By Habib
Jammeh is out again with cold feet peddling an amorphous anti-Western, anti-opposition and anti-diasporian resentments. Predictably, truth is the first casualty. Mr. Jammeh’s address was predictable mix of criticism of the 17th century policies, the internet, opposition and self-praise. Yaya Jammeh is left free will by the security forces — rewriting history and dangerously brain washing school children to hate the west and branding the opposition as older bad citizens who long for a leadership.
The rented invitation-only audience were so panic driven that they greeted such self-serving insanity with applause. He vows to start disappearing his opportunist evil opponents as he puts it, burying the opposition 9 feet deep, arbitrary detentions and his regime is determined to move court cases at far end of the country in the provinces— to avoid protestors in the city. Injustice is on wheels tiptoeing around the country. Gambians are smart enough to believe Yaya Jammeh has no strategy beyond trying to politicize every issues near and dear to his heart to make the citizens suffer.
Parents are all tired about their children being used as his ideological crusades with repeated brainwashing “Bathroom” talks. Gambians are feeling helpless by his terrorism and constantly bombarding them with empty propaganda slogans. There will be no end in sight to the mounting death toll of Gambians and the shattered families as long as he stays in office. On every level, economically, fiscally, socially, Gambia is in a lot worse shape and under debt-ridden by Yaya Jammeh inept presidency. Poverty is up. Violent crime by Yaya’s thugs is up. Businesses are all in trouble due to his border closure. The economy is barely growing. People are hurting. All of this combines to create a dysfunctional obfuscated by webs of corruption that fails Gambian taxpayers and undermines public trust.
The haughty childish Gambian maniacal dictator with furious hatred and delusional arrogance has calculated with exaggerated hope that Europe and American will not fight him because they have unusual burdens of undergirded responsibilities. He is proud to get carrot stick “isolationism” —thus his deliberate decision to turn away from the increasingly active global condemnation and recommendation to respect human rights. Appeasement of a dictator by allowing him to buy expensive mansions around the world with webs of secret bank accounts telegraphs weakness and encourage further transgressions on Gambian citizens.
Yaya Jammeh is under political siege and thus invariably resorts to underhand methods to maintain control. These measures are unlikely to save him from determined Gambians if they continue to put aside their superficial differences and united in the interests of the country. Oddly enough, the hardheaded Yaya did not take his friends advise whom had tried awkwardly — and, arguably, unsuccessfully — for him to step down. His Regime has saddled the country with debt as far as the eyes can see, fueled wild expansion of his brutal power, increased interference in everyone’s daily lives and made the country’s economy one of the worst in the world. It’s no wonder his colleagues in the continent are growing increasingly tired of him shaming the continent.
Leadership is about more than making promises or saying the same thing over and over again. His unwillingness or inability to seize the moment to show that he can lead the nation in a moment of crisis underscored the suspicion of many that his 22-year experience and his vision are too narrow for the presidency. Despite the relentless stream of deaths, kidnapping, forced disappearance by his executive directions — he out there deliberate, contrived and dishonest about everything. Again, leadership is about more than hewing to talking points. It involves a sensitive understanding of the fears and anxieties of the Gambians and addressing them in a way that inspires trust. Yaya’s unwillingness to level and come clean about his actions against the Gambian people left him threatening every one and calling out names. Yaya Jammeh is no doubt looking for something of enough grandeur to reflect his opinion of himself. A long-standing question has been why the Gambia has been so plagued by such violence from you — mercilessly looting everything.
The sea change in the public mood has come about because his brutal nature on the citizens, wrong direction of the country, his incompetent policies, disinformation, secrecy, oppression, deceit and his deep unpopularity— crystallized public discontent. He also declared war too with the internet routers in Gambia which he categories as “Negative sites” and “Positive internet sites”. He is trying to halt Gambians from listening to his viral videos and tapes on the internet of his failed promises when he ceased power by force in 1994. His persistent concerned about his citizen’s awareness of his stolen wealth, businesses throughout the world, confession of killings and disappearing of citizens by his former military men.
What is especially reprehensible Yaya Jammeh continues to fudge the facts and subjects our citizens to dangerously radical ideas which has become wearingly familiar to the world by now. Gambians remain mired in living standards that lead to disease and death rates on rise due to his policies. This regime is not sustainable. It’s a heavy burden on Gambia. It is Gambians — not Yaya Jammeh — who will suffer as a consequence of a failed nation as a results of his policies.
By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)
