I may have missed this in earlier postings on Foroyaa articles. If I 
did, apologies for duplication.


Interesting piece.

Malanding



Gambia: Two Systems, One Country - Amendment of the Constitution

FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)

EDITORIAL
13 September 2007
Posted to the web 12 September 2007

The APRC members of the National Assembly have passed a Bill to amend 
section 194 paragraph (c), which states that an Act of the National 
Assembly by or under which a local government authority is established 
shall include a provision for

"The direct election of mayor or chairman of the authority."


It was the intention of the constitution to have autonomous councils. 
This is why section 193 subsection (1) states that "Local Government 
administration in The Gambia shall be based on a system of 
democratically elected councils with a high degree of local autonomy.

Subsection (4) buttresses the issue of autonomy by asserting that "It 
shall be an objective of the local government system that as far as 
possible, issues of local policy and administration shall be decided at 
the local level and that local government authorities shall coordinate 
with the central Government in adopting a policy of decentralisation. 
Decentralisation goes with the devolution of power to the councils 
comprising elected representatives.

The APRC government, however, has shown without any pretension that it 
is not interested in autonomous councils or the devolution of power to 
local authorities.

This is confirmed by the amendment of the Constitution and the Local 
Government Act.

When the Local Government Act was initially enacted, section 15 gave the 
chairperson of a council the following powers:

"(1) A Chairperson shall be the political head of the Local Government 
Area and shall -

(a) preside at Council meetings;

(b) supervise the general administration of the Area; and

(c) perform such other functions as may be imposed on the Chairperson by 
this or any other enactment that may be necessary for the efficient 
conduct of the business of a Council.

(2) The Chairperson shall be answerable to the Council in the 
performance of his or her functions and shall uphold the Constitution, 
the council's By-laws and the laws of The Gambia.

(3) The Chairperson shall submit to the Council an annual report on the 
state of affairs of his or her Local Government Area."

The amendment in 2004 removed the role of the chairperson being the 
political head of the local government area. The amendments in 2006 
removed the power of the council and made the chairpersons answerable to 
the governors in the following words:

"The Chairperson shall be answerable to the governor in the performance 
of his or her functions." Under the Local Government Act a chairperson 
could be removed for abuse of office, corruption, misconduct and 
physical or mental incapacity which renders a person incapable of 
discharging the duties associated with office.

However, it was to be subjected to review by a tribunal set up by the 
Chief Justice. Now it is the Secretary of State who receives notice 
indicating that irregularity has been done by the chairperson. The 
Secretary of State can suspend the Chairperson and investigate 
allegations and report findings to the president.

Under section 51, "the Secretary of State empowered to make 
recommendations to the council for the removal of any member of the 
council including the chairperson, if the irregularity concerns any 
action or omission of the members."

The Secretary of State can "give such other directions as the Secretary 
of State may deem appropriate to deal with the situation and the council 
shall comply accordingly."

What then is left of the autonomy of councils? Absolutely nothing!!!

The Gambian people should now reflect on how the colonialist intended to 
rule The Gambia and determine for themselves whether there had been any 
change in rural administration since the colonial period. Now the 
commissioners are called governors. Chiefs are supposed to have 
paramount chiefs. They can all be removed by the executive without 
resorting to any judicial inquiry.

When the Constitution Review Commission was established it was mandated 
to review the 1970 Constitution and determine its adequacy or otherwise 
for the good governance of the country.

The 1970 Constitution did not have a provision dealing with Local 
Government.

The Commission took note of this and recommended for the eradication of 
the system of dividing the country into provinces and a city with two 
different sets of administration.

Foroyaa would want people to recall what it said that the democratic 
provisions could only be kept alive electing democratically minded 
leaders otherwise amendments will take us back to square one. This is 
precisely what is happening today.


The lesson should, therefore, be clear that it is the government of the 
day in collaboration with the National Assembly of the day who pass and 
assent to laws, respectively.

Constitutions and laws do not make themselves, they are made by people. 
Hence if we want laws which would empower the people we should elect 
representatives interested in empowering the people.

The type of representatives we have will determine the type of laws we 
will have. The laws of the country are creation of the people we elect. 
Every law we disapprove should lead us to rethink who we are to elect to 
be lawmakers.

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