By Reuben Abati
I have very vivid memories of my last visit to The Gambia. This was in 2013 when President Goodluck Jonathan paid a two-day visit to the country. In the course of that visit, President Jonathan commissioned the new Chancery of the Nigerian Embassy in Banjul, and also met with the Nigerian community, in addition to the usual bilateral meetings. Nigeria and The Gambia have very strong cultural and diplomatic relations.
We were quartered at a very nice, hospitable sea-side hotel, the Coco Ocean Resort. One of the first things I noticed was the large population of female tourists, lounging by the pool-side and the sea-side, with biceps-wielding, six-packs-flaunting young dark-skinned men on the prowl, with gigolo-ish gait and mien. A female member of our entourage who had gone to the restaurant alone, later returned – visibly shaken and alarmed and what was her problem: one of the male ushers in the hotel had asked her if she would need a man to keep her company so she could have a real taste of Gambian hospitality.
We laughed over it later, but you could not but wonder whether this was one of the reasons why The Gambia holds a special attraction for middle-aged ladies from Europe. There was no time to conduct further research into that aspect of our encounter with The Gambia. I was far too busy for that. But there was no doubt that The Gambia under President Yahya Jammeh took the country’s tourism endowments seriously: a beautiful seaside, good weather, low crime rate, good hotels, beautiful women, adventurous young men, and a meek populace.
President Yahya Jammeh was determined to give President Jonathan and his delegation a good reception. From the airport to the hotel, you would think a festival was afoot. A public holiday was declared and our visit was aired live on radio and television. When we got to the hotel, President Jonathan’s vehicle was immediately serenaded by a cavalcade of horse-riders and a full band of drummers, singers and bag-pipers in colourful costume. They led our convoy to the Presidential suite, where security had been heavily deployed in fitting recognition of the importance of the visitor. President Jammeh like virtually every other West African President took a special liking to President Jonathan- the only one who was aloof and liked to act like the father of everyone was that one in Cameroon, although I must say when we went there for a security summit, he received us excellently well too.
We felt very much at home in The Gambia. We were kept in rooms that were a bit far away from the President. And whenever that happened, the aides were always excited. It meant we could have a little more freedom away from the searching eyes of the security people around the President. And those ones, I will tell their story someday because they were fond of disturbing other matters of state and personal interest by suddenly interrupting with calls: “Oga dey call you, Oga says you must come now, now” only to get to the big man and he tells you, “No, I didn’t ask after you.” By the time you hang around for a while, just in case the big man would change his mind, whatever plan you were pursuing would have been aborted, or seeing you, the boss would find an assignment for you or drag you into a meeting. Angry, deflated, you went to the security man who made the phone call: “But you said Oga sent for me.” Those guys always managed a poker face: “But you know it is always good to stay around Oga in case he needs you.”
I was impressed by Jammeh’s hospitality and respectful disposition towards President Jonathan. I recall that in 2012, when President Jammeh tried to succeed President Jonathan as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority, his own colleagues, including President Jonathan, opposed him. He rarely attended ECOWAS meetings. His then Vice President, the motherly, regal and polite Isatou Njie-Saidy always occupied The Gambian seat. But he usually showed up when a new Chairman was to be elected. Seniority is something that is taken seriously within the club of African Presidents.
They refer to themselves as “my brother, my brother”, but they are always very mindful of seniority and that is one of the reasons why the likes of Paul Biya, Robert Mugabe, Yoweri Museveni, Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo behave and speak as if they are God in human form. Each time Jammeh wanted the ECOWAS Chairmanship position, he behaved as if it was his birthright, but in 2012, and again in 2014, he was bypassed for junior Presidents as had been the case since he first expressed interest in the position in 2001. He was the only long-serving President who was never allowed to chair ECOWAS. He must have been aware of President Jonathan and Nigeria’s stand on the question of his Chairmanship, but he never held it against both. In fact, Nigeria and Nigerians were so influential in The Gambia under Jammeh, ordinary Gambians complained openly about the overwhelming influence of Nigerians in their country.
Everything went well during our state visit until it was time to meet with President Jammeh in the State House. It was part of my duty to introduce the Nigerian President’s delegation, except someone else seized the microphone and I stepped down. In The Gambia, mere protocol recognition of the President of the country ended up being a major problem. His full titles had to be mentioned, and in a correct order in order not to upset him. The pre-meeting briefing by my Gambian counterpart dwelt too heavily on the titles: His Excellency, Sheik Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Abdul-Aziz Awal Jemus Junkung (AJJ) Jammeh Nassiru Deen Babili Mansa, President of the Republic of The Gambia. It was something like that. The security guards were also rough and menacing. Security men often do not understand the language of diplomacy. We went to many countries where we were treated roughly and our own security men often threatened to retaliate if the affected country ever visited Nigeria. I don’t think we ever got a chance to retaliate because our protocol system proved to be more orderly.
The State House in The Gambia when we eventually went in, however, was quite modest. It looked like the guest house section of Aso Villa. The meetings went well too. And Jammeh, to my surprise, spoke very well. He didn’t sound like the fool he was portrayed to be in the Western press. He was articulate, debonair, well-composed and mentally sharp. I guess these are required qualities for dictatorship and crookedness. And I admired Jammeh. He is afterall, my age-mate. He sat there, in his royalty, running a country, and I was there, switching between a microphone and a notebook, documenting his history. But something else happened that gave a true picture of Jammeh’s Gambia.
Our official photographer, Callistus Ewelike (he took over from Kola Osiyemi– God bless his soul) had issues with Jammeh’s security men. Security men at State Houses around the world are unfriendly towards journalists. They seek to control access. They consider journalists busybodies, looking for negative news. Accreditation and the use of tags should ordinarily take care of this, still, the security people just prefer to misbehave, and I witnessed that even in the United States where we were treated as if the visiting media was a team of terrorists. There was no violence in the US, but in The Gambia, they seized Callistus Ewelike’s camera and smashed it. Callistus is an aggressive, stubborn photo-journalist. He would fight if you try to stop him from doing his job.
He was a staff of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) handed over to me by Ima Niboro when Kola took ill. Callistus must have resisted the Gambia goons, claiming his right as President Jonathan’s Official Photographer. In The Gambia under Jammeh, the President and the security agencies ruled as if there would be no tomorrow. They trampled on everyone else’s rights. Anyone who tried to act like a free man was brutalised and dumped in prison. For 22 years, Jammeh sat on his country and his people with the help of marabouts and security enforcers. He kissed the Koran everyday, but he did not act according to its dictates. He wore a trademark white garment, but his true garment was of a black colour from the kingdom of Satan.
Ewelike’s travails eventually became a full-fledged story on the second day of our visit when President Jammeh’s spokesperson and the rest of his media team started looking for me at the Coco Resort. We were to be treated to a luncheon before departure. The luncheon had started but I got cornered. Jammeh’s spokesman brought a brand new camera to replace the one the Gambian security people had destroyed. Callistus was with me. The Gambians apologized. Apology was taken and accepted. They said they didn’t want the two Presidents to hear about the incident. I gave them my word that I would not mention it to President Jonathan. Then, they pleaded that we should accept the replacement camera they brought.
I told them not to bother – as far as we were concerned, whatever happened was occupational hazard and Nigeria would replace its own damaged equipment. I looked at Callistus. He was eyeing the new camera greedily. At a point, he called me aside and whispered: “Oga, this camera they are giving us is better than the one they smashed oh. This one na better camera. Oga, abi make we take am?” I stood my ground. I also consulted Ambassadors Hassan Tukur and Daniel Hart who said accepting a replacement would amount to a diplomatic tit-for-tat. I thanked The Gambians for their good sense and assured them that we were fine with the photographic coverage of the visit so far, despite the damaged camera. I always had a back-up photographer and cameraman, in any case.
That encounter was a blessing in disguise. It saved me from the first course at the Presidential luncheon, which had started while we were outside the hall discussing the damaged camera. When we got back to Nigeria, close to eight persons on the Presidential delegation ended up in hospital due to food poisoning! They all took that first course. Nobody died but somehow the information got back to The Gambia and the chef was arrested and charged to court. Jammeh’s rulership of The Gambia was jinxed in many ways. The biggest jinx was his volte-face over the last Presidential election. Gambians deserve a new place in the sun and a new Gambia. But so much depends on new President Adama Barrow. He should look beyond the past and face the future. If he spends his time facing the past, he will disappoint his people and exhaust the enormous goodwill that has brought him to power.
Demagogues are the Achilles of democracy
Written by Alagi Yorro Jallow
President Yahya A.J.J Jammeh Babilimansa is almost a textbook demagogue, a brutal dictator and an “elephant with mosquito legs” in a China shop. The more powerful his passions and more the more uncontained his ambitions, the more likely the democratic system he inherited collapsed into despotism. Demagogues are the Achilles heel of democracy.
Demagogues like Babilimansa present themselves as representatives of the common people against elites and unworthy outsiders; make a visceral connection with followers as charismatic leaders; manipulate that connection for their own advancement, frequently by lying egregiously; and threatens established rules of conduct and constraining institutions as enemies of the popular will that they embody.
The values of the citizenry are a democracy’s most important asset. The people must understand in their bones that it is illegitimate to cling to power permanent by rigging elections, suppressing contrary opinions or harassing the opposition with impunity.
In 2016 presidential election, fear and anger became dominant political emotions. The fear was downward mobility and the anger was against tribalism; chronic corruption; uncontrollable repression; demagoguery; human rights abuses and sheer arrogance of dictator Jammeh.
The emotions were far more visceral and less attractive and majority of Gambian, the outburst of such primal emotions is disturbing, because they are so hard to contain. Elections finally respond to the fear and rage that brought down dictatorship and elevates democracy.
And the election of President Adama Barrow is a triumph of democracy and a defeat of demagoguery and dictatorship. Democracy must respond to legitimate grievances, but the demagogue’s exploitation of such grievances threatens democracy. It will be foolish not to sustain and consolidate our new democracy.
President Yahya Jammeh has created an agonizingly persuasive false myth that one man can be President for life; that only the APRC members can have access to new opportunities and lead a better life than most; and that only those who are politically connected through birth, association or sheer audacity must have an advantage and be entitled to wealth of Gambia.
It will not be easy to change our circumstances or move our country into a functional democracy because we have been psychologically complicit in creating a social system that does not respect our own needs and aspirations. Our tyranny is created and accepted by the people of The Gambia, and that is the hardest fact to accept.
Dictatorship can only arise and flourish where very specific conditions are met. Critical to an effective dictatorship are people with low self-esteem and who have a victim mentality. People who believe it is beyond their ability to effect change. The political leadership must also meet these same conditions. They must have a destructive and incessant low self-esteem and must, therefore, put to good use all tools and forms of oppression to shield their egos and vulnerability.
Dictators mirror their low self-esteem on the society which they seek to oppress. In that society, there must be individuals who are willing to support that low self-esteem with theirs.
A dictator must surround himself with praise singers and charlatans whose only interest is to see how they can benefit from him. He will then reward those who praise and fear him and incarcerate or injure those who refuse to do so.
He will bring close to him those he fears so that he may decimate their individuality and independent thought. This psychology of victim mentality thoroughly spreads itself in every sphere of society and becomes the DNA of that society. Everything is designed and manipulated to extend and fortify the dictatorship.
To dismantle such an entrenched reality requires a formidable force. Societies change slowly; a day at a time and that is our task in The Gambia. It will take new conversations about an alternative to be repeatedly discussed and share with all. It will take years of reconditioning the minds of our citizens so that they can begin to believe that they are the source of the fuel to the dictatorship; that they must shut down that supply if things are to change for the better. That is where we must go as a society.
We will face harsh resistance from those who are to benefit from retaining the status quo and a lukewarm response from those who benefit from insubstantial change. The battle of ideas that must be fought will be protracted, difficult, and unpredictable.
The Gambian people must have the foresight and the courage to continue the road of a meaningful democracy. The difficult task is how we lead our country so that our quality of life cannot be impacted upon by bad politics. How do we create a society that is not driven by fear of loss of income or assets if we choose to be on the outside? How do we prevent a dictatorship from using economics to imprison us?
The Gambia under President Yahya Jammed is guilty of perpetuating dictatorship. The middle class joined the National Intelligence Agency or the entire security forces, for example, in droves to buttress the oppression of Gambians. The greedy businesspersons, small traders and economic chancers we hear about every day who continue to seek political favor to gain an unfair advantage are also guilty of perpetuating a system that oppresses them.
It is evident that Gambians have, therefore, played a decisive role and in part created the very conditions that we continue to complain against and blame.
Yes, twenty-two years of dictatorship has been dislodged through free and fair elections; can the Gambian people destroy this pervasive and evil foundation from within? Now that we have democracy, the international community must aggressively intervene with funds and grants for a rectification program with the full support of all Gambians, home and diaspora to build a new Gambia we seek. This is the journey we must take now. We must also discard the myth that dictatorship had been brought on by forces outside beyond our control. We have changed our circumstances through a deliberate albeit slow efforts of changing our minds.
The Gambian people have made history by moving from dictatorship to democracy.