By: Mariama Njie
The Chief of Defense Staff, Yankuba Drammeh, has registered his complaint over the draft constitution, as it has failed to clearly define the role of the army.
General Yankuba Drammeh told GRA officials in a meeting that “if you leave it in a vacuum, subject the military to what you call Ad-hoc interpretations in terms of what they should be doing, then it’s going to be a problem for the military.”
“Let’s our roles and functions be defined clearly in the constitution but it should not be subjected to what I called Ad-hoc interpretations of what the military should do given the circumstances. In this case, it’s going to be a misuse of the military and we do not want the military to be misused. And the only way we can preserve the integrity of the military, it must be enacted in the constitution to say, ‘do this, don’t do this,” he added.
He said they want to build a reputable and professional military and that can be achieved if they have clear-cut functions and mandate.
He continued that they “don’t want the armed forces to do anything that is unconstitutional, we have learnt past mistakes and we do not want to repeat the past.”
The constitutional review commission responding to the army chief’s comments said it received no written submissions from the army.
The CRC through communications Director Sainey Marenah said: “The Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), prior to the drafting of the Draft Constitution for the Republic of The Gambia, had convened a consultative meeting with all the national security outfits (see paragraph 629 of the CRC Report) at a joint security sector meeting held in Baobab Resort, Kololi on Thursday 22nd May, 2019,” he responded.
“The joint security sector consultative meeting was part of the Commission’s broader stakeholder engagement strategy to elicit expert opinions from different security institutions in respect of the Draft Constitution, he noted.
Supporting his argument he disclosed that “Present at the consultative meeting were the National Security Adviser and the Heads and/or representatives of all the national security service institutions, including The Gambia Armed Forces headed at the time by the then Chief of Defense Staff, General Masanneh Kinteh. Prior to the consultative meeting, all the national security service institutions were invited to make, and had indeed provided, written submissions to the CRC.”
He continued that their submissions were discussed during the consultative meeting, the meeting also afforded the CRC opportunity to raise appropriate questions regarding alternative methods of dealing with some of the security issues that were contained in some of the written submissions. According to him these were all thoroughly discussed, and there was ultimately general satisfaction that the consultative meeting was indeed very useful and, as far as the CRC was concerned, it facilitated the drafting of the Chapter in the Draft Constitution regarding the Security Services.
“Following publication of the proposed Draft Constitution on 15th November, 2019, the CRC publicly invited the general public and all other stakeholders to review the Draft Constitution and provide written comments to the CRC. No written submissions were received from The Gambia Armed Forces. However, the written comments and further proposals received from the National Security Adviser were considered in finalizing the Draft Constitution,” he explained.
“Accordingly, any views to the effect that the national security service sector or any institution thereof was not consulted by the CRC during the constitutional review process would be erroneous and misleading. The CRC encourages the general public and all other stakeholders to read the Draft Constitution and the accompanying Report together in order to be better guided in understanding and appreciating the rationale for some of the decisions enshrined in the Draft Constitution.” he added.