By Binta Jaiteh
The Coalition of Progressive Gambians (COPG), a non-partisan organization that vowed to fight corruption/nepotism has accused government of virtually controlling most of the institutions and can dismiss any civil servant who failed to support itsagenda.
Celestine Kujabi, Secretary General of the coalition said it was heartbreaking that the promised three-yeartransitional government has turned into looting the citizenry who fought for change in 2016 elections.
Kujabi said his coalition has expressed its total disappointment with the passing of the Former President’s Bill by the National Assembly.
‘’The law was not as urgent as presented by the speaker and this bill will cost the tax payers a lot of money compared to the normal bill, which will have a negative effect on our economy.’’
‘’The Minister highlighted in his speech the motive of the bill which is to dissuade former presidents from staying long on the presidency, hence most African Presidents tend to stay for a lifetime thus to ease the possible economic hardship on them once they leave office.
He reiterated that, the bill never mentioned term limit for the Presidents, nor entrenched clauses for the appointments of Chiefs, Alkalos, IGP, Judges and IEC Chairman which has to go through the National Assembly for confirmation.
He stressed that, the assembly is a disgrace to the citizenry, because the bill was not channeled through the right procedure, those National Assembly Members who walked out rendered an ill service to the people because they should have stayed and further debate on the bill which might have changed some minds to vote against it.
‘’It is incumbent upon the National Assembly to serve as checks and balances for good governance, therefore my coalition urged the NA to bring back the bill for proper scrutiny before it goes into effect as the majority of the citizen are appalled and angry,’’ Kujabiremarked.
He argued that the 2020 Draft Constitution was the most important bill that most Gambians talked about as it entailed everything that the citizenry were yearning for.
He said the draft constitution should be passed in the house or else his coalition will engage on a massive campaign and mobilization for a nationwide peaceful protest.