We
are yet to clearly know the details of the full discussion in the ECOWAS talks
or mediation in the political impasse in Gambia, involving the outgoing
president and the president-elect of the coalition, which took place in Banjul
on Tuesday.
Although
nothing really was disclosed to the media in the country, the fact remains that
the outgoing president is still in office and we have not known whether he had
reversed his decision of 9th December 2016 rejecting the outcome of the
December 1 presidential election and calling for a fresh election.
While
the impasse continues, the transition period is considered to be in progress by
the coalition members. This is because, going by the time the Presidential
election was held, the Constitution of The Gambia permits the present
government and leader to be in office until the third week of January this
year, when power is to be handed over to the democratically-elected president
Adama Barrow, after the declaration of the election of a new president on 2
December.
But
since the incumbent president is yet to reverse his decision of annulling the
1st December polls, a political impasse is essentially the situation we are
being confronted with.
However,
the ECOWAS mediation continues after the presidents of the four-nation
delegation and a UN-Africa rep, who were in Gambia for the talks, have heard
both sides on the issue.
Since
we are as a nation would really want this situation to be resolved amicably, we
can say the ECOWAS Banjul talks on Tuesday was a step in the right direction.
And as we were informed, the next meeting of the heads of state on the impasse
will take place on 17 December this year in Abuja, Nigeria.
We,
therefore, expect a positive outcome from that meeting, since anything of a
disagreement would serve as recipe for more problems for our nation.
The
situation that would befall us as a people will be just as the coalition
spokesperson put it: that there “will be a constitutional crisis and a likely
conflict in the country” if the transition ends and the outgoing president says
he would not go.
We
really hope and pray that this will not be the case; that our nation will be
saved the trouble of having a costly conflict.
Meanwhile,
the Ecowas chairperson also inferred in Banjul that they are yet to convince
the outgoing president to step down, when the transition period ends in
January.
“It
is not something that can happen in one
day. It is something that we have to
work on.”
This
means we should be prepared for a resolution of the current crisis to move one
step at a time.
“I
like restraint, if it doesn’t go too far.”
Mae
West
