Let’s jump into it straight without cutting corners. Why would Yaya Jammeh degrade Gambia by humiliating the high level delegation of ECOWAS-UN, consisting of respectful African heads of states? What conceivable advantage is there in choosing the occasion of a high-profile visit to close the doors to the premises of the IEC, and shamefully sending the chairman and his staff home.
To add, an insult to injury, why would he wait until a historic day like this to dispatch one of his top minions, Bala Gaba Jahumpa — to punish for his effrontery in second guessing the elections results by filling a petition on behalf of APRC on an empty supreme court? What could Yahya Jammeh and his dying regime gain from— what is, in effect, their own indictment perfectly for the world to see. Well, I never knew incompetence and stupidity is so contagious. With Yahya Jammeh in charge, this sort of problems should be obvious.
As Gambians, we see it as nothing short of an insult and disrespect to other heads of state, let alone our President Elect’s team. Maybe Yahya Jammeh didn’t understand that this powerful delegation’s was on a mission aimed at soothing his strained relations with Gambians to ensure smooth transfer of power. Harder to fathom was the security heads flip flops in their drive to expunge any trace of supporting the Gambia people’s will and groveling to their foolish master- Dictator Yahya Jammeh.
That’s ridiculous on its face. Chalk it up, if you like, the CDS now turned Juju fashionista, photo shopped a picture of the dictator and place it on his chest to display loyalty to Yahya Jammeh. Can we finally now accept the official explanation of his loyalty and move on? Never mind, Right. Let no one be mistaken Yahya Jammeh will go one way or another. The sooner everyone recognizes this fact, the better. If he wants “suicide pact” to stand in the way world powerful forces, he can choose his own family to ride straight to perdition.
For a moment at least, the ECOWAS-UN fact finding and political dialog delegation ,patiently listened to a dilatational Yahya Jammeh’s a toxic mix of demagoguery , mean-spiritedness and nonsense rhetoric , but their message is clear— ensure a smooth transition of power . Put simply, they blow their whistle on him to bring him back to reality. The rules are the rules. He lost and he got to go. It’s really as simple as that. Denial has been Yahya Jammeh’s greatest ally because everything he says falls somewhere between risible and infuriating. Yahya Jammeh can confuse Gambians with a spider web of ideological and demographic fault lines of the election results, but he wants to negotiate the best deal for himself to live his blissful life peacefully elsewhere. It’s time for Gambians working for this regime to reject Yahya Jammeh and his reckless rhetoric. Public trust about this regime will plunge even deeper as times goes on. They should even go one step further to desert the APRC party and bolt away from this dead regime.
Perhaps by now, reasonable people know that Yahya Jammeh is far from alone in his hypocrisy. Granted, his team of enablers and NIA has been contributing to the confusion by releasing fake news about Presidents elect’s cabinet or creating a fake twitter account in his name and creating fake profiles on Facebook to hurl our tribal slurs. Disgraced dictator Yahya Jammeh also dispatched one of his top minions, Bala Gaba Jahumpa, to file a petition on behalf of APRC on an empty supreme court.
Sadly, this petition was prepared by disgraced former regime Justice minister Edi Gomez. Notwithstanding, he closed the doors to premises of IEC building and his man prevented the IEC chairman and his staff from entering the building. So far what is clear is Yahya Jammeh is testing the patience of Gambians — and exceeding — the limits of his constitutional powers. But it’s a remarkable thing if you take a step back and think about why he gave orders to temporally shut down IEC. Yahya Jammeh’s Obsession With power Is Stretching Beyond Reason.
Seemingly every day, there’s another story of powerful unions condemning the actions of Yahya Jammeh. So it is no wonder that Gambians grow instantly queasy at the thought of Yahya Jammeh wanting to annul the results of the elections by any means possible and further find it abhorrent that he refuses to hand over power to President Elects team. Already, the Gambia Bar Association, Gambia Teachers Union; Gambia press union and the Female Lawyers of Gambia, have all call of the regime to respect the elections verdict or otherwise —they will boycott court cases, exams and so forth. Yahya Jammeh could prevent all this strife by simply leaving the shores of Gambia and handing power to his successor— President Elects team. Such diplomacy would go a long way to reduce — or at least prevent — further polarization and ensure a smooth transfer of power peacefully.
If Yahya Jammeh thinks he is controlling the narrative, he is making the biggest mistake of his life because by 18th of January when reality of new Gambia begins, it might be too late for him to discover where hope and fantasy ends. The IEC chairman has put it very clearly — there is no way he can unearth a bombshell to derail the transition process. The results are clear and valid. Unsubstantiated claims are only coming from Yahya Jammeh and it have not contributed much to the noise he wants to hear. Fortunately, his regime will be history soon. It was encouraging to hear the ECOWAS-UN delegation, advice the President elect and his team to continue working on the transition process. The fool can keep on day dreaming.
By Habib Drammeh
Building The New Gambia: Why We Must Save The Gambia!
Beyond life and property, there is another value of a human being or society that must be protected because without it, the potential for the human being or society to lose its worth, dignity and self-esteem is quite high. And when a human being or society loses that value, that human being or society could transform into its worst form and perish. This value is what I call virginity, innocence, purity or sanctity. It is divine.
Just like a man or a woman can be virgin, so also can a society or country. The Gambia, as a society is a virgin whose innocence and purity is being threatened by 22 years of the misrule of Yaya Jammeh. The virginity of a society lies in the compactness of the bonds individuals and communities share. It is about the culture of care and share that exists between them. It is about the respect and the reverence individuals have for themselves and each other, particularly in the relationship that elders and the young share. The innocence of a society is reflected in the humility and honesty of its members and the adherence of the members of that society to the common good and justice. A society’s innocence is peace, trust and confidence in oneself and towards ne another. When a society loses its innocence, it self-destructs.
Until now, the innocence of the Gambia is largely intact despite the severe bruises that the AFPRC/APRC regime has inflicted on it. But the innocence of a society does not last forever. Hence it has to be protected and cherished because when it is destroyed, it fundamental changes the bearings of that society. How does a society lose its virginity?
A society loses its virginity by the manner of its governance and the attitude of its leaders. Leaders produce behaviours and attitudes in people. When the leaders are humble and honest and caring, they will produce a society of good men and women. When a leader is dishonesty, callous and pompous, it will produce men and women of vanity. It will create a culture of shamelessness and disregard of the sacred values and virtues embedded in the culture and religions of that society. Such a society becomes an enemy and a parasite onto itself. It becomes a dog society of man eat man; woman eat woman. This parasitic culture is what the AFPRC/APRC regime has been inflicting on the Gambia.
Failure of Yaya Jammeh to relinquish power would potential force our society into an open armed conflict. One of the leading causes of the destruction of the virginity and innocence of a society is war. In war, human beings engage in acts that outrage the conscience of humanity. This is why you have concepts like war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide as the highest forms of crime a human being can commit. War causes men to rape women. War creates child soldiers and makes them killers of their own mother and father. War makes human beings to mutilate and butcher their fellow human beings. War hardens the hearts of people. War destroys all the sacred virtues and good norms and values of a society and its culture and religions. War transforms a people who share and care and live with each other in respect and love to become enemies and haters of each other. War makes a society eat up itself like how fire consumes paper. War destroys the future.
In our lifetime, we have seen war and its effect on societies in Africa. In Sierra Leone, fellow citizens brutally and mercilessly butchered each other’s limbs and life. In Rwanda, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Congo, Somalia and many other places, we have seen how war has destroyed a society.
We the Gambians, must not allow the little innocence and virginity that is left of our dear country be destroyed by one man who has been hell-bent on the destruction of our society since 22 July 1994. The evidence is abundantly clear. Who would imagine that a small boy like Minister Sheriff Bojang could openly disparage an elder like Dembo (By-force) Bojang even in the context of partisan politics when this man could be older than his own father? Who would imagine a small boy like Seedy Njie of the National Assembly could disrespect an elder like OJ as if this man is not the same age, if not older than his father? Who would imagine that small boys like Pierre Minteh or Babou Gaye Sonko could face elders in the opposition and insult them as if they do not belong to our society and culture? Above all who would imagine that a small boy like Yaya Jammeh could face the nation and say that he will circumcise imams and community elders if they allow any female circumcision in their locality? Who would imagine that a Gambian president could face our people and tell them that women bleach all of their bodies but not their private parts? Our innocence is being damaged!
As a child growing up, it is taboo to speak about sex and sexuality openly. Elders, any elderly person is deserving of respect from the young. We had the innocence and purity, which made us the embodiment of humility and respect and self-esteem. It is this innocence that Yaya Jammeh is gradually destroying in the Gambia for the past 22 years. By his numerous festivals and parties of vanity, he has not only inculcated a culture of wastefulness and uselessness into our youth, but he has equally corrupted our elders as imams, chiefs and alkalolu that today most of our imams and chiefs have lost complete reverence and confidence in our society. Who respects the Imam Ratib of Banjul today? Who respects the imams of the Supreme Islamic Council today?
Gambians, this is why we must save the Gambia by standing up and together we demand that Yaya Jammeh steps down. Failure to make him step down means he will force this country into a conflict in which the little left of our innocence and purity as a society will be damaged. We will then have a society of immoral and intensely selfish people who fear no God and have no regard for the good norms and values of our culture. We will become a society of Nyaaka Jom, Malibaliya, Hamadi, Kulubaliya, Rewandeh. A society in which people lack self esteem and do not respect each other. A society of parasites where we have no regard for the common good. A society of selfishness where truth and justice are trampled upon without shame. This is why we must save the Gambia.
Stand up for the Gambia and save her innocence, virginity and purity.
By Madi Jobarteh