Elected by their constituents to safeguard their interests amid violence,
intimidation, fraud and dirty tricks. Parliament members of the UDP on
Tuesday set about fulfilling their duties in the House. Having been convinced
 together with the overwhelming majority of the country of the Presidents'
culpability in a conspiracy that resulted in the pilfering of public funds by
way of crude oil contracts that the Nigerian government extended to the
people of The Gambia, the members simply wanted the body to fulfill it's
constitutionally prescribed role. Afterall what is swirling over the
Presidents' head are serious felonies that would warrant his removal from
office . Following procedure they wrote to the speaker informing him of their
intention to advance a motion that would oblige the House to initiate a
process to look into these serious matters regarding the President. Since
there is no other legal avenue to hold the President accountable besides the
House, this is certainly a matter deserving of the body's highest  priority.
But the Speaker of the House, who is a hand picked crony of the President and
was not elected by a single Gambian immediately resorted to the tried and
true tactic of killing a proposal by simply refusing to present it to the
House. When the members protested the stalling of the proposal, he retorted
that he was ruling their motion out of order and it was final. Translation:
Bringing in stacks of documentary evidence in  a sincere effort to show the
nation and world once more again how a dishonest President stole the little
money that could have helped in the myriad of problems facing the country and
his attempts to cover it up, was not something he, a celebrated stooge was
going to countenance. He has consistently used the same odious and
undemocratic tactics to make the House of Representatives the qualitative
equivalent of a grade school debating society. He is neither interested in
asserting the proper role of the institution nor even in pursuing justice;
instead he is most preoccupied with being the principal chaperone for all the
evil that this government perpetuates. He enthusiastically endorsed the
President's allocation of D60 million for the fiscal 2000 budget to be spent
by the Presidency. But when it comes to the fate of the hundreds of thousands
of farmers facing ruin because nobody is buying their groundnuts for two
years in a row, the speaker is a big part of the never ending excuse making
and manufacturing reasons why these poor farmers would soon be taken care of.
Why should  the UDP members who only want the law to be followed  submit to
the manifestly undemocratic tricks of a guy determined to subvert the
constitutionally  prescribed role of the House? Haven't we had enough
injustice already? And with incredible pique he threatens the UDP members
with ejection from the House if they didn't drop their request . In the end
what he got was a protest walk out from these men  of character who have
vowed to keep bringing up the motion throughout the entire  sitting of
parliament. We must either be a nation of laws equally applied to all or
succumb to a nation run by clique who would commit crimes and repress the
people with impunity. Afterall if an unelected person can subvert a
constitutional motion without any fallout then  we aren't left with much of a
nation. List members these parliamentarians  are good people who deserve our
support for standing  up for what is right.

Karamba

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