Society and conventional wisdom tells us buying something without knowledge of the price is foolish. Yaya Jammeh sold himself to Gambia through coup d’etat by hiding the price tag of his regime, and 22 years later it’s clear that there’s still no such— post partisan tribalism, or freedom, either. Many people take him at his word that— he wants to move the nation beyond what is seen on TV’s in the west about poverty in Africa and that he wants to return the Gambia to that company of nations committed to development and human rights. We are now paying for our mistake dearly and price tag of this regime with — our lives, blood, money, our heritage, our traditions, our dignity, some compromising their faith, trafficking women for domestic slaves, our women preyed upon and sacrificing babies. It seems as if Gambians are still simply covering their eyes and ears and ignoring reality. In pledging to unite us back in 1994, not divide us, Yaya Jammeh promised— to find common ground on cultural issues, especially to search for ways to provide prosperous life for everyone. Today, citizens, societies and communities whom disagree with his brutal rule are paying price with economic discrimination even though they pay taxes.
Yaya Jammeh, 22-years is a long time to live on hope. Each of the 22 years, you embark on a tour on and promised to fix the fundamentals of statehood once and for all. When Gambians legitimately expressed their concerns about your temperament, craftsmanship and direction of our country, you respond by — bullying the citizens and insulting the nation with tribal slurs. And this is not the first time. Even some of his establishment worries that he tilts too far to the left when it comes to his tribal views. Instead of providing the leadership the country and telling us your plans to fix economic, electricity problems, ferries, education system, replenishing social security accounts for Gambian baby boomers, healthcare facilities drug issues, you — have adopted a default campaign mode of blind folding and regaling the public with tales of false history of tribal origins. These outlandish remarks manifest the lack of appropriate leadership restraint to be leader of Gambia.
Yaya Jammeh has boldly abandoned publicly all pretense of being the first minority post-partisan tribal president. While he may like to think of himself as a thoughtful — greatest tribal color blind native Gambian son, soaring above the issues that divide Gambia, his actions and guilty conscience reveals what hides under that hopeful lining. Regardless of the hatred he is trying to espouse, his tribesmen –Jola whom are good people, notably speak is Mandinka mostly as their second most fluent language. We refused to be divided. Almost all his usually job offers, close confidents, nominations of – security heads, top service hires, NIA personnel’s etc local government job hires all espouses his tribal mental philosophy. So what does this tell us about Yaya Jammeh’s true colors?
Yaya Jammeh is where he is today because he secured the Mandinka vote, many of whom are staunchly his supporters. Yet, the president is very unfair to them. They have fought for Yaya Jammeh for more than 20 years and now Yaya Jammeh has declared a culture war on them right from the outset of his presidency— an act of pure political folly as he squanders much goodwill he receives from them. Where is the outrage among the Yaya Jammeh supporters about his killing of solo, jailing UDP executives, torturing of women, discrimination that Yaya deserved their support? Just for sheep to feast on, some were ready to kill solo and other.
After 50 years of independence, we are allowing a bandit regime to keep ruling us despite — of all the brutality, banditry, no coherent policies for Gambia, high unemployment, rampant corruption, economic discrimination, bureaucratic incompetence and economic paralysis which are the bane of this regime. Desperate youth with education are all heading to high seas through backway journey. We lost everything. Production of Gambian valuable products kept on plunging and unemployment kept on rising, extending the Depression. What have we learnt after 50 years of independence? Where are our values and cultural responsibilities as Gambians? The problem is Gambians don’t ask relevant questions about this regime. We don’t we surgically looked at our flaws and try to fix it. The once — power hungry, disrespectful soldier who knew nothing life and armed— only with high school education, keep on deceiving and leading a nation like Gambia for 22 years. All our prestige institutions have collapsed under the regime. Our legends are dying left and right.
Certainly, the Gambians now understands full well the meaning of Mr. Yaya Jammeh’s latest maneuver. He is now realizing he is on thin ice because— the nation despised his arrogance of deciding between life and death of Gambians without answering to no one. We— the native good sons and daughters of Gambia are not known to back down from a confrontation on issues so vital to the well-being of our fellow countrymen — and, not to mention the lives of innocents. He is not the promised leader who will work towards a kinder, gentler, more unified Gambia. We will not go silently into the night. The reality of Gambians being killed is not a minor matter that can be ignored anymore. Yaya Jammeh’s regime have created a moral imperative for us to fight it— from which there will be no relenting. The battle continues because we are on the right side of history.
By Habib ( A Concern Gambian)
