No doubt dictatorship has fractured our country. Most importantly, Gambia is about to go on another level of hyperactive downright dangerous brutal dictatorship, binge with new breeds of crocodiles if we don’t knit our divisions together. We already went through a generation of “Lost children of smiling coast episodes”, our society turn upside down and national embarrassments that lend us the “crying coast of west Africa”. Here we are, smack in the month of September, with two months left for a chance of getting through all the information we need about those aspiring to lead us and their initiatives but when you read the news stories about what is being said every day on the online radios, you get bored to confusion. And when you browse to the cauldron of social media, you really experience the depth of that divide. The most consequential election is around the corner but it probably should not be a surprised to many Gambians that we might actually earn our way to a united coalition after many bruises and frustrations along the way by “Gambian time” sharp 11:59pm at worst case scenario.
However, at the core of everything, Gambian online celebrity prognosticators are at work again claiming not to be belonging to— neither here —nor there— but everywhere, Inculcating Gambians with a sense that the Diasporia is the enemy of progress instead of Yaya Jammeh and his IEC. That is not a recipe for ensuring unity and harmony but eventually, we hope they will come back to reality walking back many of their provocative positions almost daily until they get to where all our hearts are to rally behind the unity line. Every in-depth conversation or facts that were once based on merit, is now devolve into animosity with lingering bitterness— by people engaged in sloganeering and self- aggrandizement campaign against a particular candidate. This upcoming presidential elections yarns for unity in order to encourage Gambians to grow out of fear, more hopeful about their future, and be influence by the dire conditions on the ground to cast that vote of “NO” to dictatorship. We should all be encouraging the Gambians to take on the rotten system because we all agree that we are not in pleasant times but in darkest days of terror. Let’s not kid ourselves, every Gambian knows far more than they will admit — Yaya Jammeh is bad news for Gambia and we need to put all our energy behind one candidate to take on Yaya Jammeh.
The twenty-year odyssey of depression our country went through should become an urgent rallying cry for unity. Sound familiar? But the vitriol campaign of few surrogates have bring out one of the worst character traits of some Gambians— the self-centered who feel their name recognition will enable them to beat online radio listeners and news site readers into submission. Sometimes, though, those who think they are the smartest planners or have an incredible insight of things, lose sight of what matters most. Such people are suddenly empowered to enforce their views on us as if we are their subordinates in the barracks. Rather than jump on the bandwagon, take into account their uncompromising resistance of a qualified independent candidate and if you don’t think that the rigid resistance from some people over the past week wasn’t a bit over the top, challenge yourself to imagine: the hope that those political prisoners across the country, the extraordinary challenges our mothers face daily making ends meet, and probability waking up with the worst dictator in the history of our country in state house.
Lastly, I want to narrate an event during which a man came hurling obscenities to a scholar sitting among his students. Everybody seems to be surprised that the scholar didn’t utter a word back to the man insulting him. When the man left, the students asked him “Why didn’t you say anything or let us do something”? He responded. If I responded to him, then how would I explain the chapter with the verse “…when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace”. The lesson we derive from that episode is, lets continue our work on uniting all the candidates on a united front — to lead the way to victory. We should all be working hard together to unite all the candidates under one ticket just as we do to help repatriate a dead body or funds to assist a Gambian in need. We all should be highly motivated to put our difference aside for Gambia too, genuinely open to finding shared common ground, help turned the anger and frustration of Gambian people into a winning strategy to end dictatorship.
Gambians prefer the vision of government we can finally trust to move us closer to the freedom we yearn for on December 2nd, reconcile our differences and showcase our belief in ourselves as one indivisible nation. We do not have the time to counterbalance autocratic impulse because our challenges are mounting each day when Yaya Jammeh sits behind that desk. Manipulating Gambians into believing misleading stories leaves behind broken glasses on your pathway on your way back to reality. One lone individual Gambian politician does not have all the answers and cannot build back all our broken institutions, bring in developmental projects, implement new energy systems to solve the electricity crisis, new interstate highways to connect the whole country, new recycling systems to clean up our neighborhoods, better healthcare systems and a government that works for all. Those are things that we have to do together working in unity. We need a president who shall treat our state house with dignity and respect, and would not allow the monumental problems of petty divisiveness to undermine their optimism and confidence in executing their duties with decorum. So Gambians beware of going it alone and lets not pay attention to non-issues to divide us.
By habib ( A concerned Gambian)
