By Alagi Yorro Jallow: Without prejudice—What I find fascinating about being in and then out of Africa is that the contrast gives you a filter that allows you to adjust your focal length, to get certain clarity.

I thought it was exile, but now I think it’s distance—either chronological or geographical—that is required for you to really understand what you’ve been seeing, because you’re too close to a situation. I’ve studied several authoritarian regimes, and even lived under the authoritarian regime of Yahya Jammeh, and it’s fascinating how similar it is to Robert Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe. Mugabe and Jammeh seem to have use the same building blocks.

I started out thinking that if you want to understand dictatorships, you study dictators. The more I witnessed, the more I realized that, essentially, in any school playground a bully will emerge if he or she can emerge—it’s weirdly systemic. And having systems of checks and balances, inane as they may seem, prevents dictators from emerging. Dictatorships survive partially because of intellectual prostitution—which prevails in Gambia and in Zimbabwe. It’s belly politics; if you don’t go along with it, you don’t eat. Dishonesty, ambiguity, bullying, threats, cronyism and sycophancy are merely theoretic strategies for those who put position and power as objectives above truth. If truth is not upheld in every instance, telling the truth as a strategic option becomes ineffective.

In the book, Africa Unchained (2005), Professor George Ayittey wrote “as a group, African scholars and intellectuals have let Africa down badly by not providing intellectual leadership to the democratic struggle.” Time and time again, for the highly “educated,” the lure of a luxury car, a diplomatic or ministerial post and a government mansion often prove irresistible.” Professor Ayittey added that “vile opportunism, unflappable sycophancy, and trenchant collaboration on the part of Africa’s intellectuals allow tyranny to become entrenched in Africa.” He also said, “All dictators legitimized and perpetuated their rule by buying off and co-opting Africa’s academics for a pittance. And when they fall out of favor, they are beaten up, tossed aside or worse. And yet more offer themselves up.” And he further noted, “As prostitutes, they partook of the plunder, misrule and repression of the African people. Some of their actions were brazen.”

When Jammeh overthrew the democratically elected government of Sir DawdaJawara, the only minister from Jawara’s administration enticed to serve in the military with Jammeh was finance minister; a very respected individual, even in international circles. He was instrumental in getting the World Bank to resume aid to the Gambia. On 10 October 1994, he was fired by the military junta. He was no longer useful to them. Then November 15, he was accused of complicity in the November abortive coup attempt.

Next to assume the country’s finance portfolio was a brilliant economist Ousman Koro Ceesay. When he became no longer useful to the Junta,” they smashed his head with a baseball bat,” said Captain Ebou Jallow (Washington Times, 20 1995). Then other expendable intellectual prostitute with shady characters start to lobby positions and serve as ministers and diplomats.

They too were later fired when they become no longer useful the junta. Chicken-hearted professional afraid of the dictator; instead, they sought international jobs within the UN system. Such has been the fate of a political and intellectual chameleons. Yahya Jammeh fired 296 ministers, fired and recycled more than 110 permanent secretaries not to mention Directors.

Professor Ayittey further added that “African intellectuals throw caution and common sense to the winds and fiercely jostle one another for the chance to hop into bed with military brutes.” The also Professor added “how could an educated man, whose basic human rights were viciously violated in detention, suddenly decide to join his oppressor”-Only in Jammeh Kunda. A permanent secretary has been hired and fired nine times and finally rested at Mile2 prisons.

Robert Mugabe is a public intellectual, a man with six or seven degrees and very widely read, and yet when you look at how he’s emerged as the leader of Zimbabwe, it’s like so many other countries where one authoritarian regime is followed by revolution and replaced by another authoritarian regime. There is a social conditioning that occurs. People are conditioned to accept authoritarian rule. They have been cowed before, and they go back to that mindset. They think it’s a fascist rule where they are powerless.

Yahya Jammed is quite the opposite, and yet he is a rather fastidious dictator. He has no academic degree and retired with the rank of colonel in the army, but he claims to be a religious leader (a sheikh), a professor and a doctor. He’s not Idi Amin or some Nigerian general with medals clanking across his chest. Jammed, in contrast, is often seen in his long white robes, holding the holy Quran along with his sword and two prayer beads. This is quite different from Mugabe, who wears typical safari and French suits. Yet despite their differences in education and personal appearance, they both want to preserve the façade of a democracy because they believe they are liberation heroes. Jammeh believes that he sacrificed his life to liberate the Gambia from the PPP, from thirty years of bad governance, whereas Mugabe believes he liberated his country and went to prison, went to exile, before becoming their leader. And if you are a liberation hero—as we have seen in Cuba, for example—you can draw on the revolution endlessly as a font of legitimacy.

You are the revolutionary, and you can use it to stop any legitimate opposition of your rule. So, when Mugabe was recently forced to have an election, he looked at the electorate and said, “How can you possibly vote against me? If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have a vote.” Jammeh told his party supporters that there would be “no elections in a million years” and described politics and politicians as “donkeys and liars.” There’s a sort of messiah complex that these types of leaders have.

Mugabe and Jammeh use the dictatorial methodology of intimidation, killings and forced exiles to help them maintain their power. They needed to intimidate everybody, but they refined the process. Rather than killing hundreds of thousands of people, they found that only three to four hundred people needed to be killed in order to scare the others into the desired behavior. They put two or three hundred people in torture camps and tortured them terribly, but then released them back into their own communities with broken limbs and dismissals from public service, using the courts to accuse them of “false information” and “economic crimes, “leaving them with a political stigma.

They released them back into their own communities where they basically become human billboard—they served as advertisements for what happens to those who oppose their administration. And it was very effective. How many ministers and senior government officials in Gambia are fired and then detained at Mile 2 Prisons, and how many are languishing in prison, and how many are standing trial on bogus charges of giving false information to public officials? How many faced charges of economic crimes, and how many are now in self-imposed exile? And how many are waiting to be recycled like plastic bags?

And yet on the other hand, people in other countries who were opposition members—often at just the city level—as well as ordinary citizens, people of different socioeconomic groups, seemed almost surprised by their own potential to bring about change if they were courageous enough to try. We have seen that in Egypt and many other places, a brief window opens when people say, “You know, we could . . .” And suddenly, there’s a flowering of activity. The next crucial step, and I don’t think this got sufficiently reported in the case of Egypt, is how security forces behave. Are you able to put the stems of your flowers down their barrels?

The difference between places like Egypt and Gambia and Zimbabwe is that in the latter two, you could do that if you choose, but live ammunition would be coming after you from the other direction. In Matabele land, for example, Mugabe once killed 20,000 civilians who were members of Zimbabwe’s minority Ndebele people, and Yahya Jammeh killed 14 students in April 2000 while they were conducting a peaceful demonstration. Jammed has made almost every family under his rule cry and suffer during his 22 years of dictatorship.

In 1980 Mugabe’s cabinet was full of PhD holders and Jammed too had one of the most educated civil servants when he took over. Now, many of those who currently serve have sold off their integrity, principles and conscience to serve at their rulers’ beck and call. Some even preferred military to civilian rule. In Africa, we are afflicted with “intellectual astigmatism,” in many cases hopelessly blind to the injustices committed by African leaders against our own people.

In Africa at the end of the Cold War, there was a great flowering of democracy. Sub-Saharan Africa really started to become independent, beginning with Ghana in 1957. Those first generations of independent black African countries were taught that the only way they would be judged on the international stage was on whether they were pro-communist or pro-capitalist, pro-Moscow or pro- Washington.

So, for decades, the West was quite happy to support Mbutu or Houphouet-Boigny; it was fine if they were our dictators. Then the wind of change in 1990 tore up the rule book and said that, on paper at least, you’ve got to be open and transparent. Because some of the young revolutionaries had turned into dictators or became corrupt. One of them, Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d’Ivoire, recently had to be prised from power by ex-colonial forces and another, Frederick Chiluba in Zambia, stole huge amounts of money and had to be kicked out of the country.

President Mugabe and Jammeh are political survivors and will likely remain in power for the foreseeable future. It seems they have been accepted by a population that regards them as the ultimate village chief. Jammeh has amassed a fortune that makes him one of Africa’s richest men; nobody really knows how much he is worth, but there has been some indication of his vast wealth since he married his foreign wife. Mugabe too became flamboyant after the death of his Ghanaian wife. Grace Mugabe and Zainab Jammeh shared a common desire for an extravagant lifestyle, at the expense of the plight of their people. These two countries have the poorest economies, brutal dictatorships and wives who believe in and extravagant lifestyles.

The Gambian and Zimbabwean leadership relied on highly talented and admirably hard-headed intellectuals to resort to repression as their means of political survival. They have had a great impact on their countries and even the world around them. They assumed power in different ways, with differing political views, but both styles of leadership have been detrimental to their countries. In the years since these leaders took power, they have destroyed many people’s lives and continue to negatively influence the way in which many of their people live to this day.
Note: This article is an abridged version of the fuller article that can be found at Maafanta.com. The longer version of this article was published in 2009 and is still well worth reading and of immediate relevance to current events unfolding in the Gambia. It is being republished in a different version from the original, given the fact that the article is still considered to be instructive, timely, informative and lucid, in the context of contemporary Gambian politics.

By Ali Jaye: As any sincere Gambian home or abroad feels, I must also express the bitter pain and frustration of the nation’s innocents but of course I am directing it to the ‘Yahya Jammeh’s people’.

The title may sound wierd but I chose it for a reason. Prior to the outcome of the election, the nation was divided on party lines. After the election, however, the country is now divided between patriots versus egoists, being the people aiding and fueling Yahya’s irrational actions to bring the country on the brink of chaos. You will certainly fail because God will save the Gambia from your evil plots! The sincere APRC camp members patriotic to the nation have long embraced the truth and verdicts of the nation except the self-centered few of you called ‘Yahya’s people’.

Therefore, the crisis now is beyond party line but rather self-centered individual wanting to see Gambia into a state of anarchy. Truth be told, the ongoing resistant and power claim by the supposedly out-going president is nothing more than his cowardice to face the tribulation for his actions.

Folks for Jammeh, Lord Acton is right about you: “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”. How I wish I had the intellectual stature to conjoin mine to his, “…absolute power narrows the morality and reasoning of the powerful because the evil outgrow the good in them”. It is beyond comprehension to admit that our own mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters are still standing-by a man who has lost control and respect. The worst is seeing the erratic man chanting and digging a grave for all of you. Your wishes for the Gambia shall never come to be. You shall all fail in your plot to turn our nation into turmoil. And to our securities who are silently maintaining their loyalties to the Gambian people, we are with you and maintain your promises.

To you the people of Yahya, I want you to understand that the limit has been reached, the limit of enhancing the desires of a man who, for 22 years and more, betrayed, abused, enslaved, and maimed your own people. You have proven to all Gambians that you do not care about the nation but rather care about the benefits you gain from him. Your actions are evidently clear to all Gambians. I am confident that every Gambian except those of you who continue to pursue personal interest, is far better than Yahya in class, reputation, and manner. Therefore, the unforgiving state of apprehension and the emotional affliction on the innocent, non-violent decent Gambians on behalf of this unethical louse only earns you the wrath of Allah. I applaud those in the foreign mission, civil society groups, local and community leaders for acknowledgement to the will of the people but moreover, letting the louse understand that he needs to vacate the seat of power for the next president because he needs to respect peoples’ voice. Thank you for embracing the truth!

To you the ‘Yahya’s people’, at this point in our crusade, Gambians are not asking you to back down your support for him because our victory is in sight but your shame and destruction are also in sight. Therefore, hold fast to your Jammeh loyalty if your values are for him and him alone. I bet, Yahya is the proudest person and the winner in your mutual game: he knows that he is failing and decides that he must go down with many of you. That is why he wants you to be visibly seen in this crisis for the world to recognize all of you as his allies. The wise and rational ones are keeping the distant. Truly, he is the winner because he has the least to lose and the least number of blood relations in the Gambia. If my memory serves me right, Yahya’s only blood relation is his mother, and wife and the two kids who will be at safe-haven in the event of eventualities. You know best that he fell apart with all other relatives.

Going forward, Gambians will remember the extent of your commitment and support to a man whose evil nature acclaimed him a worldwide fame as one of the worst dictators on earth. The history that will narrate your roles in his evil acts will surely be read to you soon; your roles in the students’ massacre, the torturing, imprisoning, killings and disappearance of alleged coup plotters, political opponents, civic activities, journalists, raiding of our poor innocent elderly in the name of anti-which hunt operations and many more are just enough still stays in our mind for accountability purpose.

And please get me right; there is nothing wrong to serve in his administration because you are working for the government. The problem comes when you continue to uphold his values and support his actions that undermine your values, integrity, and pledges to the country as are happening at this moment in our political crisis. I refuse to accept your excuses that there are no other alternatives. If you are truly faithful and sincere to your nation, then no amount of influence or action should keep you serving a failing outgoing president who refuses to accept defeat. Gambians are flattered with your commitment to serve this toothless bulldog, a man who is been abandoned by all credible people and partners including the entire international community. Please, for the sake of your descendants, redefine your positions and desert him now before the eleventh hour passes.

Over the 22-year period, we have seen noble people who realized that they cannot continue to work under a man with such ‘malmannerism’, and resulted to exile or abandoning his offers for fear that they may act or support initiatives that oppresses the people they pledged to serve. We have also witnessed officials who honorably turned down his appointments or withdraw from service because they avoided been used against their own people. In fact, if I could remember, a minister who was appointment, sworn and within a week or two resigned from his post. Countless number of Gambians in the civil and security services has taken international and other private services jobs against their will.  That was better decision for those people than to serve the interest of a killer of people. You cannot tell me those people are more honorable, have more moral and love for the country than you do. I therefore strongly believe that decisions you take to stay with him to this moment are voluntary choices which speaks volume about your values and integrity.

We should all be disappointed with Yahya’s actions, a man who claims to be a Pan-Africanist and a champion for peace negotiation with respect to his involvements in Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea Conakry and many more including his faked peace and unity speeches at the UN assembly. When he is now faced with his own test of faith, he couldn’t but reveal his true identity:  egocentric, greed and shallow-minded whose rational senses are bloated with evil pleasure acts on own his people. Here comes the narrow mindedness persona described by Lord Acton; a man whose conscience cannot simply let him understand that the peoples’ choice overrules his individual interest regardless of the mountain of development agendas he claims to have. I find it difficult to understand why a man, whom, Gambians have given so much and endured so much pain, says he must continue remain in power as if he is a god over of us. I can only blame him to an extent when people like you who continue to fuel his actions. I also find it so difficult to question his psyche without questioning your rationality.

Knowing how caring a “typical” Gambians is especially our women folks, it is also shameful to continue seeing the likes of Isatou Njie Saidy, Fatou Lamin Faye, Fatou Mbaye, (the list goes on…) standing by a man who has no path a good end.  I challenge their honestly, sincerity and love for the Gambia. I also question the authenticity of their religious morals and beliefs. To all of you, I say, the history to judge your actions is already in the making. To you, I say again, your creator and Gambians in particular cannot forgive give the role you may individually play in the 22 years oppression. Twenty-two years is long enough for a child born within the period to mature and be able to differentiate good from evil practices.

My list of champions in this near-ending crusade are endless; from the people who lost their lives on the cause to emancipate us from the oppressions (from 1995-present), to those who involuntarily left the country as well as those who stayed behind bearing the pain but more so, the countless politically motivated sentences and tortures. I cannot also forget our noble champions political leaders as well as voters who coalesce their strengths to uproot the evil man with power of marbles. Today, we can proudly say that Gambians including you will all come to enjoy the freedom you denied us.

The Barrow government, I can certainly foretell will be a decent one; one that will not out to witch-hunt as you had and supported. The composition, maturity and caliber of the incoming leadership tells a lot about the new Gambia in the making; a Gambia that will respect the rule of law, freedom of speech and empowerment of its citizenry. This is what Gambians miss under the regime you hail and foster. One thing I can surely say, your victims shall not rest until justice is served to them. The old saying that Gambians are very forgiving will no more prevail because so many malpractices have been executed in your 22 years cannibal administration.

Regardless of his evil actions, I feel some remorse for him. He surrounded himself with people like all of you who misled him or were not ready to tell him the truth. the prove to this was is his post-election remarks stating that he was insulted and even his mother. I laughed over that but again it validated a remark once made by our champion Fatou Camara of Fatu Network who once said she believes Yahya does not visit the social media because he hates being criticized. Though I believe her, but I also believe that he changed after December 1. To me, that was the date he curiously started to explore the social media and discovered those remarks. If he had been on the media before, then Pa Nderry Mbaye’s  “fair and balance’ medium, Essa Bukarr Sey’s focus discussions, BambaMass ‘Kalimas”, Pa Samba Jaw’s relentless advocates (the list goes on), would have taught him what was been said about him.

I will also sympathize with him for saying he has learnt a great lesson but only if he means the lesson was that you were feeding him with wrong impression and advise up until after December 1, when he discovered for himself the truth about how people feel about him. Regardless, I believe ‘Babilimansa’ should of sound mind to know good from evil. He failed to follow the footsteps of Nabi Daud, who went out to find out for himself, how his subjects felt about his ruling. Instead of helping him to be a better person, you have participated in shaping him into an evil monster whose past and legacy will never be a good history for Gambians to narrate to the future generation.

In conclusion, I ask for all Gambians to join me in petitioning the incoming administration for the eradication of attributes and symbols of tyranny in our beloved land from now to posterity. Therefore, please help to complete the wish list to the attention of the incoming administration:

• Never to celebrate or recognize July 22 anniversary as a public holiday;
• Change the name of Arch 22 to City Gate or any other beautiful name the Banjulians will like;
• SulaymanJunkungJammeh hospital to be renamed as Bwiam hospital;
• AFPRC hospital to be remain as Farafenni Hospital
• July 22 square to be renamed Banjul Central square or any other name the Banjulians will like;
• All areas, facilities, and services sectors that he named to be remembered should be renamed to reflect the community or beneficiaries.
• Never encourage presidential billboards in all corners
• Never encourage cash display to people in a manner done by Yahya Jammeh
• Never engage in the abuse of our security forces as herdsmen, farmers or objects;
• List goes on………! We Gambians believe that from January  19^th going forward, decency will prevail in all sectors!

Democracy is up to the people: A successful democracy does not rely on a single personality or an elected leader. All people need to partake in political processes. Space for citizen participation and the emergence of a civil society, diaspora activism and new media help ease Gambia’s transition from dictatorship to democracy.

The turnout to December 1 elections are a goodsign as it reflects the people want to take more active role in the country’s democracy, suggesting democracy in Gambia has longevity. It takes time to build a democracy after decades of dictatorship; the Gambia under Jammeh have rule of law deficit, chroniccorruption, complete control of the armed and combined security forces and tribalism.

The Gambian people have finally decided to dislodge dictatorship to democracy, they want not only procedural democracy but also substantive democracy; a functioning democratic system that will reflect in a contest of ideas between candidates, not a contest of financial strength or the ability to smear.

President Yahya Jammeh is the latest victim of coalition opposition politics in Africa. His defeat should send a clear message to other sit-tight, royalist leaders across Africa. The long- term solution to the Yahya Jammeh problem should be the introduction of a Constitutional term limit for the Gambian Presidency to prevent another Jammehism from ruling as he wished to rule for “one billion years”.

When President Yahya Jammeh conceded defeat after the December 1, presidential elections, the gesture was widely hailed and described as an indication of great hope for democracy in Africa particularly for the Gambian people, which Yahya Jammeh ruled with an iron-fist for twenty-two years. The 2016 presidential elections were perhaps the most significant political development in the political history of the Gambia in fifty-two years. The first transfer of power through the ballot box.

President Adam Barrow is a product of a coalition of opposition parties who provided the platform for the people’s yearning for change. President Barrow became the symbol of the people’s hopes, and of freedom from Yahya Jammer’s dictatorship that was the benchmark of brutality, love of witchcraft and human rights violations.

For over two decades under President Yahya Jammeh and his AFPRC regime, independent views were considered seditious. Secret police were everywhere, listening for hints of subversion. Yahya Jammeh name was spoken in whispers unless, you were praising him, in which case you genuflected and shouted hoarse at rallies and in Gamo gatherings, thanking Allah for loving Yahya Jammeh so much as to bless him and his family with a leader of such peerless morality, wisdom and compassion.

Those who demurred at such scurrilous sycophancy found themselves at the old GPMB buildings along Mariana Parade where Bambina located, a torture chambers built by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The state became a law unto itself, seizing land and property meant for hospitals, schools and other infrastructure to award to its sycophants. If you sang praises like a parrot — as we were encouraged to do — you were rewarded. Many became overnight millionaires. The country’s economic growth rate went negative.

Under Yahya Jammeh’s rule, The Gambia is in a crisis of morality. It left a culture in which wealth, no matter how one gets it, is a redeeming value. It bequeathed mind-boggling selfishness, as exemplified in our driving immoral habits; it inculcated a culture of mediocrity and short cuts; it taught us to see the world through tribalism, and to shirk personal responsibility in the execution of public duty.

In a phrase, Yahya Jammeh and his APRC party left a Gambia whose value system must be re-engineered to support a prosperous Third Republic.

The foregoing dictates the kind of president The Gambia needs in Adama Barrow. First, a leader who will stake his personal prestige and sense of accomplishment on achieving the goals set in his campaign. This will mean assembling a team of high achievers irrespective of tribe or party loyalty, and demanding by personal example, total commitment to the task at hand, personal integrity and innovation.

Second, the country will need a leader who is keenly aware of our despotic past and is therefore, totally committed to fully implementing the Constitution. This will mean acting, appointing, deciding only based on enhancing the aims of the Constitution.

Nelson Mandela understood keenly the human cost of apartheid, and on assumption of the presidency, he went about with a single-mindedness of purpose to banish completely its cultural institutional and legal underpinnings.

A third republic of The Gambia will need a leader who can visualize the society anticipated by Constitution, and inspire us all to see that vision and work towards it. This will mean re-educating us not to analyze our society through the prism of tribe, thereby creating a new basis for social interaction and political mobilization.

By Alagi Yorro Jallow

As we draw closer to the end of term of the tenure of the outgoing president, yet he remains recalcitrant in accepting the verdict of the people, it is now time for the National Assembly to assume its constitutional responsibilities. All categories of the Gambian society have spoken in no uncertain terms and various groups have shown their open and unfettered support for Adama Barrow as the elected president of the republic. The entire Gambian population is now determined and prepared to defend our vote. The international community has similarly shown that they are fully behind the people of the Gambia by calling on outgoing president to step down.

Yet the outgoing president continues to make ridiculous statements about the elections while filing an ill-informed petition to a non-existing yet illegally constituted Supreme Court, which intends to start sitting on January 10. Meantime ECOWAS, backed by the African Union and the United Nations and governments of the world, has indicated that come January 19 if Jammeh refuses to step down they will resort to the use of military force to end his misrule. Since December 9 they have been frantically engaged in diplomacy to avert conflict.

Now I ask, does the National Assembly wish to tell us that they are not aware of these developments in our country to the point that they have remained mute like a silencer? Given the fast approaching fateful January 19 day, and the continued refusal of Jammeh to see reason and abide by our constitution, the onus is now on the National Assembly as the only constitutional authority in our republican system with the capacity to bring sanity to the outgoing Pres. Jammeh and save the Gambia. I wish to put it to the members of the National Assembly that they have a duty to prevent a military conflict in our small but beautiful land by prevailing on the outgoing president to humble down with faith and respect the verdict of the people.

Advice The Outgoing President
Section 102 spells out the functions of the National Assembly and in that regard Subsection (a) empowers the National Assembly to ‘advise the President on any matter which lies within his or her responsibility’. The first responsibility of the president is to respect and defend the constitution. But on December 9, it is clear that Yaya Jammeh has reneged on his oath of office by flouting Section 6 of the constitution and intends to further violate Section 63(2). By these actions he has already violated his responsibilities under Section 17, which puts an obligation on the president to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.

Hence the National Assembly must now rise up to its obligation to advise the president as per Section 102(a) to withdraw his December 9 infamous statement because it was unconstitutional, politically motivated with bad faith and endangers national security.

Vote of No Confidence
Failure of the president to heed to the advice of the National Assembly, the parliamentarians yet still have other powers given to them by the constitution to pass a vote of no confidence in the president under Section 63 Subsection 3. Hence the National Assembly still holds the key to our salvation and the prevention of armed conflict in our dear country. They must be seen to fulfill these solemn national duties.

Impeachment of the Outgoing President
Apart from a vote of no confidence and failure of the president to heed parliamentary advice, yet the constitution still gave powers to the National Assembly to impeach the president for misconduct. Section 67 Subsection 2 empowers the National Assembly to undertake impeachment proceedings of the president for misconduct, which are spelt out in Section 67 Subsection 1.

The grounds for removal of the president under the first paragraph of this section are where he or she is found to cause ‘abuse of office, wilful violation of the oath of allegiance or the President’s oath of office, or wilful violation of any provision of this Consultation’ or if he or she misconducted himself ‘in a manner which brings or is likely to bring the office of President into contempt or disrepute’. Furthermore the second paragraph of Section 67 Subsection 1 also states that a president can be impeached for having ‘dishonestly done any act which is prejudicial or inimical to the economy of The Gambia or dishonestly omitted to act with similar consequences.’

Here again we can see that outgoing Pres. Yaya Jammeh has abused his powers, wilfully violated the oath of office of the president and flouted many other provisions of this constitution based on his utterances and actions since December 9. The deployment of soldiers into the offices of the IEC and the continued denial of media coverage to Adama Barrow by GRTS are additional actions that severely violate the constitution. Furthermore, by making GAMTEL to close down Internet and telephony services on December 1 coupled with the deployment of soldiers in combat readiness around the country without a state emergency or declaration of war, all constitute actions that damage the economy of the Gambia.

These actions and utterances including his statements with the African Bar Association as well as statements by his associates, notably National Assembly Member Seedy Njie are major factors causing anxiety in the Gambia and slowing down the economy. Their statements by Yahya Jammeh and Seedy Njie constitute threats to the peace and security of the country as they peddled tribalism, threatened constitutionality and incitements to violence against certain individuals and communities. These are clear and justifiable grounds for impeachment.

Meet with the Outgoing President
In light of the foregoing, it is therefore utterly urgent and necessary that the Speaker of the National Assembly Abdoulie Bojang together with the Majority Leader Fabakary Tombong Jatta and the Minority Leader Samba Jallow and all the members demand an urgent meeting with the outgoing Pres. Yahya Jammeh to advise him to withdraw his December 9 illegal utterance. They should advise him to go back to his December 2 concession of defeat and promise to support the transition process. They should advise him to therefore reactivate the transition process and abide by the terms of the constitution for the inauguration of Adama Barrow on 19 January 2016.

Failure to heed to the advise of the National Assembly, I would call on the Speaker, the Majority and Minority leaders and all members to therefore invoke Section 63(3) to pass a motion of no confidence in him. They should follow this with invoking as well Section 67(2) to impeach him for gross misconduct.

Abandon Yaya Jammeh and Embrace the Gambia
In addition to the constitutional responsibilities placed on them, members of the National Assembly also owe it to their country as the representatives of their people to abandon Yaya Jammeh in order to prevent a violent conflict from erupting in the Gambia. I therefore call on all National Assembly Members to publicly isolate and disassociate themselves, individually and collectively from the outgoing president in the supreme interest of the Gambia, their motherland. All sectors of Gambian society have spoken, yet the National Assembly as an institution and as individual members have remained mute. Bear in mind that failure to play your part as effectively as you should but letting the country to plunge into conflict, then you should consider yourselves as accomplices in the crime against the Gambia. History will judge you as those sons and daughters who abandoned their motherland at her most painful moment in favour of a dishonest, unpatriotic, greedy and murderous tyrant.

Let us engage our National Assembly Members
I wish to call on all Gambians to impress on their National Assembly Members to realise that they are the direct representatives of the people hence they must be seen to uphold and defend the will of the people. Our will was expressed on December 1, and the National Assembly must realise that it is the most important national institution in the Gambia that cannot be seen to be a bystander in the affairs of the people. They must not aid and abet any attempt, project or individual who wishes to dilute and abrogate the will of the people. This is a solemn responsibility placed on the National Assembly by the constitution under Section 112 paragraph (a),

‘All members shall regard themselves as servants of the people of The Gambia desist from any conduct by which they seek improperly to enrich themselves or alienate themselves from the people, and shall discharge their duties and functions in the interest of the nation as a whole and in doing so, shall be influenced by the dictates of conscience and the national interest.

On the basis of this provision, and in the face of a looming national tragedy and in fulfilment of my constitutional responsibility and because of my love for country, I hereby call on the National Assembly to assume their national and constitutional responsibilities without delay. Failure to fulfil their historic and patriotic duty, they risk plunging the country into a conflict of far reaching consequences for which the people of the Gambia will neither forget nor forgive them forever and ever.
For the Gambia, Our Homeland. #GambiaHasDecided

By Madi Jobarteh

The unconstitutional announcement by the Inspector General of Police on December 26 for individuals to obtain a permit before embarking on a ‘convoy’ is utterly unfortunate, unhelpful and a direct threat to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people.

Section 25(d) of our constitution gives each and every Gambian, individually and collectively the freedom to assembly and to demonstrate peacefully without the use of arms. The exercise of such right does not in any way require the permission of the State and its agencies. But all State institutions and the Gambia Police Force in particular are expected to be present to protect the exercise and enjoyment of this right by citizens. Section 25 is an entrenched clause which means it is a provision which cannot be abrogated in any way by any authority, institution, individual or power in the Gambia except through the expressed will of the people of the Gambia in a referendum.

Hence for the IGP to issue such a directive is a direct violation of Section 17 of the Constitution, which places an obligation on the Executive as the chief protector of the rights of citizens. The Gambia Police Force and all officers of the force are an agency and employees of the Executive, hence they are equally obliged to protect rights and not to damage them. Rather than command citizens to seek a permit, the IGP Yankuba Sonko is expected to instead seek the cooperation of citizens in how best the police can serve them. Seeking the cooperation of citizens is not the same as requiring them to seek a permit first before they can enjoy their right.

I know the IGP is using the Public Order Act as the basis of his unfortunate announcement. Let me remind the IGP that the Public Order Act is a colonial law created in 1961 and then amended in 1963 by the colonialists for the purpose of limiting the freedom of Gambians to agitate for our freedom and independence. This colonial and draconian law was not touched again until in 2009 when the Dictator Yahya Jammeh amended it in response to the urge in citizens to agitate for their freedom following he 2000 student massacre and the 2004 murder of Deyda Hydara and the events surrounding the 2006 presidential elections and 2007 parliamentary elections. Because of the agitations of citizens and the fear of people gaining their freedom, the Dictator went back to the colonial period to fish out this draconian law in order to clampdown on the sovereign rights of Gambians.

Let us remind the IGP that a public servant and a security officer without political awareness is a potential criminal. Section 1 Subsection 2 of our constitution states that the sovereignty of the Gambia resides in the people of the Gambia. It went on to say that the State derives its legitimacy from the people and the State and all its officers perform their functions on behalf of the people and for the interest of the people. Hence each and every member of the State must see himself or herself as an instrument for the expansion and protection of the rights and freedoms of the sovereign people of the Gambia. No public officer or security officer must therefore allow himself or herself to be used as a tool to limit the freedoms of the people.

The IGP must realize that he must not therefore curtail fundamental constitutional and sovereign rights of citizens on the basis of a law that was the imagination and invention of colonialists. We cannot be said to be an independent and sovereign republic yet we continue to employ colonial laws and institutions to injure citizens.

The Public Order Act is an illegal and unconstitutional law because it directly violates the constitution in all respects. Section 4 of our constitution states that the constitution is the supreme law of the land.

“This constitution is the supreme Law of The Gambia and any other law found to be inconsistent with any provision of this Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.”

This clearly shows that the Public Order Act is wholly and totally in contravention with Section 25(d) of the 1997 Constitution hence it is an illegal law.

What we expect the IGP to do is to deploy more traffic officers and general duty police officers to assist in the expansion and protection of the rights of the people. The Gambia Police Force should be seen as an institution that supports the people enjoy their right and not to curtail our rights. This period is a festive season in all parts of the world, particularly in the Gambia. Our people do not have to seek a permit first in order to enjoy the full expanse and time of their God given country. We must be able to enjoy ourselves in line with our constitution. In that case we only expect the entire State machinery to be a tool to facilitate the enjoyment of constitutional rights and not a tool to stop us from enjoying our constitutional rights.

Finally, let me inform IGP Sonko that a new Gambia has emerged. Let all public servants and security officers realize that. Let them make themselves the true servants of the people and not oppressors of the people. The Gambia is taking record and we shall hold each and every public servant and security officer to account on the basis of one’s actions. No security officer or public servant can defend oneself on the basis of carrying out an order. All security officers must realize that they are not bound to carry out any unlawful order, but they must be seen to stand with the rights and freedoms of the people.

I wish to put it to IGP Yankuba Sonko to therefore withdraw his unconstitutional announcement with immediate effect and deploy the full resources of the Gambia Police Force to enable Gambians enjoy their full constitutional rights. Failure to do that, IGP Sonko is therefore violating our constitution and the rights it has conferred on us. For that matter, IGP Sonko is therefore breaking the law and he must be held to account for such illegal action at the right time.
Forward with the Gambia

By Madi Jobarteh

Dear CDS Badjie and members of the Gambia Armed Forces,
Just over a week ago on December 14, 2016 we wrote an open letter asking you to find a way to persuade outgoing president Yahya Jammeh to step down peacefully and avoid bringing about violent conflict in our country. Over the past week, our country’s security situation has grown increasingly precarious, causing widespread fear among innocent men, women and children and adversely affecting our economy. During the same period we have also seen an increasing number of Gambian civil society organizations and individuals pleading with Yahya Jammeh to step down and prevent our country from sliding into conflict. These internal Gambian voices have been complemented by the voices of Gambian ambassadors, professionals and private individuals in the Diaspora. We all have also heard the concerned voices of many countries and international organizations around the world pleading with Yahya Jammeh to see reason and step down in the interest of peace and stability in our little peace-loving country and the safety of our parents, children, families and relatives who just want to live their lives in peace.

Unfortunately, in the face of this near universal chorus of pleas from both at home and abroad, Yahya Jammeh stubbornly refuses to budge and is willing to plunge our country into a violent conflict which will shed the blood of innocent people and destroy our country. Does Yahya Jammeh want God himself to step down to earth and plead with him to step down? Can Yahya Jammeh defy the will of the entire world and still win, as he says he will? Why does Yahya Jammeh shut his eyes against the reality that after 22 years in power, it is time for him to move on and allow The Gambia to move on? When Yahya Jammeh declares that he will not step down because he is not a coward, our response is that he is refusing to step down precisely because he is a coward. It is never cowardly to do the right thing. It is always cowardly to refuse to do the right thing, especially if refusing to do the right thing means sacrificing the lives of innocent people. In any case, the issue at stake is not about chest pounding and empty verbal bravado. It is about doing the right thing by God and by the Gambian people. It is about avoiding a conflict that will claim the lives of innocent Gambians who have nothing to lose if Jammeh steps down after enjoying power for 22 long years. Jammeh is trying to protect nobody but himself and his personal selfish interests.

We assume you have heard the news that ECOWAS has formally decided that if Yahya Jammeh refuses to step down on or before January 19, they will send a military intervention force to oust him and make sure that the will of the Gambian people is done. It is clear to all right-thinking people that there is no way Yahya Jammeh can win a war against the combined forces of ECOWAS with possible support from French Special Forces and other international players. Of course, if there is an external intervention force, you our dear brothers and sisters in the Gambia Armed Forces will be the ones to risk your lives in the line of fire. We Gambians do not want a single member of the Gambia Armed Forces losing their lives or suffering any kind of injury in defense of Yahya Jammeh. You Gambian soldiers come from us, the people. You are our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, and our relatives and friends. You also have your immediate families who look up to you, who depend on you for their day to day sustenance, and who love you more than Yahya Jammeh will ever care for you. Your spouses and loved ones need you; your parents and blood relatives need you; your children need you to be there for them as they grow up. We the Gambian people need you to stay alive to defend our country should the need arise in the future. The need to take fire for us does not arise in the present circumstances. If you take fire, you take fire for Yahya Jammeh, who is not worth it if only because he will no longer be your Commander-in-Chief after January 19, 2017. Why then would you die for him?

In essence, we are saying to you our dear brothers and sisters of the Gambia Armed Forces that the current crisis, especially after January 19, will not be about defending our country or our people – the majority of whom have voted for a new president and want to move peacefully on with their lives. The current crisis, especially after January 19, will be about citizen Yahya Jammeh, who wants you to sacrifice your lives and destroy the futures of your families, your children and the children of other Gambian families so he can try to do an impossible thing – hang on to power after clearly losing a free and fair election. If you take up arms against the Gambian people or against an intervention force, you are risking your lives for Yahya Jammeh, not for The Gambia or the Gambian people. Do not let Yahya Jammeh use and abuse your precious lives for his own personal and selfish interests. Please do not risk your lives for Yahya Jammeh. He is no longer your commander-in-chief after January 19.

In the light of Yahya Jammeh’s insane insistence on staying in power even if it means sacrificing your precious lives and the lives of many other innocent people, we are asking you again to please persuade Yahya Jammeh to step down peacefully and save our country from war. If he refuses to step down for God’s sake and for the sake of 1.8 million Gambians, we ask that you simply refuse to sacrifice your lives for him. If you die defending Yahya Jammeh, you die defending evil and you will never assume a place of honor in Gambian history. Rather, you will forever be remembered as soldiers who chose to defend an unjust tyrant against the will of God and of the Gambian people. You will be remembered as soldiers who helped Yahya Jammeh in his nefarious determination to stay in power even if that means destroying our country. And then what will happen to the innocent children you leave behind? What will happen to your brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, widows, widowers, parents? How will your mothers and fathers bear the pain of losing you to such an unworthy and evil cause? The point we are making is that if Yahya Jammeh refuses to listen to reason and common sense whether from you, from the Gambian community at large or from the international community, please do not sacrifice your lives for him. His time is up. He is going out one way or the other. You have your lives, your careers and your families to look after. And you have a country to guard and defend. Please don’t die for Jammeh.

In the event that military intervention happens – which it will if Jammeh refuses to heed the voice of reason – please remove your uniforms and stay at home with your families, drop your weapons and raise your arms, or otherwise cooperate and help in any way possible to make sure that Yahya Jammeh complies with the will of God and the will of the Gambian people. This will not be an act of cowardice or surrender. In fact, it will be an act of honor and courage on your part in support of truth and reason, and in the interest of our dear little country and thousands of innocent Gambians including your own families. No one will penalize you for doing that because that will be the right thing and the lawful thing to do. It will not be against any constituted and legitimate authority, but in support of the sovereign national interest which you are sworn to safeguard. Remember that Yahya Jammeh’s term as legitimate president of The Gambia ends at midnight on January 18, 2016. After that date and time, he and anyone supporting him will be guilty of treason and treasonable felony if they oppose the government that has the mandate of the Gambian people. Please do not die for Jammeh or allow Jammeh’s mad greed for power to destroy your futures and the futures of your families and our dear, peaceful country. If this war happens, and we hope Jammeh sees reason to prevent it, it will not be one Jammeh and whoever supports him can win by any stretch of the imagination. If Yahya Jammeh wants to commit suicide, let him go ahead and do it. Please don’t die for Jammeh. The choice is entirely yours.

We want to seize this opportunity to also briefly address our brothers and sisters in Jammeh’s cabinet. We are certain that the intelligent men and women in Jammeh’s cabinet know very well that he is fighting a losing battle. Therefore, we are asking you to either issue a joint statement asking him to step down or even better, to resign from his government now before it comes crashing down around you and thereby implicating you in an aiding and abetting scenario. We all know that Jammeh’s time is up. His government is over or will be over exactly at midnight on January 18, 2017. His ship is sinking. Do not allow yourself to sink with it and jeopardize your personal safety, security, and future and the safety, security and future of your families, your children, parents, spouses and relatives as well as the wider Gambian community. It is not too late to do the right thing, join the vocal popular Gambian revolution and help our dear little country avoid a potentially catastrophic conflict just because Yahya Jammeh is too cowardly to step down after being president for 22 long years and after been clearly defeated at a free and fair election. So we say unto you as well, members of the Jammeh cabinet, please don’t die for Jammeh. Tell him to step down or resign from his government. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing the right thing before it’s too late. Godspeed.
Author’s Note: Please share as widely as possible with our dear brothers and sisters of the Gambia Armed Forces and in the Jammeh cabinet, their families, relatives and friends. We must nurture our beautiful new Gambia and protect our dear brothers and sisters in uniform. Let’s loudly say to them #Don’tDieForJammeh!