By Madi Jobarteh
It is true that inflicting physical bodily injury or robbing someone of his or her property or taking human life is indeed painful and grievous. But it is also true that injuring the dignity, intelligence and name of a person or society can be equally quite deep and painful. In his 22 years of misrule this is what Yaya Jammeh did to the Gambia and Gambians. He injured us both physically and psychologically thereby subjecting us to trauma that will take years to heal, if ever.
We can all recall when Yaya Jammeh had the audacity to put it to our face that ‘his money’ was coming from ‘Allah’s Bank’. Yet as a society with longstanding Islamic awareness and traditions, we know that either metaphorically or literally, Allah has no bank for a human being to claim. But as he stole and plundered our public money, as he liked, Yaya was insulting our intelligence and faith with such a blasphemous statement.
As if that was not enough, this man would face us, live and direct to tell us that even if we refused to vote for him, the djinns would vote for him. Yet we are supposed to be a democratic republic in which power resides only with the people who choose to give it to whoever they desire through elections. In which society would a politician therefore tell the members of that society that whether they like it or not, he shall be the leader because he or she has djinns to vote for him or her? Once again we had to live with such insult and disrespect, as one man would seize our collective power and yet claim that even if we did not give him power, the djinns would. Insulting!
As if that was not enough, Yaya Jammeh further insulted our sovereignty and dignity by telling our people that if they did not vote for him, then he will bring no development to their community. Meantime, it is these same people who own the Gambia and all of its resources and institutions. The people elect trustees as president and parliamentarians to manage those institutions and resources. When we pay tax, it all goes into one big box as the national treasury. Yet Yaya Jammeh had the guts to insult our sense of sovereignty by telling us that he will decide who will benefit from our national wealth or not? Could there be a greater insult that this?
To show the sheer disdain and disrespect that Yaya Jammeh thought of Gambians, just imagine when he would say that he would rule this country for as long as he wished and then decide who to hand over to when he was ready! Can we imagine this for a minute? Not because such a statement is itself, of course absolutely ignorant, but to imagine that a leader would face his people in this modern era to talk to them on that line is indeed the height of humiliation inflicted on Gambians. Indeed this man had absolutely no respect for any Gambian.
But such a statement also reflects the level of arrogance and ignorance of the man. By uttering such statements, Yaya had forgotten that no human being is omnipotent. Only God is omnipotent and everlasting. He failed to realize that no individual has power, but power resides with only the people as a collective. Hence after making such humiliating utterances, at the end of the day he came to leave like a mosquito. But the fact that this man could face his own society to speak to them in such paganistic parlance reflects both his own emptiness as well as his contempt for his fellow citizens.
It is such vanity that made Yaya Jammeh to utter that if he wanted he would rule for billion years. Which human being lives for 100 years nowadays much more 500 or a billion years? Thus a person who could make such empty claim is himself the epitome of imbecility. Yet it was this imbecility with which Yaya Jammeh ruled the Gambia and subjecting fellow citizens to daily indignation and disrespect.
These utterances of vanity and imbecility reflect the mind of a person who lacks any modicum of respect and humility. They reflect an attitude and a mindset that is filled with ego and inferiority complex as well as a personality bereft of self-esteem. But also the utterances that came out of the mouth of Yaya Jammeh speak to his personal life story, which is void of culture and values. For what culture can we relate with Yaya Jammeh? Certainly not any of our cultures and religions in the Gambia. He does not represent any of our norms and values and this was why Yaya Jammeh could insult his own people and along the way insult himself as well without knowing it.
For example, when he impudently said no Mandinka would sit his or her “behind” on the presidency, it clearly reflected a mindset and a personality that was weak, inferior and corrupted. It speaks of a person who is greedy and hateful and who sees nothing good in his people and society but only himself. He was ready to maim and kill. Hence such ugly utterance was not more about the Mandinka rather it was more about the person who made such despicable statements. It showed a person who loved power and materials more than his people as all persons of vanity do.
It is the same vanity and emptiness he demonstrated when he stood in the middle of Banjul to shamelessly claim that women bleach all parts of their body except “their private parts”. How on earth could a son of the Gambia make such outlandish utterance in the midst of our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters and children? Which man could insult women and degrade them to such level when you have a mother and sister? But again, the issue was not about women, rather it was about Yaya Jammeh as a person who lacks everything and anything that represents our good cultural norms and values.
Therefore it is such deranged mindset that can brag about killing fellow citizens and burying them six feet deep. This was a song for Yaya Jammeh. Even Satan has some respect for human life. But here was a man who could face his own people and boast that he could take their lives as if he was God. What arrogance! What imbecility!
Yet as Yaya Jammeh bragged about sending people to his ‘Five Star Hotel’ and bury them six feet deep, meantime we had a bunch of Gambians in the name of APRC NAMS and his Cabinet ministers and mayors and governors who would continue to mobilize our poor masses for Yaya Jammeh to continue to insult them. They would organize solidarity marches and spend public resources to transport our girls and women to Kanilai or to McCarthy Square just for the satisfaction of Yaya Jammeh.
We can see such people until today who lack any iota of conscience or self-respect as they continue to rally around APRC and trumpeting the name of Yaya Jammeh. They cannot see that for the first time in the Gambia, mass graves are being dug because Yaya Jammeh indiscriminately butchered Gambian sons and daughters as if we are cattle. Yet these people lack any sense of decency and honesty to feel any remorse or shame but to promote a murderer in our society.
ZERO Votes for APRC!
God Bless The Gambia.
