By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)
Yahya Jammeh have been very busy reformulating his old messages of intolerance on the campaign trail— as he wilts and wobble under pressure, seeing the grass-roots pressure mounted by the opposition. Simply said, it seems a sure bet that his messages will be read by generations as one of his low-water marks in history by any scholarly measure. These historical events are captured in multiple episodes of his own docudrama, shrugging off each and every boastful statement made from 1994 — used as a pretense to justify his illegal coupe d’état. It remains to be seen how Yahya Jammeh could win the greatest political challenge of his regime— fairly.
Of course, for his own interests, he commingled and chased all the deplorable ideological regressive darkness of some generations past history back into 21st century— aggressively implemented them as policies to suppressed Gambian and use them to drive the basic incoherence of his world-view. This ideology is also the deadly jolting poison— he used to tear up Gambia to remain in the doldrums, established a solid footing of leviathan dictatorship and build a wall against democracy. In light of that belief, he efficiently dismantle our values, threw out the best of it, replaced them with a disturbed culture— which now stands to be greatest threat of our time and indeed the greatest barriers to Gambia’s prosperity.
Not surprisingly, his speeches highlighted throughout the campaign issues signals— somewhere between a mixed confused mind and scary prospects for the future of the country. After all, his basic policy instincts tend to be wrong — because it undermines any attempt to restore upward mobility for our country and its citizens. In the midst of this, By themselves, there’s no chance that those steps will restore prosperity to so many Gambians. Among several incendiary takeaways from, many can kiss goodbye to the Gambian dream— if he cheats his way back to state house. In other words, he spent over 22 year stirring up divisions, cheering up resentments, rewarding torture of women, with his propensity to be an authoritarian and expanding his authority far beyond the restrictions established by law or even our moral values.
Suffice it to say, It took nearly two decades for Yahya Jammeh’s vision of dictatorship to become visible to all Gambians those who cared to look today. It is not fair that knowing full well that Gambians do not want his leadership anymore, he is busy lighting a fire of discourse among our citizens.
Indeed, he always uses his chameleon character to start a controversy in a small way, then mushroom it around communities and later grows it out of control across the country. Having said that, his pathetic foreign policy agenda— prove remotely to be effective because no one could understand it and it is down-the-line not too far-fetched for hate, jealousy and ill will. In addition, this is why everything has to do— be in secret, holding meetings outside State House headquarters in order to avoid leaving a record of their conversations.
Yet, they only time he looks down on his nose to see Gambians as human being is — when he beings his burdened call for societal generosity. That’s the same footsteps— the first lady follows too. They will embezzle all the foreign aid provided to Gambians and then leave us only with bread crumbs to work with. The duo couple have only make matters worse for themselves— by blatantly disregarding the will of their own citizens to gracefully compete their exit from Gambia.
Additionally, many other questions remain: There is no common ground in his policies— because they do not embrace things like — including Gambia in world communities; brainstorming on what resources to expend; what problems to prioritize; how to make good use of technological skills to expand our education system; relaxing regulation that causes unexpected setback of our nation and reducing taxation of small enterprise of struggling vendors in the market places. These populist economic interests had been ignored by the regime.
But beyond that, they have nothing to offer except making Gambians run away from their own shadows. The regime has been more effective: Chasing around children to sacrifice for Yaya Jammeh, ongoing radicalization of our citizens, fear-mongering, raiding workplaces to jail Gambians who fell out with dictator, exiling Gambians and slowing down internet speed to deny access to reality of Gambia under dictatorship.
The strangest irony of all this is— Yahya Jammeh continuous slander of an entire culture. This issue has reached a disproportionate level of critical mass that should be called out by our own community and religious leaders. Why are the religious elders of the communities and imams, silent on an issue that affects us more directly than any other? We are all aware by now that the regime is deriding minorities with private tribal chauvinism messages, pandering to various minority groups for ethnic solidarity and prodding Cassamance residence to various locations throughout the country to vote in lockstep with them. The logic of such a formula should not be allowed to be used— to divide us and peach us against each other to give them the edge in this election.
These are the same old messages they reformulate every election cycle. It’s a shame that old grown up folks, have nothing to do except to flocked the Team Gambia Coalition with misleading statements— because their messages isn’t warming up the Gambians after all. These people are protectionist of the status quo for their own shellfish interest. We have been handed a rare opportunity to make changes we all believe in and end this nightmare dictatorship regime. Now it’s up to the rest of us to stand up for our country.
But thus far, the Gambians have learned a bitter lesson of dictatorship and the deplorable moments in 2016. Our country has been transformed by the enormity of the issues of dark events that happened in 2016. At this moment, Gambia is in turmoil. Yahya Jammeh has shattered the aspirational myth of being among the best our nation has to offer in—character, integrity, intellect, courage and honest individual. Additionally, he is indeed unfit to serve as president of the Gambia again and ever. Therefore, we must honestly ask ourselves—where does Gambian go from here if Yahya Jammeh stays after December 2nd?
Let’s lift our gaze to zoom in our place in a future that have Yahya Jammeh be in and think about what anyone can achieve by empowering this regime? Huh! That’s what I thought. I suggest that each of us, regardless of whom we are— in terms of status, understand the setback that it will meant for Gambia and our dreams. I hope and pray, for our nation’s sake, that every Gambian apologetically put their vote in the grey ballot box— that belongs to ADAM BARROW—for Team Gambia Coalition.
Lastly, another non- entity in Bakau— by the name of Rambo— a blow hard politician, have the temerity to put forward the simple premise that anyone who votes for the opposition— will be arrested after the elections. By way of background— be it his education or moral standing, this men isn’t to be envied or even worth trusting their fate with. The man is just protecting his immediate economic “battle” victory he just won few moons ago.
Such statements are what allowed him to jump to the head of the line past to his position. To say the least, his appointment to the regime mouth piece is highly contentious. He in effect, validated the policy position of Yahya Jammeh’s rule of fear and keeping alive the castigation of elderly weak women —they love to abuse. Gambians! Rambo’s message is just a fantasy as part of an effort to stave off potential catastrophic embarrassment of APRC shellacking come December 1st.
The IEC’s to do their job for a least once. The question we have to ask is —who wants to vote for the regime that sees only the opposition (our own families) as derision and unpatriotic. It is my heartfelt hope that our country will wake up in time— to recognize that this regime cannot remain in place for Gambia to prosper in any way or form. No other consideration should drive Gambians to the polls except for change.
We are witnessing the implosion of the regime in real time— marching towards the dustbins of history. During these unprecedented political times, Injustice toward one particular group or community is an injustice toward all. I applaud the Gambians who will do right thing for our country’s shake. We could all use a break on December 2nd from an excruciatingly long journey of dictatorship.
