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.
