Today marks two years since the Coalition Government took office. Yet it has so far failed to definitively address the question about how long they will serve given what they stated in their MoU. Obviously, the Constitution gives 5 years as the term of office of the president. But Coalition 2016 and its Candidate consciously told citizens in the 2016 presidential elections that they needed only 3 years out of the five-year constitutional mandate and they got the vote! Therefore, after getting into office they cannot now simply abandon 3 years and insist on 5 years just like that! This is a matter of accountability.

That decision to change belongs to We the Almighty People hence the Coalition Government has a life of only 3 years! We expect that Pres. Barrow and each and every leader of Coalition 2016 will respect their own word as well as the decision of the people in voting them into office on the basis of their promise to serve only 3 years. This is not just a political question, but it is also a moral and a national security question.

In the first place it is a political question simply because the leaders of the Coalition are very aware what the Constitution stipulates as tenure of office of the president. Secondly, they claimed that they will institute a three-year transitional administration even though they also know that they were inheriting a government that is in tatters thanks to 22 years of authoritarian rule. Yet these leaders decided among themselves to create a 3-year transitional government to address the issues and concerns of the society and then usher in a democratic dispensation at the end of the day.

They were not forced or coerced in anyway to make this decision. Rather they did so on their own volition. Therefore, should we allow politicians to face the people to deliver promises on the basis of our laws and institutions only to renege on their stated agreements when they finally got the consent of the people? Should this practice be allowed to perpetuate then how do we hold to account any individual who seeks or occupies the mandate of the people? What kind of political culture and practice will we nurture in this country if politicians can claim A and then fail to deliver A but then turn around to claim B? It is in light of these political questions that we must insist that Pres. Barrow and his Coalition Government leave office by 19 January 2020 as agreed by themselves!

These political questions also raise a fundamental moral question because political leaders are also moral leaders. They influence the attitudes and behaviour of citizens, negatively or positively. Making promises and keeping them is a moral issue. A society where citizens can make promises, agreements and commitments only to abandon them midway is a society that is heading for chaos. It is an act of cheating, dishonesty and inconsistency. Even between friends, the practice of cheating, dishonesty and inconsistency must not be entertained much more by those who seek the people’s mandate to run Government.

A Government is too powerful a tool to be left in the hands of men and women who are prepared to cheat, lie and be dishonest in broad daylight. For that matter, Pres. Barrow and his Coalition Government must demonstrate high morals by accepting their own agreement and campaign promises as contained in their Manifesto and step down by 19 January 2020. Failure to do so means this Coalition Government would be no different from the authoritarian regime of Yaya Jammeh which was also notorious for inconsistency, dishonesty and cheating citizens.

Failure to submit to their own MoU and Manifesto it means the Coalition Government will pose a challenge to national security simply because they would have caused a large section of the population to lose trust and confidence in our political leaders and public institutions. Where citizens doubt their leaders and mistrust their government then such a society is at risk because it has the tendency to make citizens disrespect decision-makers and take the law into their own hands. This is a threat to national security.

Secondly, there are a multitude of citizens who voted for the Coalition simply because they expected that they will spend only three years in power. By seeking to extend that without the consent of the people means those citizens would be compelled to use any means legal, nonviolent, peaceful and constitutional to see to the end of this Coalition Government. By these means therefore the country could be subjected to ungovernability hence retard the national development process and further aggravate the dire living conditions of the people. This is a threat to national development.

In light of the above, I wish to call on the parties and the leaders that constitute Coalition 2016 to reconvene immediately in order to address the terms and objectives that brought them together in the first place. It is not enough for individual Coalition members to claim that there is no Coalition because of the apparent abandonment of the Coalition MoU by the President. It is also problematic for other individual members of the Coalition to insist that Barrow will serve five years because that is what is in the constitution as if they never knew that in October 2016 when they constituted their Coalition and its MoU.

This period calls for mature, honest and responsible leadership which is what we expect from the six political parties together with the independent candidate as well as Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang all of who constituted Coalition 2016. These leaders must come together to find a way as to how to ensure that the Coalition Government steps down at three years or if it has to continue for five years, how they will justify and defend that democratically and constitutionally to the people. These are the fundamental political and moral questions before the Coalition leaders and parties and the nation awaits their urgent action.

Otherwise what we expect from those Coalition leaders who do not wish to be part of the betrayal if this Government is to go for five years regardless is for them to declare their disagreement publicly and resign their parties and their ministers and officials out of the Coalition of Government. Failure to do so means those parties and their leaders are still part and parcel of the decisions and actions of this Coalition Government.

For the Gambia Our Homeland

Koidu City, Eastern Sierra Leone, Friday 18 January 2018 – His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio has visited the diamond-rich district of Kono, eastern Sierra Leone, as part of his nationwide thank-you-tour and assured a mammoth welcoming crowd of the possibility of a state-of-the-art science university in Koidu City.

In his welcome address, the Honourable Paramount Chief Member of Parliament, Sahr Yongai Kontanday Mbriwa of Fiama Chiefdom, said it was an honour to receive the President and his entourage in Kono for the first time since the new government in April last year.

He confirmed that President Bio’s visit was historic because it also marked the grand home-coming ceremony of Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh and the country’s First Lady, Her Excellency Fatima Bio, both of them said to have been born and raised in the cosmopolitan diamond mining and cash crop producing district.

“We the people of Kono are extremely happy to receive you, sir. This shows how much value you have attached to us as a people. We also want to thank you for the government appointees from Kono and for the introduction of the Free Quality Education, but most importantly, we thank you for your dream of providing a university for the people of Kono. We shall forever remain grateful to your government and the Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party at large,” he said.

Mayor of Koidu City, Komba Mathew Sam, said they were happy to have the president to the district of precious minerals and expressed hope at the prospect of them benefitting from the New Direction Government’s effort at prioritising education.

“We appreciate your government, Mr President, for the Free Quality Education that you have introduced. This is the first time after almost a decade that 17 schools in Kono have been approved and have received their packages of the Free Quality Education,” he disclosed.

Mayor Sam thanked the government for its sustained plans and steps in the fight against corruption in the country and pledged their support the government in the pursuit of political accountability. He said fighting and ending corruption was the only way to assure the country of lasting development.

He thanked the President for his thought of giving Kono district their own university and announced that the Koidu City administration had already provided 17 acres of land for the construction of the said university. He, however, encouraged President Bio to continue his support for Kono so that they too could develop as other cities in the country had been.

The Vice President, Dr Juldeh Jalloh, said that President Bio was the promised saviour, meant to transform the country with honesty and sincerity. He introduced the President as the godfather of the Free Quality Education and a man who had pledged to increase the human capital investment through education to a level never attained in the country.

In his response, His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio said in amazement that he was happy with the turnout of people who had left their many busy schedules to welcome him to Kono, where he had gone to thank them for overwhelmingly voting him as President in the 2018 elections.

He told them that he had prepared for several years to govern Sierra Leone with righteousness so that he would usher in lasting development.

“My victory as a president is as a result of the collective support of everybody, including that of Kono. I have long prepared for this leadership and I will not be failing you. I will use every energy in me to ensure that Sierra Leone is transformed into a place that everybody will be proud of. Diamond and gold will vanish, the only thing that is sure to transform this country is human capital development. This is the reason I have placed 21% of the country’s annual budget to support education. This, I think, is the best offer every right-thinking Sierra Leonean should embrace with all sobriety,” he assured.

President Bio added that the Commissions of Inquiry were a genuine fight against alleged thieves and that emphasised that it would not target any sect or tribe or region, but would investigate wicked people who had robbed the country of her resources.

“Anyone who stands in the progress of the Commissions of Inquiry will receive the stiffest resistance from me. There was no enough reason why the country suffered from the civil war, but if fighting is the last resort for the Commissions of Inquiry to progress and stop corruption in the country, then it is a rightful fight that we must do to ensure we eradicate thieving and embezzlement from politics,” he assured.

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Individuals have a right to share information and analysis that could be subjective, objective or false. Such information and analysis could also be politically motivated. But such information and analysis cannot necessarily pose a challenge to the extent of threatening national security.

‘Fake news’ may be unpleasant but it’s not the case that it poses a national security challenge. Well before social media emerged in the world so-called fake news have always existed. In most cases such fake news in fact emanates from the Government!

Having more facts to testify than most Gambians regarding the injustices perpetrated against the people;   having languished in Mile Two Prisons at the Maximum Security Wing in both the First and Second Republic, in those very cells which petrified those men in uniform but not one like me who dared to continue to speak truth to power, over and over again, risking being taken to the same dungeon, I still chose not to appear before the Commission because I have no pain in my heart to heal. Duty compelled me to do everything I had done to combat injustice.

I do forgive Ex Captain Momat Cham even though I have no choice but to prove his guilt of outrageous fabrication of evidence.

Being a symbol of national reconciliation I would not want to undermine the spirit of the Commission by discrediting the testimony of Ex Captain Cham in the press alone without subjecting myself to inquiry before the Commission .That would not be credible.

I would want the witness to be recalled to tell the truth. If there is any provision for confrontation between us for the truth to be known I hereby declare my readiness for the exercise.

No soldier has ever met me in my home. A group of soldiers came to the PDOIS office where I was buried for days monitoring and receiving intelligence report on the situation. The share number of senior Military officers who came with weapons should have frightened any light-hearted human being.  They met me composed and contemplative of their mission.

My interaction with a soldier whom I did not know was brief since I wanted them to leave the premises with speed. A Ministerial post was offered and I told the person that they will get my reply. They visited Sam Sarr who lived next door to the PDOIS office and stayed a bit longer than expected. I advanced towards Sam’s house to find out what was going on and met him bidding them goodbye. Sam told me that they were trying to convince him after rejecting the offer outright.

The clear evidence we had that the coup makers were working to form a Government compelled me to put a dent to their plan by writing a letter  to reject the offer and  also state the principles of its rejection based on the sovereignty of the Republic and the sovereignty of the people. This was done so that the letter would circulate in order to prepare the base for resistance should they go against our recommendations to open up discussion with the political parties and other National stakeholders.

The next day, a Sunday the letter was given to Sam Sarr to deliver at the state house. They would not allow him to see the coup leaders and he left the letter with them and called Captain Kanteh to inform him of the letter. This letter was an open one which was published by the Foroyaa newspaper for general information.

Not only were the coup makers aware of our outright rejection of their offer, the whole nation was also  informed of the grounds of rejection by publishing the letter for all to read.

When Ex Captain Cham and Ex Captain Samsideen Sarr were arrested, our publications showed that we came to the defence of their human rights.

His testimony is evidenced by a total disregard for truth, good faith and the National Interest at this most crucial stage of our history.

I am a hundred percent sure that if I am confronted with Captain Momat Cham he dares not say that he saw me at the State House not to talk about being late for a ministerial appointment.

A truth and reconciliation commission deserves something better from an officer in Gambia Armed Forces. It is dishonourable to fabricate evidence and it is more dishonourable to do so against an honourable person.

My head will remain unbowed and I will forever be absolved by history. Deception is no longer possible. I am ready to resign as Secretary General of PDOIS and retire from seeking political office should any evidence emerge from his testimony under confrontation which remotely resembles the truth not to mention the whole truth.   The truth will prevail and,  to get to the bottom of it, I now challenge the Commission to recall  Captain Momat Cham and invite me to face him so that through exposing his fabrication of evidence  the Commission will know the truth and nothing but the truth.

If the Commission fails to do this, I will not forgive the Commission!!!!!!!!

Dear Sheriff,

It has been more than a full decade since you came up with the idea of an epistolary exchange between the two us while you sojourned in the realm of the Hanoverian Lady at Buckingham Palace and I studied in Atlanta during the reign of George W. Bush. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then and as the social media world luxuriates in the #10YearChallenge, I thought I might as well poke you with an epistle on the upcoming inauguration of the Transgambia Bridge to be presided over by Presidents Macky Sall and Adama Barrow.

There have been many events in the history of our little town, and the greater entity it happens to be a part of, called Mama Africa, but this upcoming ribbon-cutting event, is sure to stand out as one of the most momentous in our history. I have heard many legends about the quest for a bridge on the River Gambia across the Yelli Tenda Bamaba Tenda segment; and one of them happened to be a narration of how former Vice President, the late Sheriff Mustapha Dibba doggedly refused Leopold Sedar Senghores overtures for the construction of this bridge by demanding that our brothers on the oter side of the border pay a ‘ransom’ worth 25 bututs for every bottle top of water in the part of our river that was going to be bridged-Lol! What a story!

Fast forward to January 2019, and I sat in a GRTS panel to discuss the history and economics of the bridge that has become a reality. Our mutual pal and intellectual giant Hassoum Ceesay told me that the late Sheriff Dibba was actually one of the

strongest advocates for the construction of this bridge. And Lo and behold, it was one of the progenitors of the negritude thought who was averse to the construction of this bridge at the time, thanks to the negative advice of his then Tubab Finance Minister, the French man, Jean Collin; what a travesty my good friend; what a blemish on the record of the good old poet and cultural icon! How fallible we remain as human beings despite our best intentions and philosophies!

My good friend, it was a great panel with our historian friend Hassoum (that might be aired later this week on national tv) and I will not give you all the scintillating facts that he dropped in that enriching conversation but I must tell you that Hassoum made me smile when he revealed that the quest for a bridge across the River Gambia predated independence and that one of the greatest tangible efforts made in this direction, came not from the white colonial masters or our less iluustrious cousins from Kiang (Lol!) but from my great granny the legendary Chief Mama Tamba Jammeh who acutally put up a bridge across the Bao Bolong! This feat, according to Hassoum, actually inspired Cherno Baldeh, the Prince of Fulladu (and son of Musa Molloh), to also put up a temporary bridge linking Sankulay Kunda and George Town.

Indeed I must pay tribute to former President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara for the efforts he put up in securing funds for the construction of this bridge even though the poject never saw the light of day during his era. The foundation stone for this bridge was to be laid during the reign of former President Jammeh but the antecedents to that as well as the nature and circumstances of the laying of the foundation stone for the bridge left me less sanguine about the possibility of completion and hitch-free launching as well as operation of the envisaged bridge.

Sheriff, it is true that “man proposes and God disposes”; and you would agree with me that in this earthly chess game in which we all remain virtual pawns we are all at the mercy of that Great Hand of Destiny. So we must then pay tribute to the Kings in this game whose reign happened to have coincided with the fruition of the long-cherished dream of a Transgambia Bridge.

The vision and demeanour of Presidents Macky Sall and Adama Barrow just seem to be the perfect match for the inauguration and operation of this new bridge. Cooperation across our synthetic borders is the key to progress in Africa. That is why I made the following statement in my book “Strum Your Kora: Conversations with Macky Sall” in relation to this bridge project:

This project is reason for me to rekindle hopes for progress on the African integration agenda. It is projects and accords like this that inspired me to write the following poem on our beloved continent:

Africa

Virgin land

Gold in your sand

How can I understand

Your unyielding farm

Lamenting the colonial plan

Will not till this land

Reparation from foreign land

Will not fill your harvest pan

This is the time to think and plan

Change the way you govern your land

Bid the youthful spirit unbound

Engender policies fair and sound

Heed the clarion call of Nkrumah

March together united we stand

This is what Mandela understands

There for each other love in our land

Therefore, Sheriff, my title for this epistle should not baffle you much because the kind of “Alternance” I wish for, and dream about, is not a frequent change of leaders but a change of thought, of paradigm, from rhetoric to praxis. If frequent change of leaders would bring in the real change that our people yearn for in their lives, then Nigeria would have been a paradise on earth by now. So I take my cue from realities like Malaysia and Singapore and not fine-sounding theories.

We have spoken and written about regional integration for decades but the construction of this bridge trumps all the talk for it is indisputable truth that “actions speak louder than words!”

So blame me not my good friend if I should desire and pray that President Macky Sall wins the upcoming election in Senegal and also that President Barrow completes a full term of 5 years as mandated by our constitution, and also seeks another term according to the laws of the land. With the two gentlemen at helm of affairs in our re-energised Senegambian tango, the subregion and the continent at large would be better off for it. Truly there can never be any serious integration at the level of ECOWAS or the African Union if the Senegambian dream remains elusive.

Have a nice weekend my friend and I hope to see you at the launch of this bridge; perchance, we can do a tango to the tunes of Youssou Ndour and Jaliba Kuyateh, the distinguished guest artists for this most auspicious occasion.

Momodou Sabally

The Gambia’s Pen

Former Presidential Affairs Minister, Momodou Sabally, is an economist and prolific author.

PRESS STATEMENT BY GACH SECURITY ON THE IMPORTATION OF GUNS INTO THE GAMBIA.

Our attention has been drawn to reports doing media rounds of the interception by The Police of a container of firearms at the Seaport. Being the company at the center of these reports, we deem it necessary to release this statement to shed light on events that are the subject of this report.

GACH Security is a duly registered company under the Laws of The Gambia, with the objective to provide private security for businesses and private households as well as deal in the sale of hunting and recreational firearms.

It would be recalled that for the past 9 decades the importation of firearms for hunting and recreational purposes has been regulated by the Arms and Ammunition Act CAP 21.01 of 1924. Under this Act holders of a valid firearm import license may import certain categories of light firearms for the purpose of hunting and recreation.  In deed at various times, various businesses and individuals have held such licenses and have legally imported hunting guns for especially in the regions “provinces”, where wild hog (pig) hunting is very common and widely practiced, and also for by farmers in scaring away large animals from destroying their groundnut and rice fields.

Having seen a demand for these hunting and recreational hunting, and with the knowledge that a scarcity of well-regulated hunting guns might lead to the smuggling and illegal ownership of guns from neighboring countries, we applied for a License to import firearms and ammunition. Having gone through a strict vetting process and having met the conditions, a license was granted on the 28^thof September 2018.

We placed our first order of hunting guns following the legal process and submitted all relevant documents to customs authorities to facilitate the clearance of the hunting guns. Throughout this process we were transparent and no aspect of the importation process was shrouded in secrecy. If we had any sinister motives we would not have opted to use the Banjul Port knowing fully well of the high-Tech Scanning Machines and effective inspection measures put in place by the Gambia Customs.

The misunderstanding which is at the heart of this whole saga is that free samples were included in the shipment should we intend to place and order for such in the near future. These free samples included the following;

• Blank Pistols which are typically sold in sports and recreational shops. They utilize a blank ammunition which only makes a loud bang and does not have the ability to cause any harm. They are used by farmers to scare away animals and hippopotamus from destroying cash crops, due to the loud sound they make. They are also widely used in cinematic productions. These pistols which can be googled are safe and can cause no harm.

• The other category of weapons are hunting guns which use the regular hunting bullets with scatter pellets as opposed to a single brass or metal bullets. The misunderstanding came from the fact these weapons are shaped like Assault rifles, but are indeed regular hunting guns using regular hunting bullets. A google search comparison of “Mezzanine Fed Shotgun” as opposed to “Assault Rifle” will shed more light on the physical similarities but stark functional differences.

We have informed the authorities of this and submitted all necessary documentation to support our assertion. These free samples shipped without any ammunition were not meant for sale or use but merely as samples should we be interested in placing future orders.

In light of the above and being the responsible thing to do, GACH SECURITY wishes to take this opportunity to profusely apologize to the general public and the authorities for the alarm that this misunderstanding may have caused. We are well mindful of the current security situation coming out of such a trying period in our history as a nation and assure the public that our actions were not in any way meant to disrupt public peace and tranquility.

We take this opportunity to applaud our able men and women of the Security Forces, the Gambian Police, the SIS and the Army for the swift and diligent way in which they are conducting their investigations. Their professionalism and swiftness in discovering this anomaly is an assurance that the security and peace of this nation is guaranteed.

In the meantime, are cooperating fully with the Authorities as the continue their investigations into this matter and remain available to clarify any concerns that the public might have. We pledge to continue acting as we have always done in line with the Laws in force. We thank the public for your kind attention. Any questions from the Press may be directed to: [email protected].

Thanks

Public Relations Department.