Yaya Jammeh’s regime for twenty-two years, refused to set the table for situations of caring and placing the mechanisms of trust that galvanizes Gambia to prosper and its citizens to thrive. Instead, the regime continues to put up a model of combativeness, isolation and promotes distrust among Gambians — so that we do not move beyond the depression of dictatorship. Dictatorship in Gambia continues to be a disastrous toxic flash flood that— sweeps away the all our opportunities, widens our worries, cracks all the pillars of our nationhood, reveals all the nations incomprehensible weakness and separated us from the rest of the world. Our Nation have been marginalized. Our people feel commonly invisible among other things because— the regime decided to endeavor into adventures that largely abandons the ordinary Gambian. It’s quite an issue that— now our communities are laced with enormous problems which reduced us to begin our prayers with complains, instead of thankfulness. In a strange surprise that the regime brought along a host of consequences including — embarrassing Scandals filled to the brim, bloated policies that tears our fabrics of societies and growing a laundry list of humiliations that continues to fall on us like dominoes stacked together.
To this day, Gambians cannot find a passion because we have a leader who is always actively looking for an isolation exit on anything that unites us. Our codes of etiquette, our shared morals among ourselves are replaced by penchant for cruelty— and a kind of selfishness that encourages preying on the weak. More than anything, they have successfully inculcated a culture of partisanship above our virtues— that made us once an exceptional nation in the past. Yaya Jammeh continues to twist the minds of Gambians— for him to continue to serve the bad system that is— destructive to our values of neighborliness, tolerance, care for each other and sweep along truncated watered down versions. The elation that so many Gambians hope for in a leader — even showing basic values that he cared for all Gambians, is missing in his personality. The regime’s use of power to settle political scores is now obviously not to the taste of many Gambians but— that is what pleases Yaya Jammeh. He makes sure he dresses in different layers of clothes, drive the widest hummer truck in the country and enjoy the best dishes of healthy food. Yet, he ensures political detainees in mile-2 are deprived of sleep in squalid cells, denied clean clothes and given barely edible food.
Meanwhile, we aren’t allowed to be openhearted and open-minded because dictatorship see us as objects to be used, but not as unique citizens. Our feelings are all self-enclosed because everywhere you turn — there is an NIA or a soldier with a gun listening to our conversations. We have to constantly nurture our hopes, swallow our pains and must guard-down our posture because we always have to overcome moments of betrayal. Today, Gambians have seen fresh hand, how the APRC regime reacts to political stampede by its leader resorting to extremely radical statements— promoting disunity and his utter contempt for disregard of Gambian lives. Our country is certainly awash in distrust with stories of betrayal and broken promises. Ironically, they only use compassionate words when they have to deliver bad news— to buffet all the trends that will lead to Gambians turn our backs on them. The sad thing is— some Gambians seem to have settled into comfortable denial about these painful reminders, despite all evidence and caution notwithstanding.
Gambians cannot reconnect with the living center of the national story nor the struggles of our founders because dictatorship erases our memory with fear and shredded all the standards of intellectual virtue and replaced it with incompetent. The Regime have long thrived on devaluing their contributions to our nation, menacingly transformed our neighborhoods by —renaming our streets among themselves and delegitimized our concerns by— refusing to look down on their noses to see our problems. Yahya Jammeh made it clear that— he is determine to erased our dignity such a way that we question the basic decency of others. The story of one Mr. Marong —whom was arrested during the April 16 th demonstrations, lost his eye sight because he is constantly kept in dark cell and denied proper medical operations —by armed guards working under the directives of the regime. As Gambians, we can’t even imagine that —minds within our midst could conceive such barbarism towards our fellow citizens.
The concern most Gambian have about this regime is — it has not only hoard everything that belongs to the nation away from us, nor willing to lightening up on their destructive policies, but they always want to convinced a whole swath of the country that they are morally superior. The need for a course correction remains to be seen with this regime after 22 years in power. Gambia is thanklessly seeking for a change. Yaya Jammeh’s unfinished wishes or his goals aren’t exactly worth us lapsing back into dictatorship into 2017 upcoming year. Gambia have been chocking with pain of dictatorship and it time to cough it all up December 1st inside the polling station. Let’s all encourage our families to vote for the coalition candidate— Adama Barrow.
By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)
