The origin of this article was penned by Field Ruwe.  He is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is also a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”

Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I told him mine with a precautious smile.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Zambia.”

“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”

“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”

“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”

My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.

“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”

“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.

“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”

He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”

Quett Masire’s name popped up.

“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”

At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.

“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down.

From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.

“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”

I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”

He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.”

The smile vanished from my face.

“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”

“There’s no difference.”

“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they

were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”

I gladly nodded.

“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”

For a moment I was wordless.

“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do, or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”

I was thinking.

He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”

I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.

“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.

He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”

I held my breath.

“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”

He looked me in the eye.

“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”

I was deflated.

“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”

He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”

He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”

At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.

“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”

He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”

Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.

Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.

I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.

“Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here)

Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.

A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining few of your beloved ones.

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A Critique by Lamin HAN Mbye. Lamin is a Gambian native, and a Neuroscientist who obtained his PhD from University of Kentucky College of Medicine. He then conducted postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, and completed training at Baylor College of Medicine, where he currently holds a faculty position. He can be contacted atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.”>[email protected]. 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review the above article. I had taken the initiative to circulate the piece among fellow Africans and for your edification, most of my personal critique I hereby present, is in consent with a views maintained by such fellow African comrades.

Let me begin by first, acknowledging that despite the intriguing exchange in the discourse that ensued between Mr. Ruwe and the guy named ‘Walter’, the referenced article is by far the most provoking piece of African sentiment I have ever read. In my humble opinion, to characterize African intellectuals as being “lazy” is nothing but sheer ad-hominem, guided by parochialism. This is because, from the origin of modern homo sapiens in over 200, 000 years ago to the present, Africans (in general) are well-known to be among, if not the most hardworking of all races. This is not only apparent to Africans themselves, but to other races as well, especially in modern era of post-Colonialism when Africans emigrate en-mass to the West and other parts of the world, in quest for higher education and independent profession. In such societies, Africans have often risen to the pinnacle of their class and profession, despite the usual odds of being introduced to a new culture, a new lifestyle, and sometimes inhospitable environments structured with bigotry, stigma, and unfairness. More often than not, Africans in the Diaspora climb up to the summit of best institutions in foreign lands, while leaving native sons and daughters of Western societies behind, due to their inability to compete with Africans. This has become the usual tendency here in the United Sates (U.S.), and I am sure is the case in other parts of the world too. In such societies where intellectualism is revered and innovation encouraged, Africans contribute immensely to scientific discoveries and other aspects of societal progress. Indeed, we have African intellectuals who serve as Professors in some of the World’s best academic institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge, just to name a few. Moreover, African intellectuals have been pioneers in medical research, technological inventions, political reforms, and entrepreneurship in these same Western societies where talent is rewarded and professionalism permitted to pursue its independent course, without harassment or intimidation. Such indications of dexterity and competence are simply inconsistent with lethargy and therefore, sufficient to negate the “torpidity” accusation made by ‘Walter’.

Of course, it is no-brainer that Africa is at the bottom of the totem pole not because its intellectuals are anemic to discoveries, but because its political leadership is spineless and alien to the rule-of-law, dissent, or innovation! To me, ‘Walter’ was very-well on track in most parts of his rampage (the abject poverty, the pandemic diseases, the lack of invention, the apathetic attitude, and the braggadocio with degrees), until he leveled his blame on intellectual laziness. In actuality, most, if not all the above-listed problems are to be blamed on feckless African leadership. Simply put, Africa is basically in scarcity of political leaders! What we have in abundance is a cohort of impostors who lack the basic comprehension that leadership is not to be imitated – that it goes with acquiring the attributes, which are instilled by a detailed disciplinary mental development that must be continuously relied upon to shape relevant policies for meaningful societal progress. A leader retains a genuine sense of integrity; anyone with leadership quality usually imbibes a well-defined character of altruism; and above all, leadership coexists with vision, and vision is not so much of where we stand, but the direction we are heading! Most African heads-of-government lack these features. More importantly, most African heads-of-state fail to appreciate the dictum that artificial intelligence is no match to ‘natural’ stupidity. It is because of these inadequacies that I generally reserve the term ‘leader’, and use the parlance ‘heads-of-state’ instead, when referring to African heads-of-government. Therefore, as much important it is that African heads-of-state have access to this article, it is equally imperative that Western governments who provide them with resources to prolong their tyranny, also realize that a pandemic political autocracy is Africa’s most inimical deterrence to progress! And if they, meaning the West have any iota of genuineness in changing the status-quo, they will need to transform the existing anachronistic system of governance first. It simply necessitates a demand for credible term-limits and consistent transition of governments, as pre-requisites for any potential loans or effective partnership. Reinforce this with draconian economic and diplomatic sanctions for any blatant tyranny or human right abuses, and I guarantee you that the dunderheads will take a heed. Bottom line, institutionalize an auspicious political climate in Africa that eulogizes, instead of vilifies; rewards, instead of reprimands; and encourages, instead of dissuades intellectuals and the whole world will have a rude awakening of the level of creativity African highbrows possess. We had manifested such ingenuity in ancient and medieval history, and can surely display it again – from Alexandria of Ancient Egypt (over 2000 years of civilization), to Kumbi Saleh of Ghana Empire, and Timbuktu of Mali Empire, Africans had been more innovative than any other contemporary society the world had ever seen, including the Roman Empire!

‘Walter’ is right, Mankind are all created equal! As a Neuroscientist, with background training in Neurogenetics, I appreciate his reference of the Human Genome Project (HGP). By the way, I am not an African braggart, as ‘Walter’ had accused. However, as a believer in God too, the egalitarianism of all races became apparent to me well before the dawn of HGP or Darwin’s theory of Speciation. Such revelation is again, not to boast of my religious instincts, but instead to share my concurrence that science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind – Albert Einstein. Indeed, all four of God’s Holy books (Zabur, Torah, Injil, and Quran) have hitherto, established that God categorizes Man into races, sects, and ‘tribes’ for no other reason except to better relate to one-another and to appreciate His Majesty. So, to get back to ‘Walter’’s provoking but valid inquiry as to why Blacks feel inferior to Whites, I honestly do not know the specific answer to that. I can however, state with certainty that a multi-faceted factors do play a role, including African illiteracy which coexists with ignorance about the White race, stigmatization of the Black race, and advanced Western civilization often plastered on the media. It is incontrovertible that most Africans still regard the Whiteman as a ‘supernatural’ being. This concept is masterminded by an inspiring White ingenuity in scientific discoveries, infrastructural development, and well-structured civilization in the West, as oppose to the penury, pandemic outbreaks, and civil ‘cannibalism’ usually associated with Africa. With regards to stigma, slavery is by far, the most detrimental human instigation ever happened to Mankind! Some call it Africa’s Holocaust and I call it the African ‘Armageddon’. Again, by the way, I am aware of ‘Walter’’s admonishment not to use slavery as an excuse. However, it is equally noteworthy that no sincere discussion ever ensues when only one party in the discourse sets rules on what issues to raise or leave out. Not only was slavery barbarous, it also left behind a permanent imprint of Black stigma in the psyche of both the Black race in particular, and other races in general – one that may forever remain inextinguishable. From the Triangular Trade that yielded the Transatlantic Slave Trade (institutionalized by the Portuguese and entrenched by the Brits) to the present, Blacks in general have been regarded and treated by society as ‘sub-humans’ who are not only imperceptive to innovation, but to civilization as well. Instead of remedying this stigma, society continues to romanticize and to some extent, dramatize Black inferiority. Of course, ‘Blackness’ gets often associated with nothing but evil, horror, or grimness in present society. For instance, during a papal conclave, the Roman Catholic Church still effuses ‘black’ smoke when the room is most perplexed and every member of the College of Cardinals is dejected because a Pope is yet to be chosen. On the other hand, a ‘white’ smoke gets diffused only when a Papal finally gets selected and there is overwhelming joy in the room; that it is a norm to all races including Blacks, to utter phrases like “the kettle calling the pot black”, “being the black sheep of the family”, and “being blacked-out” when one’s brain becomes numb and is unable to reason; that the gunman who wants to conduct a massacre has to wear a black gear, in order to carry out his havoc; that a death in a family is best manifested with black gowns; that Blacks of both gender often peel off their superficial dark skins, in order to expose the less-pigmented under-dermis that looks more whitish; and when ‘prisoners’ get executed, Gambians change their Facebook profile pictures to black; as if God is White and Satan (Evil) is Black! We have indeed witnessed the former president of South Africa, P.W. Botha using the analogy of a lizard being different from a crocodile, despite both belonging to the Taxonomic Class of reptiles, in reference to the distinction between Blacks and Whites. An account most refreshing to our memory is Ted Nugent’s recent rancor against President Obama, calling him a “sub-human mongrel”.

As if not enough mayhem was already committed against the Black race by slavery, the Whiteman followed-suit with a subsequent subterfuge termed Colonialism. Colonialism was nothing other than the White race presenting itself to be ‘superior’ to the Black race, to the extent that he (the Whiteman) has to govern him (the Blackman), a fallacy that easily sank in the African psyche, given the degrading experience of slavery that they just went through. With colonialism came all other damaging remnants to society, including political tyranny, pandemic military takeovers, civil wars and of course, massive exodus of African intellectuals, due to constant persecutions levelled against them by spineless heads-of-state, who perceive intellectuals as threats to their egoistic political demagoguery, rather than the most effective tool to national development. The few highbrows who stay in the Continent have no better option than to remain as rubberstamps, in fear of their safety and that of their families. Due to the above-stipulated factors, it is easily conscionable that when ‘Walter’ picks up a riff-raff from the streets of New York City and takes him to Africa, he would not even need to clean him up, in order for the Zambian to chant muzungu, or the Gambian to hail tubab, as long as the vagrant’s skin color is white.

In a nutshell, ‘Walter’’s frustration towards African intellectuals is well-taken. However, the diatribe is more suited for the African heads-of-government, most of whom are unqualified for that responsibility, much less be intellectuals. Secondly, ‘Walter’’s harangue would carry greater weight if it had addressed the apathetic policies of Western governments towards Africa’s established system of dictatorship. Rather than maintaining a fair policy of checks-and-balances across the Globe, America and the West seem to be more inclined on their national interests, instead of humanitarian welfare. Although I generally discount its validity, one could also argue that the West is more inclined towards maintaining the orthodox of African destitution, as prove to Black inferiority. It is often mind-boggling to Africans that the U.S. can rescue Iraqis from the iron-fist oppression of Saddam Hussein for instance, but remains indifferent to the tyrannical nature of African heads-of-state.

Thus, it is crucial to note that intellectualism never coexists with lethargy! It takes a plethora of perseverance, dedication, and personal discipline to attain academic prowess. Moreover, intellectualism is generally enlightening and therefore, cannot be wrong. Education nurtures the brain, develops the persona and as a result, transform a Mayflower feudal society into a ‘paradise’, as Walter alluded. Therefore, the least endeavor we can afford to undertake as Africans is to stop engendering ACCREDITED PhDs! Finally, it is vital to bear in mind that despite its impressiveness, the only indubitable panacea to the advanced Western civilization the world observes today is conducive intellectualism instead of White ‘supernaturalism’, as many Africans are lead to believe. ANY race that becomes more receptive to intellectual prowess becomes more innovative and for that matter, more affluent, irrespective of creed or culture – hence the resurgence of the Chinese, Japanese, and Indians. In contrast, ANY society that antagonizes intellectual competence faces abject poverty, civil unrest, and destitution – hence the regression of Africa! ‘Walter’ would be totally surprised if the American military was to suddenly take over the reign of government and summarily establishes a system of despotism, as absurd as that may sound. The ‘dynasty’ would be deserted, and New York City would then become present-day Gao (in Mauritania), the erstwhile flourished city of Songhai. Newton’s Third Law of Physics dictates to us that for every action, there is an equal but opposite action; Galileo taught us that one cannot build a castle in the air; and well before Newton or Galileo, Nature affirms to us that the universe operates on specific Devine principles. Africa will not develop if it continues to denigrate its intellectuals, and it certainly will not innovate if does not invest efficiently in education. My unvarnished remedy to the African paradoxical quagmire is usually summed-up in two simple synopses: 1) Instill the rightful leadership that safeguards the basic tenets of rule-of-law, and there will be massive repatriation of graduates from not only Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, and Columbia, but Community Colleges as well. 2) Institutionalize universal education, which establishes the bedrock for innovation, demystifies ‘Whiteness’ and in the process, ‘de-stigmatize’ ‘Blackness’ and there will be ingenious discoveries in the Continent. The feasibility of such outcome is more probable in Africa than anywhere else, given the fact that it is the second-most populous and youngest continent in the world. If we could establish the first higher-learning institution, built Alexandria, and modernized Timbuktu, we surely can invent stone crushers, engineer water filters, and reserve lands for skyscrapers, instead of graveyards for our people!

Clearly, political events over the past two decades have shown Gambians’ incredibly capacity to let each national crisis lapse without appropriately responding to the gravity of each situation; the Koro Ceesay assassination, mass students’ massacre, witch-hunting, mass incarceration, multiple executions, citizen abductions, stifling of the independent press, monopoly of political space, and everything in between. And to-date, hundreds of Gambians and non-Gambians have been killed at the behest of the regime, thousands have fled, thousands more are caught in the prison dragnet, and a fearful nation left at the mercy of Africa’s inarguably worst regime, since Idi Amin Dada.

Yet after each deadly encounter with the military regime, Gambians, paralyzed by fear, have remained completely mute as fellow citizens are victimized by a clueless regime. But, there is only so much any nation can take before standing its ground to protect its citizens from a callous regime. Besides, dictatorships by their very nature have a finite shelve life, and their end is generally determined by their brutal past. Yet, this is no comfort to a people who, for two long decades, have suffered incredible degradation of their humanity. But, all that is about to change, if events of the last two weeks truly mark a turning point in a nation where fear and terror are injected in the body politics under the guise maintaining national security.

Gambia is a country where state institutions have descended into pathetic dysfunction, where the political establishment has nearly degenerated into pitiful redundancy, where the Constitution and the laws of the land have dissolved into irrelevance, where killings, torture and maiming is public policy, where a nation teeters dangerously on the edge of political and economic collapse, and where the peoples’ freedom and liberty is determined by the unconstitutional powers of “one person.”

UDP’s return, yesterday, from the most successful political junket, since Sheriff M. Dibba hit the dirt roads of Baddibou decades ago, is, hopefully, only a sign of things to come. The Gambia’s back is on the wall, and the UDP leader, Hon. Ousainou Darboe, and the brave men and women of the UDP, have opened a window to hope for Gambians.

Both in the diaspora and at home, an infectious sense of political awakening is permeating every segment of Gambian society. There is euphoria for a new beginning, across the land, empowered by a sense of fearlessness not seen since the heydays of NCP and GPP. The criminal indifference to the regime’s pervasive human rights abuse since 1994, has no basis in logic, but more; if Gambians, with the power to stand up to the regime, recoil in fear, the whole nation will be doomed to surrender its dignity to the brutal regime. UDP’s triumphant return to jubilant Kombo crowds is more than the banal expression of party politics; it is a true manifestation of a deep desire for political change.

It marks the beginning of the unraveling of a political system grounded in the futile effort of creating a permanent state of crisis, chaos and dysfunction. It would be an understatement to characterize Yahya Jammeh’s military regime as a complete failure; it is a national disgrace and a disaster waiting to happen. Yahya Jammeh’s unilateral decision-making, even over who lives or dies in Gambia, has crossed every boundary of acceptable behavior; thus validating Gambians’ deeper commitment to justice and rapid political change.

The groundswell of public support coalescing around Hon. Ousainou Darboe and the UDP, the last two weeks, defies the heavy-handedness of a regime, whiich, as a matter of public policy, has often used fear and terror as instruments of political control. Yahya Jammeh and the AFPRC military regime have so cavalierly butchered citizens and non-citizens for the past twenty years, without being brought to account or suffering consequences for its actions.

This week marks a renewed commitment to political change in the Gambia and it is an irreversible trend; better still, it will deconstruct Yahya Jammeh’s AFPRC military regime’s invincibility and flame out his regime’s sense of entitlement to the political power Yahya Jammeh has welded with devastating cruelty. Yahya Jammeh’s habitual projection of deadly force, designed to silence his critics, must never again be allowed to go unchallenged.

Additionally, the combined force of the opposition should be leveraged to preempt effort at curtailing the Constitutional rights of Gambians to freely express themselves; its people, the press, the state institutions, and the opposition political establishment. UDP has created a window of opportunity to demonstrate Gambians’ ability to challenge a regime decidedly bent of criminalizing every aspect of Gambian life, but more important still, the UDP and Hon.

Ousainou Darboe, have a unique opportunity to galvanize Gambians into creating a national movement for change. This is his moment to cast UDP, in conjunction with other opposition parties, as a national movement to combat the impunity that has turned every Gambia into a victim of state overreach. The infectious desire for political change that runs through the length and breadth of the Gambia, can no longer be effectively expressed within the narrow confine of a single political party; rather, the struggle for political liberty has to assume a broader national character moving forward; a national movement that spreads to reach every level and classification in Gambian society, if you will. Gambians have been willing to fight for their own liberation for far too long; what they lacked is reliable and steadfast political leadership.

This time around, hopefully, Hon. Ousainou Darboe will surrender to Gambian’s desire to create a mass movement, and to help lead a nation, in agony, out of political limbo, towards the bright lights of liberty and freedom. Over the many years since 1994, Gambians have made many false starts, but this is an opportunity Gambia cannot allow to fizzle out just like that. We can make change happen, and in this journey, UDP’s Hon Ousainou Darboe, must be given the unreserved support of a nation. For now is the time to turn a moment into a movement. This is our task now, Gambians. Lets do it.

On April 26^th 2015, the National Resistance Movement Group (NRMG) issued a press release. In the release as published on Freedom Newspaper, NRMG stationed itself as the main Diaspora civil society association, thus, “As a civil society organization, the National Resistance Movement of the Gambia (NRMG) strongly believes that after 20 years of dictatorship the struggle to unseat the Jammeh administration should adopt a much tougher stance in dealing with an existential threat that the regime has come to represent” (Culled from the web Freedom Newspaper 4/26/2015 )

To many followers of Gambia’s politics, NRMG shot itself on the foot, limping like wounded warriors defeated from a fierce battle, from its ill-advised political move. This is not even a question as it is befittingly a conclusion for obvious reasons.  One is left wondering what is left of the NRMG, which started from an announcement and has plunged itself into dirty mud with the latest announcement.

Way back during its birth in March of 2014, the NRMG announced thus, “Against this back-drop the NRMG is prepared to take the lead in removing this illegitimate government from power by all means necessary. We urge partnership with all progressive forces in this struggle to achieve the ultimate objective, the removal of Jammeh the despot. Our aim is to restore democracy and the rule of law to the Gambia. To this end we herein extend invitation to all Gambians to help in liberating our land. As a group, we share in the philosophy a peaceful method of effecting change. That is the preferred option. At the same time we rule out no option should the political processes fail to yield the desired results” (Gainako Online Newspaper 3/12/2014. Culled from the web http://gainako.com/?p=4585).

Just weighing the transformation between the two stand points, it shows the real disconnect, even to where the top trios of the NRMG might have schooled themselves, but lacks the arithmetic of politics and its maintenance, at least in today’s Gambia. Even from its initial press release, the group promised that other members of its group were to be announced, and to date, no other member was announced except Binneh Minteh.

To be quite frank, at the time of NRMG’s birth, most people were a little skeptical, curious, and suspicious of the group formed by Gambia’s former soldiers, for example Pa Modou Ann (a brother of mine at close range) was a major, Binneh was a lieutenant, and Alagie Kanteh was a Captain and a onetime outspoken spokesperson of the APRC.  For one, Jammeh who is now a rotten tyrant is a product of this group, and added to the fact, Africa’s history with military rule shows abuse of power, with many soldiers not properly trained who ends up being power drunks. With the trio all from top military positions some who may have even trained and led these soldiers, what have they inculcated in Jammeh and the remnants of their army soldiers? Two years ago, former GPU President and media guru, Demba Ali Jawo positioned that Africa’s military were good at brutalizing citizens but when it came defending the nation, they were nowhere to be found.

During the NRMG’s inception, I personally supported their birth due to what was thoughtfully a military intervention approach to confront Jammeh through resistance movement. Another reason is the personable part of some its members from interactions over the years in activism which earned them respect. I know many other youths that supported them for the same reason. From their political toad-metamorphosis over time, they proved to be playing with political words, positioning themselves for power, come what may. Citizens whom the NRMG represents can now question: If NRMG didn’t have the military component or were not ready to confront Jammeh man-to-man, why didn’t they join CORDEG? During some of the press conferences, every citizen who witnessed it knows that NRMG gave us the impression that they were stripping Jammeh off power any time soon. People now see why NRMG refused to answer some specific questions relating to timelines in handling Jammeh.

For one thing that is certain, composition of Gambian political parties on the ground; G-n (5, 6, or 7) did some work on political reform and what the NRMG mentioned of political reform offers nothing new or fresh. This emergence of theirs connects with neither the political parties nor Gambians on the ground. It doesn’t give them any constituency in the diaspora as the nation’s backbone; the youths have taken charge of their destiny, a youth catalyst on touch down in no time. From the NRMG’s set-up, where its leaders positioned themselves to their positions in NRMG without public participation, and now offering itself as a mediating group will not go well with many citizens both at home and in the Diaspora, and that is to say, if you are representing Gambians, group leadership selections must be transparent and inclusive with citizens. That is where CORDEG won the peoples’ respect, even to where CORDEG is currently in political coma which Professor Saine is idly sitting on waiting for the humiliating fall, it was still a group that called citizens from the far and near to get their vote to lead.

Did the U.S Neutrality ACT make NRMG change its military invention vision? Well, from all indications especially the ongoing trial of alleged coup plotters on December 30^th in the Gambia, it cannot be ruled out as a factor, because two of its top militants in the person of Professor Minteh and Ann live in the U.S. But NRMG’s leader should have proved to be a commander in chief, to engage the U.S authorities and seek amendment of that unfavorable law (U.S Neutrality ACT) and seek a military intervention to dislodge the criminal ruler. That would have even convinced potential sponsors and citizens to see the NRMG as a serious political player.

In the past, NRMG and any other forming groups were advised that nothing is wrong with forming civil society groups, but this should not be done in a way that bars unity of the diaspora and political parties. All of these groups should be able to work in parallels. But what we have seen from most if not all is competition in headlines, constituency, donors, and even mere political utterances that are not followed through.

Oh well, history doesn’t fool or deceive citizens and those that try to play with history will also get wrapped in funny trap. The one time promising NRMG has now shot itself on the foot and it is wholly crippled. NRMG is done. It is up to its 4 leaders (with little or no constituency) to just tell people the full disclosures. The more they play political gymnastic, the more they expose the emptiness of the organization. That will not go well with their future political careers. To continue to hang on thinking a miracle will happen overnight is suicidal. It must be earned now, especially when Gambians are going through the hell that they are going through under a ruthless dictator. Please no more tickling! Citizens are tired of promising desert mirages and any time a tired distant traveler gets to a mirage, it became clear that it wasn’t a drinking fountain. Then all hopes are shattered and one is left dreaming again for long walks.

In the end, the NRMG have a choice. They should restore the military intervention part to their agenda and convince international organizations and countries like the U.S with the “Neutrality ACT” to amend the unfavorable law and help uproot Gambia’s criminal ruler by all means necessary. If this is not possible, they should save their grace and future political careers by just joining the works of unity in the pipelines by the youths which have the potential of igniting a popular uprising to boot the tyrant out. By the way that NRMG is transforming, they are not an activist group, but a political party in the making. While the NRMG may be interested in liberating the Gambia no doubt, they also possess leadership interest. By that conflict of interest, they are not the right mediator as a civil society group, especially with the competitions they pose against other existing groups, some of which legitimized themselves by at least being inclusive in their leadership selections.

With this in mind, it is up to the NRMG to heed, or just hang around for falling gray hair. We will go down in history as critics, though in the end, our criticism is sincerely done to help redirect and uplift spirits that share common struggles.

The Struggle continues!!

Ousainou Darboe. Kemeseng Jammeh. Solo Sandeng. These folks and many unknowns proved that the Gambia still has hearts made of steel. Fatoumata Tambajang. Fatou Jawara (women youth president). Ordinary women and young girls. The women stole the show not with the usual ambiance of dancing and singing they gave their male counterparts on political platforms, but slept outside on the verandas following an impasse and let their voices be heard on matters. Voices of reason and substance.

They stood on campaign platforms to decry the current state of our women, the economy, plight of our farmers and young ones dying at sea. They made us all proud. That’s an indication that we’ve come so far as a people, nation and our politics reached a new high!

Not to get overly excited to declare the battle over but I could say with a great degree of certitude that the fear factor in Gambians all over the globe, on the ground in particular, has been steadily eroding. The open display of disillusionment with Jammeh’s APRC administration is a testament of the readiness that Gambians have to fully engage in the change agenda to usher in a new, different dispensation after 20 years of the Green Party.

For a very long time, many Gambians were frustrated and almost gave up on the opposition parties and their leaders for the much needed political change. That frustration, which isn’t all their making, compelled most of us to subscribe to alternative options of regime change which include use of force. For me, since Jammeh shows no inclination to play fair in the political arena nor has he any incentive to cede power, I still do believe that Gambians will be justified should they employ any means to defend and free themselves of the repressive regime that did them every awful thing imaginable.

Ideally, we’d all prefer a peaceful political transition as did Senegal and recently Nigeria. Unfortunately there isn’t anything ideal about the Gambia’s political avalanche that could grant us the ability to emulate our sister countries without a gun toting fight from Yaya. So for the most part, the manner in which power shifts from one color to another is dependent on the government, and I’d hope they’d not want to do anything that would compel Gambians to do an ‘Ivory Coast’.

The events of the last 10 days could change the course of our fight and rewrite history. The United Democratic Party and their 64-year old leader, the youth and women in particular, deserve commendation for an unprecedented but deserved brevity, in standing up to an illegal directive to abort a mission the party has very right to embark on. To stand their ground, took off the masks to tell Yaya that they’re ready and willing to face whatever thrown their way but will not yield. That he’d failed the country and neither empty promises nor threats would mute them any longer. ‘FEAR NO MORE!’, they sang, as they donned their yellow outfit, pose for the cameras and speak openly but responsibly and sincerely about the state of affairs. That was very courageous.

The UDP set precedence and for that reason we all applaud them. Not to instigate any politician or ordinary folks to immaturely start an unsuitable violent resistance, but to be able to defend yourself and refuse Jammeh to toy with you as he pleases should always be a premiere necessity. This time Darboe defiantly led his party in showing up! Sustaining the momentum should be the goal of all political parties, diaspora Gambians and all stakeholders.

What had started as a UDP issue, became a national affair that prompted a solid response from all allies especially the opposition on the ground. The amount of solidarity from Mai Ahmed Fatty, Hamat Bah, Omar A. Jallow and Halifa Sallah, and the diaspora was unequivocal, real and overwhelming that Darboe had to be gracious in admitting that it wasn’t any longer a UDP battle. The bear that they poked faces a whole nation of the willing and like-minded who had enough of an anti-democratic reign.

Evident is the fact that UDP are willing to step up and make count the claim of being the country’s second biggest party. Going by the previous election results, they earned that feather on their hats. It just was a credited feat that they’ve not taken advantage of. One thing that’s never up for debate is the numbers in politics. Numbers count and you have to have them on you to win elections. I hope the UDP straddle and exploit this reality.

Now, though it’s a numbers game, the political climate in the Gambia isn’t conducive for any one party to dislodge the APRC government. That’s a fact that’s not lost on any Gambian. As such, the opposition parties must continue their discussions and start the Coalition talks in earnest. That the country needs them today than ever before, and must not disappoint the discontented populace by failing to form a United Front to take on Jammeh at the polls.

The elections route as an option for regime change has been an evolving position for me. A few months back, I was arguing that it’s a waste of time and resources especially without electoral reforms. I’d been a proponent of ‘any means necessary‘ and I still am. In fact, the events of December 30 that had seen the closest effort to end the dictatorship failed, sent me into a wild shock with the heaviest disappointment that I wished it was all a dream. I was crushed. But again, I had to remind myself that in the ‘any means necessary‘ School of Thought was a democratic faculty too. That elections is a viable option if all parties are able to coalesce and present a single candidate, the only condition on which most of us would almost support 2016. If we aren’t keen on vigorously pursuing that, I hope we have an alternative to non-participation because that’d mean buying Yaya’s wishes on a cheap. What do we get out of that, dealing with a man who gives zilch about legitimacy in the eyes of the international community?

With what we’ve seen in Fass Njaga Choi, I believe that the opposition party leaders do not have any serious division within them to bar them from unifying for a national cause like those outside their circles seem to believe. If anything, the recent events are a myth buster that Yaya can dictate everything, at all times as he pleases. The opposition G6 can deliver us. That’s not just a mere optimism. It’s doable.

In an event that we sustained this momentum and have continued political activity till the 2016 elections, with each political party on voter engagement, the Gambian voters’ faith and hopes will be restored and they’d vote Yaya out. The coward that he is, Yaya wouldn’t want to force himself to cling on. Should he do, the Gambians reserve the right to make him our Lauren Gbagbo by forcefully putting him in cuffs and hold him responsible for election violence. Because he’s not ready to die, he’d have no option but  concede and let us take our country back. I honestly do have faith in the electorate!

Yaya is a deceitful cornball and smart hypocrite. He’d sponsor the voter registration and participation of Bissau nationals resident in the Gambia in their presidential elections but refused Gambians in the diaspora a chance to elect their president. Yaya Jammeh is the quintessential Sibijang Dubengho, Samba Alarr. As if wasn’t bad enough, he systematically put in place a 5-year residency barrier that denies Gambians the right to contest elections if they hadn’t reside in the country for the 5 years that precedes the elections. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been something that concerns us as much as the 65-year constitutional restriction to bars Darboe, OJ and Sidia from running.

Fortunately, the age restriction isn’t deterring these men. They continue to fight even if they know they might not be able to run. They selflessly work night and day to make sure the leave a Gambia to their children. What are our excuses? These are the men I admire and respect. They’re the men we owe a lot to. And I am hopeful that they’d witness a Gambia free of Yaya Jammeh and tyranny.

Yaya Must Go!

Peace To The Planet.

 Pata PJ

WE THE DISOBEDIENT SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF OUR BELOVED GAMBIA, HEREBY DECLARE YAYA JAMMEH WANTED FOR TREASON, MURDER, RAPE, PLUNDER AND PILLAGE. A WARRANT FOR HIS ARREST IS HEREBY MADE PUBLIC.

As dysfunctional as it is, the Jammeh regime nevertheless operates as a neocolonial state with all its repressive apparatus unleashed in a dragnet of terror, subsequent to the December 30, 2014 alleged coup attempt.

As always, the right arm of the state; the army and police which represent the first line of resistance to our freedom, are unleashed to entrench the dragnet of terror such as massive arrests, detention without trial, heinous – barbaric torture and outright murders.

As tyrants and their regimes rapidly decompose, the tendency is to fill the prisons and detention dungeons to intimidate all forms of resistance. And even as the prisons and detentions dungeons are bursting at the seams, Jammeh is still insecure with his beefed – up “national security”. The sprawling military and police check points all over major towns are additional signs of the rot spreading within the regime. It will either implode or explode; either option is acceptable to the vast majority of us.

Following his disastrous “diplomatic” efforts to win international sympathy and support by calling the attempted coup a “terrorist attack”, Jammeh throws his trademark temper tantrum by arresting family members of the alleged plotters including a 13 year old child, Yusupha Lowe and an elderly mother who had nothing whatsoever to do with this attempt to over throw his illegitimate regime.

As a result of his diplomatic failures to have the escaped coup plotters extradited to be slaughtered by his drugged – deranged killers and the bail release granted to Papa Faal, Cherno Njie and Alhagie Barrow by the U.S courts, Jammeh engages his court system into full throttle to console his bruised ego.

                            THE COURTS ARE HIGHEST EXPRESSION OF POLITICAL POWER

Our nation’s “house of justice” has become a den of mercenary judges commonly from Nigeria, Ghana and Pakistan. As the left arm of the state, the judiciary has been bought and sold to bedevil the lives of Gambians at the directives of Jammeh. It is the same court that legitimized the AFPRC-APRC military regime and sanitized it into a “democratically elected government” following the July 1994 overthrow of the People’s Progressive Party which notwithstanding all its contradictions was indeed elected by the people.

As insulting as Jammeh’s total disregard for “law” is to the Gambia Bar Association and the pain inflicted onto the victims railroaded by these mercenary judges, the Gambia Bar Association has adapted to the “law according to Yaya”. This blatant reversal of the dictum of justice: “guilty until proven innocent” as oppose to “innocent until proven guilty” is what makes these mercenary judges equally deadly as the gun slinging mercenaries. This reversal of the dictum of justice was imposed at gun point along the 20 years trail, littered with the lowest scums of the “law according to Yaya”.

Within this den of mercenary judges, I was convinced that the former “Justice” M.A. Paul, if you recall, topped the list of Jammeh’s henchmen that send civilians and soldiers alike to long prison terms as a deterrent to resistance against the terrorist regime. But this “Johnny just come” to the bench “Justice” Semeone Ateh Abi out performed M.A. Paul and I might add “Justice” Wowo.

“Justice” Abi handed down 8 unconstitutional counts against the accused as dictated by the “law according to Yaya”. In my view, there exists no such document as a constitution in the Gambia. But the ‘toilet paper constitution” that Jammeh and his mercenary judges make reference to at will,  clearly exposes the illegality of the process, the 8 counts and worst the verdicts of death and life in prison.

Let’s put this in context. If there was any semblance of “law” in the Gambia, the document that defends the law, known as a “constitution” states in section 18, subsection2, that the death penalty can only be handed down when another life is lost. To this date, there is no indication that any member of the Gambia Arm Forces (GAF) lost his life in the December 30, 2014 attempted coup. In this same document, the Armed Forces Act on sections 96 and 127 has been grossly violated by these “kangaroo courts” just to set an example for the rest of the soldiers.

Prominent railroaded court cases continue to clog the rotten to the core judicial system.

 Lamin Waa Juwara, a two year trial on bogus charges the state can’t defend.

 Imam Baa Kawsu (absconded) after subjected to the delaying tactics of the mercenary courts

 Sheriff Muheddin Hydara, defied Jammeh on the issue of when to pray after the month of Ramadan.

Several others, including Mambury Njie (under heavy guard at his hospital bed) charged with “economic crimes” – the newly invented charge by the “law according to Yaya”, are clear indications of the cracking “pillars of justice”. These defendants continue to be subjected to the most insidious delaying tactics of adjournments to inflict mental torment by literally chaining them to the court rooms at Jammeh’s directives. The “judiciary” in the Gambia is pillar less, resting squarely on the hands of the mercenary judges.

There is an undeniable contest between the “law according to Yaya” and the document reduced to the function of toilet paper, even though it’s still referred to as the “constitution”. No contest can last forever; one side must triumph over the other. In our case, this contest has been festering for 20 God damn years. Gambia cannot coexist with Jammeh. So, who will win this contest?

All signs and evidence points to our triumph – the people’s victory! Recent actions of defiance by the opposition party, United Democratic Party (UDP) against the restrictions to assemble and of their movements across the country is a starting point for a ground swell uprising. But it must be stirred in the right direction for revolutionary changes. There must be a ground swell of resistance beyond seeking for a permit to assemble when the regime can assemble anywhere and anytime to further its political agenda. The “law according to Yaya” must be vigorously challenged at a mass level. The 20 years of tyranny has turned our beloved Gambia into a powder keg. And wherever there is a powder keg, the spark is never too far.

No amount of meaningless PEACE bickering will turn us around. Those who truly desire lasting PEACE must fight for FREEDOM!

                             #Jammeh must go! Down with neocolonialism! Victory is ours!

Every day, scores of lives perish in the deserts and the Mediterranean Sea. Hardly does a day go by that you do not read about Gambians dying trying to make it to Europe through the ‘Back Way’. It is devastating. However, none of what has been happening all these years but astronomically worsened in the past couple of years, happens in a vacuum. We’d all have to do something to decelerate it.

 I have seen a lot of Gambians take to social media making “Say No To Back Way” videos, to sensitize and dissuade our brothers and sisters from venturing into these very dangerous and uncertain journeys that already claimed more than enough lives. These

efforts are great, laudable and are spiraling. However, most came short of identifying and addressing the root causes of the unfortunate tragedy.

The ever growing statistics of the number of people dying at sea, those ‘lucky’ enough to have crossed to become illegal immigrants in Europe, are shockingly alarming. The Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa (population less than 2 million) with relative peace, dwarfs nations like Mali and Syrian that have been in turmoil and civil unrest for few years now. Gambia’s 1400 (134 minors) to Nigeria’s 800, arrived in Italy by Sea in the first quarter of 2015. Just last week alone, there were two boat accidents that had at least 750 and 300 lives unaccounted for, respectively. It’s a sad reality that our boys and girls are somewhere in that bottomless ocean and will never be buried.

While we’d all love to have our brothers and sisters stay at home to avoid a literally suicidal journey, we must also be realistic in recognizing that these kids are being forced by their circumstances to make a better living for themselves and their families. As foolish as we think it is for them to see some of us who have ‘escaped’ the struggle from abject poverty as ‘success stories’, it is an innate desire for a man to want to be a provider, especially when they are looked up to as the ‘Yakarr’ of the family. We cannot tell them to not go because is risky when there are no alternatives to the predicament. This is not to make an excuse for our able-bodied youth but is understandable.

Unemployment is the premier causative factor of the economic migration that continues to claim lives and in most cases, levy a hefty financial burden on the already struggling families who would give an arm and leg for a potentially enhanced livelihood, which most times is only promissory and in some cases elusive. The pasture isn’t always a guaranteed greener on the other side. Most of the people who set out on these journeys are poor, provincial kids who either graduated without jobs or dropped out of school and are unemployable. These people hail from families who have always paid their taxes but almost never get to benefit from their government; individually or as a community. So majority of them become Economic migrants, and a few Political refugees escaping shackles and political persecution from an oppressive regime.

So the buck stops at President Jammeh and his Government! In plain terms, Yaya Jammeh DOES NOT CARE if half of the country’s youth raced out of that country to never come back. As a matter of fact, that is lessening his burden of having to deal with an unemployed, ‘unproductive’ lot. Jammeh would have cared if this was anything that posed any sort of threat to his reign. We have seen how he does not hesitate to launch all these violently aggressive “Operations” in order to legitimize his use of force to cower and oppress Gambians further, to deter any potential resistance to his Authoritarianism.

In his characteristic fashion of abdicating responsibility as the country’s CEO, Yaya continues to deflect attention from significant priorities where he is found wanting, to play victim. In his UN address in 2014, Jammeh asked that “The U.N. must conduct a full and impartial investigation into this manmade sinking, capsizing of these boats carrying young Africans to Europe,” accusing European Nations of “racist and inhuman behavior of deliberately causing boats carrying black Africans to sink.”

Lest we forget, a year prior Jammeh in his 2013 Tobaski address to the Nation, shamelessly went off on a tangent to blame his ‘Mandingo Brothers and Sisters’, whom he said comprised the 98% of the youth taking the going to Europe, seeking asylum just to tarnish the image of the country since 1994. He thought that is not only an unpatriotic act but Unislamic and is punishable by Treason. Although this came on the heels of UDP asylum saga, when he’d used his erstwhile unwise Presidential Affairs Minister Momodou Sabally to accuse the US & UK, and insult a whole ethnic group for being tribalist, I believe Jammeh sees no urgency in mitigating the migration because it works in his favor since the troublesome, unpatriotic bunch are leaving the country to patriots. So he’d not lose a night’s sleep over their death.

This unnatural, schizophrenic by-product of mistaken birth, is a delusional hypocrite, divisive lunatic and a self-aggrandizing, deranged ‘thot’ of a president who never takes credit for his failures as the country’s Chief Executive. After claiming to have had evidence that these people claimed persecution for homosexuality and not on ethnic grounds, how dare he flipped that to make it about a particular tribe?

But here is a government that does not have the political will nor the ability to sustain or enhance any sector of the economy that creates jobs to employ 50 Gambian a year since 2001. A government with a leadership that believes he’s doing the country a favor by reigning over her people, giving them cash handouts, food rations and throwing ridiculously expensive festivals to party their pains away at a time the country is on her deathbed. Today, the largest sectors that employ graduating students or dropouts are the Armed/Security Services and Education (teaching). And even for these areas we have seen active soldiers, police officers and teachers abandoning their posts to take chance with the risky high seas.

We may never be able to stop the Back Way venture for ambitious, unemployed youth would always pursue opportunity somewhere whatever the risk. But had we had a capable, effective and responsible government they would have:

• Put mechanisms in place to mitigate it by not only going on TV to boast about opening schools but not able to get graduates absorbed in the workforce.
• Be able to open skill centers to train the youth and have careers.
• Liberalize the economy, support and encourage small scale businesses by giving tax breaks and/or subsidizethem to be able to flourish and create employment.
• Let the president cease competing with the State and private businessmen as the conflict of interest and competitive advantage is killing the already struggling Gambians.
• Let’s mechanize our Agriculture with adequate focus by revitalizing Jahali Pacharr and other places it instead of Yaya grabbing all arable lands and have the whole country work on his farms.
• Bring back our one-time Tourist Mecca that he’d killed off with his weekly distasteful international headlines that instills fear and erode confidence for tourists.

Evidently, these are not things that President Jammeh and his administration are capable of doing. That leaves us with one remedy for the hand that we’re dealt: CHANGE OF REGIME! Yaya Jammeh and the APRC administration are a bad omen for our nation and they’d have to GO for us to make any significant headway!

Lets continue to sensitize and dissuade our brothers the best we could. The Gambian Artist Bro K has a very messageful song on the ‘Back Way‘.

Good Morning And Peace To The Planet!

Pata PJ

Dear People of South Africa

Whenever I think of your beloved country, the first things that comes to my mind are Nelson Mandela: self liberation, modern architecture, beautiful coasts of Cape Towne and the diverse streets of Johannesburg. Unfortunately, that has changed in recent days with multiple reports of xenophobia. We mourned with you during the days of the apartheid, South Africa. We cried with you. We fought with you, because you are one of us.

The apartheid ended in the year 1992, the same year I was born to Gambian parents.

I was too young to have any memory of the events that had occurred that year. However, I vividly recall hearing stories about the heroics of Madiba in my household and classrooms; De Klerk’s emotional speech and Miriam Makeba’s stunning rendition of ‘N’kosi Sikeleli’ (God Bless Africa), which was the official anthem for four other African nations at the time.

I cried the first time I watched the video of Miriam Makeba singing the South African national anthem. Even though I had very little understanding of the words, I could feel the pain and emptiness in her voice. It was so powerful. I immediately fell in love with South Africa. After all the years of oppression, police brutality, mass incarceration of political activists and depriving citizens of their basic rights, liberty has come.

Few years ago, when it was announced that South Africa will be hosting the 2010 World Cup, I and many other Africans celebrated it like the games were going to be played at our door steps. We took so much pride in it. It was the first of its kind for an African nation to host such a gracious event. It was a sign of progress for the continent.

I was hurt to the core after following reports of the violent attacks on African migrants in South Africa– killing hundreds, leaving many injured. Mama Africa is drowning in her tears for our continual display of hate towards each other, after all the hell we’ve been through. We continue to break each other while our enemies are watching from a safe distance; filled with joy. For the first time in my life, I am ashamed to be one of your sons, Mama Africa. And I say this with deep sadness and despair *Drops Mic*

 Sincerely,

A Broken Hearted African

The looks on Yahya Jammeh’s face are always priceless; nervous, insecure and intimidated. Hon Ousainou Darboe on the other hand, exudes dignity, and is as sure of himself in public, as he is around his old high school buddies. The difference in demeanors between UDP’s Hon. Ousainou Darboe and Yahya Jammeh are a striking mirror of the chasm in their intellectual mismatch and political consciousness. It came to a head last week when Yahya Jammeh’s banal antics finally rubbed the always quite Hon. Ousainou Darboe and his UDP caravan, the wrong way. Evidently, Yahya Jammeh’s provincial mindset lacks the capacity to comprehend the most basic tenets of the Gambian constitution.

The regime choreographed stand-off with the UDP, over the UDP’s constitutionally guaranteed right to hold rallies using loud-speakers, is the latest symptom of the military regime’s hitherto complete and unconstitutional monopoly of the political space in the Gambia. The contentious issue around the UDP/Yahya Jammeh’s military’s stand-off centers on the banning of the use of public address system, which apart from being unconstitutional, and not legally binding, will have adverse effects on UDP’s ability to more effectively communicate its agenda during political rallies. The loud-speaker ban tantamount to censorship of a political party, and is, therefore, disallowed by the Constitution, and counterintuitive in the UDP’s efforts to propagate its agenda to its constituents. For too long, Gambia’s opposition has been hamstrung by unilateral, draconian laws that effectively straightjacket the opposition into self-censorship and pathetic powerlessness.

The complete domination of the public space by the military regime under Yahya Jammeh, has periodically been reinforced by gruesome acts of violence on innocent Gambians, designed to instill more fear and preempt the opposition’s political effectiveness, and it has worked well; until now. Hon. Ousainou Darboe and his entourage must demonstrate political fortitude in order to perpetuate the view of not putting up with Yahya Jammeh’s ugly political stunts. And as Ousainou Darboe and his supporters languish in Fass Njaga Choi, it behooves opposition leaders of other parties to join him there as a show of political solidarity.

The Gambian diaspora and the political establishment have a compelling need to see the political opposition coalesce around Hon. Darboe, in defiance of the unilateral laws passed by Yahya Jammeh to stifle the opposition. The Fass Njaga Choi stand-off, over the use of loud-speakers in public meetings, speaks to Yahya Jammeh stifling of opposition’s effectiveness. Over the past two decades, there has been intermittently spiking of the political temperature to unsuccessfully provoke reaction and the use of brutal force by agents of the regime.

But the stand-off, this week, represents a new departure from the craven political system that vividly demonstrates the desire to monopolize the political space, at the total exclusion of the combined opposition. As the rest of Africa stands its ground, in opposition to the life-time imperial regimes, the UDP’s defense of its own constitutional rights, has opened a window to active participation in Gambia’s political life, for the opposition.

In this stand-off, Gambians have a momentum, which highlights the necessity for political change, and cannot afford indifference to what is happening by not trying to create a critical mass of dissent; not only by the UDP supporters, but all Gambians, regardless of tribe and party affiliation. Today, Gambians have an opportunity to enshrine the stand-off saga as both a pivotal moment in Gambian politics, and as a catalyst for political change.

This is not a run-of-the-mill confrontation with Yahya Jammeh, because Hon. Ousainou Darboe, as head of the main opposition, is no ordinary politician, and any tiff that involves him, will not be treated lightly by a watchful international community. Yahya Jammeh is aware his cruel record is now public knowledge in the international community, and we should spare no opportunity to further tarnish his record; a record drenched in the blood of Gambians and non-Gambians alike. The stand-off in Nuimi between Hon Ousainou Darboe and Yahya Jammeh, tacitly acknowledges the on-going suppression of free speech as an underhanded violation of Gambians’ constitutional rights, and by extension, the violation of UDP’s right to use loud-speakers in its political rallies, for more effective communication.

Clearly, Gambians around the globe are livid over the UDP/Yahya Jammeh stand-off, particularly at a time, when democracy and the rule of law are breaking in African countries, near and far. The time to stand up for our constitutional rights is long overdue. Hon. Ousainou Darboe and the UDP have shown the way. We call on all young Gambians to coalesce around their interest; support Hon. Ousainou Darboe in this stand-off. The time to stand our ground is NOW.