By EFSCRJ
Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice notes without surprise the failure of the 2024 Draft Constitution on the floor of the National Assembly on 7th July 2025. After more than 12 hours of deliberations, the constitution promulgation bill 2024 failed to garner the 44 votes necessary to move it to the next stage. We are not surprised by this development, which is a logical conclusion of the flawed path taken due to the failure of the President and his justice minister to carry out their duties with a deep sense of urgency and responsibility guided by patriotism. The failure of both the 2020 and 2024 draft constitutions highlights a single fact: the lack of political will and commitment by the President. Barrow is to end the self-perpetuation rule in this country.
When President Barrow was seeking the presidency in 2016, he stated in his manifesto,
“I have offered myself as an Independent Candidate who will serve for only three years at the head of a broad-based and inclusive Coalition Government aimed at conducting constitutional, institutional and administrative reforms that would establish the foundation of a democratic system of administration that would put an end to the culture of impunity and self-perpetuating rule…”
This was a commitment that President Barrow should have implemented, such that today this country would have been in the Third Republic. However, after creating the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) through an act of the National Assembly in 2017, which conducted broad-based consultations with citizens, culminating in the 2020 Draft Constitution, President Barrow instead distanced himself from that document. When the bill was placed on the floor of parliament, Barrow’s allies erroneously claimed that by making 2017 the kick-off date for the presidential two-term limit, they were denying him a right, falsely claiming it was a retroactive clause. Consequently, these NAMs voted down the 2020 Draft Constitution in the first reading without allowing it to proceed to the second stage, thereby depriving it of the opportunity for further consultations and improvement.
Fast-forward to 2024. Pres. Barrow unilaterally produced a draft constitution without consulting Gambians. Led by Minister of Justice Dawda Jallow, the Government went ahead to gazette and then table the bill before the National Assembly in August 2024. Not only has Barrow failed to consult Gambians on this document, but it also represents a severe dilution of the standards of democracy, good governance, republicanism, and human rights. It has lowered checks and balances while bestowing immense and unchecked powers in the hands of the President. The document has effectively laid the foundation for the creation of a corrupt dictatorship, albeit constitutionalized.
The 2024 draft constitution is an aberration of everything that constitutes republicanism and a democracy. It is an affront to the sovereignty and will of the citizenry from whom all organs and agents of the state derive their legitimacy and authority. After having undergone three unsatisfactory constitutions since Independence, i.e., the 1965, 1970 and the 1997 constitutions, today the Gambia deserves a constitution that Barrow says in his manifesto should, “usher in an era for Gambians to enjoy liberty and prosperity under a system of government that is sensitive and responsive to the needs and aspirations of its citizenry.” Why has Barrow failed to fulfil this promise? That is the question that Gambians must first and foremost preoccupy themselves with.
EF Small Centre therefore holds the President. Barrow and his Minister of Justice, Dawda Jallow, are primarily responsible for the failure of both the 2020 and the obnoxious 2024 draft constitutions. While both failed to defend and promote the 2020 draft, they went further to produce a 2024 document that is entirely inimical to the values and standards of republicanism and democracy.
Furthermore, EF Small Centre also holds NAMs who voted against the 2020 Draft Constitution, only to vote for the 2024 document, as complicit in denying the Gambia a new lease of life. Together with the Presidency, these political leaders have severely reneged on their oath of office and abandoned their legal obligations to defend and promote the best interests of the Gambia. We call on all Gambians to hold these leaders accountable for their betrayal of the nation, driven by greed and selfishness.
EFSCRJ therefore re-echoes its position on the constitution issue. That is, we hereby reiterate our call that the country needs a constitutional building process outside of the control of both the legislature and the executive as we have said in our statement on 26th November 2024 that the CRC Act should be revised to create a constituent assembly as the reviewing and approving authority for the draft constitution. Following approval by the constituent assembly, the final draft should be submitted to a referendum, without input from both the executive and legislative branches. We reiterate that politicians and individuals within the Executive and the Legislature do not have the competence and authority to draft a national constitution.
By making these two branches of Government the constitution-making bodies, we risk partisan capture of the process. A matter such as the constitution cannot be subject to horse-trading between political parties and politicians. Such an exercise could only lead to either the rejection of the draft constitution due to a lack of agreement between the political actors, or, on the other hand, the dilution or weakening of the draft constitution due to trade-offs. In both cases, the country and its citizens get denied a fit and proper constitution while politicians remain unbothered.
We therefore call on civil society, as well as the political parties and the citizenry in general, to immediately mobilize and organize to urgently demand a new constitutional building process. We require a new method that transcends the existing political frameworks. This involves the creation of a constituent assembly comprising a cross-section of the Gambian society to deliberate on the 2020 Draft Constitution until consensus is reached. The process taken so far is flawed, as it is designed to be hijacked by politicians while denying citizens their full rights as sovereigns to build their constitution.
