Until this Thursday morning of August 19, 2021following eleven hours of beautiful uninterrupted rain, I indeed tried to ignore the ongoing argument surrounding the controversial statement made by President Adama Barrow that he alone cannot grant former President Jammeh amnesty from his interview with Pa Nderry Touray of Paradise FM Radio.

In the first place, the idea of Jammeh yearning for amnesty as if he had already been convicted of committing any crime is a flawed notion entertained only by consumers of the Essa Faal Kool-Aid; and I believe Mr. Touray has proven his overdose from the concoction. As a matter of fact, nowhere in the interview did President Barrow say anything about granting amnesty to former President Jammeh after Mr. Pa Nderry Touray fired him the unfair question which he perfectly answered by clarifying how a democratic government and president function on the matter. By merely implying to Mr. Touray that his government is waiting for the TRRC report-that is yet to be completed and submitted for review-which will require comprehensive evaluation from all branches of government including expert appraisal and advice before he can finally do anything tells a different story from the misinterpreted words of the president. Barrow somehow indicated that the “White Paper” that will be produced after everything is said and done will ultimately reveal the position of his government hinged on a purely democratic process.

I don’t know how else President Barrow could have responded to Mr. Nderry’s question who in my view asked that unwarranted question to perhaps corner him in a tough spot in the middle of a prospective APRC-NPP coalition talks. No wonder the intellectual fraudsters and the low IQ analysts and activists grabbed the poisonous red meat for the hungry gullible wolves.

For the deceivers to say that the APRC executive were asking for Jammeh’s amnesty and Barrow saying that he alone cannot grant Jammeh one is both inaccurate and unconscionable.

What we need to teach the “Jammeh doctrinaires” is that Barrow cannot govern like Jammeh because the two systems of government they superintended are totally different in principle and style. Jammeh as a soldier had seized power by force of arms in 1994 while Barrow contested an election and won in 2016. I know that my good brother and wonderful friend Malick Mbye will argue based on my own previous revelations that Barrow had won an election rigged by the IEC which was illegal; but by the same token, my other friend and government spokesman Ebrima Sankareh still cannot be convinced of the legitimacy of Jammeh’s ascension to power by overthrowing the democratically elected PPP government in 1994. Who is right or wrong in this intriguing dilemma or squabble reminiscent of the age-defying altercation over whether the end justifies the means or vice-versa will in this case be argued by scholars up to the end of time.

From my understanding however, the APRC Executive is pursuing the same arrangement that during Jammeh’s era had facilitated and brought about the successful return of former President Sir Dawda Jawara back home following his voluntary or involuntary departure from the Gambia on the very day of the 1994 coup. Jawara was indeed accused by the Jammeh government of committing many crimes and gross abuse of power during his 32 years in power of which if a TRRC was commissioned to at least look into the atrocities of his government in 1981 with the involvement of Senegal it would have probably been characterized as genocide. Anyway after everything that had transpired Jawara was never convicted of any crimes although given the unceremonious way he had departed the country in 1994, his coming back home required an executive endorsement that also entailed an orderly process. By the way, how long did the APRC government take to finally see the need to allow Jawara to come back home in the orderly manner it was conducted? Besides, it had to be done contingent to the national security of the nation, a politically profitable outcome or both. Essentially if Jammeh hadn’t realized any political benefit in allowing Jawara to return home and instead saw it as an existential threat to the national security of the Gambia he definitely wouldn’t have agreed to the old man’s return. So the question is, will Barrow be that politically naive to disregard all unfavorable probabilities to his government by allowing Jammeh to come back home after the latter’s unceremonious departure in 2017? I don’t think so; nonetheless I can categorically say that if allowing Jammeh to come back home today adds to his vision of establishing and reinforcing a good and sustainable government in the country he will without hesitation do so. Courting the APRC for a coalition seems to be edging towards that expectation.

Notwithstanding, let us not behave too unsophisticated and expect Barrow to govern in the way Jammeh used to govern and expect him to survive in this modern era.

Because of his distinctive military orientation or style of governance Jammeh could wake up and say that he alone could bring back Jawara-not necessarily an amnesty-and make sure that he gets all his entitlements as a former president and nobody in the country would question or challenge it; Jammeh could wake up and declare the country an Islamic State without consulting any branch of government or anyone in the country and it will happen; Jammeh could disregard all medical ethics, risks, implications, rules and regulations, declare himself a bush-doctor, open his private clinic, manufacture his own drugs and start treating patients suffering from different ailments and no Gambian dared to challenge or question the logic; Jammeh could invite strange foreign sorcerers into the country and order them to hunt for witches and exorcise the compelling monster in them that makes them feed on human flesh and it happens only challenged by Halifa Sallah, Sam Sarr (PDOIS not me) and Sidia Jatta, three people in a population of 2 million inhabitants; yes, Jammeh could do a lot of normal and weird things without the endorsement of any Gambian, his cabinet, his judiciary and the parliament. Was that a proper way of governing a democratically elected president guided by a reasonable constitution? I will leave the readers and our hotheaded Jammeh Doctrinaires to toy with that answer. What is evident however is that most Gambians had lived through those events including the top critic of Jammeh Essa Faal and had behaved as everything was cool and dandy.

President Adama Barrow cannot and will not behave that way unless he wants the IEC Chairman Alieu Momar Njie to come up with two sets of results in the December 2021 presidential election declaring him loser in both. I don’t know about you guys but Samsudeen Sarr is not flying out of the Gambia with any ex-president going on exile to Equatorial Guinea or even China.

Samsudeen Sarr

Banjul, The Gambia.

By D. A. Jawo

President Adama Barrow was quite well known for being a humble person who hardly spoke much when he first assumed the presidency. However, he seems to have now changed quite drastically, becoming not only quite outspoken, but also giving too much credit to himself about almost every achievement registered by Coalition 2016 as well as his administration.

Also, as a result of some of his unguarded utterances, he had been causing some controversy, the latest being his threat to “order” the Inspector General of Police to deny permit to all political parties to hold rallies after he wins the forthcoming presidential elections in December. However, after a lot of noise about that threat from virtually all sectors of the Gambian society, the Government Spokesperson, Ebrima Sankareh came up with a press release to try and give it a different interpretation.

Of course, Mr. Sankareh was quite in order to issue such a press release because by the very nature of his job, it is his responsibility to do everything possible to always give a positive image of the administration as well as the President. However, he needs a lot of help from President Barrow himself if he is to succeed in portraying a positive image of the administration. If President Barrow continues with his present attitude of using his frequent meetings with various ethno-linguistic and other parochial groups at the State House on weekends to freely tell all kinds of stories and making unguarded comments without considering the implications, it would be hard to see how Mr. Sankareh or anyone else would be able to continue to brush his image. He speaks in a language that virtually everyone understands and it would therefore be quite hard for Mr. Sankareh to convince people that he meant something else and not what he said.

While we can understand that President Barrow is still learning on the job and he needs to be given chance to adjust to the situation, but, after almost five years as head of state, everyone expected him to have learnt the rudiments of protocol and know that as head of state, his every action and every word he utters would be subjected to scrutiny. Therefore, he should stop talking freely in such gatherings as if he is in a village bantaba where he can say anything and no one would hold him to account. He should understand that even though he is a good story teller, usually punctuating his stories with innuendos and cliches, he needs to understand that as head of state, it is not always to his advantage to narrate everything he was involved in. For instance, his recent stories about being indirectly involved in desecrating graves to use spiritual means to help obtain the release of Ousainou Darboe and his colleagues, as well as narrating how as a child he used to climb 500-metre tall ‘kaba’ trees, were subjects of public ridicule which he should try and avoid.

Therefore, in order to minimize such gaffes and controversies, President Barrow needs to often consult with the Minister of Information and/or the Government Spokesperson before any public speaking engagement so that they can guide him on what areas he should avoid. This is particularly important for this period when the elections are less than four months away.

By Amran Gaye

I don’t know who this Sankareh guy is writing press releases for the State House, but he really needs to be replaced. Even apart from the amateurish writing and terrible proofreading, this continuously petty, whining and defanteh tone is not fit to be the voice of our Government. I’ve also noticed that he has a very narrow and simplistic view of what democracy is – you can see it in the half-baked arguments he makes as he tries to defend Barrow’s actions.

I finally had enough today after seeing this latest press release claiming that what the president said about “no political activity” was “exaggerated”, while also threatening (I don’t know what else to call it) that the president would silence people who use “insults and foul language” by working with the National Assembly to draft laws against such words.

Meaning of course that Sankareh and his boss get to choose what constitutes “insults and foul language”. Imagine an NPP rally where someone is insulting UDP or PDOIS – you really think they will be stopped or arrested under these new laws? Meanwhile imagine it happening in the opposite direction, with someone being vehemently critical of NPP at an opposition rally or even online. What do you think will happen then? That’s ALL these kinds of laws are for. They come wrapped in sanctimonious prose about “being civil to each other” etc. But it has nothing to do with that – all it is is giving the incumbent the power of censorship, and therefore the power to control the conversation. These same laws are present in every single dictatorship on earth.

What it comes down to daal is this: We are ADULTS we do not need the government to regulate what we can and cannot say; we don’t need Barrow or any president to approve our words before we are allowed to speak them; he is not our parent or guardian. It is long past time we move past this nonsense of thinking of our leaders as elders we cannot speak honestly with or challenge. We literally elect these people and are paying for their salaries, feeding, housing, travel – every single thing.

Barrow, Sankareh, and everyone else who works under him are our public SERVANTS not our masters. I think Sankareh and Barrow himself would do well to remember this, as they seem to have forgotten as he becomes more comfortable with power.

We chased out one dictator, we’re not going to watch a new one build himself up before our eyes. VOTE WISELY IN DECEMBER. That is the only way out of this.

By Madi Jobarteh

Fellow Gambians, regardless of any party or politician one supports, the time to stand up to defend democracy is higher today than ever. Because of our ignorance, dishonesty, indifference, and lethargy hence our silence and apathy we gave fertile grounds for the growth and development of dictatorship from 1994 to 2016. The price we paid for our dishonesty, ignorance and indifference is all too clear to us.

Today, we are seeing the same scenario repeating itself and we have no one to blame but ourselves. If the emergence of dictatorship took us by surprise yesterday, today we cannot claim the same excuse.

On 15 August 2021 the President unambiguously and directly and specifically stated in a public event at State House that come December 4th, if he wins the election, he will close down political activity. To strengthen that resolve, he said he will ask the IGP to not issue any permits to anyone for political activity. That statement by the President is the greatest threat posed to our democracy and Republic. It is a direct violation of the Constitution for which he should have faced impeachment if The Gambia was a normal country!

Effectively, the President intends to turn The Gambia into a one-party state under a tyranny never seen before. This is because when you deny every citizen and every political party to freely and openly participate in the affairs of the country, it means only the President will be left to engage in political activity together with those who support him. That’s the definition of a one-party state!

President Adama Barrow wants to bring back that Yaya Jammeh style of governance where only he and his party engage and participate. In that system, there will be many parties but they conduct politics at a cost to their lives and limb. It means any citizen who wishes to hold the Government accountable does so at his or her own peril. In other words, the country will be claimed to be a democracy but in fact it is a one-party authoritarian state as we had under that Tinpot Dictator. Resist.

The press release issued by his Spokesman Ebrima Sankareh has given us enough information that indeed the President intends to close this country down. Read the last paragraph of that press release to see the true intention of the President and his Government. They are now saying that they will go to the National Assembly to create a law to effectively close down or control social media.

The threat against social media has been ongoing since this Government took over. But remember that if you control, limit or close down social media then it means you are attacking free speech. It also means you are attacking free and independent media. It also means you are attacking freedom of assembly and the rest of our fundamental freedoms.

I am very worried, scared, concerned, angry and disturbed at the idea of controlling social media. This is the only marketplace where citizens have to express themselves hence participate, influence and determine the political life of their communities and country. If you close this space then it means popular participation, transparency and accountability are dead hence corruption, ineptitude, abuse and violations will go unnoticed and unchallenged.

If indeed the President’s concern was only about the insults spewed from mainly political opponents, then the President should be the first to address his supporters to stop insulting. NPP and Barrow supporters in general are among the leading insulters in the country. But the President has never stopped or suspended or expelled any supporter because of insults. Therefore it is false to claim that the President is concerned about insults on social media.

Therefore, all Gambians must now recognize that President Adama Barrow poses a clear and present danger to democracy and the peace and stability of the Republic. The President is the leading threat to human rights contrary to his oath of office and the Constitution.

Citizens must be ready to stop him. Let us not allow party politics, tribalism, indifference and other sectarian considerations make us ignore the national threat we face from none other than the President himself. This President wants to turn this country into a dictatorship. All citizens have a historic and constitutional right and duty to resist that. 100%.

Stand up against Tyranny! Defend Democracy.

For The Gambia ?? Our Homeland

By Madi Jobarteh

The press release of the Government Spokesman Ebrima Sankareh seeking to clarify the anti democratic comments of the President is unnecessary and not true. To claim that the President’s remarks came about because of his concern about insults in political discourse is unfounded. This is because President Barrow was a witness when his ministers, surrogates and supporters have used his own political rallies to rain insults on his opponents.

During his meet the people’s tours, the President sat in rallies as his supporters released missiles of insults without him taking any step to stop them right in the middle of their tirades. If he were concerned, he would have made sure such people are stopped ASAP and reprimanded. That’s what responsible leaders do.

Rather, we saw how the President was giggling when his Minister Henry Gomez was ridiculing opposition leader Ousainou Darboe in their Brikama rally in 2019. Just a few weeks ago, Barrow was again smiling as Minister Hamat Bah called political opponents rats. Barrow never stopped them rather he enjoyed the show.

There are uncountable media platforms in support of Barrow where his supporters continuously insult, ridicule and abuse individuals they disagree with or oppose. I have been a subject of such ridicule and insults from prominent Barrow supporters which are shared in his social media platforms. https://youtu.be/VesV5Snr01I

Therefore if Sankareh is claiming that the President is concerned about insults, I wish to state that Ebrima G Sankareh is indeed speaking bongums. What the President said about shutting down politics, whatever that means, is not a slip of the tongue or a concern about insults or anything. Otherwise we would have seen Barrow cleanse his own social media platforms first and publicly sanction supporters who indulge in insults and abuse. But he never did.

Indeed what the President said is the imagination and advice from his technocrats including the Minister of Information Ebrima Sillah and his Spokesman Ebrima Sankareh and others in State House. That’s the only interpretation we can give otherwise Sillah or Sankareh would have told the President to avoid such undemocratic statements. But this is their thinking that they are hellbent on implementing someday.

This threat to clamp down on political activity and freedom of expression is a calculated attempt to silence citizens. It is intended to shield the President and his Government from public scrutiny. It is a means to prevent anyone from holding Barrow and his Administration accountable hence serve to perpetuate corruption, cover up ineptitude, abuse of office and human rights violations.

Therefore Barrow and his Ministers, technocrats and advisors know very much what he is talking about. Just because they have failed to control the narrative, now their strategy therefore is to silence every voice so that they would become the only source of opinion and information in the country. That’s the definition of dictatorship.

Therefore let Sankareh shove this nonsensical press release to where he wants it, but no Gambian should waste time to even give it the benefit of doubt. Rather all citizens must become alert and vigilant that this unconstitutional and undemocratic words of the President are indeed the voice of a dictator! We must resist! Now.

Therefore, on my part, I wish to send Ebrima Sankareh to both Pres. Adama Barrow and IGP Abdoulie Sanyang to tell them that we The Gambia people shall not allow and will resist to death their diabolical attempt to close our mouths and our eyes! This country does not belong to them and they are not the kings of The Gambia!

The sovereignty of The Gambia resides in the People of The Gambia and all State organs, institutions and public officials derive their power, legitimacy and authority from we the People, and all State organs, institutions and public officials perform their duties on our behalf and for our welfare. This is the language of the Constitution that Adama Barrow swore to uphold and defend on the 19 January 2017 in Dakar, Sénégal.

A word to the wise is enough!

For The Gambia ?? Our Homeland

By Dibba Chaku

It has become apparent that one thing that continues to reverberate in President Barrow’s ears is the notion that he and his administration are the ones that allow freedom of expression and politicking in our new dispensation, and this is far-fetched. Mr. President is being ill-advised that the presumed autocratic powers that his predecessor had and used to stifle dissent and abrogate the rights of Gambians are the same powers at his disposal. Hence the recent premonition that political agitators on the other side of the aisle will be barred from navigating the political landmines after the December polls in which he is anticipating victory. Will this be the beginning of the erosion of democratic principles, or is it just an incumbent drenched in a pool of paranoia trying to resuscitate a re-election agenda that appears to be on life support? Either way, democracy appears to be in danger.

Should we remind Mr. President that the freedom that Gambians are enjoying today was not conceived and born within three months? Matter of fact, it had a twenty-two-year gestation period that ravaged families, consumed lives, incapacitated many, exiled others, disenfranchised a lot, and irreversibly changed lives. So, when the Gambian people voted for change in 2016, it was not because we saw a would-be quintessential leader in Adama Barrow. Instead, we knew we had a situation that decelerated from bad to severely messed up, and that the status quo could not be allowed to continue in perpetuity. That was a common denominator that bound us together as a unifying force to take on a dictator who thought his military might and spiritual capabilities were enough fortification against all forces. This freedom of ours was never given to us on a silver platter, it was earned and will be safeguarded against usurpation.

It is my fervent belief that the powers vested in Mr. President today will be the exact same powers that he will have after the December polls should he win the elections. So why wait until December to use those powers? If they are advising you that you have both manpower and firepower to stifle dissent, why not act now? You can go ahead and instruct your Inspector General of Police to start dancing to your music if the choreography is indeed lively. It would be interesting to see if the IG and his men will be coerced to stifle dissent by any means necessary as a way of appeasing their commander-in-chief who is now averse to multiparty democracy and dissenting views. Watching that crowd erupt in a clapping frenzy as Mr. President vows to stop political opponents from holding rallies and other political activities after the December polls is just mind-boggling.

A great writer once wrote that “the mind is a powerful force. It can enslave us or empower us. It can plunge us into the depths of misery or take us to the heights of ecstasy. Learn to use the power wisely.” Do not be misguided by those who know better, but just will not do better like they have done when your predecessor was at the mantle of leadership in The Gambia.