By: Kebba AF Touray
Sida Jatta, the National Assembly Member for Wuli West, has disclosed that the Gambia is indebted to the tune of over D67 billion.He indicated that the debt has increased from 67 billion to 77 billion.
He said: “And, under the first republic, …. the then-president was speaking and said, this is a debt that we cannot pay until the evil day. Do you know how much it was then? Only 2 billion by 1985 before it reaches its peak. The burden here was 2 billion and the president said; it could not be paid until the evil day. 2 billion debt but now you are talking about 77.4 billion.”
See below the statement delivered bySidia Jatta during the adjournment debate;
“Thank you. Those of you who have long memories recall that in this very chamber when the late former president of this republic was laid in state here, I made a tribute. And in doing it, I tried to indicate the historical motivation for naming his party the People’s Protectorate Party, because there were precepts.
The reason was simply that, up to that time, the forming of PPP, all the elections that took place in this country for almost four decades were limited to this area, here. The people in the Protectorate were seen as if they were aliens even though they were paying the same taxes that the people here were paying. But they were denied to assume the responsibility of determining their manner of government. And it was under colonial rule. But the same historical anomaly is being repeated in the Gambia as a republic.
This was the matter I wanted to talk about today. But fortunately for me today, two of my colleagues took virtually the words from my mouth, Banjul North member and the member for Serrekunda West. I said the same historical anomaly is being repeated here for 55 good years, particularly for the last 23 or 25 years, since the inception of the current Constitution.
Honorable Speaker, Section 26 of this Constitution stipulates very clearly that:
Every citizen of The Gambia of full age and capacity shall have the right without unreasonable restrictions.
(a) to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;
(b) to vote and stand for elections at genuine periodic elections for public office, which elections shall be by universal and equal suffrage and be held by secret ballot.
And then you go to Section 33 subsection 1&2. Subsection 1 says;
(1) All persons shall be equal before the law without discrimination.
I emphasized that: all persons in this republic are equal before the law.
(2) Subject to the provisions of subsection (5), no law shall make any provision that is discriminatory either of itself or in its effect.
Hon. Speaker, these sections speak eloquently on the matter that is of concern to me and my committee. We have been dealing with it and I inform you that; there is a bill in the process to that effect.
Hon. Speaker, let me give you some statistics. Before I do that, let me ask you this question; we are now in the registration period. Suppose you are going to register and on the way, you are stopped by a group of people who say no, you are not a Gambian.
Hon. Jatta asked: “How would you feel?”
He buttressed: “That is what we are doing. That is exactly what we are doing”.
Hon. Speaker, there are approximately in Africa alone: 25,200 Gambians. They have been denied to vote. But you have been doing it and you are equal. All of you are equal. All of you are equal in sovereignty in this Republic but you said no, they should not vote.
In South and East Africa 25,600 Gambians
In Europe 43,600 , whilst in Northern and Western Europe 67,600 Gambians.
Americas and Caribbean 37,200 Gambians
The Middle East, Asia and Oceania 2750 Gambians
The total is,175,350 Gambians have been consistently denied their fundamental right of being citizens of this country. And we all know. We sit on it, particularly this Parliament. We swore to defend the Constitution and we have seen that people trampling that Constitution afoot. And they are silent about it even though we swore that we will defend it.
“How serious are we defending the Constitution?”, asked Sidia Jatta.
The Minister of Finance will come here and tell us in terms of remittance, how much is coming from these people? What you know officially and is very likely what you do not know unofficially is more than what you know officially. And we are just quiet about it here. And IEC has been time-. As if they own the people. You cannot stamp on the right of people and you clap. These people have a right like you and l, to be members of this Parliament. And the other thing is;
He said: “They have to be recognized as the eighth region of this republic”.
Because if you divide 175,350 into the number of Constituencies they have, you will have 35,070 people in each of those Constituencies. There are very few constituencies here in those areas in the urban area which have 35,000 voters. These people, let us say for 55 years, have been denied they are not Gambian. They are contributing financially, intellectually, morally. These coalition efforts would not have been successful without their participation.
