Author: Gainako

Having been a parliamentarian, you may understand why I have taken interest in the debate of the members of parliament on the motion you submitted to the National Assembly relating to the amendment of the Criminal Code. The Constitution holds that every Bill has policy implication and must be introduced for a purpose. Section 101 has made it abundantly clear that a Bill to be introduced into the National Assembly must be accompanied by an explanatory memorandum setting out in detail the policy and principles of the bill, the defects which it is intended to remedy and the necessity for…

Read More

Dear Mr Koukoi, WHEN BEAUTY BECOMES UGLY… I have been keenly following your resurgence lately on all the Gambian online media both print and radio. Without mincing words, you are stepping out of yourself to justify your failed 1981 bloody coup. One thing that age and wisdom should have taught you is a missed opportunity does not make a second coming. Both you and I know that mistakes have been made which resulted in your failure to oust out Jawara from power in 1981 but lessons could have been drawn and learnt from it. Let us take your experience at…

Read More

By Baba Galleh Jallow “Being president is a humbling job,” said Obama as he spoke at the opening of the George W. Bush Library at the Southern Methodist University Campus in Dallas, Texas on Thursday, April 25 2013. Those words sprung involuntary tears into my eyes. Indeed, I find tears involuntarily springing to my eyes on many occasions when I watch and hear the speeches of American leaders. Perhaps it is the extremely stark contrast I see between these great but humble citizens, and the mediocre and arrogant persons who impose themselves as so-called leaders in our homeland. Perhaps it…

Read More

While committed to the promotion of African leadership and ownership in grappling with its challenges, we are mindful of the fact that success in our endeavors requires a strong partnership between the continent and the other members of the international community. Achieving peace and security in Africa will go a long way in furthering collective security as provided for in the United Nations Charter. 

Read More

By Mathew K Jallow It was a maddening reinforcement of the narrative Gambians have become all too familiar with. With one sweeping, but seemingly innocuous declaration, PURA, Gambia, declared illegal, three essential elements of the Internet, and with it, the technological that defines a century; the 21 century. Online dating, Skype and Viper, located in a mysterious corner of the world-wide web, have for the first time on the entire African continent, courted the eerie of Gambian’s Imperial King; Yahya Jammeh.

Read More

AMENDMENT CRIMINALISING DRESS AND OTHERS NEGATES THE DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN MINOR CRIME (MISDEMEANOR) AND MAJOR CRIME (FELONY) AND VIOLATES SECTION 33 OF THE CONSTITUTION Having been a parliamentarian you may understand why I have taken interest in the debate of the members of parliament on the motion you submitted to the National Assembly relating to the amendment of the Criminal Code. The Constitution holds that every Bill has policy implication and must be introduced for a purpose. Section 101 has made it abundantly clear that a Bill to be introduced into the National Assembly must be accompanied by an explanatory…

Read More

By Yero Jallow (Minnesota, USA). Book author Papa Faal, a nephew of former President Sir Dawda Jawara launched his book titled, “A Week of Hell” in Roseville (Minnesota).  In his book, Papa recalled how in July 1981, 12 Renegades and civilians shocked the nation in an abortive coup d’état under the leadership of Kukoe Samba Sanyang where an estimated number of over a thousand died mysteriously and scores of others left with trauma and lasting wounds.

Read More

By: Kaba Sallah Many people are being caught up in the emotional exertion of energy to save Kukoi from extradition to The Gambia to face justice for Crimes Against Humanity in the abortive coup of July 1981. As coup leader, Kukoi Samba Sanyang’s actions, directly and indirectly, led to the deaths of hundreds of Gambian citizens, and dozens of Senegalese nationals as well. The 1981 abortive coup was the most transformational and most destructive event in Gambian history up to that point, in terms of the loss of life and damage to property, public and private.   It affected a significant…

Read More

By Baba Galleh Jallow That dictators are essentially paranoid is a fairly well-known fact. Feeding on public insecurity and fear, the dictator is himself supremely insecure and fearful. There is not a single moment of a dictator’s life when he is not preoccupied with his personal security, when he does not imagine daggers in the lurking in the dark shadows of his mind, waiting for an opportunity to pounce upon him and stab him to death. The dictator perpetually mistakes the bogeys and demons conjured by his paranoid mind to the realities of life. This makes him feel perpetually defensive…

Read More

By D. A. Jawo   Once again, the professionalism and sincerity of some of our socalled legal luminaries is quite questionable, especially in the way and manner they seem to treat issues of concern to Gambians. A case in point had been the type of bills recently presented to the National Assembly by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and of course, not surprisingly, unanimously passed by the National Assembly Members. Going through those pieces of legislation, one cannot but wonder whether those who drafted them as well as the National Assembly Members who overwhelmingly voted for them were…

Read More