By; Binta Jaiteh
The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Seedy K. Njie, has credited the sixth legislature for what, he said, passing into law several bills to “improve the collective wellbeing of Gambians”.
The deputy House speaker made this remark on Friday as he addressed the 3rd Edition of the National Assembly Annual Open Day in Banjul organized by the legislature in conjunction withthe Westminister Foundation for Democracy (WFD).
According to the deputy speaker, both the Standing and Select committees of the Parliament have performed remarkably wellin their oversight functions over the executive, adding that all this was made possible thanks to the collaborative efforts of the government and the House.
He pointed out that the National Assembly open day came at a time when the 6th legislature had represented The Gambia “remarkably well” at national and international levels, highlighting that the National Assembly has a solid representation at the Pan-African Parliament, ACP-EU Parliament, ECOWAS Parliament, the statutory meetings of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Inter-ParliamentaryUnion and other International Parliamentary Organizations.
The Representative of the Westminister Foundation for Democracy (WFD), Ousman Jallow, stated: “WFD underpins the solutions to the major challenges of our time but through three key pillars of inclusion, transparency, and accountability, we can build a fairer and more inclusive society.”
He explained that WFD is a UK public body dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world.
“For more than 30 years, we have actively helped democracies to grow stronger so that freedom and prosperity can flourish,” he noted.
“Our patron is the Speaker of the UK House of Commons and we have a Board of cross-party MPs and independent experts. WFD in The Gambia was established in 2018. Since then, WFD and the National Assembly have been working together to create opportunities that bring the voices of citizens closer to Parliament and to find ways of driving openness and dialogue in both directions,” he added.
Deputy clerk of the National Assembly Buba M.E Jatta said the National Assembly Open Day has been tailored to bring the legislature closer to the people to celebrate its work as well ascontribution to The Gambia by ensuring that the people and their representatives and the staff that support their work interact, share the “unique” history, role, work as well as the challenges and successes of the legislature.
He added that the day demonstrated the commitment of the legislature to be a more open and accessible institution to the public and further denotes an improvement in service delivery and promotion of citizen engagement.