The President of the Republic of the Gambian has told the Gambian Nation that he has told his peers that they should establish a Peace and Security Council that would be able to intervene in crisis affecting members of the OIC.

The facts reveal that the members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference do not have the same system of government and would never be able to reach a consensus on the ideal system of government that should obtain in each country. Some are monarchies. There are also Secular Republics and Islamic Republics.

The conflict in North Africa witnessed Qatar leading the bombing campaign in Libya in collaboration with NATO. It would have been the same in Syria if NATO did not learn the lesson that replacing dictators with dictators is not a step forward to greater peace and security but a step backward for more chaos. The real task is remove power from dictators and hand them back to the people. This is only possible through a democratic system of government which respects individual rights irrespective of religion, gender, place of origin ,colour.

If all Nigerians, Egyptians, Libyans, Syrians, Malians and Somalis see themselves as sovereign and equal citizens who should build a civil, political, economic, social, cultural and ecological order that would guarantee freedom of worship or belief to all, there would be no fratricidal warfare.

Most of the arms in the hands of Boka Haram and the Malian insurgents are from wealthy patrons who claim to be promoting Islam through the barrel of the gun. The same has been the case in Somalia.

Peace and Security cannot be guaranteed in a failed state. The starting point for safeguarding peace and security in Africa is to found democratic Republics that ensure that sovereignty resides in the people. Africa needs more people like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Malcom X, who was a Muslim. We need leaders who love their people and are interested in protecting all of them irrespective of their religion gender, colour or other characteristics.

The UN Security Council already exists as the institution responsible for promoting International Peace and Security. What African countries should do is to seek permanent representation in the Council. An OIC Peace and Security Council just as the AU Peace and Security Council will always be a subsidiary to the UN Peace and Security Council.

Pan Africanists are calling for Africa to solve its problems. How to strengthen the AU Peace and Security Council should be the preoccupation of African leaders.

Gambia, definitely must be a secular State.

Section 100 subsection 2 b categorically states that: The National Assembly shall not pass a Bill to establish any religion as a state religion.

This provision is an entrenched Clause and cannot be changed without a referendum.