Alagi Yorro Jallow
Mamudu: I don’t know why the sight of a he- goat visiting inside the wolves’ den reminds me of my grandmother. Whenever a hen she was raising pecked inside her cooking pots, my grandma would shriek and scream: why is this hen in a hurry to inspect its final resting place? The politics of personal destruction and politics of defections!!!
Momodou Alieu Yetteh Bah had come to install in a permanent psychosis whereby the tyranny of the political clock trumped all priorities. More crucially, Yetteh Bah is expected to break with the phenomenon of ‘political – transhumance,’ coined or popularized by a Senegalese political pundit, where members of a dethroned Govt join the reigning Govt to keep privileges, which vitiates the rules of the political competition and make a mockery of people’s choice.
In a nutshell, what is expected of Momodu Alieu Yetteh Bah is a new form of governance, a more ethical approach to public money and a return to political orthodoxy. The phenomenon of ‘political – transhumance’ means disaffection to defection.
Mamudu, Yetteh Bah lost his conscience. And eloquence. DEFECTION or TRANSHUMANCE? Absconding; decamping to the opposite. Abandonment of a cause – the loss of compass, balance, eloquence and conscience? The collision between the right to exist; to be a citizen in a state; the right to live in freedom and dignity.
This, the right of the political transhumance phenomenon – a century old moral question that won’t be resolved by political correctness, contempt for reason, and ethical standards.
Mamudu: ‘Mista’ and Mademoiselle of Gambian politicians do not seem to operate within a set of any known principles or ideology. Our political prostitutes are akin to the Gallinae kind of ancient Rome: political -prostitution, extortionists, practitioners of cash-and-dash and petty thieves; of robbers who lure men and women into political traps.
President Adama Barrow and Vice president Ousainou Darboe are busy recycling and recruiting members of the APRC “top brass” people. These are former Yahya Jammeh enablers serving in diplomatic positions and senior government civil service positions, those politicians represent a select crop of Gambian politicians who have perfected the art of “personal opportunism.”
Mamudu: Those ‘Mista’ and Mademoiselle politicians have served in virtually all administrations by changing their allegiance in tandem with the political spur of the moment just like the proverbial chameleon. They have never stood for anything apart from cheerleading the regime in power for personal gain. They have never made any real or imagined sacrifices for the nation. It is the nation which has always bent backwards to accommodate them to save them from political oblivion – posh diplomatic assignments, cabinet positions to public jobs for kin and friends.
Mamudu: ‘Mista’ and Mademoiselle Politicians know “when to use” and “when to dump.” Free agents in every sense of the word loyal only to self and stomach. They have perfected the art to a divine fault. Time is nigh for every Yetteh Bah to join the “change” bandwagon. The only change in our political sphere is time. The players remain the same. Same forest, same monkeys irrespective of who wins. So, expect the same problems post 2021.
Mamudu: The politics of shamelessness. Give it to ‘Mista’ and Mademoiselle politician. Trust him or her, to entice; to convert nakedness into a smart suit; to redirect opprobrium into an opportunity. Wasn’t Momodou Alieu Yetteh Bah, Interior Minister of Yahya Jammeh, Speaker Abdoulaye Bojang, Suku Sighateh, Seedy Njie and other National Assembly members who voted to extend Yahya Jammeh’s term of office for three months after Gambians decided:
Declared State of Emergency: Constitutional coup: Those Yahya supporters and enablers turned to Adama Barrow with Yellow tags now deserted the Green tags? (wasn’t Speaker Abdoulie Bojang, Seedy Njie, Yetteh Bah, and Suku one of them). Mamudu: Mista and Mademoiselle politicians will rationalize violence; sanitize theft of public resources; deodorize impunity. Because he or she wears the suit of pride, has no sense of guilt; does not possess a moral barometer; has developed the art, and science? of not feeling pain about oneself. Give it to Mista and Mademoiselle politicians?
Mamudu: Rushworth Kidder proposes that in ethical dilemmas, politicians ought to embrace honesty, moral responsibility, magnanimity and, fairness (“The Ethics of Right versus Right”). Yes. The Political transhumance or defection phenomenon won’t be resolved by preaching hatred & demonizing others as children of a lesser God.
Mamudu: From now henceforth; the empty promises industry of political transhumance is it driven by inability. To act? Won’t throw stones! A factor of living; in glass houses? Because, in politics, cooking bloated, broken promises is the opium of the masses? The empty promises industry. A disrespect for values. And, people. A blot to leadership?
“Those who make promises they don’t keep end up powerless and frustrated” (Paulo Cuelho). Because? The empty promise industry doesn’t last: Mamudu: Listen to James Freeman Clarke? “A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman of the next generation”. The next election; the next generation. Ours, an abdication – a desertification of, statesmen?
