By: Foday Manneh
Three prominent Gambian lawyers have been named among the 100 Most Influential People of African descent (MIPAD), a global civil society organization that celebrates the efforts of people of African descent.
Dawda Jallow, the Gambia’s Minister of Justice, Gaye Sowe, formerly of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and now Registrar for Appeals, Arbitration, and Enforcement at the Ecowas Court of Justice in Abuja; and Essa Mbye Faal, former Lead Counsel at the Truth Reconciliation and Repatriations Commission of The Gambia, are the three Gambian legal minds honored under the category of Law and Justice in this year’s edition of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The 200 most Influential were honored across different categories. For example, legal luminaries such as US Supreme court Judge, Justice Ketanji Brown, Ben Crump, the civil rights and personal injury lawyer, and Eric Holder, former US Attorney General, are also honored in the justice category. Altogether 200 People were honored across the world in different categories.
The Deputy Country Director of the Federation of African Law Students Association (FALAS), Tijan Bah, was part of the nomination process as the only Gambian.
Reacting to the tremendous achievement in the Gambia’s legal fraternity, Tijan said the works of the three are barely noticed, making them incredibly deserving.
“I am proud to have contributed to the selection process of the Most Influential Legal Minds of African Decent. I used this opportunity to nominate Gambians who are doing extremely well in different parts of the world, but their works are barely noticed.” Tijan told TAT.
Tijan Bah, a final year law student at the University of The Gambia, highlighted that many people were selected, but the three stand out as the best in the final list of awardees.
Since 2017, the MIPAD platform has celebrated the most influential 100 people of African descent in different works of life annually.
Some of the biggest names featured on the influential award include the likes of Barack Obama, former President of the USA, Vice President Kamala Harris; Samuel Eto’o, and Didier Drogba, former Cameroon and Ivory Coast professional footballers in a prestigious selection celebrating excellence in legal action.
Meanwhile, this is the first time a Law and Justice Edition category has been introduced in the nominations. The new category aims to spotlight lawyers engaged in human rights, governance, and other legal-related issues, and the three Gambian lawyers came out top from the selection.
