By Kebba Ansu Manneh
#OCCUPYNATIONALASSEMBLY, a civil rights advocacy group, staged a peaceful protest outside National Assembly Building demanding the withdrawal of the D1.12 billion Supplementary Appropriation Bill presented before deputies by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mambury Njie.
Minister Njie first tabled the Supplementary Appropriation Bill before lawmakers on Tuesday, 11 December 2018, for debate. After the bill was presented in the legislature, members of the National Assembly sent the proposal to the Public and Finance Committee for scrutiny before a final debate and vote on it scheduled for today.
When the lawmakers arrived at the premises of the National Assembly Building in Banjul to commence their work, a group of protesters under the banner #OCCUPYNATIONALASSEMBLY was already assembled to express their disapproval of the Supplementary Appropriation Bill and the budget estimates for 2019 fiscal year.
Organizers said, the reason behind the protest at the gates of the National Assembly is to express their disappointment and anger at on the Supplementary Appropriation Bill set for approval in the National Assembly. They said that the appropriations contained in the bill are unconstitutional, irrational and unauthorized spending by the government without having sought the prior approval of the legislative body. They also disapproved of the spending estimates of the D25.28 billion proposed budget for 2019.
“We are here to protest against the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, and the 2019 budget. The Supplementary Appropriation Bill tabled by the Finance Minister is unconstitutional because such a bill must not be more than 1 percent of the budget, and here we are seeing D1.12 billion dalasis being tabled just three weeks before the end of 2019 fiscal year. This to us is unacceptable, insulting and an insane move from the Minister,” said Rafik Diab a member of the #OCCUPYNATIONALASSEMBLY.
Mr. Diab is a renown rights activist who cofounded the #GambiaHasDecided and the #Defadoye movements. He contends that any Supplementary Appropriation Bill must be presented before the assembly four months before the end of fiscal year and must not exceed 1 percent of the total budget. He argued that the bill doesn’t meet the requirements of the constitution and should not be entertained by lawmakers.
The citizen activists said, the 2019 Budget is also being rushed in the National Assembly as members are given only fourteen days to scrutinize the bill. They argue that the limited time provided for members of the National Assembly to consider the budget is unconstitutional because it would not allowed the legislators to do their job correctly.
“Deputies are only given fourteen days to scrutinize the 2019 proposed Budget. This is not possible! Members cannot scrutinized such an important national document in just fourteen days so we are calling on the state to give more time to the members of the National Assembly to be able do their jobs adequately and thoroughly by scrutinizing this very important bill before it is been passed,” Mr. Diab told The Gambia Times.
According to him, the old budgetary tactics deployed by the former government of Yahya Jammeh that milked Gambians of their national wealth will not be accepted any longer, adding that the citizens are ready to defend their rights when necessary.
“I will be very disappointed if this bill is allowed to pass by the National Assembly members. They should not allow this to happen and if they do we will be very disappointed with them because they are in the Assembly for the citizens, and the citizens’ voice needs to be heard,” Mr. Diab noted.
He said they have not been harassed by the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) which he attributed to the awareness of the police high command who are realizing that in any democracy citizens have the rights to protest against their governments. He, however, added that the only disappointment he has with the police is they did not allow the protesters to enter the National Assembly premises.
Tony F Mendy, a law student at the University of The Gambia and a member of the organizers, said he is very disappointed with the attitudes of the security forces who denied the protesters access to entering the National Assembly premises.
“I’m very disappointed that the securities are pushing and chasing us away from the premises of the Assembly. We are only here as citizens to protest against the Supplementary Appropriation Bill and the 2019 proposed budget, but the police are blocking us entry into the Parliament,” the law student vents his anger and frustration to The Times.
Mr. Mendy said members of the security services must at all times understand that the government is the people’s government and that based on that belief, citizens have the rights to protest against any bill that is not in their interest, which while also includes the interest of the security services and every other Gambian.
Alieu Ceesay who is also a law student at the UTG said he is at the National Assembly to protest against the unconstitutionality of the Supplementary Appropriation Bill that is just before the members.
“The timing of this Supplementary Appropriation Bill is very wrong and we cannot give chance to our lawmakers to pass such a bill. This is why we are here to expressed our anger to parliamentarians so that they can understand our plight and take it into consideration before they do anything that will backfire on the citizens when such a bill is approved by the members,” Mr. Ceesay said to The Times in an angry tone.
He called on The Gambia Government to always do things at the right time that is in line with the constitution and best practices, noting that this is the only way The Gambia can move forward to achieve its developmental goals and aspirations of the citizens.
Members of the National Assembly later converged in the Chambers to considered the Supplementary Appropriation Bill after the Public and Finance Committee concluded its investigation and submitted its findings. Barely few hours into the debate, members of the National Assembly voted on the bill and rejected the Supplementary Appropriation Bill presented by Mambury Njie, the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.