By Buba Gagigo
Ahmad Gitteh, a prominent supporter of the National People’s Party (NPP), has publicly criticized President Adama Barrow and his cabinet for upholding a provision in the 2024 draft constitution that bars individuals with dual citizenship from holding cabinet positions.
During a Facebook Live broadcast, Gitteh expressed his disappointment with the government’s decision to maintain the exclusionary clause, arguing that it undermines the contributions of Gambians in the diaspora.
“I am not interested in any position where I will be a hypocrite or a liar. If I will be appointed so that I will not tell the truth, I am okay. Everyone knows I have supported President Barrow since 2015-2016, and I have a university degree. I will never be a hypocrite to anyone. I know everything will come to an end one day. Nothing lasts forever. You people (cabinet members) really disappointed me. If you want, you can go to the cabinet and say I have started, or I am inconsistent.
“If I were you I would remove that section from the constitution because it is very bad but what shocked me about the cabinet is, that you have an NPP diaspora that helps Barrow and NPP when it comes to elections. If for nothing, accord us a little bit of courtesy and respect and consideration and consult us. That is what you should have done if you respected us because the entire cabinet knew the diaspora would not be happy with such a decision. From Barrow to the last person, please ask yourself whether what you did is good or bad,” Gitteh said.
Gitteh, a supporter of the NPP, shared his thoughts during a Facebook live session, stating that groups with pretenders don’t last long. Reflecting on the era of former President Yahya Jammeh, he mentioned that Jammeh implemented several constitutional amendments concerning the Diaspora.
“Anyone with dual citizenship cannot contest the presidency, you cannot be vice president, minister, and you cannot be a National Assembly Member. And all of us know there are a lot of talented individuals in the diaspora. All of us know what the diaspora has done for the NPP in particular, and we played a vital role in 2016 too. We don’t fight to be statues without values, statues without the ability to contribute and have a say and be part of decision-making of our country,” he said.
He pointed out that the NPP’s diaspora chapter, headed by Honorable Maimuna Ceesay, has consistently supported the party. Despite the NPP’s recognition of the diaspora’s contributions, Gitteh noted that many current cabinet ministers did little to help get Barrow into office.
“NPP also knows what the diaspora has done for the party. But a lot of you in the cabinet today did very little when it comes to contributing to bringing Barrow to office. I am not saying all of you, we have excellence partners from the start. When we (in the diaspora) were fighting, we knew the 1997 constitution barred us from holding positions of value, positions of authority, positions of decision-making.
“We knew that when we were sacrificing all of that, but we did in the name of building a country. Dawda Jallow knows, they used to call me at night, nobody sleeps. Both Dawda I know the constitution doesn’t allow me to hold all these positions. They should have asked themselves, why are they doing all these? We believed even if you held the positions is good for all of us,” he said.
He stated that everyone, including cabinet ministers and the president, acknowledges that the diaspora is marginalized. However, the individuals they fought to empower and address these issues are now the very ministers and the president themselves.
“You said diaspora is marginalized, and we need to try and fix that problem, but who should fix that problem? Not Suntou Touray, Fabou, Alkali Conteh or Gitteh because we are not in that position to do so. The 2020 draft came, and the retroactive clause was an issue, all of us came together and say that is discriminatory against Adama Barrow and that cause affected only Adama Barrow. The entire cabinet agreed for it to be removed,” he said.
Gitteh explained that it was mainly the cabinet ministers who urged them to speak out about how the retroactive clause was discriminatory towards President Barrow.
“You wanted Barrow to be pleased with you. Now a whole section in the constitution said the people in the diaspora holding dual citizenship cannot hold certain valuable positions, but you maintain there. All of you know that is discriminatory, and both Dawda Jallow and Ebrima Sillah have said that several times. We went to cabinet, you went through all the sections in it, but you decided to maintain the section that prevented us from being Ministers, President, Vice Presidents and National Assembly Members. If the President doesn’t trust us, let him not appoint us but let the constitution allow us to appointments in cabinet positions. You should not discriminate against us for that, but you say no, we (Diaspora) are very useless,” he said.
Gitteh accused the cabinet ministers of treating the diaspora as insignificant, suggesting this was why they failed to remove the contentious section from the draft constitution.
“Didn’t the entire cabinet know this is wrong? They will now say it is left to the National Assembly but retroactive clause that affected only president Barrow, why did you remove that? President is one person, but what about something affecting more than 200,000 capable Gambians? We joined you and fought and if we had didn’t join Barrow wouldn’t have won. I swear Barrow would not have won. You think we are so useless that you cabinet ministers think we don’t even deserve to be members of the National Assembly. These are our own people that we fought with. The only time you need them (the diaspora) is when you do something wrong at your ministries, and you are scared of being sacked by President Barrow,” he said.
He shared that he had personally discussed this specific section of the constitution with Justice Minister Dawda Jallow.
“I am surprised, the justice minister, who happens to be my brother. I swear I talked to him about the section several times, but they said diaspora will be considered. I swear Dawda said that to me. But at least let them tell us if they were not able to. Alkali Conteh, Fabou Sanneh, Suntu Touray, you should know that you are useless to these people (the cabinet ministers). I swear, they don’t respect you. Not me because they have already tapped me as a black sheep, and I am okay. I am member of NPP until Barrow writes and say I have sacked that rude boy from NPP,” he said.
Gitteh stated that he will continue to support the party’s decisions as long as they do not infringe upon his rights.
“That’s why when I won the primaries and the elders decided not to support me for whatever reason best known to them, I went by what the party says. Even though they supported a stronger against me. But when there was injustice, I stood against it. I know if I am not happy today, I will be happy tomorrow. They lost the election after spending a lot of millions. You can say I am rude, but I have never said anything about NPP that didn’t happened. If you are not mindful about this diaspora issue, it will bring down the party,” he said.
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