BY BUBACARR DRAMMEH
One of the promises of the new administration is to enact laws that will reflect a democratic society. In their quest to do, I believe they should start with the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia. This is because the Gambia, like many democratic states exercise what is called constitutional sovereignty. Constitutional sovereignty in a nutshell means the supremacy of the constitution, which is the expressed written will of the people. That is why in The Gambia, the constitution is regarded as the supreme law of the land. The superiority of the constitution over all other laws is as prescribe in section 4 of the constitution of the Gambia. The said section provides that: This constitution is the supreme law of the Gambia and any other law found to be inconsistence with any provision of this constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency shall be void.
Thus by virtue of the aforesaid section, the Constitution of the Gambia overrides any law, and any law that is contrary or that violates any of the provisions of the constitution, such law is of no effect whatsoever.
I do not know whether the government intends to come up with a new constitution or they will repeal and replace certain sections in the constitution. Either way I believe that there are sections in the constitution that must be repealed and/or replaced.
REPEAL Section 93(1). The said section provides that: The Speaker of the National Assembly and the Deputy Speaker shall be elected by the members of the Assembly from among the nominated members.
The positions of speaker and deputy speaker are the most vital positions in the National Assembly of The Gambia. The National Assembly of The Gambia cannot commence business if the office of the Speaker or Deputy Speaker is vacant. Section 93(5) provides that: No business shall be transacted in the National Assembly other than the election of the Speaker or Deputy Speaker when either of those offices is vacant.
In light of the aforesaid, it is my humble opinion that section 93(1) of the constitution should be repealed. I suggest the replacement to be something like: ‘The Speaker of the National Assembly and the Deputy Speaker shall be elected by the members of the Assembly from among the elected members.’
REPEAL Section 98(1)(a)(i). The said section provides that: the Speaker shall summon a sitting of the National assembly- (i) when requested to do so by the President;
From the aforementioned section of the constitution, once the President requests the Speaker of the National Assembly to summon a sitting of the National Assembly, the Speaker must do so even if it is not in the interest of the country. I said so because the language of the law seems not to give the Speaker the power to use his/her discretion, which would have enabled him/her to refuse any request from the President that he/she determines is not in the best interest of the nation. Basically the President has the power to control the sittings of the National Assembly by relying on section 98(1)(a)(i) of the constitution. This power can be easily abuse by the President to pass frivolous bills in the National Assembly especially where the President’s party is the majority party in the National Assembly. We have witnessed the abuse of this section by the former President Yahya Jammeh during the December political impasse, when he requested the Speaker to summon a sitting of the Assembly to deliberate on his illegal state of emergency. Needless to dwell on the destruction(s) the outcome aforementioned state of emergency has caused. It is my opinion that this section should be repeal. A replacement could be something like: the Speaker may summon a sitting of the National assembly when requested to do so by the President.
TO BE CONTINUED
