The long journey to acquiring Gambian Citizenship for Black African Returnees has suffered a severe blow after the rejection of the newly draft Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia by the lawmakers late last month.
Section 188 of the draft Constitution guaranteed the acquisition of automatic citizenship to this minority group who has been struggling to regularize their citizenship status since 2006, amidst frequent stigmatization, alienation and discrimination occasionally emanating from security agents and locals people.
In 2010, former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, made a blatant pronunciation of offering citizenship to all Black African descendants who are willing to resettle in the country, however, the pronunciation was only made verbally without legal guarantee to support such claims.
Thus, obtaining citizenship and resettlement into the local Gambian communities by this group of residents becomes difficult warranting the involvement of a pressure group dubbed Home-Comers, now Africa Diaspora Returnees Association (ADRA), championing the course of obtaining documentations for members with little headways made so far.
Shakina Chinedu, 15years Gambian residents of Brusubi and owner of Nubian. L Consultants Firm has been in the forefront of the campaign to acquire citizenship for descendants of the enslaved who are graciously envisioning the approval of their citizenship in The Gambia to no avail. But late last month when NAMs rejected the draft Constitution that would have guaranteed the citizenship of this minority group in the country.
“In 2010, we were lucky to acquire ten citizenships for Home-comers during the Roots Home-coming Festival from the previous administration. However, we realized that legally this type of pronouncement is not sustainable any longer. In 2018, we decided to work with the Constitution Review Commission (CRC), by presenting our suggestion paper on an exceptional clause for descendants of the enslaved to be given automatic citizenship in the country but all these efforts have been shattered by the National Assembly Member’s rejection of the draft Constitution,” said Shakina Chinedu, Head of Legal Affairs, ADRA.
According to her, the Constitutional Review Commission has done their part of incorporating part of ADRA position paper presented before them, arguing that ADRA biggest disappointment came from the National Assembly Members who rejected the much awaited draft Constitution at the dismay of both Gambians and international partners.
“Section 188, of the Gambian Constitution is asking for 15years before returnees can be able to acquire citizenship in The Gambia and obviously, waiting for these long years might be quite difficult to returnees above 50 years. What we are suggesting is reducing this 15years to a shorter time period of 4-5 years so that those above 50years can be capture, this that will allow them to contribute their quota to national development initiative,” said ADRA Legal Officer.
Jeanette Brown is the Secretary General of Africa Diaspora Returnees Association (ADRA) with more than three hundred member under its belt coupled with the busy schedule of meeting and engaging local and state authorities on this all important issue of obtaining citizenship for descendants of the enslaved for the past two years.
She disclosed to The Voice newspaper, that obtaining citizenship for Black African Returnees has been their major engagement in the country since resettling back, arguing that most state authorities will only offers sweet and pleasing words but no real action taken to offer automatic citizenship to returnees.
“Our major concern is how our members will resettle in the country and obtain their citizenship so that they can be able to play their parts in the development initiative of this country. We have been engaging various stakeholders including the CRC but as at the moment we have little or no hope after the rejection of the draft constitution,” Madam Brown explained.
She added: “We have been very disappointed that the draft Constitution has been rejected by the national assembly. We will not relent in our efforts to obtaining citizenship for our members most of whom are over 50years and cannot wait for 15years to obtain a citizenship.”
Keisha Daniel, Media officer for ADRA disclosed that her organization is out to give support to Returnees who want to resettle in The Gambia, create a smooth bridge for repatriation of returnees, establish business and homes, engage in charity works and helping residents on information, relative business registrations and taxations as well as lobbying for citizenship.
“We started here and we are demanding to return here, resettle and reconnect with our ancestors who were forcefully taken away from here to other parts of the world. We are not only expecting to return and fold our hands but also to giving back to our communities for the socio-economic advancement of the country,” said ADRA Media Officer.