What is really going on in beautiful Gambia? Why are we so laid back, Mr President? Everything little thing which oozes no immediate physical harm is rubbished as insignificant without any thorough examination. Mr President, your biggest diminish prospect is security. Every other day, in new Gambia, we witness instances where security of our country is severely tested by a bunch of irresponsible citizens. We have seen it happened in Bakau when a group of drug peddlers stood up and obstructed law enforcement officers from executing their duties. The same was mirrored at Tanji beach where security officers had to contain youths armed with cutlasses, matchets, stones and sticks. Similar episode also was manifested in Kanilai by a group of women threatening to bare their essential just to stop security officers carry out their duty. No government can compromise security and survive Mr President.
A video is currently circulating on Gambian social media of a fella threatening to open the gates of hell is any security officer dares step in Kanilai to execute a court order on Goloh’s frozen assets. Worryingly, many take his threat with a teensy weensy pinch of salt. And case closed. Seriously? It is about time even if his “bravado does not amount to a hell of beans” for government to quickly response to such threats and make the public aware that no threat on the person, life or property of anyone in the Gambia will be rubbished as childish banter. Jammeh with all his anything anything did warn you, Mr President, not to compromise security of the country. We may downplay the looming threats showing their ugly heads in our midst but the country is being tested for ungovernability. Something must be done about it if any development is to take place. How can you govern in the heart of insecurity and instability? It is these little threats that we hastily bin as rubbish which mutate into the Farato rioters’ rampage. I am concerned because I can foresee the far reaching and costly security ripples this is leading to.
It really beats any reasonable imagination how we as citizen architect our abysmal doom. The minster of Fisheries and water resources rested the coastal line of Gunjur disaster on the heads of few poor fishermen. How convenient Mr President? Even a minute old baby knows the Hon Minister was nothing but a glue-huffing imbecile covering up for corporate exploitation of our environment. His reasoning that Golden Leaf Factory had to go though vigorous vetting before issuing its operational licence is likened to averting a rainfall with one’s palm. They may have complied with all government protocols but is that a guarantee that they will uphold those protocols after a year or so operation? Everything from the galaxy of washed out dead fish to the illegal dumping of chemical and fish waste all accentuate their breach of those very protocols. Acts and atti6from ordinary citizenry and government officials are the marinating ingredients for insecurity, dissent and rampage.
No one is insinuating you issue threats like Goloh to get things done. One thing about him though, he is known for carrying out his threats perhaps that explains why what obtains in Gambia now was only imaginable in our forlorn dreams. The laws are there, Mr President. All you need is to implement them. Inciting and threatening violence is a felon. Corruption is equally a felon. You want to be taken seriously? Be serious Mr President.
Karamba Touray has this to add, “Impeding or even attempting to impede legitimate law enforcement even of the slightest kind is intolerable. It must be swiftly dealt with . I believe the police have been entirely too soft on the enforcement side in this new democracy in their quest to shed the excesses of the tyranny that subverted them as an institution and the laws they are sworn to serve. That may be having the unintended consequences of emboldening miscreants to challenge law and order itself. It has stop. Fidelity to the law which lies at the heart of a democracy is contingent on full and uniform enforcement by those charged with the responsibility. People who stand in the way of legitimate police work must be severely punished whatever their purported grievances”.
Sulayman Jeng
Birmingham, UK
