – probably ill-advisedly – went on to decide that I should discuss the doctrine of the rule of law. If you find my efforts wanting, please endorse my attempt at shifting responsibility and blame those who threw me in the deep end.

As a concept, the rule of law is one of those political and governance principles whose ostensible embrace, by dictator and democrat alike, makes it susceptible to perverse interpretation and the confusion naturally attendant to that abuse.

I shall not waste your valuable time by engaging in a purely academic discussion of what constitutes the rule of law. Suffice to say that as the sanctity and the dignity of the person is directly implicated, the rule of law is a practical freedom and human rights concept open to objective validation, and as such, virtually any observer is capable of deciphering its presence or otherwise in a jurisdiction.

Mr President, distinguished members of the audience, I am happy to state that some of the thinkers who considered the concept argue that a cardinal element of the rule of law stands for the proposition that no person should be “punishable except for a distinct breach of the law established in an ordinary manner before the ordinary courts of the land”.

As the doctrine is substantive in nature, the point cannot be overemphasised that the rule of law is not about the promulgating process of law adhering to the formalistic niceties of bringing legislation to the statute books.

On the same close reasoning, another cornerstone theses of the concept states that no person is above the law, that “every person whatever be his/her mark or condition, is subject to the ordinary law of the realm and amenable to the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals”. I contend that the assumption in the foregoing is the clear suggestion that for the rule of law to obtain in a jurisdiction, there must be a separation of powers in its public life. Simply put, the entity that promulgates a law should not at the same time interpret and enforce that law as that is tantamount to inventing a formula for arbitrariness and abuse.

I accept that there is nothing to stop us from discussing the rule of law in the abstract, in a pure academic context, so to speak. However, if the intention of KSA-UK in its selection of the topic is for the immediate and extended audience to gain a true appreciation of the genius, and fantastic wonder, of the concept, I ask for your indulgence in giving some practical dimension to a doctrine that is principally responsible for the existence of a tremendous human and material development gap between societies populated by the same human species.

For a dramatic demonstration of the rule of law in recent times, I suggest we foray into a systemic challenge to, and vindication of, the concept in the United States, that trail blazer jurisdiction of the all-encompassing principle of the sanctity of the human person. For the discernible student of modern international affairs – and we have many in this immediate audience and beyond – the United States stands for carnage and abuse. I accept the partial validity of any such observation, and for good measure, I readily concede that like our host nation, the United States stands legitimately accused of pervasive institutional racism against its non-Caucasian peoples. I am willing, at some future date, to discuss the institutional racism clearly prevalent in the United States, and the United Kingdom, in particular, and western liberal democracies, in general, but for present purposes, I am happy to confine my excitement to dilating on the critical significance of the rule of law in public life.

Without question, societies may be substituted for individuals in the contention of Italy’s Renaissance luminary and humanist philosopher, Pico della Mirandola to the effect that man, placed at the centre of the universe had the power “to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish … or to be reborn into the higher forms which are divine”.

I challenge you to juxtapose any Western liberal democracy, against any African country, and decide whether you observe the same level of respect to the dignity of the human person.

I return to the United States and the matter of a Florida woman, and her ordinary family for a classic amplification of the positive magic of the rule of law. At the centre of the Terri Schiavo (Mrs Schiavo) controversy was a severely brain damaged woman whose husband went to the Florida State courts to have her feeding tube removed on the grounds she would not have liked to live in the indignity of what is known as a ‘persistent vegetative state’. The courts agreed with the husband notwithstanding the strong protestation of Mrs Schiavo’s parents against removing her feeding tube on the hopeful grounds she could recover.

In defiance, and for the purpose of legislatively staying a Florida State District Judge’s order, and have the feeding tube reinserted, Governor Bush of Florida engineered and shepherded what came to be known as “Terri’s Law” through the Florida Legislature. On a legal challenge, the Florida Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional and had it vacated. The US Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of the State of Florida, and Governor Bush, with all his ostensible power and influence was decisively defeated.

As if the legal position was not adequately amplified at the State level, the monumental and bottomless system that is the US federal machine sprung into action at both legislative and executive levels. In line with his right wing social values, President George Bush – the Governor’s elder brother – signed a Congressional bill transferring jurisdiction from the Florida State system, to the federal judiciary, i.e., to a US District Court in Florida.

Accepting the logic and the thinking of the State courts, the Federal court ruled against reinserting Mrs Schiavo’s feeding tube, and upon appeal, the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower Court. Without comment, and for the second time, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the matter. In the final analysis, the feeding tube was removed, and Mrs Schiavo died within weeks.

Mr President, distinguished guests, gentlemen and ladies, as the United States is a secular society, I urge that you relegate your religious views on the matter to the recesses of your mind, and consider this heart wrenching case on the principles undergirding the rule of law in a modern democracy. As a justiciable dispute, the Schiavo matter fell squarely within the competence of the courts to hear and decide.

In the performance of its constitutionally assigned function, the judiciary at both levels of the American federal system withstood the combined overbearing pressure of state and federal legislative and executive power and upheld the rule of law. And to think that those decisions originated in single judges conclusively confirms the inherent magic of the rule of law.

More poignantly, state and federal politicians at both executive and legislative levels graciously accepted defeat and moved on. They fought a good and intense fight, but when all was over, they embraced the result by characterising it as a victory for the American system.

In full agreement, I say glory to the principle of the rule of law!

At the other end of the spectrum are political systems that treat the concept as merely subjective. Without prevarication, I look no further than our dear homeland for a jurisdiction where no more than insincere lip service is paid to the rule of law.

Notwithstanding President Jammeh’s protestations that his governing principles are fundamentally anchored in the rule of law, not to mention his Attorney General’s frequent pronouncements of the Gambia as a state with solid respect for human rights, the record is in direct contravention of the propaganda.

For starters, President Jammeh is on record as stating his rejection of any notion of an independent judiciary. In his trademark style, he categorically denied the existence of an independent judiciary “anywhere in the world.” Against the explicit command of what passes for our supreme law, i.e., the Constitution, Judges at all levels of The Gambian judicial system serve at the absolute pleasure of the President. The same goes for members of the Independent Electoral Commission, and all-sector heads of the security services.

Mr President, members of the audience, I urge that you regard the recent parading of alleged coup suspects on Gambia TV as the latest in a litany of instances manifestly demonstrating the absence of the rule of law in our country. If the Government is confident about its allegations, the proper venue for adequately ventilating those accusations must be High Court of The Gambia. It is instructive to note that a lawless former associate of President Jammeh filed a motion on the eve of the judgement in his criminal trial articulating his lack of faith in the judicial process that wrongfully convicted him of economic crimes.

I contend that because we reject the rule of law in our public life, we are missing out on the potential for perfectibility. A casual survey of this audience readily demonstrates the efficacy of the rule of law in determining how human skills gravitate to climates where they are least apprehensive of the violation of their dignity for merely articulating their legitimate political views.

I submit to you, gentlemen and ladies, that adherence to the rule of law is the foundation upon which nations survive or collapse. No matter what its resources, a nation that fails to embrace the rule of law has its foundations anchored in quicksand. Under even the most ideal of conditions, it must ultimately collapse under the slightest test. I contend that the racism and its attendant odds notwithstanding, you and I chose Europe, and America, for the compelling attraction that except for the vagaries of random criminal activity, there is no issue of being victims of state orchestrated disappearances, killings, unlawful detentions, and frozen economic opportunities for merely daring to have the “temerity” to freely articulate our thoughts.

Mr President, distinguished personalities, I note in this audience some of Dabanani’s finest sons and daughters, dreamers anchored in their vision for the socio-economic upliftment of their Atlantic seaboard community. No less committed in this regard are our brothers and sisters removed physically from the environs of St Nicholas Primary School.

Regardless of geographic location, and notwithstanding opportunity, the timeless issue for us as Gambians must of necessity address the question of how we order our public affairs along the lines of live and let live. There is no need to dilate on the proposition that no meaningful and durable security is possible in any public environment devoid of the oxygen of the rule of law. In the absence of security and the business certainty that comes with it, our dear Gambia will continue to be left behind in the stupefying pace of global economic events. In that eventuality, it amounts to mere hallucination to contemplate the survival, much less the development of our dear seaside community.

If that is a fate too harsh for you to contemplate, I urge that you enrol, one and all, as foot soldiers in the crusade for promoting and sustaining the rule of law in The Gambia.

I accept full responsibility for the content of this speech, and state for the record that these are my views and in no way represent the thinking of KSA-UK.

God bless KSA-UK, and thank you for the re-invitation to Bristol”.

And why this reminiscence of a speech delivered some fourteen years ago in the West of England. Merely to remind my compatriots that we must reject the retroactive application of a capricious law to a fellow citizen whose rights were vested.

A violation of the right of one is a violation of all our rights.

Let us settle our political differences at the ballot in 2021.

Let other Republics do this, but not public Gambia, and not in our name.

Schedule 4 (5) (2) must be excised from this faulty Draft!

Lamin J. Darbo