After more than half a century of independence, we are still largely dependant on the west. We do not have proper and established democratic institutions which will guard and protect our democracy. We are still struggling with poverty, want, disease and war. Africa has become a pariah continent. I call it the surrogate continent.

AFRICA: THE SURROGATE CONTINENT

We are satisfied with being a proxy

Always doing d bidding of the other

Fulfilling their each and every order

Leaving them to demarcate every border

Shouldn’t we try to ourselves extricate

Or are we satisfied being the surrogate?

Some want them to us compensate

Others want to their greed satiate

This notion we are ready to repudiate

Now, we should let no one us intimidate

It’s not that we intend to retaliate

We just need to do something, immediate

We’ll no longer be someone’s surrogate

We need to stand up and open the gate

For this, we need no one placate

We shouldn’t allow them to us suffocate!

By this time we should have been integrated and working together in such a way that we would form a formidable force in the world. Africa is the foundation of civilization. Africa has more natural resources than any other continent in the world.

The biggest problem of Africa is misleaders who are only concerned about how long they will stay in power and how fat is their bank account; which ironically would be in the west. Thus they gather the little resources of their countries and keep it in the west. The west will in turn use it to work and increase their economy. When we need something again, we go there to beg.

When will Africa gain true independence?

Ask me again?

By Madi Jobarteh

Yet again May 25 has come this year marking the 54th anniversary of African Liberation Day without the continental unity that was envisaged as a means to economic empowerment, security and independence. In Europe, it took them 37 years to transform the European Economic Community to the European Union. Today the EU as a collective makes nothing less than 150 billion US dollars in trade with Africa. In the same vein the US makes nothing less than 100 billion dollars out of Africa, while China collects at least 200 billion dollars a year in Africa. Meantime the total intra-African trade amounts to only 11.3% of Africa’s total trade with the world. For example, non-African airlines account for 80% of the intra-continental market share. Consequently, Brookings Institution and other experts report that 75% of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa. In simpler terms 408, 213, 640 people, i.e. almost half of the population of Africa lives in extreme poverty.
Nonetheless, experts tell us that one of the fastest growing regions of the world is Africa with average growth rate of 5.2%. For that matter some claim that therefore Africa is rising. Yet it is estimated that Africa imports nearly 83 per cent of its food and losing on trade with the world. For example, the International Coffee Organization reported that in 2014 Africa —the home of coffee— earned nearly $2.4 billion from the crop, yet Germany, a leading processor, earned about $3.8 billion from coffee re-exports. The reason for this anomaly is because the EU imposes tariff barriers for which non-decaffeinated or unroasted green coffee is exempt from the charges, while a 7.5% charge is imposed on roasted coffee. As a result, the bulk of Africa’s coffee export to the EU is unroasted green coffee. This means technically the EU disadvantages African farmers and consequently undermines industrialization in Africa through tariffs. This is possible because, aside of all other things the EU is united, while African leaders have failed to create such a unity.
According to World Bank, by the end of 2015 Africa imported 221 billion US dollars far more than it exports which stands at 166 billion dollars. Among the seven regions of the world, Africa’s share of global trade is only 1.91% slightly higher than only South Asia at 1.86%, which is a region composed of several tiny island nations in the Pacific. In 2016, the World Bank noted that sub-Saharan Africa exported only 28.8 million US dollars of consumer goods, while it imported a whopping 80 million US dollars worth of consumer goods. What these facts and figures indicate is that in the first place Africa is only a consumer society and not a producer of manufactured goods. Thus it merely exports raw materials as always. Consequently this points to the fact that until today the resources of Africa continue to enrich and benefit the rest of the world more than they benefit ordinary Africans so long as it exports raw materials. This has been a point that Nkrumah lamented in the 1960s claiming that if the resources of the continent were put into the use of Africa, this would have made the homeland one of the most advanced places on earth.
To understand the significance of the resources of Africa, one can recall the former US Senator Jesse Helms during the Reagan Administration in the US. This was a man who strongly supported the Reagan Administration in the 1980s to oppose any attempts to impose sanctions against Apartheid South Africa on the basis that such an action would effectively hamper American interests. He stated clearly at the time that South Africa was the source of over 80% of America’s mineral supply, noting that there is no substitute for chrome in their military and industrial manufacturing. Thus he argued that without South Africa’s chrome, no engines for modern jet aircraft, cruise missiles, or armaments could be built. He went further to say that without Africa’s chrome, surgical equipment and utensils could not be produced, and their hospitals and doctors would be helpless. A former US Secretary of State Alexander Haig further buttressed this point that the loss of the mineral output of South Africa could have the severest consequences to the existing economy and security of the world! This shows that Africa in fact has the world’s richest individual countries in almost any kind of mineral resources, and yet the African is the poorest person in the world. Hence Africa is not poor, but it is Africans who are made to be poor.
Of course Kwame Nkrumah had argued that the Congo Basin alone holds enough hydro energy sufficient to power every village, town and city in Africa. The British bank, HSBA has noted that 0.03% of the solar energy in the Sahara Desert is enough to power the whole of Western Europe. Yet so long as Africa’s resources are not in the control of Africans to be exploited for their benefit, the spectre of poverty, powerlessness and oppression shall not end on the continent. For Africa to be able to control and exploit its resources primarily for themselves would require that Africa have democratic and visionary leaders who build strong institutions and ensure good governance. Since 1963 the building of such institutions and good governance have been the bane of the continent because in most part we lacked the right political leaders and intellectuals to do so. Consequently oppressive regimes with weak and corruption leadership have come to characterize most states in Africa. The evidence of that is also glaring.
A 2017 report by Amnesty International have revealed that human rights defenders, journalists and protesters in West and Central Africa are facing ever-higher levels of persecution, intimidation and violence. It says there is a growing onslaught of attacks against brave individuals standing up to injustice. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s 2016 governance report stated that over the past decade, i.e. from 2006 to 2016, the continental average score in overall governance improved by only one point. But the report noted that two-thirds of the countries on the continent, representing 67% of the African population, have shown deterioration in freedom of expression over the past ten years. It says further that 11 countries, covering over a quarter (27%) of the continent’s population, have declined across all three civil society measures – Civil Society Participation, Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Association & Assembly – over the decade.
According to Heritage Foundation in its ‘Freedom in the World 2017’ report, Africa is beset by entrenched autocrats and fragile institutions. Consequently more than 75% of Africans live in ‘Not Free’ societies thanks to weak and corrupt leadership of the continent. Transparency International noted that even countries that have been noted to be models of stability, the incidence of corruption has risen significantly. In its Corruption Perception Index 2017, the organization noted that it was the rampant corruption in Ghana that led citizens to voice their frustrations through the 2016 presidential election, resulting in an incumbent president losing for the first time in Ghana’s history.
Consequent we have seen that despite stable governments with free and fair elections and peaceful change of power in Ghana and Senegal as examples, the dividends in terms of social and economic progress are quite low. In the UNDP Human Development Index 2016, both Ghana and Senegal rank as least developed countries at 139 and 162 respectively. Life expectancy in Ghana is 61.5 years while at 66.9 in Senegal while poverty rates stands at 45.4% in Ghana and 53.3% in Senegal. One may therefore ask, what has democracy brought to the people of these countries? The answer lies in their weak and corrupt leadership, which are not pursuing the relevant social and economic policies that should have transformed their countries after 20 years of stable democratic experience. Even the biggest economy of Africa, Nigeria life expectancy stands at 53 years while 88% of the population are below the poverty line and ranked at 152 as a least developed country thanks to poor leadership!
Weak and corrupt leadership has therefore severely defrauded Africa and thereby deny the continent huge opportunity to transform itself into a modern advanced society within a generation. The effect of such weak and corrupt leadership can now be seen in the level and amount of illicit financial outflows from the continent. A 2015 report by the High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa established by the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) puts the average financial losses at between 50 billion and 148 billion dollars a year through trade mispricing. This is more than the combined foreign direct investment and aid (ODA) to Africa thereby proving that Africa indeed has the capacity to finance its own development if indeed the continent has democratic leadership and strong institutions of good governance.
The incidence of such weak leadership is attested by the fact that as of today, 16 African countries have presidents who have been in power for more than 10 years. Some of the most corrupt and brutal dictators on earth can be found in Eritrea, Uganda, Ethiopia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Mauritania, Cameroun, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Sudan, Congo and DRCongo. Others such as the presidents of South Africa or Kenya are notorious for corruption and vanity.
The effect of such poor leadership can now be seen in the levels of poverty, deprivation and oppression across the continent. Consequently such weak leadership and poor governance environment generated all forms of conflicts that have produced more than nine million refugees and internally displaced people. The situation further deteriorated into a high rate of brain drain and illegal migration where the youth of the continent embark on dangerous journeys only to perish in the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea or trapped in the conflict in Libya.
What is to be done?
The masses of Africa must be angry and impatient. The increasing military and economic presence of America, Europe and China among other players in Africa in their quest to dominate and control the continent’s resources is a direct threat to the security and future of Africa. There is no doubt that the continent is now a leading theatre of international rivalry thanks to its poor leadership, which must be reversed. For far too long Africa has been at the mercy of outsiders who invade the continent for their own benefit at the detriment of the continent’s benefit. This has been largely possible because of fragmented and weak leadership. The lessons of African history clearly show that its lack of unity was the fundamental disadvantage that enabled Europeans and Arabs to enslave and colonize the continent and continue to dominate the region until today. So long as Africa fails to engage in self-examination in order to restructure and reposition itself it shall remain weak and dominated as the wretched of the earth.
There are lessons for Africans to learn from the experiences of US, Europe and China. The case of China is particularly instructive. Starting in 1949, the Chinese have shown that with determination and visionary leadership, despite all the shortcomings, a vast nation like Africa can also uplift itself to become a major power in the world. Today china has become a leading political, economic, social, cultural, military and intellectual power in the world thanks to their leadership. Both China and the West offer a lesson to Africa that every country has to identify its supreme interests to pursue them uncompromisingly and to depend on itself in order to build its own capacity. This is the lesson of history that Africa must learn to embrace and put it into practice.
On 5 May 2017 China launched its first passenger aircraft. Already they have built their own naval aircraft carrier while their divers reached the deepest levels of the ocean as their astronauts shoot up to the highest points of space. China is already a nuclear power. In 2013, Pres. Xi Jinping launched his ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, a visionary blueprint for global economic development in the 21st century for China. Taking reference from the historic Silk Road, which transformed the nature of international trade links in ancient times, the Belt and Road Initiative is essentially a strategy of the Chinese for global dominance. For that matter they are building roads, railways and sea routes from China across to Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa covering more than 60 countries carrying merchandise from and to China. The first of such routes already opened between China and UK on 19 January 2017 when the first ever-direct freight train service from China arrived in London after an epic 17-day journey spanning ten countries on its 7456-mile trip.
One may not agree with the system of governance in China and certainly it has a horrible human rights record. However the facts also speak of a determination of a people who are prepared to stand on their own in the world. Africa does not have to copy the political system of China but certainly Africa has to learn from the experience and determination and initiatives of not only the Chinese but also of the Europeans and Americans as peoples and regions who are committed to the upliftment of their peoples by any means. History has confirmed that no one can develop another people but all peoples develop themselves based on their conscious ideas and actions. Until now, Africa has not proved that it is prepared and committed to produce its own ideas and put then into practice.
Even when those ideas exist, the vast majority of African leaders and intellectuals ignore those ideas for foreign ideas. For example there cannot be a better, more relevant and pragmatic ideas for African progress, security and power than those of Kwame Nkrumah. Yet since the 1960s many African politicians and intellectuals completely ignore and ridicule his ideas even though he was the first and only leader to propose a clear strategy, actions and timeline for a unified Africa. Despite ignoring his ideas, yet since then until now both the OAU and AU continue to refer to his proposals in a half-hearted manner. Furthermore there cannot be a more relevant blueprint for African integration and development than both the OAU Lagos Plan of Action 1980 and the OAU Abuja Treaty 1991. Yet these documents were also completely neglected as the AU went ahead to development its own Agenda 2063 without any bearing on the Lagos and Abuja documents. It is clear that if Africa had the right leadership at the time that pursued to the letter the Lagos Pan of Action to be followed by the Abuja Treaty, today the face of Africa would have been different.
Unsurprisingly, the African politicians and intellectuals completely ignore these relevant and instrumental tools as they opt for the more irrelevant World Bank and IMF-inspired ideas such as their Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) and the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). These strategies, programs and initiatives promoted the idea of foreign investment, privatization, limited public spending and unregulated or liberalized economies with no agenda for industrialization when it is clear that none of such ideas were ever used by the US, Europe and China to develop and reach where they are today. But the African politician and intellectual allowed these foreign entities to impose such programs on their countries only to produce more poverty, corruption and high cost of living in Africa.
As we mark the 54th anniversary of African Liberation Day, the average African must seriously reflect on these issues in order to take a definitive position that Africa demands and deserve democratic and visionary leadership and strong institutions of good governance. This must be the position of each and every African if we are going to transform this most endowed continent into one of the most advanced places in the word in our lifetime. Let Africans demand a New Africa. This current Africa is decadent and wretched. It must be killed for a New Africa to emerge. For that to happen, each and every African must be a new citizen as defined by Kwame Nkrumah,
“Africa needs a new type of citizen: A dedicated, modest, honest, informed man and woman who submerge self in service to the nation and mankind. A man and woman who abhor greed and detest vanity. A new type of man and woman whose humility is his and her strength and whose integrity is his and her greatness”.
Forward To One Unified Democratic Africa Now!

The odour is unmistakable, the stench is unavoidable, fish price skyrocket, frustrations abound, Bro you don’t know the extent to which our patience has been exercised said Mr Bojang.

 
I intimated, Bro, stench and odour is the same and Mr Bojang sighed with a deep breath to collect himself. Imagine someone come to your compound, dump sewage, put herbicide on your lawn and throw some cyanide into your well, how will you feel. I said definitely that will trigger war. He went on, what is more frustrating is; the Chinese have the audacity to threaten us, and frustrating still, they are exploiting our own brethren to perpetrate their odious crime against our environment and fish resources for only fifty cents. These our brethren have no conscience and only care about their pockets at the detriment of our community and environment. I said hmmm this is ugly business and definitely it’s time to show the Chinese who the boss is.

 
Mr Bojang went on, Mr Darboe can you imagine a Gambian doing this sort of stuff in China or India. Chinese and Indians who kill black folks just for dating their girls. We put the government in power to protect our livelihood, our environment and resources but the former government colluded with some notable Gunjurians to establish this Chinese factory on our pristine beach which is our heritage and great source of tourist attraction; is being systematically destroyed by Chinese with excuse of providing local employment. The former Yaya government has no respect for the will of the people and certainly no respect for the environment or our local beaches. Yaya plus local henchmen have been a continuing sources of despair for Gunjur, first he usurped it’s Kenyekenye Jameng area, fence it with high walls and allowed this notorious Chinese company to rape our fish resources, pollute the beaches and gas us with this foul stench which we don’t actually know what type of gas it is.

 
Fare enough I have heard it all. This issue cannot be brush aside any more, it has to be brought the attention of the new administration to take urgent action.
The fracas about the Chinese company started barely some two years ago and the fish factory as was superficiality named was initially slated as manufacturing plant for fertilizer production but unknowing to the generality of Gunjur citizenry, was a plant for manufacturing fish products in form of pellets for Chinese market. It’s products still shrouded in secrecy is sent to China in packages and even the local workforce don’t actually know the complete production process. There are certain stages according some staffs which only the Chinese know. Also there are certain areas of the plant which is restricted, a no go area for the local Gunjur staffs according sources familiar with the workings of the plant.

 
The whole process was established without proper consultation with local stakeholders and if local grapevine is to be trusted, it’s only the chief, the alkali and some village authorities who were in the know of the full extent of this notorious Chinese enterprise. The name of some local big fish, a prominent businessman surfaced as the mastermind of the plant. According to sources the plant was purportedly setup for fertilizer manufacture but a month into the process people noticed dumping of unwanted fish on the beaches, on road sides and places proximal to dwellings.

 
Chinese normally build local infrastructure when they set up plants like this to attract local empathy and support; they build roads and sometimes hospitals. However in this case they ignored our people’s aspirations and invited no input from them since they knew that they have Yaya government’s backing as well some local power brokers in their pocket. Power brokers who can easily sell their land and sea resources for a dime.

 
The road to the beach plied by their heavy lorries and vans is in disrepair and cannot cater for such a high volume of traffic. It is a feeder road made of gravel which Yaya ignored even though he has been frequenting the place to visit kenyekenye Jameng.

 
Simply because Gunjurians have inconsequential political clout in his calculations or out of pure disdain. For years our people have been silent bystanders out of fear of their lives, hopelessly acquiesced. Just as in many part of Gambia, Jammeh’s pervasive dominance of the political, economic and social life of the Gambians citizenry has haply been challenged. He succeeded systematically in dividing the people and inserting his loyal enablers in form of local power brokers and NIA to intimidate and coalesced people to submission.

 
Gunjur was no exception and this has led to the current imbroglio which has so far prove perilous to not only to the environment and sea resources but to the standard of living of our people. As Tuklor Sey eloquently put it, Gunjur’s environmental ruination by the Chinese is a national challenge because that sea once was a honey comb for many Gambians. The Gunjur catfish with its distinctive taste and Gunjur smoked fish used to be an excellent source of protein for many towns villages from Kombo to Basse. Since Yaya government came in, Gunjur’s pre-eminence in fish production dwindled to near extinction and Tangi took over.

 
Gunjur is a prolific settlement to a diversity of tribes and people from Gambians regions; it’s widely acclaimed reputation as the most welcoming town to people from many areas in the Gambia as well as the sub-region. It’s is one of the few prominent Mandinka dominated towns where people will give their daughter in marriage to foreigners without much attention to the backgrounds of the spouse in contradistinction to many other towns in the Gambia. In many towns, especially in Badibu, they want to know your background first, especially, to authenticate whether you are of a Karanke, or Jali background before they decide to offer you spouse. In some places even grave yards exhibits people status in life, a distinction of Fooro and Jongo, not in Gunjur the town of scholars of distinction and pre-eminence, in the person of Bun Jeng and Hatab Bojang; not to forget Kombo Sillah the king and emir of Kombo.
Not to be distracted from the burning issue at hand, the people of Gunjur deserve more. It provided the sand mining which generated huge cash flows for the country for decades yet the local infrastructure benefited nothing from those resources and it has been documented that Yaya Jammeh solely monopolized those cash flows at the detriment of our environment. Just as KARTONG beach was close to decimation, so was Gunjur yet the denizens sheepishly acquiesce out of fear of persecution by Jammeh henchmen.

 
The Chinses fishing methods fall below international standards and is very destructive to fish resources. They will soon deplete our fish resources because the type of net they use does not discriminate between the fish species they need and the type they don’t need. That’s why they dispose the unwanted fish to the dismay of the local populations who find it expensive to buy local Chalo.
The local fishermen cannot compete with a well resourced and technologically advance fishing equipment that the Chinese deploy and therefore the local industry is slowly shrinking with consequential loss of revenue and standard of living.

 
Our environment is a sacred heritage which we shall protect with blood and sweat come what may and the current government’s sluggish and apparently insignificant efforts despised our contributions in enthroning their candidate who happen to be the majority leader in parliament. Perhaps now the issue has been thrust to the fore-front of national discourse some urgent action will be taken to address the situation. It has been grapevine news that the environment minister who is purportedly out of town will visit the location once he returns.

 
The Chinese must either have to put their act together, stop this senseless rape of our environment and sea resources or they totally close down. If the government failed to prevail on them which we hope not, we will not hesitate to unleash local activism which may germinate some unintended consequences.
The saddest and most disappointing aspect that bedevil this episode is the collusion of our own brethren out of sheer opportunism and ignorance. Th Chinese may be gone but Gunjur stays and recriminations may make it difficult to look at folks in the eye. SALAM

L Darboe Leicester

What is really going on in beautiful Gambia? Why are we so laid back, Mr President? Everything little thing which oozes no immediate physical harm is rubbished as insignificant without any thorough examination. Mr President, your biggest diminish prospect is security. Every other day, in new Gambia, we witness instances where security of our country is severely tested by a bunch of irresponsible citizens. We have seen it happened in Bakau when a group of drug peddlers stood up and obstructed law enforcement officers from executing their duties. The same was mirrored at Tanji beach where security officers had to contain youths armed with cutlasses, matchets, stones and sticks. Similar episode also was manifested in Kanilai by a group of women threatening to bare their essential just to stop security officers carry out their duty. No government can compromise security and survive Mr President.

 
A video is currently circulating on Gambian social media of a fella threatening to open the gates of hell is any security officer dares step in Kanilai to execute a court order on Goloh’s frozen assets. Worryingly, many take his threat with a teensy weensy pinch of salt. And case closed. Seriously? It is about time even if his “bravado does not amount to a hell of beans” for government to quickly response to such threats and make the public aware that no threat on the person, life or property of anyone in the Gambia will be rubbished as childish banter. Jammeh with all his anything anything did warn you, Mr President, not to compromise security of the country. We may downplay the looming threats showing their ugly heads in our midst but the country is being tested for ungovernability. Something must be done about it if any development is to take place. How can you govern in the heart of insecurity and instability? It is these little threats that we hastily bin as rubbish which mutate into the Farato rioters’ rampage. I am concerned because I can foresee the far reaching and costly security ripples this is leading to.

 
It really beats any reasonable imagination how we as citizen architect our abysmal doom. The minster of Fisheries and water resources rested the coastal line of Gunjur disaster on the heads of few poor fishermen. How convenient Mr President? Even a minute old baby knows the Hon Minister was nothing but a glue-huffing imbecile covering up for corporate exploitation of our environment. His reasoning that Golden Leaf Factory had to go though vigorous vetting before issuing its operational licence is likened to averting a rainfall with one’s palm. They may have complied with all government protocols but is that a guarantee that they will uphold those protocols after a year or so operation? Everything from the galaxy of washed out dead fish to the illegal dumping of chemical and fish waste all accentuate their breach of those very protocols. Acts and atti6from ordinary citizenry and government officials are the marinating ingredients for insecurity, dissent and rampage.

 
No one is insinuating you issue threats like Goloh to get things done. One thing about him though, he is known for carrying out his threats perhaps that explains why what obtains in Gambia now was only imaginable in our forlorn dreams. The laws are there, Mr President. All you need is to implement them. Inciting and threatening violence is a felon. Corruption is equally a felon. You want to be taken seriously? Be serious Mr President.

 
Karamba Touray has this to add, “Impeding or even attempting to impede legitimate law enforcement even of the slightest kind is intolerable. It must be swiftly dealt with . I believe the police have been entirely too soft on the enforcement side in this new democracy in their quest to shed the excesses of the tyranny that subverted them as an institution and the laws they are sworn to serve. That may be having the unintended consequences of emboldening miscreants to challenge law and order itself. It has stop. Fidelity to the law which lies at the heart of a democracy is contingent on full and uniform enforcement by those charged with the responsibility. People who stand in the way of legitimate police work must be severely punished whatever their purported grievances”.

Sulayman Jeng
Birmingham, UK

There is no doubt that there is a lot of anger and frustration among the youth of this country. What with the long reign of terror unleashed on the people of the country by a brutal government that was supposed to protect and serve them! Then there is the issue of the lack of adequate employment opportunities and the seeming injustices perpetrated on our people.

There is a widely held perception that the justice system in the previous government was compromised and is thought to have been corrupt. One potential problem and threat to peace and security is the issue of land ownership. It is believed that the former president interfered with the ownership of lands in many parts of the country. As such, judgements that have to do with land, and emanated from the justice system of the previous government are likely to be controversial and contentious.

Many there are who paid huge amounts of money for lands which they genuinely believed belonged to the people who sold it to them. So, they bought these lands, had their papers drawn and started construction on said lands. If therefore it is found out later that the land did not in fact belong to the sellers in the first place, one can imagine their anger and frustration. Add to that the fact that these people believe that the courts are compromised.

The fracas that occurred in Farato and Bafulotoo yesterday was therefore a boil over of pent up anger which had been suppresseed for a long time coming.

In my humble opinion, this matter should be thoroughly looked into by the Barrow Government and then amicable solutions sought. Whatever the case, dialogue should be a key element in trying to solve the problem. If need be, those people who had spent money to buy, construct, and move into those houses should be compensated. They should be given lands and an amount of money to construct houses similar to the ones that were demolished if their claims are established by a competent authority.

I think it is necessary for the government to revisit the court cases presided over by all those judges who are deemed to have been in Jammeh’s pockets. Justice should then be restored and those who were wrongly denied of the lands, and/or monies should be compensated. Let us use dialogue to solve our problems.

Having said all that, I should also say that it is wrong to take the law into one’s hands and wreak havoc on property – be it public or personal property. Whatever the case, we should never revert to violent protests. If we do, we will simply be destroying our country for no good reason. Everyone is allowed to demonstrate peacefully; but this must never be abused. Let us always remember that we are one country, one family, and one nation!

Let us love our country!

Tha Scribbler Bah

A Concerned Citizen

By Madi Jobarteh

After 22 years of misrule, the evidence of the carnage and plunder of Yaya Jammeh and APRC exposes itself every day, which shall continue till eternity because their victims and effects of their atrocities shall continue to exist forever. The sole beneficiary of the atrocities and plunder of public wealth has been none other than Yaya Jammeh himself and is party. When Yaya Jammeh steals public money it benefits himself and his party to stay longer in power. When Yaya Jammeh ordered the killing of opponents, it serves him and APRC to stay in power. Thus APRC is a direct beneficiary of the misrule, plunder and atrocities of Yaya Jammeh.

 
We now know that a large number of our citizens lost their lives in mysterious circumstances during the APRC reign. The recent indictments of tens of soldiers for murder clearly indicates that indeed Yaya Jammeh and the APRC had presided over the most brutal destruction of uncountable number of Gambian lives through strangulation, suffocation, beheading, shooting and hacking. They then went further to conceal dead bodies in bushes and forests, thrown into wells and crocodile ponds among other ungodly places in and around Kanilai, Foni and Kombo. The exhumation of dead bodies attests to the grisly conduct of this undesirable regime. Yet the APRC, which formed the government, failed to ensure justice and protection of the rights of Gambians. As a party, they enjoyed their dominance on the misery and disempowerment of Gambians.

 
From 11 November 1994 when AFPRC began its reign of bloodshed by summarily executing tens of our soldiers, we saw how this criminal military junta metamorphosed into the APRC as a political party to continue the same bloodshed. The most tragic part of that history is when you have Gambian civilians embrace this party to provide it the necessary power base and legitimacy to perpetuate murder and pillage in our country. Hence from 1997, the leading violator of the Gambia had been the APRC. With their control over the legislature and local government structures, this party had provided the perfect cover and support for Yaya Jammeh to destroy the Gambia. APRC failed to not only stand up for the Gambia, but went further to legitimize ad legalize the misconduct and violations of Yaya Jammeh with much fuel and fire. The legacy of APRC therefore is maiming and murder of Gambian lives and the plunder of public wealth.

 
This evidence can be traced to the several concocted coups from 1997 to 2000 during which Yaya Jammeh eliminated perceived and real opponents only to see the APRC as a party and lawmakers rally around this despot to validate his atrocities. The most tragic event came in the Year 2000 when on April 10 and 11, he ordered Gambian soldiers to open fire on innocent and defenseless schoolchildren. The response of the APRC lawmakers was to merely pass an indemnity act to protect the killers. Even when a commission of enquiry was conducted which had identified the perpetrators yet the APRC decided to ignore and forget.

 
Since April 2000, series of atrocities continued in this country such as on 16 December 2004 when a veteran journalist Deyda Hydara was shot dead. This was followed by the summary execution of Daba Marenah and four other soldiers on 4 April 2006. On 23 August 2012 the regime illegally executed nine prisoners in Mile 2 Prisons without following the rule of law. On 30 December 2014, Gambian Freedom Fighters were captured alive and summarily butchered to death. On 14 April 2016 scores of peaceful protestors led by Solo Sandeng were violently arrested and subjected to the most severe torture and rape leading to the immediate killing of Sandeng. Since then many more protestors have succumbed to the severe tortures such as Solo Koroma, Lang Marong and Ebrima Ceesay.

 
Today, thanks to the Barrow Administration Gambians also know the source of Yaya Jammeh’s ‘Allah’s Bank’. After all the open secret is that this ungodly son of the land has in his name 131 landed properties, 86 bank accounts and 14 companies. He had also directly taken out of SSHFC the amount of D189 million as well as 50 million US dollars from the International Gateway Project Account. Under the watch of the ruling APRC, Yaya Jammeh had opened special accounts while he continued to use public enterprises such as Gamtel, Gambia Ports Authority as well as NAWEC to bleed the country of its hard earned money. As if this was not enough, Yaya Jammeh went further to directly interfere with business entities to the point of causing the country to lose millions of dalasi in lawsuits. The cases of Alimenta, Carnegie Minerals and CONAPRO are all clear examples of abuse and impunity for which the Gambian people were forced to pay bitterly for the mess of one citizen! Yet APRC key mute but benefiting!
The fact that Yaya Jammeh as a single person can acquire so much properties, bank accounts and companies in the Gambia alone and not to mention his overseas concerns clearly shows that APRC was indeed a serious liability for Gambians. Therefore until now I had held the view that the APRC party should not be banned in the Gambia but today I wish to change my position to demand that APRC be banned in the Gambia from henceforth. This is because the APRC had been the container in which Yaya Jammeh delivered his venom on Gambians. APRC as a party gave Yaya Jammeh a cover and a conveyor to kill and defraud the Gambia and Gambians.

 
APRC cannot be separated from Yaya Jammeh and his atrocities because APRC is the political powerbase of the Government of Yaya Jammeh. In a democracy, presidents or prime ministers are elected on the basis of a party or as independents. In our case Yaya Jammeh was elected on the APRC ticket. It was APRC that formed the majority of the members of the National Assembly. Hence whatever Yaya Jammeh was able to do, it was directly possible because of his power base, the APRC. Hence if Yaya Jammeh is exiled, he certainly must go with APRC as his coat.

 
Until today, the Nazi party has not been officially banned in Germany. But Nazi symbols, flags, ideology, offices and materials have been completely closed, banned and criminalized. No one in Germany can promote in any way anything associated with the Nazi party. Thus effectively the party is banned even if by law there was no specific court order banning the party. Germany banned all elements of the party because of the intolerable atrocities, plunder and destruction that Hitler and his band of criminals caused Germany.

 
The APRC does not certainly match the scale of atrocity of the Nazi party, but in our history, the Gambia has never seen such carnage led by a political party. For that matter, the APRC deserves to be banned in the Gambia just like Yaya Jammeh. The APRC is a party of shame, destruction and murder. We had Yaya Jammeh because there was AFPRC and then APRC. We experienced atrocities because of APRC. We are defrauded because of APRC. The APRC as the dominant party in parliament failed as a legal and official entity tasked with a constitutional mandate to protect the supreme interests of the nation.

 
The APRC has a constitutional obligation to abide by the Constitution of the Gambia yet it chose to ignore and at the same time go against that Constitution. It chose to damage the sovereignty and national security of the Gambia. It chose to put the name and dignity of the Gambia into disrepute and ridicule worldwide. APRC like any other party or citizen has no choice or right to impose a religious state on the Gambia, or to disregard the rule of law or to aid and abet tyranny in the Gambia. Yet this was exactly what APRC decided to do wilfully in the Gambia. Why therefore should APRC survive! Any person who commits these crimes will face the law hence any group of people who constitute themselves into any entity, more so a political party will be liable for the same penalty if they commit the same crime.

Keeping the APRC in Gambian society means digging our wounds everyday as APRC represents the wounds of Gambians. Allowing APRC to continue to exist means we have exonerated it from its failures, complicity and direct participation in the abuse of human rights, disregard of the rule of law and killing of Gambians by the Yaya Jammeh Government. If we could credit the opposition parties for ousting Yaya Jammeh, then what can we claim to be the benefit and contribution of APRC. It is clear that APRC had one position and contribution, which was to maintain dictatorship because they benefitted from that dictatorship. Thus keeping APRC alive means we disrespect and dishonour the departed souls and those who were raped, beaten and tortured in every unimaginable way. The APRC has no value in the Gambia other than to further torment and traumatize victims and survivors of the atrocities of Yaya Jammeh. If there is a benefit provided by the presence of APRC, what is it?
Ban The APRC! NOW.