| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Momodou |
Posted - 20 Nov 2019 : 06:36:57
Let us not flood the legislative calendar with 9 bills
Between 2nd - 3rd December, Attorney General plans to table no less that 9 bills before the National Assembly. All of these bills will undoubtedly impact the lives of every Gambian in the most profound of ways.
Therefore, we cannot afford to flood the legislative calendar in this manner, given the capacity issues facing our National Assembly, by offloading such a number of critically important but highly contentious bills.
We must prioritize these bills because the National Assembly is not equipped to handle such a volume of bills, most, if not all, of them never had the public input enjoyed by the draft product of Constitutional Review Commission.
If we are to do justice to these important bills, we must slam the brakes, take a deep breath and revise the legislative calendar to take account of the lack of adequate consultations in drafting these extremely important bills.
In our view, Gambia’s Number One priority is the finalization of the process that will lead to the approval of the Supreme Law of the Land, The Gambian Constitution by referendum.
Everything thing else should take a back seat, except, of course, the #2020Budget which must be thoroughly debated before end #FY2019.
If the Criminal Offenses Act was last revised in 1933, why is it that it can’t be delayed for say 6 months so that adequate consultations can be conducted. Why the rush? Why flood the legislative calendar with not only the Crime Bill but with the Media Services Bill, Anti-Corruption Bill and, at least 6 other bills. such important bills?
Emerging from a very tumultuous period under a dictatorship that upended our governance infrastructure that includes our justice system as well as the executive and legislative, any and all remedial measures must be carefully thought out, coupled with extensive public consultations before a final draft is submitted.
Let’s stand back, think things through and bring along the general public. A public policy measure, however well-intentioned, can only be successful in its intended purposes if the general public has an input - direct and indirect - into its formulation. In many of these scheduled bills, this criteria has been absent.
Sidi Sanneh |
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