By Pata Saidykhan

Isatou Touray is the most disgusting pieces of body parts I have seen that constitutes a human being. She is arrogant, entitled and devoid of grace and wisdom. And this is the Doctor, the learned and most qualified to lead the a country?

For two decades, patriots and selfless Gambians face the deadly dictatorship. They lost everything including lives. For three election cycles, the opposition parties have been invested in getting an alliance of all parties to aggregate their efforts to bring a halt to tyranny and they failed. Until April this year, all their efforts were geared towards leveling the playing field for all. In the process Solo Sandeng and Krummah got murdered, hosts of women belonging to opposition UDP tortured and allegedly sexually assaulted. Consequently, Lawyer Ousainou Darboe and his executed got persecuted and sent to jail. These did not deter the committed opposition parties, as they rallied around a cause and started consultations to proceed with what matters the most to Gambians. They gave us what majority of Gambians want.

While all these was going on, where was Dr. Touray? Nobody heard this lady ever say a word about or against the tyranny, brutality and murder that strangled out nation for two decades. You know why? She was being difficult working with no one, fattening herself and paychecks. She was selfishly working on accumulating personal wealth while babies and mothers got murdered, mothers, wifes, sisters and daughters got raped. She is a self-centered, egotistical, angry and entitled soul.

Isatou Touray is the lowest form of greed that universe created. And this is mirrored in her demeanor and utterances in this silly press conference where she purposely aim to tarnish images of well-meaning Gambians, especially in the person of Mrs Fatoumatta Tambajang, and collapse our efforts. Are you serious? That woman is miles ahead of you in every positive human trait and attribute. She is honorable, content and gracious. When nobody was wanting to stand up for Gambia in April this year, she was in the streets with the oppressed demanding justice and fairness. You were busy figuring out where to grab the next cow to milk after FGM and Early marriage got banned.

Isatou Touray was welcomed as a breath of fresh air at a time the frustrated nation needed Unity. Her only appeal was her non-partisan affiliation. Period. It was never that she was the most qualified beacuse she is not any more qualified than any of the people in that room. She ran an NGO that was supposedly working to end harmful traditional practices for three decades, and her political adventurism tells us why she failed, even after registering minuscule progress. You were not convincing Gambians to drop a knife. You were yelling, screaming, demeaning and insulting them. That was why they built resistance to your campaign. This attitude that ‘I’m better than you all’ as she bragged of her ‘technical and professionalism’ in her pursuit to forceful coronation is offensive and a trun-off. Halifa would wrap circles around you in ALL fields. Ousainou would let you swim in his fountain of humility, professionalism and respect for decades, and still be content. OJ Jallow would smack you with arms of eloquence, patriotism and commitment. Amat buries you before the sun sets. Adama’s youth appeal and relatability as an everyday Gambian leaves you for dead in the wilderness. So WHO are you?

No process is perfect, and we were never expecting the convention to be. But this is the closest to perfection we could have. It was the most transparent selection process between parties of different ideologies, beliefs and personalities. They sacrificed and compromised for our collective interest. To want to question the unfairness and lack of transparency because you could not succeed in shoving you self-centered ambition down their throats is disrespectful. Absolutely disgusting to ask Gambians not to come on board the train for change because you felt marginalized. You are throwing sand in the food. Check yourself. Go look in the mirror and correct yourself. You are an imperfect soul, with all signs and attributes of a dictator. Learn humility, ‘Dr’! Clearly, these people are not wrong. You are not going to be electable even if the whole Gambia and Senegal back you.

Go in with your nomination and run solo. You were never interested in the struggle to free Gambia anyway. You saw what you thought was a political opportunity, and pounced on it. You want to self-perpetuate, and we are not stupid to have missed it. Adios, doctor!

Gambia is facing a possible critical moment in the upcoming December 1st elections since its founding, one that threatens each and everyone’s future prosperity with – even more stringent regulations, put all our institutions in a shocking state of disrepair and threatened the integrity of all the pillars of our nationhood – beyond the blows to pillars of our judiciary by the mercenary judges. The Gambia has been in – to coin a phrase, secular, civil liberties and moral decline, since the regime took power. Yaya Jammeh has successfully toast the other side of Gambia we knew growing up yesterday and he is getting ready to bake what is left of our country. He is determined to chip away at the very essential values – that made us exceptional, as he continues– treasure hunting the best within our heritage. We are faced with these grim trends – that requires all of us to put our hands together and marching towards the beginning of the beginning – to coin a phrase from Halipha Sallah, walk in lockstep with a mind like Lawyer Darboe to claim back our country and take in charge of our future with the blessings of our coalition.

Quite frankly Our hearts are all emptied out –because Yaya Jammeh’s measure of excellence are the very things that embarrasses us. Over the past twenty years, the regime has increasingly centralized everything with power and all decisions of our country are on the hands of a vindictive Yaya Jammeh. A man who is short sighted by being extremely self-absorbed and materialistic obsession, to the point that he forcefully pulls out the little we have left on our hands. This has been a serious matter of concern because—he advocates policies that assure failure, swept in a culture of selfishness, reduced anyone he wishes to irrelevance by denying people a livelihood to survive, and uses —the intrinsic evil of government itself to harm its citizens. We have seen the best of the early generation and our generation —wronged, jailed and others exiled out of Gambia’s jurisdictions— leading to great suffering and early death for many.

Yaya Jammeh has become illustrious and aged to immaturity— despite reducing the living standards of Gambians. Lately, he has taken this attitude a step further, by claiming our country belongs to him. Some cannot event nobly live in poverty because the regime scavenger hunts everything. The little stake the farmers used to have from the harvest of their traditional economy – agribusiness, is now uncertain or nearly impossible because — Yaya Jammeh wants everything. In our cities, no one is allowed to even decry rising living standards for ordinary Gambians— because everyone knows the threat that meets them thereafter. The diasporian sons and daughter who attempt to drive poverty out of the native communities and buy medicines for community clinics, either get hijacked by those working for the state or to coin a respective phrase “fall off from the delivery truck” in the hands of your neighboring pharmacy.

We have long talked about our concerns for children dying in backway— because of hopelessness and the need to change the failed illustrious policies, but the regime advocates and prolong them with visions. Our citizens needs of clean water, electricity and safe neighborhood, seems to sail against their mind-set. This phenomenon can be seen in many communities across the country. The nation cannot be coping with many of the social predicaments, because the religious figures aren’t allowed to preach the truth. As a result, those who are left in the country without an adult figure in their house hold, are left coping with many of the social predicaments such – out-of-wedlock births, drug abuse, marginal employment. These are just the few examples that have long endured in our communities for twenty years. It is sad that some of our fellow brothers or sister’s social habitats, are strained by those limitations and left to face these grim trends.

Our hearts which we only had given pride of place of cleanliness is now eclipse with so many burdens, the regime wants us to retire in our own graves. Today some of the unwary among us, take the bad habits, discard the good values in their hearts, and applaud themselves as being loyal. The medicine to redeem such people without any side effects is voting for the coalition to relieve them out of this misery. Today, we are not well served by the insufferably smug of the regime – the like of their mayors, party elites and military leaders etc., who brag about how they purposely climb high up their ambition ladder —through incompetence but refuse to look down their noses to see the problems of the country. These were the people whom complained too much about the taxi Benz’s of today, which were the former government official vehicles. However today, they drive eschew cars and live in big homes on the nose bleeding sections of the hills tops (best neighborhoods). Oh well! Class seems to have won over piety.

Alas, our opposition parties have come together to meet these primary challenges in the most effective peaceful way and seeks to lead the effort to overturn these matters of concerns. They summon the high angles of citizens — to come together to the caravan of “Hope”, shift back towards our morals to meet some of societal challenges and to collectively solve our myriad problems —as one nation. Nearly all Gambians – from Farmers to civil servants and to ordinary parents are all unhappy with happenings and direction of our nation. Voting for the coalition is best way to keep the Gambia from being rapidly toasted by failed policies that haven’t worked for the last twenty years. The coalition provides that change in direction of the new beginning and empower individuals with the liberty to make their own decisions. Together, we shall all brainstorm to help with various ideas and approaches, in solving farming crises and give the citizens hopes they need to climb as high as their talent takes them on their ambitions ladder.

The system which is in place fails our nation to reach its potential heights because of authoritarian, corrupt, and a short-sighted regime falling to in meet the needs of its citizens. But for the most part, for how long can we let Gambia lost and barefooted, walking to a pretty dismal place of dictatorship without collecting any wining for our citizens except accumulating problems? The common wealth that use to nanny some of our state responsibilities, have their welcome mats removed —by a decision made in a heartbeat. It’s so sad that we have a first lady who now plunders the lunch boxes of our orphan children by using their plied as a Ponzi scheme. Hopefully, the other candidate walking slowing towards unity will come join in hands, to give us the necessary push to allow the country, all its citizens and its institutions —to survive— to the beginning of the new beginning in December 2nd. United we can!

By habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

By: the D30 Media and Communications

So, the question every Gambian should be asking themselves, as we prepare for the most consequential elections against Dictator Yaya Jammeh;s 22 years of tyranny, on December 1st , 2016, is; if the cause of right and justice wins, what kind of leader can we hope for? Many analysts still believe, the odds are still stacked too high against the opposition, considering the fact that, the cornered and wounded Dictator has the power of incumbency and continues to deny them the basic instruments of a democratic society, such as; access to state resources, free access to media, and not be intimidated by the secret police and militia loyal to the Dictator. These elections pose an existential threat to Dictator Yaya Jammeh, because Gambians have never been so dissatisfied, hungrier, sicker, poorer, more afraid, and more isolated in our history. Nations, over time, are defined, or take the character of their leaders, for good or bad. It is very evident, that Dictator Yaya Jammeh, for all the wrong reasons, has come to define Gambia as a comical, pariah, and failed state. So, the bar is already too high for anyone who is going to inherit the ship of state, come December 2nd, 2016, that is, if the opposition can pull the upset.

Great nations and civilizations are defeated because of wrong leaders in times of challenge or disaster, and Africa has had more than its fair share of weak and incompetent leaders over the centuries, especially when we came into contact with Western civilizations. Great leaders are also created, molded, during times of crisis or natural disasters. The Gambia is a nation in crisis, faced with an existential threat for our very own viability, based on the trajectory we are on , thanks to Dictator Yaya Jammeh.

The Gambia is at the very bottom, and falling, based on any indices, matrix or scientific measurement. The economy has long since collapsed, including the tourism industry. Just walk along the Ports Authority for shipping activity ( or the lack thereof), or into the Banjul Central market, or Serekunda, or Farafenni markets, and witness how the life has been sucked out of the economy. Youth unemployment has become chronic, as a result, more Gambians have died on the so called Backway to Europe, on the unforgivable Mediterranean Sea, or the desolate Sahara Desert, more than any country in peace time, by proportion. The human rights record of the Jammeh regime cannot get any worse, and more blatant based on the assassinations of Solo Sandeng, Solo Kurumah, and the illegal imprisonment of the entire executive of the UDP oppositions party, and countless other civilians, in 2016 alone!

The state institutions, such as the police, the judiciary branch, the banking system, the health system, Gamtel, etc have collapsed. Farmers are not being paid for their products for years, and agricultural output has never been poorer, worse than at the time of independence, based on tonnage ( groundnuts). The capital city of Banjul looks like it has been bombed out, and abandoned, with not a single paved road, or working sanitation system. The population of Banjul has declined to pre-independence levels of less than 25,000 people, abandoned and forsaken by the Dictator, for his out of the way Little hamlet, called Kanilai. The Gambian Constitution has been amended so may times, to suit the personal and greedy needs of Dictator Yaya Jammeh, it is no longer worth more than used toilet paper. On regional and international relations, Gambia can benefit from a reset from a responsible leader; we have never been more isolated, and now Jammeh is touting his new found friendships in the troubled Middle East.

The next president will preside over a period of post-conflict reconstruction and restoration, to make us whole again as a nation, and for our collective psychological therapy, to mitigate post trauma stress disorder (PTSD), including economic depression. So, first things first, The Gambia deserves a new president who respects us, the people, appreciates the solemn responsibility of running our affairs on our behalf. We deserve a president who understands that we are his/her employer and must work to earn his pay. The next president and his cabinet, the entire senior servants, and all positions of consequence must declare their assets before they assume office. The next president’s policies must be guided by statistics, an official population census, for the first time in 22 years, and to appoint an immigration specialist team to investigate the Backway tragedy. This team will account for every death, and account for those that are trapped in shelters all across Southern Europe.Unless the Gambia government takes responsibility of its own citizens languishing and wilting away in camps in Europe, and to begin to address the underlying issues of chronic unemployment, and hopelessness, the demographic and social time bomb will create more dislocation in the future.

The next president must be ready to deliver justice for the aggrieved, dead and disappeared, pay reparations where needed, and then lead a national reconciliation, in that order. The next president must be firm, fair and consistent. The next president must be a champion of the constitution, and not rule by executive decrees, or amend the constitution out of shape. The next president must accept and demonstrate his/her acceptance by not interfering with the judiciary and legislature, as co-equal partners and branches of government. To avoid conflict of interest, we no longer need a Businessman-in-Chief! The government cannot be, and is not a profit making enterprise.A private sector led economy is desirable, where citizens equally participate, and get rewarded fairly for their risks, and hard work.

The government’s responsibility is to deliver services equitably, based on population, grounded in statistics, not emotion. Banjul must be re-dedicated as the capital and seat of power, of The Republic of the Gambia, and plans must be put in motion to rebuild it as such. The next president must be a unifier, a reconciliator-in-chief; who can talk with the people, not talk down at us, or above us, or talk to the opposition as colleagues, not as enemies. The next president must champion our value systems or respect, family, modesty, measured in his/her utterances, and not to be sponsoring jamborees encouraging the mixing of hormone driven youths.

The next president must the champion and role model for education and competence. Future scholarships must be based on merit, and need, not on “beauty”, which is highly discriminatory, and demeaning. We can also Never rebuild a meritorious civil service without a strong education system, based on high standards, and merit. Gambia will never grow its economy or attract investors, without developing nimble minds and hands of young people. Last but not the least, our relations with Senegal, the region, and whole world needs a reset! All of these traits and skill sets are the opposites of what Dictator Yaya Jammeh has demonstrated the last 22 years! We demand more and better, from our next president. Being born in small country, does Not mean, we cannot think big, and let us choose right this time around, in the name of freedom.

D30 Media Team

After decades of ignoring our concerns or taking minor steps to address it, the regime waits until elections time to make ambitious long-term plans. The regimes political history is clouded with two decades of failed empty promises, criminalizing our concerns or arresting their ways of our problems. it is distressing to see the regime either drags it’s feet when it comes to its citizens needs or will immediately arise criminalizing it or arrest their way out of the problem. However, nothing they are involved themselves comes to fruition because — of the lack of fealty to our bedrock values of compassion. Everything they do for the most part is done with malicious heart and they will pick up the wrong battle that becomes the headline news instead. Many people took out of frustration of seeing their country folks suffer, take on the thankless task of being a champion of their causes. Hardly almost a month goes by without the regime giving us a lethal combination of slap-dash surprise and self inflected wound from stepping off their own political landmines.

The regime had high hopes for finding a silver lining in the mud pit of their detrimental policies they peppered the opposition with —to be a cliff-hanger catastrophe that will dutifully thwart out the coalition efforts but thankfully, there wasn’t much of the victory they hope for. Gambians in the diasporia have a constant theme of unity and are making donations to see the coalition efforts become a success. The online radio’s are donating their valuable time in making sure Gambians are abreast with issues concerning our country .The regime ought to take our determination as a wake-up call to get out of the way and allow Gambians to decide our future —on our terms instead of them forcing us kowtow to their whims.Theoretically, most observers have opine that they are afraid to allow the democratic process to go forward and will try last throws of some array of desperation measures at the ICE . Many pertinent and worrisome questions about the electoral register and regimes illegally games of voting card buying activities, remained unanswered.They loves using these same tired approach of sparking flames of mistrust to torch off our hopes of coming together .

The regimes faults are many, but they continue isolating themselves further by continuing to violate every citizen of their rights and always suppressing the opposition— instead of freeing themselves from scandals. There passion of doing whatever it takes to stay on power regardless of their failed presidency, has crossed all the line to incivility and even berate their own supporters. It has always struck Gambians as a little odd, when the regime takes political stances or advocate on policy issues to ensure Gambians lurch into failure . The developmental aid embargo they pushed on communities that voted the other way in the past, only caused untold economic damage to the nation as a whole without weakening those communities . Yaya Jammeh will never fix the issues of the country even having astute people around him because —he always see the negative sides of things and cannot stand certain people to have a fair share of the pie.

More significantly, the Gambian people patience, have hit rock bottom and we are determined— not to let historians continue to write the same old stories of the past. It’s ironic, though, APRC are trying to rebuild their brand in Gambia, a brand tarnished, if not tainted, by Yaya Jammeh. Offsetting the regime is a must and new direction is required for meaningful reforms of the lackluster bygone era detrimental policies —that have plaque our nation. We need government that appeals to our dreams and aspirations, not to our fears and anxieties as we have seen for the past twenty-two years. These people have nothing to offer us except putting out issues of scandals— from their binder list of absurd idea, likes pigs rushing to a full trough. The regime adhere to typically non palatable policies of the bygone such as limited electricity, discriminated developments in communities, reducing internet and running Yaya Jammeh only programs on TV .

The political dynamics and demographics needs of Gambians have shifted rapidly. This underscored the recurring challenge for APRC’s ability to govern Gambia again with their paper-thin ideas,that does not even appear genuine to many voters nor solve anything . More disconcerting though, he attempted to run away from his own persona by staying out of the limelight to stop the bleeding of his parties waning relevance. The man couldn’t help himself but kept duplicating the follies of fear mongering and Isolating the country further from world — that brought the party to its lowly estate in the eyes of majority Gambians.

On the flip side, though, all eyes are on Coalition Convention Caucuses on Sunday —that will perhaps propel one of the aspiring opposition candidates to a clear national front-runner status. All of them have enjoyed momentary surges in an election cycle colored by the same crowds of Gambian electorate seemingly dissatisfied the regime and want change. Gambians have a lot to be happy about of having a strong bench of rising political stars and our experience politicians. The reason why the opposition has massive a standing ovation and perhaps get the biggest explosion of applause each time they are returning from the campaign terrain is —Gambians see them as the best hope for our country. Gambians should remember the regime have nothing to offer us —except the same tired approach of demonizing people, using rhetoric that marginalizes and villainizes, dividing us all in groups by undermining our values of tolerance —which seeks to dissolve social, tribal, religious and economic barriers.

Beyond that, we all almost fall into Yaya Jammeh’s trap of turning us into a tribally segmented polarized nightmare – by his own design to assist him in winning reelection. In an act of desperation, they are pulling out all the stops to derail the opposition apparent impressive showing of momentum. Considering these trends on their dwelling support within the country, they ought to take it as a wake-up call and ponder about the evident public policy blunders —that laid the groundwork for such scenarios. Gambians are cautiously optimistic that we shall overcome.Most importantly though, As the nation now tightens its focus on the regime disappointing record of their failed president, the seedy characters who hang onto its fringes, on both sides of the aisle will be on their heels to stir division in our unity.

This is a great opportunity for all Gambians and those civil servants suffering from stagnant wages, meager opportunity, social isolation and household fragmentation. Let’s all vote for the opposition and refuse to Shroud our further with obsolete detrimental ideas from the murderous regime. This elections is the surest and quickest way to relieve our country peacefully from dictatorship.The opposition have the courage to come together and we should have the courage to cast our votes with them.

By Habib ( A concerned Gambian)

By Lamin Gano

Since I wrote my first blog post on 26 Feb 2016, a lot of people have questioned my intent and reason for blogging on Gambian politics and security. Some even went as far as to pretend to be mind-readers and they fabricated some weird claims like I am still working for Jammeh and that my agenda is to cause opposition disunity.

There is absolutely no negative intentions behind my writings. I naturally enjoy writing and the idea of this blog is simply a result of my 2016 new year resolution. The night of 31 Dec 2015 found me in one of the most peaceful countries in the world (Canada) and as I absorbed the peace and tranquility around me, I could not control my tears as I thought of the pathetic situation in which my country is languishing in mainly due to the ineptitude, mismanagement and poor leadership of President Jammeh.

And as 2016 is our presidential election year, I made a resolution that I will contribute to the best of my ability and through cash or kind to the electoral process in order for us to achieve a peaceful political change through the ballot box. The idea of a blog was one of such efforts which is the least that I can contribute to give back to our country and people who gave me everything and made me who I am.

Considering the possible negative consequences of speaking up against Jammeh, I made this resolution from a deep sense of patriotism and love for my country and it was based on my conviction that Yahya Jammeh is no longer serving the interest of the Gambia and her people and for him to continue in power after 2016 will be a major disaster for the country.

On that same new year’s eve, I also had this strong believe that Yahya Jammeh will not get 30% of the votes in the Dec polls. At that time however, Solo Sandeng had not gone to the West Field Junction to strike the first and most devastating blow against Jammeh’s regime by sacrificing his own precious life for The Gambia.

At that time, Lawyer Darboe and the UDP Executive members had not taken to the streets and sacrificed their freedom thereby giving impetus to the downward spiral and inevitable death of the Second Republic.

At that time, Jammeh had not gone out on a nation-wide tour of insults, declaration of genocide and promise of hell against Gambians thereby earning for himself nothing but the wrath, dissatisfaction and disenchantment of every rational and peace loving citizen.

At that time, there was no Mama Kandeh crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country causing irreparable damage and disarray to the APRC support base.

At that time, Dr. Isatou Touray and her firebrand team where not out in the country with such a ferocious determination to sweep the country clean of Jammeh and the APRC with their brooms.

And perhaps most important of all, our tradition old opposition parties were still divided and weak at that time and there was no Adama Barrow, there was no convention and there was no coalition standard bearer.

As a result of all these new developments in addition to the numerous other wrongful deeds and rightful omissions done by Jammeh, I am obliged to changed my prediction about the election results. I totally believe that Yayha Jammeh will have only two votes in the coming elections which will come from only himself and the First Lady.

Not even a single Jolla person (including my grandmother Ajaratou Asombi Bojang) will be voting for Jammeh in Dec. This is because the Jollas (excluding Jammeh), are the most hard-working, contented, sincere, honest, straightforward and peaceful group of people in the entire Senegambia region. And since there is a possibility that Jammeh may destroy these qualities of the Jollas by trying to use them to commit genocide against their friends, neighbours, loved ones, compatriots and fellow human beings, my Jolla cousins will be the first people to go to the polls on 01 Dec to vote out Jammeh.

In my opinion therefore, it really does not matter whether it is one opposition candidate or a thousand of them who contest against Jammeh. Jammeh will lose these elections big time and there is no marabout or Jinns who can change that.

Based on this deduction therefore, I have made a few decisions with regards to my blogging and Facebook activities. Henceforth, my writings will be dedicated to our gallant men and women in uniform. As much as possible, I will focus mostly on issues relating to the military vis-à-vis the forthcoming elections. I have neither forgotten nor was I bluffing when I said that I have 22 reasons why we need a new Commander-in- Chief for our Armed Forces.

My second decision is that I will never again criticize any member of our opposition leaders. And most important of all, I will neither criticize the National Convention of Opposition Parties nor its new leader Honourable Adama Barrow. There are a number of reasons for this decision one of which is that most of my in-laws are on the coalition side of the political divide and therefore it will be too risky to step on the toes of my mbitangs (in-laws). My beautiful Nyancho wife (Sanneh Ballama Anna Kungballing Fing) and the happiness of my marriage is simply far more precious to me than who becomes our next president. In this regard therefore, I hereby congratulate Honourable Adama Barrow and if he is the best person to lead us into a Third Republic, may Allah grant him all the protection and success.

However, based on my assessments of the various political and security dynamics on the ground, I believe that the most suitable person for President of the Third Republic and Commander-in-Chief of The Gambia Armed Forces is Honourable Mama Kandeh. In my opinion, Kandeh does not only stand the best chance of defeating Jammeh, but he is the most well-juxtaposed to win the trust/confidence of the civil servants, security personnel and the APRC stalwarts. It should be recalled that 72% of the 2011 electorates voted for the APRC and since none of them will be voting for Jammeh this year, this group of voters is the majority group in this year’s election. This group is crucial in defeating Jammeh as well as the continuity and well-being of the State.

Perhaps the most important reason for Kandeh as a presidential choice is the need for the maintenance of the enviable peace and stability of our country. Autocratic presidents like Jammeh who have committed human right violations usually does not hand over power peacefully if they believe that their personal safety is threatened. They would rather go down and out like Gaddafi or Gbagbo and in the process taking along more innocent lives. Mama Kandeh has made a commitment to protect the constitutional rights and privileges of Jammeh and therefore Gambia is most likely to have a peaceful political transition with a Kandeh victory.

As a person who abhors violence and advocates for unity, peace and stability, I therefore hereby declare my total endorsement and support for Honourable Mama Kandeh. In the same vein, I hereby call on each and every member of our armed and security services, their families, friends, relatives and well wishers to deny Jammeh their votes and instead to vote for Mama Kandeh. Most important of all, I hereby urge every person in security uniform to stand in solidarity with the people of the Gambia on 02 Dec when Jammeh’s defeat is announced.

In conclusion, I would like to appeal to my band of critics on social media to please respect my freedom of choice and to exercise restraint in their personal attacks. There is barely a month to the elections and and I need to focus all my energy and firepower on Jammeh for disregarding my advice for him not to participate in this year’s election as well as to engage with my friends, colleagues and second family of the security services.

Finally, I have niether grudges nor any hard feelings against anyone and therefore any criticisms or wrong things that I said against anyone (especially some of our opposition leaders) was done in good faith without any intention to hurt or ridicule anyone. Nonetheless, I hereby apologize to everyone who has been offended by my writings. Please forgive me.

Long live the Republic of The Gambia, long live our peaceful and harmonious co-existence.
Author Gano
Posted on October 31, 2016

One of the strangest initiatives, from one of the burrowing owl of Gambia’s national coffers, who suddenly recovered from her decades-long hibernation on list of daunting challenges that almost all first ladies care passionately about — as her elections draws to a close. This has erupted so much firestorm of outrage and unfettered form of anger because she has always written off our nation issues with her silence as mere afterthoughts or viewed our worries as Irreverence to her convictions. To begin with, since her arrival, she took our national coffers as a prisoners war in a chokehold position— to comfort her desires with luxury. Ironically, she perfected her husband’s skills of an unbroken trail of corruption, with their usual sequestration cut-and-dried exercise on many Gambian business and aid money given to the poor nation.

What’s happened isn’t especially surprising— because everything she does perhaps well intentioned, come with major asterisks. There’s no question the foster children’s in the system needs help and someone of a star power to highlight their cause, but not from someone who been trying to close the door our nation eagerly opened to all with a compassionate heart. It’s incredible that, the way they went about soliciting funds in Dollars currency from business and world leaders, especially during the politics of the moment in exchanged for a photo op’s generated so much passionate outrage.

All in all, given the sad history of her lack of openness and accountability in past fundraising events, leaves additional questions because in the aftermaths of such events, she disappears to USA. The biggest worry about her sudden involvement, made people to cast doubt about whether the money reached its intended victims. That’s right, a year ago, it would have seemed unfathomable for first lady to speak few words to Gambians, but she breaks that mold now. Even more alarming, what also should serve as a poignant reminder is that— any programs she is involved with, were such a bait-and-switch that left Gambians mired in unsustainable levels of gush of red ink debt. In addition, her status as First lady, accorded her great wealth and unusual privilege, but her record over 16 years is one of greed, avarice and irresponsibility.

The way these couples settled their long grievances of poverty growing up from rags to riches, is sadly with injustices to our nation coffers and business to turned themselves into depraved billionaires without an ethical core. A glaring example sprang from Gambia’s once manageable debt has gone rotten and rancid —into a crushing financial burden because of their actions. Her abrasive personality and coarseness of manner, invites so much anger, frustration, indifference and even contempt because — she never let the incessant bad news of husband distracts her nor sympathizes with Gambians on our loss, pain and unspeakable sadness.

She does not possess any requisite qualities that inspires Gambian women nor developed an appreciation and understanding of the real-life concerns of women.

It is almost surreal when you stop and think this woman didn’t intervene on behalf our baby Isha, prevailing on her husband to release the tortured women of April 14th, walking through think bushes in villages with Dr. Isatou Touray or Amie Bojang of Gamcotrap — to lend her star power to the FMG issues and early marriage issues at the times when the women of the country really needed her voice the most. She could have won the respect of Gambians and earned a Nobel price or featured as one of the most influential first lady. We could go on with issues but her persona is the antithesis to our values. Whatever she advocates for at a particular time, does not closely aligns with our current issues.

Her body language or facial expressions does not show that warm magnetism, infectious kindness— when she is around our fine hard working mothers or our precious children. The Gambian voter’s seriousness for coalition, have helped to awaken the Jammeh family everywhere from their decades-long hibernation on issues that matters most to Gambians. Zainab whom largely has been out of the limelight on list of daunting challenges of events that she could change, has finally thrust herself into one of the national emotional issues for all of the wrong reasons. Suddenly, their ears are all perked with disbelief watching the implosion of internal struggles, between the warring factions of hard-liners within their party, that suddenly branched off to support the GDC as a bridge to the coalition.

Perhaps unbeknownst to many, though, she is the reason why the pulse of the bottom of our national foreign reserve coffers” made in china label” are visible. The nation remains on its current fiscal trajectory downward spiral because of their actions. It is a known fact that they do not appreciates anything beyond the preservation of their titles. She seems simply to have lost her grip on reality of her prized misadventures, but the price tag of her hits on our national coffers keep coming. Worst of all, many people claim that her devotion to her agenda of enriching herself and her past actions that results in many Gambians losing their jobs, reveals another closed minded person with lethal consequences. They show no desire to rein in spending of what they collect from Gambians or leaving the corridors of power anytime soon.

Yaya Jammeh and his regime are engaged in fraudulent voter card buying using money and intimidation. In an unusual public display, the military is also simultaneously working to cut through the political noise by touring the country unnecessarily, thus confirming the long-standing fears of observers. Thankfully, they are aware that they have already lost the pulse of the power they once though were secure in their hands. This explains why they have been recently loud and vituperative. Given the enormous crises facing our country, it is just too late for the same old tactics that worked for the past twenty-two years thinking it will further amplifying their stance. Every Gambian who votes for the coalition have a unique opportunity for a worthy legacy second to none in history. We Shall pick up from the songs achieved in our hearts that shall echo all over the ethos of our country – Home again.

By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

Over the past elections cycles, Yaya Jammeh perfected the art of snatching the Gambians wishes of change from the jaws of victory by using so many compounding fraudulent factors and lack of lock step unity of the opposition “coalition “to give himself a landslide victory. Thereafter, he adopted a default campaign mode of blind folding Gambians, using brute force that crosses the moral line to make people fearful of him and regaling the public with tales of false history. Every respectable religious figure in Gambia and the voice of conscience have tried to work tirelessly for Jammeh to strip the worst of his moral excesses but they failed. The EU and world bodies such as UN, have tried to comb through the regimes bad habits and remove archaic and unnecessary brutal policies but he begins pulling out their welcome mats. African statesmen have all tried a matchmaking process to help connect him with his conscience of relishing power but failed. He seems incapable of working with human beings together on anything because he deplorably fight to curtail anything that will move the country forward.

But with 22 years staying in power comes a track record we simply cannot put our backing behind. One cannot be weeding through the thousands of the regimes crimes and issues without shedding tears or losing a piece of your heart. People from all sects of life and businesses continue fleeing the Gambia because of crushing regulations, villains of NIA offered exemptions from the law for crimes they commit and limited economic opportunities. The regime elites are so particularly overzealous with power and it the benefits that they refused to look down their noses to see failures at every level. Instead of providing the leadership the country needs by putting out the welcome mat— in reaching out across the political aisles for citizens who has plenty of government experience under his belt in addressing issues concerning from fiscal prudence to bringing the nation together and denying the unbridled ambitions of the few who put self-interest rather than nation’s interest, he instead chose a supermajority of the incompetent domineering predilections and very divisive people choking our institutions to death.

Particularly so these days, Yaya Jammeh boldly abandoned publicly— all pretense of his promises and began espousing his unthoughtful mental philosophy. He refused to soar above issues that divide Gambia and decided to settle every grievances or guilty consciences he had growing up. It’s felt like from that moment, Gambian simply covered their eyes and kissed “Death” to its face unknowingly. We are still paying for our past mistakes dearly and price tag of this regime with — our lives, blood, money, our heritage, our traditions, our dignity, and our national identity. Where we expected hands-off approach to encourage business grow and competitively bidding various services, they acceded to monopolistic ideology by resorting to detrimental crony capitalism of sweetheart deals for special interests with APRC political connections causing too much too much imbalance. Where we expected the regime to find areas of common ground by building relationships with local communities—that possessed interesting ideas to developed their neighborhood, he began denying them developmental funds provided by EU that lead to the backway to EU. They went further thwarting the skills of experience Gambians on the other side of the aisle who shares a common commitment to the nation —to fix back our broken institutions such as electric company or ferry services by placing people who speaks only the local dialect or patwah at best (broken English) or their drivers of yesterday to head them in their respective institutions.

As Gambia continues to nosedive even further into uncharted territories of brutal dictatorship, he became so comfortable that —they began using of enormous power of the state machinery to settle political scores and do away his opponents. His regime ears, became apparently — not even attuned to the cries of pity or trail of tears from the Gambians —asking them to be more compassionate toward their fellow citizens and stop the ceaseless abuse of Gambians. And with all the bad reasons: The Regime have long thrived on its machinations divisive tactics, intimidation of politicians and manipulation of the unsuspecting Gambians minds. However, the never ending cycle of violence in this 2016 banner calendar year which lefts of with so many unfathomable monuments of pains in our history. This election cycle, emotions and tensions are particularly high, almost every Gambian household have been affected by the regime one way or multiple fronts. To that end, it gave the opposition parties and Gambian people the much needed rude awakening to finally held hands together and walk in lockstep of unity to climb that high mountain of coalition.

Suddenly as December 1st approaches, Yaya Jammeh saw the clouds of the cleansing rain of love for each other we need to wash off mistrust forming in the sky of Gambia. The clouds of happy thoughts to wash away suspicion of each other and clouds that hold the rain of goodwill to wash off division caused by APRC regime chameleon tendencies gathering to fall. He looked around and saw political landmines he buried everywhere and decided a plan B to minimize damage by retracing his exit plan, instead of relying on rosy predictions of anchor babies of the neighboring country— whom are his enablers of security heads. He is now realizing he is on thin ice and immediately withdraw Gambia from ICC. He understands fully well that these people even though some have intermarried among us, do not understand our cherished values of empathy, cared about our religious customs and culture of unlimited compassion of Gambians towards one another.

Deservedly so and cumulatively, Yaya Jammeh knows very well—he will have to shoulder the actions of anchor babies from our neighboring country, his shrewd enablers of security heads busy enjoying his lifestyle, the actions of incompetent easy riders bankrupting the country and freeloaders of mercenary’s judges. Yaya Jammeh never falls short to make Gambia suffer a tsunami of bad publicity even though he ran away from the public to avoid the thorny Orientals of his mere words. In a broader sense, Yaya Jammeh does not need help for bad publicity because —his conduct in numerous controversies always attract increasingly fierce criticism. In another worrisome sign, the reports of possible rejection of asylum of Osman Sonko’s — one of the architects of death and axil of evil, might have prompted him to withdraw Gambia from ICC. Who knows when it comes to Yaya Jammeh because you will never get the honest truth about anything. Well, Yaya Jammeh chose out of his free will to bent Gambia out of shape to suit his vision of old times of barbarism. He spent his presidency fanning the flames of distrust to the point of destroying all our neighborhoods and communities. He has proven to be patently dishonest. No amount of his gesture can be the healing balm to emotionally inflamed communities and our beloved country he totally destroyed. Fortunately, Gambians are beginning to remember what was once lost. The coalition will give his regime the shellacking it needs to ever become history. Hopefully, none of our generations yet to come will have to go through this pain again.

By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

Gambians are determined to separate satire from reality come December 1st. The battle to reclaim Gambia’s political soul has just began from fatally flawed characters who have hijacked our country and put us into extraordinarily risky territory. Our hopes of democracy can’t even die of old age because Yaya Jammeh has reformed it to death using dictatorship tendencies. The regime has been attacking Gambia’s own immune systems of our cherished values, cultural norms, our tolerance and now our nation is eventually made sick from the virus of dictatorship. Gambians are now aware the disorder of illness dictatorship and the chaos syndrome of its compounds effects in our society. It has other causes, too: Yaya Jammeh’s intemperate figure and rhetoric has crossed over into the downright dangerous. The list of things the regime can do for Gambia is growing shorter and no one is guaranteed immunity from their tragedy; end of story. They said much, overstayed too long, accomplished very little and enmeshed Gambia in serious scandals that put us in world spotlights. Therein, Gambians have enough of the enslavement, subjugation, marginalization and exploitation.

Moreover, Gambians looked deep into their own consciences, rummaging for one good thing- which the regime has done that have the approval of majority Gambians and couldn’t find anything resembling a common ground with the regime. Yaya Jammeh himself has proven to be the same mean-spirited closed mind with lethal consequences. We cannot afford to swallow the unpleasant medicine of a fare hike to a supercharged dictatorship nor pick our country’s own poison again in the coming election cycle. From the moment Yaya Jammeh romped himself into our State house, scandal and controversy have followed us as a nation. The unprecedented length of our current stay of this regime in our nation, have only exacerbated these problems much more — as regime continues to further divide the magnitude of the challenges our country faces up in many ways. It is very abhorrent that our children’s, our schools and communities—are forced to celebrate the day we lost our beloved country to dictatorship in the 1994 coup de tat— to the violence on our women, genocide directed at our politicians and imperialism that followed his arrival at our Statehouse.

By and large, he lacks anything resembling self-discipline, is prone to temper tantrums and appears utterly unable to focus on matters of policy that benefit our country. And the values he has espoused for the last two decades, bear no resemblance to traditional Gambian values or positions. The regime has lost credibility with their incoherent foreign policy — that has toss Gambia overboard form commonwealth which benefited us greatly, while driving us closer to fellow autocrat leaders who failed their nations, putting us right into neighboring countries centuries of territorial disputes —which is already causing enormous damage to this nation’s reputation around
the world. One thing is quite obvious is—we have moral obligation save our country. Multi-generational solutions are needed because all the pillars which held us as a nationhood have been destroyed beyond recognition. We need our elders with vast experience and a lifelong dedication to public service reversing the spiral of dictatorship.

This is the starkest political choice in our living memory. It’s telling that so many APRC members— have share the existential same concerns about the directions of our country. The party’s noisy breakdown has been echoed eerily. They have distanced themselves from their party’s leader and finding a second home at the GDC party. They finally have become victim of their own hubris, believing the pain he is inflicting on Gambians for people to fear him and miscalculating the scandals he puts the country without limits will, will made stay on power until his demise at old age. As it turned out, he lacks broad popular support but the forces of evil he aroused in our country, have helped him outlive his welcome. It has become apparent he is indifferent to our needs and also to the harm of his deathly policies he has been inflicting in Gambian communities. Given the dysfunction the regime has caused to our nation, it hardly surprising that —there are newer faces on the political scene. The blood of the dead is a stain that cannot be rubbed out of every Gambians memory. It’s a sad with the state of affairs of our country, it takes politics of the fear of losing this election, for him to be very violent on opposition leaders and for him to speak ill of someone, and when he finally does, it’s a fellow Gambian.

In light of the exhausting patience, the Gambia have given Yaya Jammeh twenty-two years’ chance to prove himself but he has pushed us to the brink. The EU whom use to serve as intermediaries’ between us and him, overtime, have seen their influence fade as he become more individualistic and unaccountable about their AID money given to Gambians. Astonishingly, the regime seems incapable of working together with Gambians on anything, even when our interests align. Let’s be aware the regime might be posting some people as turncoat or troublemakers, whose efforts thus far have tied in knots on the coalition rope, for a sole purpose of obstructing our victory—well, everything. We cannot swallow the unpleasant medicine, of supercharged dictatorship again and gloating about its after effects in 2017 moving forward. The times also requires all of our opposition leaders and aspiring candidates to envisions the needs and hopes of Gambians for a better hopeful future. We are confident that this time we shall get it right. There are optimistic signs everywhere that gives us a chance to square our shoulders again.

By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)