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Rejoinder  - ‘Open Letter to President Adama Barrow: Resubmit the Bill for a referendum and let the people decide’     By Pa Louis Sambou   Having read the above captioned publication by DUGA, Right2Know, Team Gom-Sa-Bopa and Gambia Participates    which was published on 2 October 2020, I thought it necessary to share a few thoughts.    It is perhaps a good idea to address a few myths before addressing the substantive issues:   The publication represents that “the majority of Gambians agreed in unison, that the 1997 Constitution, as it exists, is unfit for purpose given that it had been amended, and watered down 58 times…”   With such a bold claim, the only reason advanced by the author to substantiate such claim that the 1997 Constitution is “unfit for purpose” was that it had been “amended 58 times”. One would imagine that the author has a good grasp of the subject of which they speak and in which case it won’t be unreasonable to expect a much better substantiation of such claim than

    By Pa Louis Sambou     I think one would be hard pressed to find anyone who in 2017 foresaw any cataclysmic defeat of the primary pillar of the Coalition agenda: the draft Constitution. Well, even if one existed, any such projection would most certainly have invited valid accusations of madness on the part of the maker. I’m sure there’s no short supply of voodoo artists who would today with a straight face claim to have had a ‘prophetic’ foresight of such an event through their crystal ball and in ways no rational being would comprehend. I speak of the marabouts of course but perhaps we should park their superstitious subject for another day.    Now, how has the most popular and lauded public policy of pedestal public appreciation become the casualty of the very people who championed  it , the team captain (President Barrow) included? I am sure the supine lobby and their extremist allies will blame everyone and everything else but themselves and their unsophisticated approach. Howe