Justice Minister Jallow Warns: ‘Without a political consensus, this document will never go through’

By Buba Gagigo

Justice Minister Dawda Jallow has firmly dismissed claims that the draft constitution was brought back without prior consultation, emphasizing that political consensus is essential for the document’s success.

“The fact that it is being said that there were no consultations leading to these adjustments that were made by cabinet is something that probably we have to address. Since the Constitution was rejected in September 2020 there have been a series of rounds of consultations, or mediation, or whatever term you would want to use. And I think those of you in the media are a witness to this,” Justice Minister Jallow stated during an interview with West Coast Radio.

He stated that the Ministry of Justice facilitated these consultations by inviting independent, neutral, non-Gambian mediators to assist in the dialogue. He noted that the collapse of the Constitution in 2020 was due to political disagreements and that the Ministry learned the importance of focusing not only on the content of the document but also on the political process necessary to bring it to life.

“Because we realized very soon after the Constitution collapsed in 2020 that it collapsed because of a political difference between, and we learned our lessons that We focused so much on developing the content of the document, and we tend not to have given so much attention to the process of bringing that document to life. And that is a political process.

“And because of the disagreements between the politicians, it led to the collapse of the document, because it collapsed in Parliament, and it was a clear political process that killed it. So because of that, we thought it necessary at the Ministry of Justice to earnestly start a political dialogue,” he said.

Jallow explained that the consultations were not limited to politicians but also included civil society. He mentioned the frequent visits of Goodluck Jonathan and Ibun Chambers to The Gambia as part of these discussions, which were covered by the media. He pointed out that many issues with the 2020 draft were identified and discussed by political leaders without any government influence.

“Easy way of helping you to recall these rounds of talks. If I mentioned the frequent visits of Goodluck Jonathan into the Gambia, and subsequently the visits of Ibun Chambers into the Gambia. Most of you in the media were covering those visits and those meetings. Almost all the political party leaders participated in a series of discussions, and they identified issues in the document. Surprisingly, there were so many other issues in the 2020 draft that so many people were not happy with. And they identified these issues at their level, and they discussed it without any influence from the government,” he said.

The Ministry of Justice played a facilitating role, Jallow emphasized, and did not engage directly in the process. The international organization International IDEA, known for supporting democracies in constitution development, was brought in to facilitate these discussions. The Minister added that they also involved eminent Gambians, including Imams, pastors, and experts, to assist in the process.

“We allowed the politicians and, in some cases, the civil society who participated in those discussions to highlight their areas of concern. And this was facilitated by an international NGO, International IDEA, who have got expertise in helping democracies develop constitutions, not only the Gambia. In fact, they have supported the CRC and offered them training and facilitated some study visits for them. So that’s the speciality of International Idea, to support democracies to develop constitutions for their countries,” he said.

Justice Minister Jallow stated that he reached out to International IDEA in late September or October 2020, inviting them to support the process. However, given the significance of the constitution and the government’s role as a key stakeholder, he recommended that the government take a less active role in the process.

“We only facilitate through an independent organization. So IDEA facilitated this and IDEA is available. People can consult them. They have even opened an office in the country here. They have the reports that emanated from all these dialogues. And I’m happy Dr. Ceesay, who is sitting with me here, at that time, was in the opposition, and he was representing his party in those discussions. So to say that there were no consultations, just the government woke up and brought changes. I think that’s not accurate,” he said.

Jallow mentioned that they received reports from International IDEA, which were then submitted to the cabinet along with other relevant documents for review.

“Now those reports were put together with the cabinet paper and other documents which form the collection of documents that we took to cabinet for cabinet to review the document. Cabinet went beyond the issues that were raised by political parties and the recommendation that emerged from those consultations, and probably from other documents, cabinet went beyond that and effected the changes that we are now seeing and discussing. That’s the misinformation I wanted to clear. There were a series of rounds of consultations, and we did not only use International IDEA for every round of discussion,” he said.

The Justice Minister also mentioned that in some instances, they involved prominent Gambians, Imams, pastors, and experts to work alongside International IDEA, further reinforcing the consultative process.

“In some instances, we used Imams and pastors. They are here. They are hearing me. In some instances, we use eminent Gambians, who are experts, former Speaker, I think in one instance and in another instance, a retired human rights activist from the international community. We call them to work with IDEA because they are a known-Gambian entity, when they go to the table, they go with these respectable Gambians to facilitate the discussion because as a government ministry, we decided to just take a back seat. We normally will attend the opening or the closing ceremonies,” he said.

He mentioned that everything was arranged by IDEA and that he brought the report submitted by IDEA to the cabinet. He explained that after multiple consultations, the stakeholders had to pause the process because the 2021 election was approaching quickly.

“So we say, Okay, we have to leave the Constitution until after the election cycle, then we can relaunch it again. And the election cycle includes the Presidential, the parliamentary and the local government election. Once those were completed when we initiated to relaunch the process altogether again. But before we even went to cabinet, we again brought International Idea  , and these negotiations were funded by partners who are also in the country, and they can be consulted.

“Resources have been spent on all these consultations. So International Idea came, I think they came in August last year, and they came again. They still went to refresh the people that they met before and try to see whether, where they left off before the election, the positions are the same. And again, I receive a report from IDEA as to where things are, a few areas that they have not agreed on. I think citizenship was another area. The issue of cross carpeting of National Assembly members is another area in addition to the famous term limit,” he said.

He mentioned that they did not want to restart the CRC process from scratch or reopen the document as if no consultation had taken place.

“CRC, with all due respect, did a lot of consultation locally and externally, and the document that we are talking about is a product of that extensive consultation. So if you are reviewing the document that has gone through that wide range of consultation, the consultation that you are going to do should be limited. You don’t necessarily have to call everybody else again and say, “What’s your view, because it’s a document that so many people, sectors have an interest in, and we can not all agree unanimously over everything in the document,” Jallow said.

The Justice Minister emphasized the need for caution and noted that the consultation process was intentionally limited. He explained that after a restricted consultation and cabinet review, no further consultations are conducted. The process now involves publishing the document in the Gazette to inform the public, allowing a period of three months and ten days for feedback.

“After cabinet completed the review, there cannot be another consultation after that. That’s not practice. Once the cabinet is ready. That’s why we gather, by Gazette in the document you are bringing it to the attention of the general public, and that is why the law said he should be gazetted for three months and 10 days. During these three months, 10 days, that’s what we are doing now. We talk over it, whether we agree with the changes of cabinet or not, and then different ideas will be collated, and those discussions will inform parliament, because the next level of consolidation now can only be a parliament,” he said.

He maintained that Parliament, in reviewing the document, will need to consider public input.

“Maybe some people will be invited to the Committee stage so that they brief them about whether the original clauses or the changes that cabinet have made. But the purpose of gazetting actually is to bring it to the attention of the public, so that the public will have an opportunity within these three months, 10 days, to make their views known. And these views will now have to be taken on board by Parliament at the time, of consideration stage,” he said