By The Editorial Board
On 20 December 2018, the Government of President Barrow through the Minister of Finance, the Renegade Speaker and his hirelings in the National Assembly perpetrated an egregious crime on the people of The Gambia by their enactment of the Supplementary Appropriation Bill (SAB) 2018. The SAB had been presented but rejected by the Assembly earlier in this current session. Through dubious legislative maneuvers, it was reintroduced in the legislature and survived to a final passage. Comical as the entire process was, what made its passage a tragedy for the people of The Gambia was the grandstanding of Honorable Halifa Sallah during the deliberations at the National Assembly.
As he had done few weeks ago when the SAB was first introduced in the Assembly, Mr. Sallah took part in the debate when it was reintroduced by the Minister of Finance, Mambury Njie. When the time came to vote, Mr. Sallah abstained from voting claiming that he wouldn’t be party to an unlawful process. At one point during the voting, he left the floor at the committee stage of the bill, but returned later to witness the rest of the proceeding. Had he voted, Mr. Sallah would have helped defeat the bill entirely, or some sections passed into law. His dereliction of duty to his constituents in Sere Kunda and the people of The Gambia bordered on political expediency.
As the man who once referred to himself to be the “Conscience of The Gambia” or a variation of the sort, he could not see past himself without moralizing his actions while simultaneously demonizing his colleagues. On several occasions in the National Assembly, he had accused his colleagues of treason under Section 6 of the Constitution. He equated sloppy legislators and incompetent cabinet ministers who supported bad laws through their legislative functions with traitors who take arms against the government and the country.
The drafters of the Constitution foresaw situations where the legislature could pass bad laws. Hence they provided safeguards for the people in Sections 4 and 5 of the Constitution. Instead of engaging Members of the National Assembly and cabinet ministers with corrections and amendments to their bills to produce good legislations for our posterity, Mr. Sallah habitually screamed ‘fire’ in the metaphorical crowded theater to create more confusions. These tasing of alarms, however, were born out of misreading and misinterpreting the constitution. The grandstanding that Gambians witnessed on Thursday night was nothing short of a political stunt. His familiar charges of treason for legislative duplicity or incompetence would have been dismissed as hopeless hyperboles were it not for his copycats in the Assembly emulating him by regurgitating charges of treason for every bill they challenge on its constitutionality.
Our Honorable Gentleman from Sere Kunda is also struggling with translating theory into praxis. He participated in the debate at the Assembly, but claimed he was not part of it. His attendance counted for the quorum for the body to conduct business. He watched Mr. Njie, Madam Denton-Jack and some members of the National Assembly concoct and orchestrate their “treasonous act” but claimed he was compelled — under Section 110 of the very constitution he charged was being “overthrown”— to sit in the Assembly for the proceedings thereby became an accomplice in the ‘treasonous’ act. The responsibility of a practical legislator refusing to be a party to that gathering would have use his vote to put an end to the illegality and unconstitutionality. Mr. Sallah did not see his contradictions claiming not to have been part of a night party in the National Assembly he’d qualified as one of the hosts.
If Mr. Sallah believed his colleagues and the Minister of Finance were committing treason as some of his surrogates have charged, what stopped him from physically restraining them into submission? He was duty bound under Section 6 (2) and fully protected under Section 6 (3) of the Constitution under which he would have committed no crimes and would face no consequences under Section 110 for aborting the ‘constitutional coup d’état.’ Furthermore, if he’d believed his colleagues were committing treason as he’d charged before, and that he could not physically restrained them, but what stopped him from taking the matter to a court of competent jurisdiction under Section 5 (a) (1)?
The Coalition Government came to power through the engineering of Mr. Sallah, among others. While he’s willing to criticize sloppy bills that the executive brings to the National Assembly for adoption, he seems to be unwilling to vote against such bill especially where the ministers insist on pursuing them through the lifecycle of a bill. Some of his surrogates and supporters argued that he’s honoring the three-year agreement the of the Coalition. Gambians are supposed to expect that he will become a loyal opposition to the government after 2020 when President Barrow did not step down and call for early elections. But the people of Sere Kunda elected him for duties in the National Assembly and he should have defended them by casting his vote to defeat the SAB. His vote against the bill would have altogether put an end to that bad relic of Jammehism. He was not elected to be a grandstander but instead to be a legislator who should negotiate, seek compromises, pass bills and where necessary block and defeat bad legislations. Indisputably, it’s easier to defeat a bad legislation than to repeal a bad law. Mr. Sallah’s abstention — or whatever he might called it — from voting on Thursday was a dereliction of duty.
Mr. Sallah on many occasions said the destiny of members of his party was the National Assembly. Since he’d given the notice that this term will be his last in that institution, the time is now to begin writing the prologue to his career as a legislator. He was, by a googolplex, not a stellar lawmaker despite the hype he made about belonging to that institution. The truth came to play few weeks ago when he supplanted himself as a detractor to “OccupyNationalAssembly” protesters attempting to school and lecture them to disperse from the grounds of the Assembly. He, as usual, treated the protesters as people who were misguided or did not know what they should be doing as he instructed and redirected them to go — instead of protesting — call on members of the National Assembly to pass a bill under Section 92 to be able to recall their legislators.
It’s lost to him that he is a member of the National Assembly and that it’s his responsibility and duty to table that bill to pass into law. He’s served in the National Assembly for almost seven, and going to ten, years in his political career. His colleague, Hon. Sidia Jatta, served as a member of the National Assembly for almost twelve, and going to fifteen, years of his political career, Furthermore, they —including two other legislators from their PDOIS party — are serving under the Constitution that empowered them to introduce bills and pass them into laws. Wherein they did not discharge this duty as delegated by the citizenry, he in essence, deflects blames for their dismal failures to the protesters. That was also another grandstanding to steal media attention from the protesters because he’s the only one to whom the entire nation must listen.
When people of the Wulis and Sere Kunda elected Mr. Jatta and Mr. Sallah to the National Assembly, many Gambians who believed in these two gentlemen were expecting that they would have by now laid out their vision for the country through a legislative agenda in draft bills and legislations that would have reduced the work of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) for a new governing instrument to a simple “copy and paste,” and formatting design of the document. These supporters, most especially the conscientious among them, could now see that their hopes and aspirations were mere mirages in their horizons. The revolutionaries failed to deliver on the promise. Since one of the PDOIS members in the National Assembly voted to support the passage of the SAB, it’s also time for Mr. Sallah to evaluate the reasons it has been difficult for even senior members of his party to understand the lectures and political education he’s been evangelizing to Gambians.
Come 2022 when Mr. Sallah stand on the floor of the National Assembly to give his farewell speech, many Gambians who would love to look back on substantial legislative accomplishments as the record of a stellar legislator. They should feel pride and not disappointment from the honorable member from Sere Kunda.