By: Mariama Njie
Justice Cherno Sulayman Jallow, Chairperson of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) has said that the 2020 draft Constitution is not death, as history books will record it for been the first of its kind assigned to and prepared by all-Gambian team of experts.
Justice Jallow was speaking at the CRC last press conference held at Sir Kairaba Jawara International Conference Hall in Bijilo that “The draft Constitution was the first of its kind that employed full and open participatory democracy to involve citizens at home and abroad to express their wishes and aspirations.”
“If memory serves me well, it was the first to be ever presented to the Legislature for endorsement in order to be advanced to a national referendum. But history will also record that it was the first to be stopped in its tracks before it could be advanced to a referendum. That in itself is not, and should not be, the end of the world for us as a country. So again, let’s keep the faith,” he added.
The Draft Constitution that Gambians worked so hard on, expending invaluable time, energy and resources, is not dead it has merely hit a snag and is placed in cold storage, at least for now. So if anyone here today feels depressed, I say to you lighten up, get up and dust off, have faith, and continue the quest for constitutional reform in The Gambia. That is what Gambians have yearned for and you must complete the journey with them, he explained.
“The Constitutional Review Commission as an institution and as your regular partner must come to an end, what will be left will be for the history books,”
“As Commissioners, we were given a specific mandate, to review the 1997 Constitution and write a new one, and prepare a report in respect of the new Constitution. We discharged that mandate in a professional and non-partisan manner bearing in mind, particularly, that the development of a new Constitution for any country has the sole purpose of determining and crafting in appropriate language what is in the best interest of the country in the present and in the future,” he said.
He further explained that, The Draft Constitution and the accompanying Report were finalized and submitted on 30th March, 2020 to His Excellency, the President, pursuant to the requirement of section 21 (1) of the CRC Act, 2017. That action effectively ended the mandate of the Commission in so far as constitutional review was concerned.
Meanwhile, he said the only thing that continued to keep them in office to date was the obligation outlined in Section 22 of the CRC Act, 2017. That section essentially empowered the National Assembly to request CRC Commissioners “to attend before the national Assembly to clarify any matter and answer any question relating to the provisions of the Constitution.”
He noted that “in the end, as you all would be aware, we were not requested to attend to clarify any matter or answer any question.”
The CRC boss also stated that, “we embarked on a second round of public consultation to inform the general public of the provisions contained in the proposed Draft Constitution and to seek their views as to whether those provisions were in line with their wishes and aspirations expressed during the first round of public consultations.”
“In the very few areas where we had departed from their expressed opinions, we advanced our reasons for so doing. The overwhelming response country-wide was one of great satisfaction. In fact, many said to us “what is in the proposed Draft Constitution is what we said to you, do not change anything”. We also received numerous written representations. All opinions canvassed with us were properly and thoroughly considered,” he said.
