The country has gone through a regime change in 2016. The change had fundamental objective. Three goals could be readily identified.
First and foremost, the Coalition had the objective of building a Third Republic as the major target for regime change. The second objective was designed to ensure that those who suffered injustice would have their problems identified and the perpetrators brought to book, followed by reconciliation between perpetrators and victims as well as the whole society who may have been affected in one way or the other. Substantive justice should have been instituted by ensuring reparations are made so that the victims would have closure.
Finally, there is a need to carryout security sector reform to transform the security apparatus from an instrument of coercion to an instrument of protection of life and property on one hand and rights and freedom on the other hand.
Almost seven (7) years has elapsed and none of these objectives are fully achieved. There is a need for a national dialogue. The agenda should be centered on these fundamental goals. The country as a whole should take up the agenda and commence a national conversation on how to bring the constitution of the Third Republic into fruition, ensure that truth, reconciliation and reparations would not be reduced to a mere technical act of creating a commission and receiving its recommendations for implementation, but would involve a national process of changing mindset and values so that a new Gambian is born who would never perpetrate injustice against the other.
Furthermore, a new educational system to transform members of the security forces should be introduced so that they would become protective of their citizens with the institutions and those members of the forces would be so renumerated that they would be able to serve their people with dignity and honesty. This is the way forward.
