It comes as no surprise that Gambian President Yahya Jammeh would try to divert attention from his current debilitating health issues (contributing to cancellation of his meetings in URR and doctors being dispatched to his bedside), the Kartong sand mining protests resulting to a mass arrests and severe injury to one protester who is being refused medical care, etc. Besides, President Jammeh standing in public and saying Gambia is ending FGM DOES NOT MEAN THE GAMBIA GOVERNMENT IS CRIMINALIZING the act. This move also serves as a diversionary tactic President Jammeh is using to deflect attention from his regime’s horrible human rights abuses. President Jammeh has been making the news for all the wrong reasons, and as usual, this is his way of trying to bring positive news to his declining presidency.

In May 2015, GAMCOTRAP made a plea to The Gambia National Assembly to vote and ban FGM in The Gambia, but those appeals fell on deaf ears. Gambians will tell you that activities and votes by the National Assembly Members (NAMs) are influenced by President Jammeh. Thus, making such a 180 degree U-turn today makes us even more cynical.

The true champion of FGM ERADICATION in the Gambia is GAMCOTRAP, an anti-FGM (female genital mutilation) organization that has spent more than three decades fighting this harmful practice. Founded in 1984, GAMCOTRAP, under the leadership of Dr. Isatou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho have worked tirelessly crusading around the country speaking to FGM practitioners and encouraging them to stop the practice. Although they have faced many instances of sometimes life-threatening resistance from villagers, GAMCOTRAP has achieved huge success in getting FGM practitioners to drop their razors and in its place help develop business opportunities to provide sustainable and alternate incomes for these former adversaries. FGM has been a deeply rooted tradition in Gambian society and it is the likes of GAMCOTRAP who are tirelessly fighting day and night to bring this practice to an end. Imam Baba Leigh, a Muslim cleric who was brutally tortured and currently in exile in USA, has also made enormous contributions in educating the Gambian public against FGM. Imam Leigh’s contribution is important because many Gambians believe FGM is sanctioned by Islamic Law. It also worth noting that a recent entrant, Jaha Dukureh has been a formidable addition to the cause.

Another concern to observers though regarding this whole saga, is the fact that Gambian asylum seekers in Europe and America will face challenges in having their cases approved due to this announcement by President Jammeh, and this may lead to many deportations which will be very tragic since the enforcement of the ban will be almost nonexistent.

You had 21 pages in 21 years to write onto and leave an admirable legacy in the history of the Gambia but you chose to write on those pages with our BLOOD. You have no more pages left to open; not in the Gambia.

After 21 years of pomposity, tyranny and outright looting of the meager resources of our beloved Gambia, the once aspiring king (“Babili Mansa”) has been jolted out of his delusions of grandeur into submission for “bogus reconciliation”. From his trademark of insults and threats: “go to hell, heads will roll and six feet deep”, Jammeh has gone into a deeper tucked –tail retreat in fear of his own shadow.

In a desperate act to survive this catastrophe, Jammeh wants to “open a new page”. But a new page to do what? He has unleashed his home grown propaganda engine to win sympathy while equally trying his desperate best to sanitize his international “image” to no success, mainly due to his mediocre diplomatic representations. We must unleash our own contending propaganda to suffocate every breathing space the regime attempts to secure.

If you notice; even the social media propaganda (Facebook and tweeter) is in effect. When have we ever seen Zainab Jammeh, the “first lady”, ever took pictures with “locals” and posted on social media? Is this the “new page” being opened? The Zainab segment of the AFPRC-APRC propaganda will show its “blow back effect” momentarily.

All these attempts are typical of dying tyrannical regimes; they all go out on a limp. The history is there for all to see from Mobuto, Bokasa, Amin, Campaore and now Jammeh. We must not relent in our offensive to push Jammeh and all those still wanting to climb the “slimy pole of success” over the cliff. There can be no revolutionary progress in our beloved Gambia with Jammeh “opening a new page”.

Instead, we the people for a proud- future Gambia have opened a new page to stamp our indelible national hand print and narratives onto this page and subsequent pages to prepare future generations,  never to allow any monster to raise their ugly head in this land of ours again.

The massive “prisoner pardon”, “amnesty to all those who wronged him” and all his bogus reconciliatory gestures impresses us the least.

JAMMEH SPEAKS WITH A “FORKED – TONGUE”

In his campaign to “open a new page”; magistrates, Imams, journalists and citizens at large are still being arrested, and illegally detained on trumped up charges. Jammeh is fully aware of being at the end of his rope. His disastrous “sympathy tours” to win “sympathy votes” reveals how fed-up the people are with his buffoonery. In desperation for “sympathy”, he resorts to his old foolish tricks of blaming and hauling threats at Senegal. Adding insult to injury, Jammeh continue to mislead himself and his herd of willfully ignorant sycophants that he is “anti – imperialist”.Jammeh is a feudal neocolonialist.

In our quest to effectively fight neocolonial tyranny, we the people must stop accepting the arrogance and reckless behavior from these impotent elites that have gotten so comfortable in their reckless abuse of Africa and dare us to do something about it. We have allowed the most reactionary and brutal monsters to rise to power and in constant rivalry for neocolonial dominance at the expense of African lives. These monsters like Jammeh fester and wreak havoc within our ranks for decades with a nod and a wink from the imperialists.  African lives will never matter as long as neocolonialism exists.

The Gambian people have reached their breaking point with the Jammeh regime; many have come to despise gatherings with his presence and despise more his foul mouth piece, GRTS (Gambia Radio and Television Services).

What is missing in the midst of these crises is REVOLUTIONARY leadership willing to lead and not tail the people. Jammeh cannot rule in the same old way he used to; the neocolonial regime is on its death bed, let’s deliver the final blow to relief our beloved Gambia of this tape worm once and for all time.

DOWN WITH NEOCOLONIAL TYRANNY! JAMMEH MUST GO!

The Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh has come heavily on Senegal and its leaders for causing what he called “the Gambia’s economic problems.” In a rather blistering speech punctuated by scornful and disrespectful words directed at past and present Presidents of Senegal. President Jammeh who was speaking in the provincial border town of Farafeni in the North Bank Region of the Gambia as part of his Meet-The-People-Tour, accused Senegal but more so it’s Presidents of harbouring serious grudges against the Gambia.

He particularly accused current President Macky Sall of masterminding sinister plots to, in his own words, “not only to cripple Gambia’s economy but to ferment trouble in the country.” Jammeh who did not tell his audience what kind of trouble President Sall is allegedly planning against the Gambia could only say that Gambia is fully prepared for the eventuality. He added “let Macky Sall be warned that we are not afraid of any nation on the face of this earth. Whatever they are planning, they will find us here. We will deal with them mercilessly.”

The Gambian leader further accused Macky Sall of being a “hypocrite and a stooge” for the West saying Macky is one of the few Presidents in Africa where the West constantly engages to ensure that Africa is perpetually trapped in a bondage and in abject poverty. “The Gambia will never be part of such schemes,” he said.

He accused President Sall of lacking in vision and tenacity to develop what he called “a backyard much more a country.” Jammeh said he has even been helping Senegal to attain its development objectives. “We have so far pumped in more than 250 Million US dollars into Senegal in terms of contracts given to Senegalese construction workers,” he said adding “I wonder how Senegal could elect someone like Macky Sall as President?”

Jammeh who appeared and sound wired all along his speech, rambled over his seeming mythical powers where he said he once confronted former President Abdou Diouf and made it categorically clear to him that he Diouf was going to lose the 1997 general elections. Jammeh said “I told Diouf if you got elected then he Diouf should go round the entire Africa and name every dog after me Yahya Jammeh” adding “in fact I also told him that he Diouf would come to know who Yahya Jammeh is when he leaves office which would have been too late for him.”

Jammeh also accused Diouf just like he did with Macky Sall of also constantly closing the borders to sabotage the Gambian economic progress.

In an apparent show of disrespect but which has come to be an embodiment of Jammeh’s traits, the Gambian leader greatly demeaned the personality of former President Abdoulaye Wade with a mockery unbecoming of a statesman.

Jammeh said it was in his first meeting with President Wade that he knew he Wade was not up to anything good for the Gambia. “But I warned him and put it flatly on his face that the fact that he Wade’s head does not have hair spell doom for the region.” Jammeh then continually taunted Wade’s name, his personality and his appearance. In a remark that sent his audience into heavy laughter of mockery President said this of former President Wade: “how can someone whose head could not bear the weight of human hair be tasked with the responsibility of shouldering the affairs of a country.”

He said when President Wade came to power, his first pronouncement was that he did not need the Gambia to mediate in the armed conflict in the Southern Senegalese Province of Cassamance. “And he Wade went further as part of his deliberate policy of confrontation with the Gambia not only to close the border but also to give sanctuary to dissidents and enemies of the Gambia,” Jammeh said.

According to Jammeh, all throughout the presidency of President Wade, he never referred to him Jammeh as Mr President. “Instead, Wade in his policy of provocation always belittled Gambia and its leadership. Even me, he was always calling Yahya Jammeh not His Excellency or Mr President. I refused to accept that and I refused to be belittled,” the erratic Gambian dictator who loves titles said.

President finally made it clear that he is not against Senegalese but their leaders who are always looking for all means possible to wreck our economy and to destabilize our country.