My Dear President and Godfather,

You recently said that “if the people want they can vote for the opposition who will never be president in this country; they will not even be National Assembly members. No election, no military and no foreign power can remove me from office …………………..unless Allah says so”.

At the end of that meeting, some of the attendants most probably came forward to congratulate you and to assure you that you will once again win this election with another landslide because your threats are so effective, intimidating and scary that Gambians would not dare to vote for the opposition. So you must have left the meeting feeling great that your election victory is sealed, signed and stamped.

Mr. President, those surrounding you will only tell you what you want to hear for obvious reasons. They might be worried about losing their jobs; or they might be scared of earning your wrath thereby being a guest in your five star hotel; or they might be only interested in gaining something from you such as a position, promotion, money or other material benefits.

My Dear Godfather, as a person who have extremely high regard for you; who sincerely care for your personal safety, security and well-being; who is neither afraid of losing his job nor seeking for any material gains from you; and as a person who is concern about the peace and stability of our beloved country; I can give you a honest, unbiased and independent opinion of the real situation on the ground. I hope you listen to my message of peace with your heart and not your mind.

Mr. President, it is not all honky dory with the Gambia and her people as those surrounding you might make you to believe. In fact any person, marabout or jinn who tells you that Gambians love you so much that they would vote for you next month is simply telling you a big lie. They are giving you false hope just for their own personal interest because not even they themselves will be voting for you. Before I go any further, I will deconstruct your statement quoted at the beginning of this blog post for you to know how it is perceived from the other side of the bridge.

Your statement has a number of hidden messages but I will highlight just two. My first observation is that you wisely and truthfully said that nothing will remove you from office “unless Allah say so”. Your Excellency, we all know that the days of revelation/prophesy are long gone and Allah does not talk to ordinary human beings like you and I. In this regard therefore, is it not possible that the days of your presidency are indeed over? Is it not possible that Allah has decreed that it is this election that will remove you from office? Is it not possible that Allah has decreed that it is indeed one of those opposition politicians that you are ridiculing who will be succeeding you?

Your Excellency, you are neither a prophet nor a saint but a very ordinary human being who is not more important/influential than people like Gadaffi, Nino, Tailor, Gbagbo and many other presidents who were unceremoniously booted out of power. You may not be an exception Mr. President

Your Excellency, my second deduction from your statement is that you are making these threats simply to scare Gambians from voting for the opposition so that you can remain in power in order to retain your presidential immunity. In military parlance, we call that throwing smoke or maneuvering in shallow waters. Mr. President, you are worried that if you lose power, Karma may catch up with you to account for your deeds during your 22 years in power. And you have good reasons to be worried.

One such reasons is that all the old and traditional opposition parties have finally reconciled their differences and have formed a coalition. And as we all know, you have violated the fundamental human rights and freedoms of each and every single member of the coalition apart from Honourable Hamat Bah by imprisoning many of them and forcing others into exile. You are therefore worried that things will go south for you if you lose the election.

Your Excellency and dear President, however, that might not necessarily be the case. As I have said in my first challenge to you not to run for re-elections, Gambians are among the most forgiving, peace-loving and God-fearing people on earth and therefore there is every possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation. I firmly believe that there is still a way for you to leave power in peace, honour and dignity.

Your Excellency, all that you need to do is to cancel your IEC nomination scheduled for next week and then not running for a fifth term in office. There are already two distinguished and capable gentlemen and patriotic citizens who are all set to take part in the elections. In that way, you can preside over a free and fair election, hand over power peacefully to whoever is elected by the people and then retire peacefully into the world of elderly statesmen.

Mr. President, I urge you to recall that one of your proudest achievements and most favourite quotations is that “not even a chicken died when I came to power on Friday 22 July 1994”. Your Excellency I believe that there is still a golden opportunity for you to boast in many years to come that “not even a chicken died when I left power on Friday 02 Dec 2016”.

Mr. President, please do not participate in this election because there is only one outcome for you. You will lose so badly that you may end up in the Guinness Book of Records as the incumbent with the worst election defeat in the history of democracy.

In conclusion, I hope you will take my advice seriously and announce your withdrawal from the presidential race before the last window of opportunity closes on you. May Allah grant you the wisdom to realize that you have come to the end of your regime and may He grant us a peaceful political transition.

 
Author Gano
Posted on November 5, 2016

First of all, the eventual selection of Mr. Adama Barrow of UDP to lead the coalition of seven political parties (PDOIS, UDP, GPDP, NRP, NCP, GMC, and PPP) has been no easy feat and is highly commendable. I had to admit that initially I had misgivings and doubted the ability of these seven political parties uniting under one candidate to unseat the tyrannical and murderous regime of Yaya Jammeh, the deranged leader of The Gambia.

As a political pundit, I have observed that elections alone have never unseated entrenched, paranoid and criminal dictators like Yaya Jammeh who have everything to lose and nothing to gain by yielding power. However, an all-opposition coalition would provide a single voice to enforce the will of the people by engaging and coordinating mass protests to root out the dictator who would most likely try to cling to power no matter what.

Gambians should learn from these two lessons: In Burkina Faso in 2014, mass protests chased Blaise Campaore, another despotic and criminal president, out of office when he was hell bent on extending his stay in power. In contrast, in August 2016, Ali Bongo of Gabon managed to hold on to power by fraudulently “winning” with a razor-thin margin over his coalition-backed opponent, Jean Ping. Protests ensued but was poorly coordinated and fragmented, while the opposition was busy trying to seek legal redress to no avail.

Having said that, why did Dr. Touray, an independent candidate and Mamma Kandeh of GDC, both of whom claimed to be vying for the presidency in the “interest of the country” pulled out of the coalition talks? I am disappointed, but not surprised. Both were only interested in being selected as flag bearer. The moment they realized the odds were not in their favor, they each resorted to some nonsensical technicalities, mostly pertaining to faulty operational procedures instead of convincing their colleagues and other parties’ delegates to support their candidature.

Dr. Touray announced her candidacy sometime in August 2016, at a time when the coalition of eight parties (including GDC) were working feverishly to find a common ground to come together. Her argument for coming out, albeit disingenuous, was to offer herself as an independent candidate since the opposition have failed to come together in prior elections. Her entering in the field was at best premature and further complicated the coalition talks (more negotiating parties is never better for consensus-seeking negotiations). She should have offered herself as an alternative candidate only if the opposition failed to come together this time and she should have done it in close doors instead of bad mouthing the opposition and displaying great deal of arrogance and contempt. Nonetheless, the opposition parties gave her due consideration and included her and her team in all their deliberations.

After several meetings and negotiations that included Dr. Touray or her representatives, the parties agreed to the modalities of selecting a flag bearer, a document that Dr. Touray signed on October 14, 2016. Few days later, she came out with an incoherent letter of a press release criticizing harshly and hauling insults to the opposition calling their document “at best too broad, pre-mature and incoherent and at worse inadequate.” Who signs a document and then disagree? This is political immaturity, poor judgment and bad negotiation skills that is not expected of our learned doctor and future president. The ramifications of such types of action may be catastrophic for a government.

Without the courtesy of notifying the convention organizers, Dr. Touray also failed to show up at the convention with her 70 party delegates after she was included in the ballot. I was flabbergasted and thought something might have happened. The doctor issued a statement saying that she “deeply regrets her absence” and that she will “stand in solidarity with the opposition.” Two days later in a press conference, she was belligerent and disrespectful to journalists who posed some uncomfortable questions to her. She made several contradictory remarks such as “I do not pull out.” She stated that she will go back to the people to see if she will put up her candidature for the presidency and retorted shortly after a question was posed to her that she is “going ahead with the nominations.” Which is which? Again, Dr. Touray has displayed political immaturity, inability to work well with others, and lack of tact and basic decorum to lead Gambia forward.

As for Mama Kandeh and the GDC, I have to admit that I was initially an unofficial supporter of GDC and its leader based on their ability to rejuvenate some sectors of the electorate and to pull large crowds. Kandeh is also very charismatic, eloquent and looked presidential. However, as time goes on, it was evident to me that he was interested only to lead the coalition. His party joined the coalition talks but refused to sign the document when they got wind that the odds were stacked against Kandeh to lead the coalition.

GDC’s primary reasoning for not signing the document was that they were never included in the document as a party as the document was between Gambia Opposition for Electoral Reforms (GOFER) and the independent candidate, Dr. Isatou Touray. GDC, as alluded by one Mr. Kah, a party executive who doubled as a spokesperson in this matter, was not in existence when GOFER was formed and thus the agreement was not binding since they never formally joined GOFER. Is GDC not an opposition party and not for electoral reforms? How hard is it to reach out to the GOFER members to solicit official inclusion? How difficult was it to pick up the phone or send a person, or write a letter to resolve these matters? Not at all.

Also, Kandeh’s camp rallied for an open convention (while not part of GOFER, so they say) which is impractical, resource intensive and would lead to voter fatigue. In my opinion, the moment GDC realized that UDP candidate would likely be nominated, they used technicality of not being part of GOFER to excuse themselves from the coalition. Why were they actively involved in the coalition talks for weeks if they were not part of GOFER? Did they not know then?

I strongly urge both GDC and Dr. Isatou Touray to revisit their stance and rally behind the coalition-led candidate, Mr. Adama Barrow, else they lose their credibility and ensure another term for Jammeh. They should quickly jump on the coalition’s bandwagon or risk being relegated to the bad actors of Gambia’s political history.

By Diallo Jallow

USA

Gano, I must acknowledge that I used to follow your writings/blogs with keen interest and admiration. I was passionately frequenting your blog and always looked forward to reading your most recent articles. Unfortunately, that interest has dissipated gradually as I started to glean from your writings a dictatorial dogma in whatever agenda you want to sell at the time. I am not here to judge your motives but Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (RA) said “verily, in the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, the people would be judged by revelation, but the revelation has ended. Now we judge you according to your outward deeds”. Therefore we will judge you base on what you have shown outwardly herein referenced to your writings.

I hope you will take this as a subtle reminder and check from a brother indeed. As a former addict of your writings, I have noticed two main inconsistencies in your dogma overtime which I want to focus on here; firstly, you were one of the most vocal and strongest advocates of an opposition coalition with a rather convoluted conviction that it is our only chance to defeat Jammeh in December polls. You have devoted so much time and effort to convince all and sundry that a coalition of all the opposition parties through a national convention is our last resort and anything short of it is a disaster and a carte blanke offer for Jammeh to continue to perpetuate himself over us. When I saw your above named piece today, I gravitated towards it out of curiosity to see what your post-convention analysis or deduction would be knowing that you have tireless promoted the idea as our only way out (right or wrong is debatable). To my utter dismay and disappointment, I couldn’t believe that I saw you canvasing votes for GDC instead of the coalition you have die heartedly campaigned for. You are obviously entitled to your opinion and political affiliation but this for me is sheer hypocrisy and double standard from your side. I am no fan of Adama Barrow albeit my affinity to his party by relation, but I respect the will of the electorate who unanimously choose him as the coalition flag bearer. Although, my choice of candidate would have been different but now that the will of the people is Barrow I am fully behind the coalition. Allah’s hand is with the majority. For the record, I am no fan of any particular political party, rather my choice of President is based on the candidate and what he can offer. However, in this case I have shelved that principle in the interest of the greater good for the greater number of Gambians. Whoever, it takes to flush out Jammeh at the moment as long as he/she is not ruthless, monstrous, rude, tribalist and fake like the incumbent is fine with me. We can sanitise further once we root out this evil, corrupt and diabolical system like a cancer worm over us.

 
Secondly, you have been very dogmatically obsessed with the idea of not seeing power tilt towards those most oppressed and wronged by the Jammeh regime. What makes you think the only option to reconciliation between the oppressed and the oppressors is forgiveness and turning the other cheek? Even Allah gave the Prophet the option to either revenge proportionate to the wrong meted on him or forgive. Why do you want to convince everybody that the only option we have into a peaceful third republic is by forgiving the oppressors and turning a new leave? What also makes you believe that those wronged when empowered will not even forgive and reconcile just like Mandela did? In fact the most wise and sound position for you considering your advocacy for peace would have been the promotion of the coalition agenda irrespective of who is leading for now. When the companions of the Prophet, peace be upon united on a common cause and goal in the battle of Badr, irrespective of their small numbers (313) as against 1000, they had a resounding victory; contrastingly, when their numbers were in their favour in Uhud but their hearts became disunited (some wanted Allah and his Rasul (pbuh) while others sought after the war booty) they suffered the most severe defeat in the history of Islamic battles. Therefore forgiveness at its place and time and revenge at its place and time. When the prophet forgave and ransomed the 70 prisoners of war in the battle of Badr, Allah immediately reprimanded him by saying in; Anfal (8):67 “It is not right for a Prophet that he should have prisoners of war (and free them with ransom) before he has conquered the land” until the end. I am not in any way advocating for revenge but I just want to debunk the dogma that the only option for reconciliation in the third republic is forgiveness and as such power should not be handed to the oppressed under no circumstance.

 
I could have written much but I sincerely believe these few lines would be taken into advisement in your future blogs. Let’s continue to remember that our common enemy is Jammeh and as such it is imperative and critical that we bury our differences until we uproot him as the commander in chief.

Your brother

BB Sanneh

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)