Halifa,
Your contentions are well understood and quite appreciated. However,
the principle of double jeopardy could be applied here. The victims of
negligence under the provisions of the 1970 Constitution, cannot be held
responsible for the same negligence under the present Constitution. I beg to
argue differently, bearing in mind the current problems that are under review.
Since the parliament under the 1970 Constitution failed to prescribe a
manner of registration, for people born in the Gambia whose parents or
grandparents were neither born or naturalized in the Gambia, and more so
failed to promulgate an act of parliament by which such registration could be
prescribed, it can be logically deduced that the registration of birth to
certify one as being born in a country satisfied this provision.
It wouldn't be necessary, to amend the present Constitution to
incorporate the provisions of the 1970 Constitution, since it had already
been abrogated. Those referred in that provision, I would argue, had already
been registered through their birth and had consequently become citizens.
From what I understand now, they have never been stateless.
If the obvious, the manner of registration to be a citizen is not
stipulated by any law, then the actuality of registration of birth to certify
that one belongs to a country, becomes the law. Hence all those whom the 1970
Constitution referred, and who were born, registered and issued birth
certificates in the Gambia, become citizens. To argue otherwise, is to argue
in favor of a law that just does not exist.
It therefore stands to reason, that when Section 8 of the 1997
Constitution recognizes those who become Citizen by birth, as retaining the
same status as before the coming into force of the Constitution, it validates
their citizenship by no other means other than being born and registered as
Citizens through their birth registration. This is the only logical
intrepretation that could be deduced.
I hope you will give my contentions a second thought. There may not be a
problem after all.
Rene
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