It is always a joy listening to Gambia’s Finance Minister present the country’s budget. It is one such occasion that the entire country looks forward to hear the health of our economy and what government plans to do in the next 12 months particularly related to development projects and expenditure outlay. However beyond the rhetoric that defines the annual budget presentations lie one of the biggest of scams which President Jammeh and his government engage in to swindle hundreds of millions of Dalasis of tax payers’ money. And it all has to do with what Fatu Radio has discovered to be “a cunning strategy where holes of spending on repeat projects” are deliberately and continually inserted in the budget where spending on such projects are never accounted for.

Fatu Radio investigations have revealed that many of such repeat projects have appeared in eight budgets since 2005 eventhough evidence shows that they were already funded years back. This monumental fraud first came to light during Fatu Radio’s weekly Thursday program with journalist Ebrima Sillah who admonished Fatu Radio to develop interest in the way Gambia’s budgets are prepared and spent.

Mr Sillah said for two decades now the APRC government has been using a highly subtle, a highly delicate spending culture where on the surface, it claims to be using people’s tax funds to work for them. But in reality he said, a further investigation reveals one of the biggest scams in the way a country’s tax revenue is managed.

Mr Sillah’s exposé focussed on construction and other infrastructure projects funded by the Gambia government some of which have already been funded and work said to have been validated and verifiably completed. Yet those same completed projects repeatedly appear in subsequent budgets with huge of chunk of tax payers’ money allocated to them.

Fatu Radio investigations discovered that this is one big area where the dictatorship in the Gambia has absolute control over and where it continues to commit fraud against the Gambian people. Many of the repeat projects include construction of feeder roads, refurbishment of police and military barracks, refurbishment of public schools, hospitals, etc.

In 2013 for example, the entire budget of the Gambia was D3, 612.67 billion out of which the government had allocated D1, 693.03 billion for infrastructure projects. However a further investigations showed that the government ended up spending D1, 882.55 billions on infrastructure projects representing almost D200 million as excess expenditure. The justification for excess expenditure came as a form of supplementary budget which was submitted to the National Assembly by the Finance Minister but on the authority of the Office of the President.

Subsequent investigations by Fatu Radio also show that even the contractors of some of these projects, have questionable profiles making it difficult to trace their sources of expenditure as per the work that they say they have done.

Our investigations also show what one of our government sources drew our attention to as “mispricing” where the contractors quote usually higher than normal prices for services but still such services rendered are of substandard quality.

Fatu Radio is also in possession of credible evidence that show corrupt practices in the way Gambia’s tax funds are managed. For example the way funds are allocated to the different ministries where we see the office of the president is allocated the chunk of funds in the budget which are never audited.

Looking at the figures in the 2013 budget, the office of the president was allocated D345 million out of a total budget of D7279.20 billion.  However the Ministry of Defence which also is directly under the Office of the President was allocated D372 million, Fisheries ministry which was also under the Office of the President at the time in 2013, was also allocated D323 million, Agriculture also under the Office of the President was allocated D413 million. And remember Yahya Jammeh was the Minster designate for all these ministries. The ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources also under the office of the president was allocated over a 100 million.

Our investigations show that in actual fact if you look at what the State House alone controlled in the 2013/2014 budget, stood at 37.8% of the entire budget. This is a big chunk of our nation’s funds in the hands of one person.

The situation is even worse in the 2014/2015 budget because now we have seen that the Office of the President was allocated D556 million, Ministry of Defence D558 million, Ministry of Agriculture D151 million, Petroleum Ministry about D85 million. Now interesting the Ministry of Fisheries which now has a functioning minister, is now allocated only 59 million in the 2015 from D323 million when Yahya Jammeh was handling the position.

Now all throughout particularly from year 2000, we have seen the difficulties our farmers are going through to the point that the government could not buy their nuts. We have seen the difficulties the people engage in the fisheries sector are going through. Now many Gambians have started seriously asking where all these millions accolated to the Office of the President have gone to.

From the foregoing, Fatu Radio investigations have concluded that even if the international donor community tighten their rules as to how their funds are spent in the Gambia, the President Yahya Jammeh still has vast amount of sources that he can lay his hands on. Within our budget alone, one in every three Dalasis that we collect as tax actually goes to the office of the president.

In our next report on this investigation, we will bring to fore how Jammeh uses infrastructure projects to award contracts to special friends and business fronts where the large chunk of our expenditure funds actually go back to Yahya Jammeh.

First of all, various Nigerian and Ghanaian media outlets reported that the President of my country HE Alhagie Yahya AJJ Jammeh has recently allocated portions of our Gambian lands to some Nigerian and Ghanaian entertainers. The fact that we Gambians have to know about this from second hand sources speaks volumes on the way we are treated as non-humans by those running our country. Jammeh is a temporal President and not the everlasting private owner of the commonwealth of our Gambian fatherland.

I for one respect him and endorse his freedom to do whatever he pleases within the parameters of the Reasonable State and Realpolitik but if he touches certain red lines, I will speak truth to power without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. The senseless wastage of our scarce resources on money-hungry foreign musicians and movie stars is scratching on those red lines. I am therefore calling on the named home video peoples not to rush in developing the land that President Jammeh reportedly allocated them. For over 10 years, we have been reading reports on how Nigerian video film stars, and of late Ghanaian ones, are airlifted into the Gambia to serve as presidential event decorations. They are rewarded millions from our Gambian tax revenues without measurable lasting benefits to our creative economy. If at all the monies are from President Jammeh’s personal savings before he became President of the Republic of The Gambia on the 22 July 1994, I for one would not care. But the funds that are wasted on the Nigerian and Ghanaian hustlers are generated through our taxes and remittances and we have the right to speak out on it. After all, we are the ones sweating for the monies. The Gambian economy is on life-support at the time of writing this piece. Without our Diaspora remittances and the bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we would have long seen a Burkina Faso-styled mass revolution by the hungry and tired Gambians. President Jammeh’s strength lies on the weaknesses and pettiness within the ranks of those fighting to end his rule. The greedy Nigerian and Ghanaian entertainers “chopping him dry” are too blinded by our free government money, free food and free sex with some local girls to see, feel or understand the silent sufferings of the voiceless Gambians.

Secondly, it is an open secret that President Jammeh does not feel comfortable supporting highly professional and ethical Gambians. This self-denial does not give the Nigerian and Ghanaian wannabe stars the birth right to milk our poor nation dry. You don’t need to be rocket scientists to know that Nigeria and Ghana have more geographical space and other resources than our little Gambia with a total territorial size of just 11,295 square kilometres. Land is scarce and highly sensitive. Our Gambian courts are currently inundated with protracted litigations over land disputes across the country. Governments come and go but the people and their land problems will remain. No sane person can guarantee that the Jammeh government will continue to rule the Gambia for the next 20 years. Being a Nigerian or Ghanaian so-called celebrity will not immune you against future court appearances over land and other contractual disputes. Future governments have the prerogative to nullify land allocations and revise destructive decisions of the current regime. Feel free to ignore my sincere advice, go ahead to develop the “donated” land and invest in Gambia at your own peril.

Thirdly, I will not blame the local population for the rising anti-Nigerian and anti-Ghanaian sentiments that are fuelled by the irrational decisions of the powers that be. If you snatch away the meagre resources of scared and disadvantaged communities and share them among fat and parasitic entertainers from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, South Africa, Jamaica and other places, you invite trouble into the nation. I am a responsible Pan-Africanist and believer in African solidarity among the people without the hypocrisy of the political classes. Direct exchanges among the diverse peoples of African descent on fair terms are better for me than the divide-and-rule tactics of the corrupt elites. Successive Nigerian governments have been blindly sending lawyers and judges to assist in building a progressive Gambian judiciary but most of them ended up as corrupt mercenaries ever-ready to jail more Gambians just to appease the executive branch of the Gambian government. You now wonder about the sources of anti-Nigerian slurs that you could hear on the streets of the Gambia? That said, African solidarity does not mean taking away from the poorer Africans in this case Gambians, to pamper the richer and fatter Africans, known here as the hustling Nigerian and Ghanaian home movie people. Personally, I have put more money into the Nigerian film industry since 2006 without insisting on quick returns on investment. I love Nigeria and I believe in the Pax Nigeriana – that is Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa and the Black Diaspora but that does not mean I should not question things that go wrong between Maiduguri and Calabar. I visited the country in 2008 and deliberately avoided the limelight but my behind-the-scene contributions towards mutually beneficial inter-African solidarity in the creative industries remain strong. I have people across the various segments of the Nigerian Cinema between Kano and Lagos to confirm my silent activities. I don’t need to be running after the Nigerian or African politicians and business leaders for charities and photo opportunities in order to show the whole world that I am contributing my quota towards the advancement of Africa in my natural fields of expertise and passion. Ghana is also not absent on my agenda. I have been screening Ghanaian films in Germany, welcoming promising Ghanaians talents and cooperating with Ghanaian Diaspora groups in Cologne since 2006. I need not talk about other African or Afro-Caribbean countries.

Fourthly, Gambians don’t value their own talents. For years, they preferred patronising Senegalese and other fly-by-night musicians while expecting them to build the local music Gambian industry. The same blunder is being repeated in the movie industry. Our local movie talents are living from hand to mouth while the hustling fly-by-night Nollywood and Ghana folks are pampered with our taxes and remittances. If you try to reason, they would say you are jealous. Why would we be jealous when some of us are blessed with the expertise, global connections and confidence to thrive across the international film scenes? I for one can afford the luxury of staying out of the competition for publicity, movie roles and photo sessions with politicians and remain a relevant behind-the-scene thinker on African Cinema. I just pity the local talents who cannot speak their honest minds on the state of affairs. No one will build Gambia for Gambians. The Kenyans, Ghanaians, Tanzanian, Sierra Leoneans, Liberians, Ugandans and others used to wait for some Nollywood noise-makers and hustlers when the digital home video phenomenon started 20 years ago but along the line they realised that they had to take the lead in building their respective national film industries. In the Gambia, it is a crime to be innovative and think out of the box. Patriotism there is about telling lies to the powers that be and inviting foreign stars to collect presidential gifts that will be shared among those who facilitated the access to “His Excellency Professor Doctor President Alhagie Yahya Abdul Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh, Babili Mansa, Lord of the Bridges and the greatest Pan Africanist of all times.” Correct me if at all I left something out of the glorious name!

Fifthly, the pioneers of postcolonial Nigeria Cinema before the digital age relied on some healthy degrees of social responsibility and self-reliance to build an industry from scratch. It is a shame that for the past decades some of Nollywooders and accidental home video people have been prostituting themselves to political desperadoes across the African continent. Their filmmaking is no longer about checking and balancing the African political classes or raising social consciousness. The derogatory names “Nollywood” and “Gollywood” are synonymous to the “greed is good” mentality. It is all about playing, partying and vanity at the expense of taxpayers. Their monotonous home videos are mainly regurgitating the missionary and jihadist propaganda that everything culturally African is evil and backward while promoting the aggressive proselytization of the Western neo-colonialists and Middle Eastern Trans-Saharan slave traders as the only superior options for acculturation that Africans must copy at all costs or end in hell. Hallelujah! Allaw Akbar! To the lords of the White and Arab masters must be the great glory at all times: say ameen! The perpetuation of the self-hate coupled with skin bleaching, fake hair and the obsession with “Onyibo” America and materialism aside, some of the so-called stars over-rated their political levels by aggressively campaigning for the defeated Doctor Goodluck Jonathan in the last Nigerian presidential elections of 2015 and took home millions in fees or gifts. They over-rated themselves by mistaking the hype and photo opportunities with dictators and questionable business people as political gravitas. If I were Dr. Jonathan, I would have asked them for a refund. Yes, they have the right to be actively involved in the domestic politics of Nigeria and their home countries but when our ill-advised Gambian government waste our meagre public funds on them, I for one will challenge them. As a film director and producer, I make stars but I don’t worship them. I don’t care if you win all the film or TV awards under the sun and get all the global publicity and the fattest bank accounts in your industry. That will not make me run after you like demi-gods. You will only get the respect you earned through your comportment, sincerity, modesty and social responsibility. I am allergic to greed!

Sixthly, the Boko Haram neo-jihadist group is engaged in genocide against Nigerians and Africans in the name of Islam but not a single Nigerian director, producer or actor has so far shown the bravery with patriotic and social responsibility to make a serious film on the Boko Haram mass murder. The Malians and Mauritanians were brave enough to make a film on the misuse of Islam for violence. Watch “Timbuktu” (2015) directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. Another Malian sensitization and resistance movie against religious fundamentalism titled “They Will Have To Kill Us First” (2015) directed by Johanna Schwartz will be in circulation next year. Nigerians cannot say money is the problem as they have more resources at their disposal than the brave Mauritanian and Malian filmmakers and actors. Frustrated by the apparent cowardice in Nollywood, I recently asked one of my local Nigerian contacts to write and send me a movie script on the local war on terror so that I can take the risk of making a film that will challenge the senseless killings in the name of Islam. If the Malians were to waste their meagre resources on the Nollywood stars to tell their African stories, the religious war of the Tuareg region would still be boiling hot like the Boko Haram cancer. For the citizens would not have had the local content and credible chance to be sensitised on the menace of religious bigotry through the power of film. Boko Haram is technically doing what countless Nigerian home videos are doing to the African Personality – destroying the African social fabric and values and replacing them with imported lethal ideologies. People will readily attack President Obama and the Supreme Court of the United States of America (SCOTUS) for defending homosexuality but would blindly support Nollywood and Boko Haram for promoting ungodly acts of adultery, cheating, lying, greed, rape, robbery, corruption, decadence, hypocrisy and fake un-African lifestyles. My powerful article titled “Are Nigerian Filmmakers Afraid of Boko Haram?” will be published soon.

Finally, I don’t blame the Nigerian and Ghanaian hustlers that much for exploiting the gullibility and destitution of some narrow-minded African cabals and peoples.  As I pointed out above, Gambians don’t sincerely value their own talents and President Jammeh or those who control his presidential ears are repeatedly showing that they are more comfortable dishing out luxury vehicles, land, villas, cash in foreign currencies and diplomatic passports to visiting praise-singing stars some of whom could be struggling to pay their bills as all that glitters is not gold, while badmouthing, marginalizing, imprisoning or neglecting the sincere Gambian talents. The “lucky” few Gambians will get some hundreds of thousands of Dalasis, from time to time but in exchange for blind loyalty or maximum shut-up. Personally, I see it as a blessing in disguise that President Dr. Yahya AJJ Jammeh has so far not given me a dime for my Gambian film industry projects. This has granted me the clear conscience, creative freedom, street credibility and elite authority to talk freely, do my things independently on my chosen terms and speak truth to power whenever I deem necessary without hypocrisy and the guilt of eating his presidential monies. I will be in Gambia later this year to continue from where I stopped in contributing my quota towards the development of our Gambian creative scenes without begging or waiting for anyone.

Gambians are mourning and with them too are Senegalese following news of the demise of a legendary musician, Musa ‘Afia’ Ngum “Borom Akasa” which sad event took place Sunday 11^th October. According to a Senegalese online newspaper, Seneweb, Musa Ngum passed away at Le Dentec hospital.

Musa’s sudden death came as big shock to family and friends. He did a live performance the previous night on Saturday with his son Yusupha Ngum, at a Senegalese night club called ‘Just For You’.

Musa was said to have done his last show sitting on a chair due to poor health. In a brief TV appearance on TFM, Musa spoke about rumors of his demise in August saying it was spread by rumor mongers.

He also used the opportunity to renew his call on Gambia and Senegal to become one country, saying it was only after that he will stop wearing different colored shoes. Coach Pa Samba Jow, a long-time friend of the legendary artist said this on his Facebook “I have lost a friend and a star, the legendary Musa Ngum is no more. He was full of life yesterday when I spoke to him. Chei”. Musa who is believed to be in his 60s is described as a very humble man, whose love his country is unquestionable. Sources hinted that he might be buried in Touba, the holy city of Mouridism and the burial place of its founder, Sheikh Amadou Bamba Mbacke.

BRIEF BIO

Bala Jigii Musa was born in Fatoto, in the Upper River region of The Gambia. History has that he would not go to bed unless his caretaker played a particular musical instrument for him as a means of putting him to sleep.

Growing up Musa was a well-known “Kasak” singer who was sought after by families when they circumcised their children and in ceremonies to honor their reunion. In his professional music careers, the ‘Murid’ ardent follower, played as lead vocalist for Gelewarr Band producing well successful songs and doing great shows in the West Africa Region.

He resettled in Senegal in the early 80s and was reported to have joined Super Diamono Band in 1985. They produced hit songs like Omaro Bamba sa Mamla and Banjul Banjul. Later in his career, Musa did classical and acclaimed songs like Artist du Daanu, Sama Yai Demna Ndaar, Circilasung Lamp Fall among others. He was given an award of National Order by then Senegalese President Abdou Joof.

Musa did a song after the July 22 takeover in The Gambia, the song titled ‘Buroka’ a Jola word means ‘hard work’. In the song, he called on Gambians to work together and develop our country.

He was later reported to have been invited by President Jammeh to return home. A request he honored and has been living in The Gambia for a while.

Our condolence to his son Yusupha Ngum and the entire family. May his soul rest in peace!!

News reaching Faturadio reveals a tense situation at the State House.  President Yahya Jammeh’s wife, Zineb Jammeh has been bedridden for a while now with a severe unexplained abdominal illness.  She is said to be very troubled by this because it is making her life miserable.  She was already in bed confinement prior to this due to a broken leg.  Sources in the State House said she broke her leg when she missed a step and fell.

All this came on the heels of revelations from young girls which are being extensively reported by Faturadio, detailing her husband’s sexual abuses against them.  The girls spoke of being forced to sleep with Yahya without protection, and forced to undergo abortions when they get pregnant.  He also makes sure the girls, whose ages range from 17 to 25 years old, are virgins and not circumcised.  There is said to be many more girls going through this trauma in the hands of Yahya even as we speak. Whether the illness is related to this or not Faturadio hasn’t been able to determine, but investigations are continuing.  However, Zineb, according to sources is already blaming Yahya, she has already told confidants that he gave her the disease she is said to be suffering from.  We are also investigating to find out what she meant about that.

Faturadio reached out to an observer who follows the situation in Banjul to shed light on the current drama unfolding and he sums it up like this: “This could be karma, or should I saying…a blessing for The Gambian people.  Here is a couple who has made it their duty to make the lives of poor Gambians miserable by torturing, humiliating, killing, disappearing, and terrorizing them, here comes their turn to feel the taste of their own medicine.  If this is not a sign for them to change their ways, we don’t know what will.  God is not sleeping and poor Gambians must know that he hasn’t abandoned them, but he does things at his own time.  Personally, I just could never believe that there will ever come a day when Zineb is not out shopping, spending millions of poor Gambian tax payers’ money.  This is a good day”

In other news, Almamy Gassama, Gambia’s Deputy Ambassador in Ethiopia has been recalled and appointed as Managing Director of GAMCEL.  Almamy has worked at GAMTEL/GAMCEL for many years and has a lot of experience in that area. According to sources, the Jammeh regime is not happy with the current GAMCEL MD, the reason why they asked that Almamy be brought back.

The interference in the running of the Gambia’s economy by the executive, especially by the office of the president, is resulting in hard times for the population while messing up the country’s economy, the IMF has warned.

The IMF calls for the lifting of the executive directive on the foreign exchange rates fixing, urging The Gambia government to focus on the fundamentals of the economy that are being destroyed in the process of such meddling.

Such fundamental problems include “issues with the economic structure, compounded by repeated policy slippages”, according to the IMF’s briefing with members of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Kairaba Hotel on Wednesday.

Imports double exports

The IMF says the country’s structural issues include external transactions in structural deficit. “Exports (and re-export) of goods averaged US$112 million during 2010-2014; Imports of goods averaged US$320 million.”

Services’ balance positive, but not enough to offset deficit on trade of goods, the IMF rep in Banjul said, noting that “Exports of services (including tourism) averaged US$140 million; services imports of US$79million.”

On the Ebola outbreak with its impact on tourism, Gambia’s economy faced added additional challenges. Total impact estimated at US$60 million, Mr. Gaston K. Mpatswe said.

Remittances, estimated at about US$50 million, help to finance the trade deficit too. Official transfers (grants): remains “unpredictable, only received in 2012 (US$9.2 million) and 2014 (US$19.5 million).”

Fiscal deficit at GMD 4.8 billion

Deficit of external transactions, mainly financed by foreign direct and portfolio investments are equally declining for Gambia, the IMF said, noting that it is “the best flows to finance current account deficit.”

Loans (net of amortizations), which averaged US$14 million in 2010-14, represents “a drawdown of Central Bank of The Gambia reserves” when overall balance of payments is in deficit and no financial arrangement with IMF.

High fiscal deficit, which stood at GMD 4.8 billion at end 2014, against a surplus in 2007, “has steadily increased.”

IMF says although it is expected for a low-income country to have deficits, level of the deficit and sustainability of financing matter for macroeconomic management.

Public debt stands at above 100 percent of GDP

“To finance its budget deficit, government either receives external budget grants (which they need to be mobilize, and unfortunately, has not been forthcoming), or borrows externally,” it stated, noting that for such to work, they also have to be mindful of terms and exchange rates.

Other options include borrowing on domestic financial market. This can be done through issuances of Treasury Bills (T-bills), getting the Central Bank advances or overdrafts, or accumulating payment of arrears – which according to the IMF, is “a bad policy, as it means withholding someone else’s money (i.e. suppliers) at zero costs.”

Due to rapidly increasing domestic borrowing by The Gambia’s central government, the country’s public debt which stands at above 100 percent of GDP at end 2014, has reached “unsustainable level due to external public debt (about US$411.2 million at end 2014) but mostly on concessional terms.”

Domestic debt borrowing, which is based on short-term Treasury-bill market, and usually at very high interest costs, is estimated at about GMD16.2 billion at end-2014.

The Dalasi losing value

IMF says that Government is also increasingly borrowing from the Central Bank…. Known as a “monetization of budget deficit”, this means more Dalasi in circulation. And if foreign currency is less available (i.e., less demand for Dalasi) then, Dalasi loses value against them.

Other factors that caused the Dalasi to lose its value include stronger US dollar (or other currencies) on global market. According to government, forex earners were “hoarding” their money (which reduces demand for Dalasi).

Notwithstanding that, when Dalasi loses value costs of servicing of public and private external debts increase, prices for imported commodities increase. On the other hand, other impacts of high domestic borrowing include the substantial increase in treasury-bill rates.

Higher Treasury bill rates reduce banks’ incentives to lend to private businesses, and lead to high lending interest rates.

A decade lost

As a result, almost a decade of consolidation efforts has been lost because of policy slippages during the last 2 years.

Currently, there is less public investment, less lending to private sector, fewer jobs creation and more poverty: “With very high Treasury-bill rates, interest costs increases rapidly, costing the state budget about a third of revenue collected by GRA in 2014.”

This means less resources for priority public investment and other development spending, high interest rates, less lending to private sector, less productive investment by private business, lower economic

On the nights of the encounters, he first invites the girl for dinner.  The meal is always buffet style with foods ranging from bush meat, goat meat, to shrimp and other sea foods.  By just the sheer number of the different dishes and desserts, one can be forgiven for thinking a big house party is about to begin – not food for just one person, Yahya Jammeh.

Once dinner is over, he then leads her into a master bedroom located by the kitchen on one side and son, Muhammed Jammeh’s room on the other.  In this room is a bathroom, a white mattress and a white couch.Unopened boxes of unknown stuff litter the place making it a little smaller.  Particular care it seems was deliberately made to be sure everything in the room is of white color.  Walking in, despite all the stuff around, one almost feels like entering an empty space.

Once he settles in the room with the victim, he then proceeds to insert his fingers inside her in an effort to according to him, check whether she underwent Female Genital Mutilation and whether she is also a virgin.  He tells the girls he likes them uncircumcised and virgins.  It must at this point be noted that Jammeh has made his support for FGM well known in the country and even tried to prosecute prominent anti-FGM forces like Dr. Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho on false charges.  This practice therefore attests to his hypocrisy that has become all too common.

He then proceeds to rub the girl going in an up and down motion while he asks her whether she likes it or not.  These are very young girls and by this time she is trembling like a slaughtered chicken, fear overcoming her entire body system.  The answer to such a question obviously cannot be a “no”, for after all, this is the most brutal leader the African continent has ever seen.  One of the girls confided in Faturadio that she once made a desperate attempt to push his hand away, but when he insisted that she was bluffing and that she loves it, she gave up the fight and let the abuse continue.

Whether performing rituals lie at the heart of reasons for President Jammeh’s sexual abuse of young Gambians girls is yet to be determined but the revelations coming from the victims point to superstitious believes too.  The fact that everything in this room is white, even the furniture is white, and according to all the girls, he dresses them in white before performing the actual sex act with them seem to suggest there is more to the whole affair than one just satisfying his pedophilia desires.

The sad truth is that none of the girls who continue to be abused by Yahya wants to be in that situation but they all feel helpless.  Faturadio, in collaboration with the wider Gambian Diaspora, will continue to reach out to human rights groups and the International Community to highlight the plight of these innocent victims who should be going to school rather than serving as someone’s sex slaves.  This quote from one of the girls says it all: “I get so scared seeing a man I saw in white Kaftans throwing biscuits at us when we were young, now sleeping with me.  This may sound funny, but I get even more scared when he takes his hat off”.

Tomorrow, October 10, will mark 100 days in prison for journalist Alhagie Abdoulie Ceesay. His crime: committing acts of journalism in Gambia (or what local authorities would refer to as “seditious intention” and “publishing false news”).

Ceesay is the manager of Gambia’s last remaining independent radio station, Taranga FM, which has been repeatedly shut down by the government since 2011. The station was prevented from broadcasting for nearly two years until an “act of goodwill” in January 2014 allowed it to reopen.

That Ceesay, and other members of Gambia’s media fraternity, face constant harassment, intimidation and imprisonment is no surprise. President Yahya Jammeh—who has been in power since a July 1994 military coup—has carved out a notorious reputation for his violent intolerance of dissent, creating a “layer of fear” that is palpable in Gambian society, according to a March 2015 United Nations report. The criminalization of dissent in Gambia, and its deadly consequences, has prompted the regional ECOWAS court to claim that Jammeh has fostered a “climate of impunity,” routinely ruling against the government for violating the right to freedom of expression (multiple decisions, in fact, that the government has thus far refused to acknowledge or adhere to).

A 2013 report by the Doha Center for Media Freedom notes that over 100 journalists, at the time, had been forced to leave Gambia since the 1994 coup. More recently, it was revealed that every member of Gambia’s Press Union has fled the country since 2009.

During his time behind bars—dating to July 2 of this year—Ceesay’s lawyer has reported that his client is subject to routine torture by prison authorities, which the United States government has both taken stock of and denounced, and that Ceesay has been consistently denied medical attention, despite suffering from asthma. According to information from local sources, several individuals, including Ceesay’s girlfriend, have been forced to provide testimony against him.

For too long, Jammeh and his brazenly offensive regime has evaded international scrutiny. During the past year, however, aninternational spotlight on Gambia has undeniably brightened, prompting a concerted effort by the regime in Banjul to deflect this well-deserved criticism. One can hope that this new reality will also prompt Yahya Jammeh to use his country’s limited resources more wisely, and finally uphold important African and international agreements—as well as Gambia’s own constitution—to protect the basic human rights of all its people.