Gambians who wondered just how shortsighted the cognitive elites of dying regime when facing their hypocritical moment of truth in going against the entire nation in the wake of the storm of Change, got their answer from the so called Chief of defense staff. One of the pied pipers of the regime boasted in obscene terms, warning his recalcitrant colleagues that —they are sick and tired of court endless marshals and they will begin executing disloyal solders straightway. These kinds of cheap tiresome scolds, is a telltale sign of the regime miserable campaign of murdering Gambians at free will without fearing any consequences thereafter. It’s also important to observe that they continue to drive in the head of Gambians the logrolling ideologies of Yaya Jammeh— as being immortal by using the fake debunked story tail of their former junta member.

When it became clear that they have largely completed the destruction of our country and Gambians do not need them anymore as a panther in moving forward to 2017, they resorted to the only reaction they know for twenty two years. They’ve got to be kidding. After all, we observed that the event demonstrated the folly of how the badjie brethren’s hostility towards Gambians, helped Jammeh in his social engineering quest to divided our nation and destroyed the professional code of conduct— by being innately unapologetically and unaccountable as the unelected holders of our nation. Gambians now are aware that these folks do not only have a mere manners deficit, their fatal weakness for pride and greed along with their ideological prejudice, have warped our country out of privilege. These are the same cadre of corrupt elites of our service men lacking a moral core to do what is right. They are the architects of death, executioners of torture, and the pied pipers who do not hesitate to pass on Jammeh’s immoral judgments against Gambians. They will antagonistically have their subordinates leak favorable stories about them on the issues of the minute. Its’ so sickening Gambians still fell for their chameleon tendencies.

Our country has been looted, vandalized and into flames of division by the cognitive elites of the regime. Gambians have helplessly watched in horror for twenty two years— and we are all wondering together if our beloved country is going to ever get back on track anytime soon. We have seen so much of the worst examples of behavior from Yaya Jammeh in regards to the sanctity of human life— that some Gambians counterbalance their safety by being shortsighted of events. How can we blame them all? Virtually, after all what Yaya Jammeh and his regime have done to Gambians, we are now afraid to judging people by their best intentions. This well-established phenomenon have magnified the impact of hashed regime calloused indifference when it comes to dealing ordinary citizens.

In short, contrary to common belief, these people have irresolvable grievances because with all the power and looting of our wealth through their spouses or ghost names, their angry faces have never become relaxed with happiness. It is sad that Gambians have grown accustomed to such abuse. We cannot continue to be content with the hidden cost of this regime. They represent everything we are not. We have been dismissed as good for nothing, wounded as a nation. Who wants to be cast aside as the last man to die in the pool of crocodiles? Their pleasures of trips to our central banks coffers and barbecues can speak for themselves where these peoples heart are. What sorely needs our attention today is something different than what we have experience for the past twenty years of terror.

By Habib ( A Concerned Gambia)

In the face of opportunity that presents itself to mark the end of the regime, one major problem most Gambians have is — trying to accomplish conflicting goals or revived old our habits of waiting on the eleventh hour sticking point — even though the odds are failure are high in both cases. In some ways, this trend has become a bellwether of societal norms. This should be a national concern because — it is what fuels our national crisis and gives the regimes the much needed lifeline. No one knows exactly which opportunity would have been the expedient solution to our deepening crisis, but it doesn’t also help when we take the best ideas and help it in the worst way. In brief, we largely dismissed people’s efforts of speaking truth to power with suspicion — and thereby missed the revolution their actions could have sparked.

It’s fitting to say that our opposition leaders political calendar should only be marked with “Next Coalition meetings” to send the clearest message possible, with immense courage to show that they are ready this time around. It’s a simple fact that any stumble by the political parties in this arena, Gambians will have to deal with repercussions. Clearly, that time had come for all party surrogates to show more actual remorse of the dire situation our country is in and accepted the one independent candidate leading the coalition — instead of fighting it at every turn. There’s a sad truth each time we hear a news of a major step forward on coalition talks or reason to celebrate, party surrogates with misguided vision- waffle – sometimes within minutes on social media to filter speculations and rushed to online media to paralyzed our enthusiasm.

It’s a no-brainer — these are some of the many causes for the problems that plague us. There is so much; loaded hyper-partisanship coarsening our public discourse, to name a few. No one is served by business as usual of one sided statements that confuses the Gambian electorate instead of helping people with well-informed decisions. No kidding. A Coalition is the collective strength of the Gambian people voice and thus far is the only way we can fix the broken system of our country. Our freedoms are at stake in this election — not the least of these being — the lives of our fellow countrymen. We plea with the indulgence of party surrogates, to feel as our kinship in Gambians sorrow. This flip-flopping and screw-ups of party surrogates on national interest is putting their parties on defense instead of focusing on Yaya Jammeh. Meanwhile, Yaya Jammeh is left free using misinformation as an art form to mislead Gambians whiles forcing his defenders to spin one yarn after another, for them to carry on the narratives as they barnstormed across the nation.

What got us to this point is a harmonic convergence of circumstance that makes some people fell into Yaya Jammeh’s trap — as they continue fishing around Creeks of dictatorship. Unless we start feeling our fellow kinship’s sorrow to help us answer the clarion call to rally behind the opposition, dictatorship will sunbake our society and our cultural norms into a full Islamic State of Yaya Jammeh. Furthermore, when we always cringed on our opportunities and continue to let it slide because — some Gambians could not care less, Yaya Jammeh will continue to tie the shoes strings of dictatorship around Gambia. Some Gambians shouldn’t continue to feel indifferent about others pain and feel a little sheepish when the regime jails certain women, but only show outrage if their wives and daughters seem offended. Unless we understand that Yaya Jammeh is cozied up to dividing Gambians around the country with his chameleon tendencies and discourage his palm greasing of thousands of dalasis to our community elites, we will not be able to shun him out of these practice. In the face of opportunity, we should all recognize “Coalition” is where the center of gravity in our politics is shifting to claim back our country.

By habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

Gambians ought to be reminded that there is no appeasing way of resolving Yaya Jammeh imaginary grievances. Yaya Jammeh is on a quest to hunt every Gambian’s nightmare dreams into reality. He will continue to dug his heels for a much firm grip to robbed us out of opportunity and respect as long as his last breath. The man has already given his Cooked recipe for the upcoming election everyone buzzing about. There is an unusual trait that makes the APRC regime very unique. One particular note very apparent is the stomach-churning unusual behavior of their mocking elitists avoiding to look down on their noses to see their long lines of disappointments of their failed leadership. In part for that reason, they all tend to move together with their obsession of hunting all the treasure maps of our country, instead of looking for practical solutions in solving the least problems of our communities or spend time on encouraging thoughtful engagements for them comprehend our nation issues.

This has made Gambia fallen so inescapably into gridlock of pandering to Yaya Jammeh’s fanatics so much that the days of collegiality and compromise are long gone. Now you wonder why they are ashamed to look down their noses? It is because they cannot egregiously erase the truth of not able to usher in paradise from promising Gambians all manner of things which they cannot deliver. Underlying this discussion is the question of whether these peoples are aware of the dangerous proposition of the ruins of our democracy as a result of their greed of twenty years of treasure hunting, that results into brutal dictatorship. For two decades, Gambians have been steadily pushed to the sidelines for their fair share of beautiful Gambian life. Not everyone is angry about happenings in the country, but honestly, we also have some misinformed troglodytes “deliberately ignorant” people among our midst who love power and wealth more than anything.

To that aim, it reflects the characteristics of the more voracious nonprofessional’s political appointees of the Yaya Jammeh who are couldn’t even parlay your attaya session persona much less heading an institution or local government consulates. These folks from the President to the Mayors now turned partisan politicians, who could plausibly be indicted on numerous “community” felonies of their negligence of duty and failed leadership by their own people they represent. Most certainly, it also applies to much of the rest of those who assume political appointments in the regime because they’ve been providing thrills of incompetence and chills of cluelessness for years. Some decent folks who wants to do good in their own party by reporting out wrong doings, tantamount to a charge of treason these days. Not only that, it typically leads to a shortened career and vilification at the NIA offices. The prestigious cultural values —that once made it possible to have self-respect, honesty, integrity amid difficult moments or when needed most is missing in most people.

One telling episode among the countless is – the regime has turned out to be is clumsy, expensive and demonstrably unable to solve this nation’s problems. That dream of Gambian able to take care of the needs and health of the people are always doused by the heavy handedness of Yaya Jammeh’s desires on our national coffers before it could come to life. Their disregard of personal integrity to act in a manner befitting their office and the people they represent because they have no resolvable grievances. There is no way Gambians can tame the treasure map hunting personality of Yaya Jammeh and his people. They have trek twenty years too far down the midst of dictatorship for them to fall back in love which the same people they shrugged off the way. Their policies of treasure hunting will continue to pulled us further into a scary economic ditch. Gambians have to remove their handcuffs of dictatorship and gives the country the flexibility to thrive again. Gambia need change in leadership to bring back opportunities for our citizens, reset our relationships with world, bring a significant development, and get the whole nation lasting pride back as the smiling coast of Africa.

By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

Contrary to the chorus of denials, what or if any particular event will finally represent the last straw, that will finally sink the APRC regime in the eyes of Gambians? Why is it very hard to appeal to the higher angels of Gambians in doing the right thing for the country’s interest? Is it — we are quick to make assumptions about people or the dark sins of the country have clouded our eyes? Our I EC wants to make us believe that those laying down in our cemeteries, had a habit of returning to life to make sure 900,000 voters are registered? News of valuable importance to the nation still does not deserve 15 minutes of public attention on GRTS. The EU have to constantly travel to the Gambia taking steps to inject some sanity into the regimes each time they start toying with our lives for ritual sacrifice. The IMF are constantly provoked to come lecture us about financial discipline when Yaya Jammeh fails to pay government employees but waste our resources on his desires. The years of bizarre utterance on that makes us as a nation look silly, instilling in our society an ideology that deliberately oppresses Gambians and Yaya Jammeh’s occasional off-the-wall remarks statements about our traditions —these have tested the patience of Gambians for years but we keep sucking our teeth’s “cheepu” whiles holding on that counterpunch.

We understand that Yaya Jammeh is constantly rebranding things to soothe the eyes and ears of Gambians, but he doesn’t shy away from making convoluted phrases to hide behind euphemism in describing his blunders. He has recently open up about his crimes and ill will intentions of policies, that —are detrimental to the country. The supposed President of Gambia have problem counterbalancing the ethos of his moral restraint — be it his desires or — his dark deeds of ending life’s in the most deplorable ways. His regime griots always make statements that intentionally misleads Gambians and make pronouncements that not only made him look worse among people but somehow, Gambians —apparently regard them as victims few moons later. In APRC of Gambia, residences of neighboring countries residing in the city’s and those laying down in our cemeteries, had a habit of returning to life according to the IEC registry on election day to vote for the regime. Shocking enough? Huh, let’s keep going. The military are allowed to fiddle with the elections as the votes get casted. Contrary to the chorus of denials, Gambians are aware of all these issues.

To the contrary, they themselves have little or no confidence— their words reconcile with reality. Their culture of self-important idealism has wrecked our society— twinkling drown from Yaya Jammeh. It’s all about get what I can for myself, and everyone else can take care of themselves. This regime does not have any aspirational quality one can point to. They lack that moral human touch when talking about the nation’s problems or those citizens the regime wronged. But they rushed to their victim’s homes and comminutes narrating different events before news get to the people. Remember when Osman Sonko went to Darboe’s residence to ask about his whereabouts — after knowing full well they were kidnapped by his men? Worst still, the regime will be engaged in buying votes with people’s money and deny them development thereafter. This acts are not an inspiring image of the common good of humanity— but yet Gambians are holding their counterpuncher.

This is why the opposition fails to make an emotional connection with Gambians. Appealing to the higher angels of Gambians is so hard because— we are quick to make assumptions about people. Ironically, the crisis of isolation Yaya Jammeh brought to our country and fragmentation he caused among our people has weakened our communities both at home and the diaspora. The selfishness the regime sweep alone into our shores and cynicism the old guards such as “Yayi kompins, made Gambians to trade in one of their most noble character – neighborliness. The effects social engineering and the regimes culture of putting distrust of the politicians by reducing their efforts to lowest motivations of Gambians, have decimated the idealism of Gambians. The question in most people’s mind is, will Gambians stop stonewalling the reality in their face and give the final counterpunch his December election from all these evidence of regimes miscues wrong doings and cover-ups?

Finally, my advice to the opposition to be aware of the alarm of coalition that has been buzzing nonstop. Gambians do not have the patience for our able politician leaders instinctively resort to long words when talking about coalition. The quicker the formation of a coalition, it will resuscitate the impulse of Gambian voters quickly. To the party surrogates, we are appealing to you as fellow Gambians to stop making rosy predictions about your party’s assured victory and kind of giving a dismal picture for coalition. To our aspiring coalition candidates, the lesson learned from yesterday was- do not be distracted into answering question down the middle that gray area that causes doubts that should have been instead knocked out of the ball park. We are all in this together. The words of the wise, should be quite sufficient.

By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

Yaya Jammeh and his litterbug’s wild bid for attention drawing rebuke have finally felt the heat from their flames of brutality they kindled against Gambians. The flying sparks of misstatements and confusing contradictions which they thought- all along will shield them from the harsh realities outside the venue of their violence is finally catching up with them. The string of hurtful violence against the Gambians or inane inactions by the regime encouraging vicious attack on women, elderly, and the harmful unhinged words of their loudest mouths has affected the general mood of the once shining island of the smiling coast as well, has divided our nation more deeply.

It’s often wishful thinking that shining a light on something that’s wrong will be enough to make it stop. That statement does not add up when it comes to Gambia under the stewardship of APRC regime. There is no doubt 2016 will be a blockbuster year compared to the other twenty years of misrule when history is written. So many news stories that impact our country found itself on international spotlight but there are some that come as a punch to the gut such a torture of our vulnerable mothers and their subsequent jailing for three years by mercenary Judges. But, clearly, some questions must be asked. Topping that list is: What have we done to deserve someone like Yaya Jammeh? Why are our people hurting each other? Why are we always tucked in the center of disputes which doesn’t benefit Gambia? What is slowing the coalition to finally eradicate the regime of terror?

We haven’t finished asking our questions, then came the news of Yaya Jammeh imposing our country among the baskets of other isolated nations that brought so much doubt Gambia future. There are very many things in our that we are not allowed to conjure up further debate before Yaya Jammeh does a head dive into things. The immediate question asked is “Why do we still let this man rule us ?” Gambians inhumanity toward our fellow citizens has been a theme throughout history of APRC regime. Some have been forgotten or overlooked but the exterminations of people by drowning them in pool of crocodiles can’t leave our memory. Our people are displaced in rouged African nations falling to reach their backway distinction route and mass incarceration of our families has fractured our society. The deep scar tissue created by regime, constructs monuments in our memories that runs throughout generations.

The crisis of rebranding our city names with people who insult our parent’s legacy and don’t have any positive impacts in our lives is a low blow of those people resting in their grave yards. The most dispiriting acts of revitalization of tribal suspicions by none other than the leader of the smiling coast – Yaya Jammeh, has further divided our unity. He is often mired in the problem because he only looks to focus on the negatives of people’s and other nations. The waves of conflicts are constantly are finding itself on the shores of Gambia — even when out people asked none of it. Yaya Jammeh does not seek to solve our problems but he seems pleased by those differences amongst us— concurrently. We continue to hope and pray that whatever level of détente was reached by our opposition parties, will finally portend us to a long and prosperous road to our freedom. We have seen too much as Gambians but we shall continue to embrace the truth.

Meanwhile, our aspiring candidates who hope to make decisions on our collective behalf are on their heels but— are a little slow in finishing the coalition effort for us to embrace the spirit of the new beginning of Gambia. Those efforts gives us hope for the future of Gambia .Finally , when the prophet( SAW) was cornered in Taa’if, he raised his hand and the angles in the heavens all paid attention attentively. The angles whom was in charge of the mountains, cried out for him to give him the permission to crushed out the city. He refused and raised his hands to the heaven in prayer ” O God, I am complaining to you because of my weakness…. “. He then prayed for guidance of that city. That is the spirit of the Man we are trying to emulate in our beloved country. The lesson I am trying to put forward is; we do not want our country to go in flames. We therefore raise our hands to GOD acknowledging the fact that our weakness had made us a divided nation today. We Pray for God to unite the hearts of our politicians so that they can form a coalition quickly.

By Habib ( A concerned Gambian)

The regime has become ineffective for advocating for Gambia’s needs. They can’t make a first big positive impression yet for the past twenty-two years but continue melting our dreams like ice by becoming an obstructionist to the massive storm of change heading towards to the new path of Gambians. They only serve their names which have grown long with titles, whiles it is presumptuous to say our nation’s problems continues to galore on their desk. The positions which the country entrusted them with are used as bully pulpit despite the palpable frustration of their incompetence that continues to be a crushing disappointments for Gambians.

It’s no big revelation that great numbers of Gambians aren’t very happy with the direction of our country. Despite widespread agreement that we face a high-stakes election amid great uncertainty, we must encourage our aspiring candidates to form a coalition. We cannot afford to be locked in a battle of attrition. Gambia is in need of strong leadership and our country demands for a reliable reformer for the next 5 years. Nothing else will particularly inspire us except seeing Gambians free again. Nowhere is the frustration greater than among our brothers and sisters in mile-2 prisons, detention centers at NIA and others notorious prisons around the country.

Most Gambians are not selfish ingrates solely concerned with ourselves interest, as we are often labeled. We are struggling optimists, enticed by positive arguments in favor of advancing national politics in a way that our opposition parties will show enough responsiveness to accomplish the coalition we are all yearning for .If our politicians learned anything from our frustrations, it is because we are greatly resistance to going it alone. This has been the clear voice across the political spectrum. We cannot continue hunkering down behind the grimly predictable partisan battlements for yet another round of fruitless trench warfare.

Today’s Gambians are more than ready for a liberating change that technology and culture have woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. We are ready to reward politicians who recognize this reality and stand behind a coalition .That is the only enticing positive arguments we are ready to embrace in favor of advancing national politics heading towards December 1st elections .We do not want to go back to embracing negative arguments that would delay coalition. We are actively fleeing that status quo. But there’s something of much broader significance going on because our fellow Gambians are illegally in prisons. We want coalition period.
By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

The Gambia cries for leadership!

September 29, 2016

The 2016 Gambia Opposition parties
Banjul, the Gambia

Dear Party Leaders

RE: Coalition is the only viable strategy for change

After 22 years of unbridled dictatorship and economic hardships, The Gambian people once more cry for collective leadership to rescue our country from its misery. For the past fifteen years, Gambians have called for unity among the opposition as the only viable strategy that can bring an end to Jammeh’s misrule.

Since the 2001 General elections, the attempt at a coalition of all parties has been elusive. The consequence has been continued impunity, which has resulted in the killing of the student protesters, the murder of Deyda Hydara and death and disappearances of an undetermined number of Gambians. The 2006 General elections saw the formation of the NADD alliance, followed by excitement among Gambians both at home and abroad. The euphoria was soon followed by disappointed due to our inability to maintain the strategic alliance that many believe to be the only peaceful means to bring change to our country. The 2011 General election presented us with another opportunity, but in spite of the lessons learned from previous elections, only a partial coalition of parties was achieved, which resulted in a landslide defeat by the brutal incumbent regime. As a result the killings, disappearances, illegal detentions, the obliteration of institutions, and a virtual destruction of the economy in the Gambia continue unabated. The December 2015 declaration of Gambia as an Islamic state and the continued impunity is sowing the seeds for the final destruction of our country as we know it.

With only two months until the presidential elections, the opposition forces are besieged with unprecedented challenges; party leaders are dragging their feet to come to the negotiating table to do the only sensible and responsible thing form a coalition. We have seen the Jammeh regime systematically put up obstacles in the form of election amendments, that gives the ruling APRC the sole advantage to be reelected. The killing of Solo Sandeng and the jailing of the entire UDP executive is the last salvo in his calculated determination to hold onto power at all cost.

Though we are aware of the complexity and difficulty of building of coalitions among political parties, the situation in our country warrants a need for collective sacrifice to give Gambians the opportunity to vote for change
Forming a coalition will not guarantee victory with a corrupt and discredited IEC and a playing field that favors the incumbent; however a united front is the only viable option to challenge Jammeh and the many electoral irregularities. This will give us the opportunity to galvanize all our financial resources, logistics and the message for change that we firmly believe will resonate with the Gambian people
It will be fatal mistake for any party or leader to believe that Gambians are so disenchanted with Jammeh’s 22 years of tyranny, that a fractured opposition could defeat him. We categorically emphasize that the only viable way of putting up a credible fight is to have ONE UNITED FRONT CANDIDATE come December 1st; anything else will be a total travesty and waste of time and resources. We continue to hope and appeal to all of you to expedite the talks and come up with an alliance of all opposition parties, and together so we can fight collectively for the sake of our country.

In conclusion, we would like to take this opportunity to forward a reasonable proposal for your consideration, and hopefully it will help expedite the process to find common ground:

 
TABLE A THREE DAY COALITION TALK TO NOMINATE ONE UNITED FRONT CANDIDATE:
> Extend invitations to all opposition parties to send three members of their executive to represent them at the talks. The First meeting should focus on hearing from each party to highlight their position to the plan for a strategic alliance of all opposition parties to effect change in the 2016 General elections. The main goal is to allow all the parties to commit to the talks which would ultimately bring them together to challenge the incumbent under a united front.
> All parties that subscribe to a coalition must commit financial and human resources to the process- All parties must agree to contribute D500.000 to be put in a coalition fund and commit their whole party apparatus to the coalition.
> The second day will move to discuss the framework to the nature of the alliance, whether to pursue a party led or an independent led coalition. This discussion will be followed by the group coming up with a consensus, but if it fails the group should apply the simple majority rule to determine the framework of the alliance.
> The third and final day will allow the group to develop the instruments of a memorandum of understanding, to be followed by the selection of the candidate to lead the united front. Relying to the agreed upon MOU, the group will be able to pursue the final selection of the Flag bearer. After the selection of the Flagbearer and the signing of the MOU, the group can immediately launch a series of rallies to introduce the united front, the MOU and the selected Flagbearer.

Yours Sincerely
Musa Jeng
Pasamba Jow

As a result of the unjust electoral laws (such as the simple majority clause) put in place by Jammeh to shift the victory chances in his favour, it is a foregone conclusion that the best way to beat him in his own game is for the opposition to agree on only one candidate to contest the elections. In this regard therefore, a meeting is convened by the presidential aspirants to find a way for only one person to take on Jammeh in the Dec polls.

Out of the ten original opposition presidential aspirants, only six are actually in position to contest in the elections because the same flawed electoral laws have made it impossible for the other four to contest for the presidency. For me however, this is a good omen for the coalition project simply because it is easier for six people to negotiate than ten. Therefore, I say Jarama (thanks) to Jammeh for those disqualifications!!!

Now why is it that there is still no sign of success in the coalition talks among the six opposition presidential aspirants? The bitter truth is that only half of those around the negotiation table are really sincere, committed and serious about political change. They are the GDC, PDOIS and UDP.

These serious parties and their leaders are consistently on the ground engaging with the masses and working hard to win the hearts and minds of the electorates. They have spent and continue to spend huge amounts of money as well as sacrificed a lot of energy, sweat, tears and even blood to form their parties, maintain those parties and organize successful campaigns across the length and breadth of the country.

On the other hand, the other three parties/candidates are resting on their laurels in their various backyards without making any serious efforts or demonstrating any credible signs that they are capable of winning the hearts and minds of the populace. In fact, some Gambians do not even know some of these presidential aspirants because they have never gone out on any campaign or even appeared on television or social media to engage with the people.

In my opinion, these three are the real obstacles/spoilers to the current ongoing efforts to form a coalition. They don’t have any formidable constituencies/support bases that could add any value to a coalition or to the overall efforts to get rid of Jammeh. Therefore, they really do not have the interest of the country at heart but in the contrary, they only care about government positions.

Therefore, unless the three spoilers muster the moral courage to excuse themselves from the political field, it will be too difficult if not impossible for the serious politicians to successfully negotiate a coalition. The distractors must therefore unconditionally withdraw their presidential candidatures in order to create more freedom, space and latitude for the others to do the right thing.

I have absolutely no doubt that the GDC, PDOIS and UDP parties and their leaders have all the political experience, maturity, patriotism, commitment and ability to reach a consensus on a single candidate to contest against Jammeh. In fact, there is no group that has more at stake in this election than these serious parties and their leaders as they have sacrificed everything they have to politics. There is just no way will they fail to agree considering the disastrous consequences for the country if Jammeh is to get another mandate.

In conclusion, I hereby appeal to the three political novice/lightweights to have mercy for the people of The Gambia by suspending their political ambitions for the greater good of the country. You cannot negotiate for political positions without first having any tangible political experience/ support bases. Please leave the political field for the serious politicians at least for 2016. Gambia is in a state of political emergency as it is on a downward spiral to destruction.

Long live the Republic of The Gambia, long live our peaceful and harmonious co-existence!!!!
Author Gano
Posted on October 2, 2016

There’s a lot mixed-up troubling issues about in Gambia to worry about. Pick your own poison: The IEC pre-election injustice, the rise of Gambia from smiling coast to the Islamic State, the general malaise of our economy as a result of the burrowing owls hands on our nations coffers … but there will be a hundred reasons more to be worried about our country, if Yaya Jammeh is left to shoulder his way back to state house on December 2nd. Many of us long for the good old days of Gambia to rise again on December 2nd but as a first step first, the opposition need to come together to lift the veil of terror from our faces. Somewhat lost amid the hubbub of back-to-back national crisis which engulfed our nation, then came the disquieting news of a mercurial march past consisting of old naked men and women relaying message to Yaya Jammeh their idol is angry with him. Heaven knows what that means for us ordinary Gambians. Those are fears that we not only understand, but share as Gambians because Yaya Jammeh put their needs above us Gambians. This prompts a painful reminder of how one of us wound up sacrificed in the most gruesome way in the first place. It’s a difficult reckoning but what can we do as citizens other than vote this evil regime out because the military with carry his wishes in a blink out an eye.

Given how many grievance Gambians have with the regime, we share the frustration that many Gambians — especially those whose families are held by the regime and relatives of people who died trying to find closure. Despite the constant counsel from European union, many well-wishers, current presidents, respected world leaders and APRC party insider’s constantly urge him to adopt a decorous public persona, Yaya Jammeh continues to lash out at his critics, pushing back against calls to release the UDP executives and all those political prisoners incarcerated after April 14th event. Worst of all, he continues to insist our complex problems can be solved with little effort of sacrificing animals for a feast or using entertaining show-biz to temper down the frustrated citizens. But it remains stunning nonetheless that Yaya Jammeh imagines himself as wise as a tree full of owls that makes his thoughts supersedes the whole nation of Gambia but his efforts are long on glitz of dictatorship and short on substance for Gambia. Odd as it may sound, but the nation simply cannot afford more his trees.

In the meantime, twenty-two years of being in charge of the executive branch, Yaya Jammeh still operating his enormous authority with no coherent worldview besides — I alone can fix everything. As a result, he alone renegaded all of Gambia’s historic treaty commitments, continues increasing tensions in regions and putting our country in the same basket with other isolated nations. We shake our heads and wonder what is next he is going to put Gambia through. Our elders and religious beliefs taught us some words of wisdom yesterday and now, we are living witnesses of the consequences. It states “Terrible leaders can knock nations off course”. The man happily throws the Gambians into turmoil altogether by leaning a bit too hard on idoilistic dreams. After all, he broke up diplomatic ties with Taiwan, eagerly sacrificed Gambians student’s education dreams — when they refused his millions of money madness advances. Same goes for the commonwealth — when he abruptly withdraws us and hauling obscenities to the west. Now, our hospitals are without medication, civil servants aren’t paid on time or allowed 1 by 6 — advances and important development projects lost for nothing.

The presidency is an enormous task but Yaya Jammeh, spends all his time nominating families for torture to be videotaped for him, launching cultural problems by abandoning or redefining our traditions, abrogating international deals that will benefit Gambians, and continuing to destroy the frameworks of our country that has greatly enriched us as nation. Other African nations presidents — wake up every morning priotizing their citizen’s concerns, but the first thing Yaya Jammeh does is to ask about people on his open enemies list. He will go to the office with the ought most lack of enthusiasm by pulling out his lower lip above his nose — with the worst kind of temperament. Civil servants around his office would be so terrified that they have to — read on his mood swings — before reminding him of his duty — because of his mulishness, bullheadedness, obstinacy and stubbornness. It’s very sicken that — people Jobs depends on keeping him happy for that moment. But despite Yahya Jammeh’s insistence to be the president, he doesn’t now like doing what the job entails — such as being diplomatic with people, Collaboration with other nations to — solves problems and exercise patience on the weak citizens.

A pill of Wisdom for our Opposition leaders: This point must be made clearly

To the utter disbelief of many, the surprise uncertainty and slow reflexes of the opposition parties in quickly putting their emotes aside and in quickly coming together behind one formidable independent candidate, have characterized the fears of Gambians into category 9.9/10. We all know the urgency of coming together for this elections. Those surrogates must remember their influence on their party leaders might lead to a string of miscalculations — which we cannot afford for God’s sake again. Yaya Jammeh has cleverly exploited our weakness and hastily setting up shops of doubts in our heads amid the chaos. After all, the best case to intervene at this moment is a coalition. But the opposition leaders much remember — they will have the worst of both worlds. Gambia will in ruins, citizens will blame them throughout history for punting on this opportunist moment and they will be blamed for opening the door to 2017 for Yaya Jammeh to continue his terror on them. On the other hand, Gambia has to be nudge delicately toward order however modest and frustrating the coalitions efforts crawls along. Otherwise, some us may get this voicemail on our phones on December 2nd : Your wives have remarried; your homes are re-occupied by NIA as safe houses; your wealth is being redistributed and buy your grave elsewhere. Deep questions linger as to what exactly do the opposition leaders need to come together other than our support?

A pill of Wisdom for Yaya Jammeh: This point must be made clearly

Whatever grievance you have with your idols, Gambians people cannot be ambushed for your sacrificial ritual to resolve it nor is it the best way to further any cause. These things might have argued in your nefarious mind that there will be no resolution to your troubles without violent actions. Well, let me remind you of the story of river The Nile of Egypt today. Once, some people came to Omar (A companion of the prophet(SAW)) to complain that the Nile is used to something and cannot flow unless it is carried out. They narrated how they sacrifice a virgin girl from parents, similar to something you have ordered to be carried out. Immediately, Omar(RAD) reminded them that — the religion does not allow such evil practices. After a while, he received a letter that the Nile ceased flowing to their community. So he wrote on a piece of paper with the following words “From Omar the servant of GOD to the Nile, if you flow on your own initiative, then do not flow for we do not need you. But if you flow by the will and Command of GOD the subdue, then we asked GOD to make you flow. He gave the piece of letter to the people with instructions of them throwing it in the water. It is said that night, the water rose 16 cubits and to this day, that particular custom has ended. So brother Yaya, Gambians reels from the horror of these ghastly acts because it is not our custom nor it holds our country together. We shake our heads and wonder what is next you would do each day. Please save yourself — because you have spoiled these things such that one day, they may ask for your soul. What would you do? You must show Gambians — and yourself — you are better than that. Please, take a deep breath and move forward with your life and let us Gambian people rule our country with the blessings of GOD.

By habib ( A Concerned Gambian)

The news of hot-button issues from Gambia as usual, ended as it began last week with a great distraction that were eminently avoidable as the regime continues to find other appealing targets to slow down the opposition’s momentum and continue unleashing crisis upon crisis on Gambians. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our beloved country, and our interests are in grave danger every day. Gambian has had a lot of things to be embarrassed by over those 22 years, and one of the most embarrassing — rising to humiliation — is letting Yaya Jammeh become president again ever.

Lost amid this past week’s hoopla over the revelations concerning the fall of Yaya Jammeh’s big idol of that is responsible for his dark deeds. The incomprehensible weekly stories of Jammeh and the badjie brother’s personal grudges against each other which is something that should have been a footnote because their goals of enriching themselves and holding onto that realm of power are intertwined. The unfortunate burning of stalls which belongs to poor vendors was yet another humiliating indication of that the Jammeh regime continue to fail us as Gambians into two categories: Some citizens trekking detention centers to search for their love ones and others are seeking better life elsewhere —free of violence. Yaya Jammeh have changed Gambian so much that families now do drills and backup plans, so that they know what to do when and— if the time comes for his villains 3am knock.

All fine and worthy sounding arguments in part, but we must redirect our attention to the tiny incremental steps towards unity because we only have 60 days to go. We have 1.8 million reasons form each and every Gambians own story—just this year alone, which has sickening similarity to stories of the past 22 years the country has endured. We can’t debate all of them point by point because we won’t be able to finished counting our sorrows before December 1st. One topic on a online radio end up being a debate that becomes highly symbolic and fruitless shouting match that allows both sides to make political points but— fails to move us toward any solution. How long should it take to express the words “ I feel your pain” or “my condolences”? Do we need to stretch those words until December 1st to form a coalition? Ghosh! Well! if that is the issue delaying the coalition talks, then —the oppositions leaders should find a quick way to emote and share what their feelings against one another in —one day and we all move forward in agreeing to select one independent candidate quickly. Yes, it is all worth doing— but we have to bear in mind about lessons learned in the past elections. Timing is everything but it is always an issue in most cases.

Then came the Wednesday night debacle: Mama Kandeh lustily took the stage of APRC radio and pointedly dragging his feet to talk to other popular networks. It was indisputably the story of the day, eclipsing attention of the opposing candidate’s tiny incremental steps towards the coalition line which continues to disappoint their supporters. I honestly believe mama Kandeh is offered an opportunity to expand his support beyond the hall of APRC and his true believers – The His Excellency group of loyalist. He showed no inclination to do so because— it sounds like he has an index card with rope lines separating the A, B, and C online radio listers. I am sure some people with notable foreboding tone “Fearing something bad will happen to him” have his number on speed dail too as they tune in from one station to another. Gambians are not accustomed to hearing the word “no”. And frankly, it’s an example of why sometimes— you have to do what’s hard and get it over with. It drew attention to something; perhaps the biggest takeaway is —not everyone will be satisfied with your answers because— some will always air on the side of sound reasoning whiles— the self-absorption usually off the charts, will criticize your efforts as if the content are short of any solutions. Compromising one’s beliefs is touchy most times but— it gets the job done especially during decisive moment.

Yaya Jammeh has clearly run out of ambitions and his complex love-hate relationship with the Gambians population— can be easily ended by a coalition this election cycle. He knows this very well because frosty diplomatic notes happening now in our communities, villages and towns aren’t making a difference for people to trust his again with the power of the presidency. As the folks who once occupy powerful seats in the halls of the APRC continue to defect, the Gambians people begin to know more and more Yaya Jammeh’s atrocities and his continue kidnapping of families in his notorious NIA dark secret prisons across the country, the prospects of wining the hearts of the Gambians doesn’t even look good any more. The big worry now is— for the surrogates to finally let their party leaders — sprint towards the coalition line. The sooner the coalitions happens, then Gambian people unbounding determination to take back our country without righteous might, will win through to absolute victory. We cannot let the horrible events of 2016 calendar year, be the norm for Gambians marching on to 2017.

By habib ( A Concerned Gambian)