Outgoing President Yahya Jammeh met religious leaders yesterday December 15 and urged them to go and talk to Gambians about peace and forgiveness because he wants peace and forgiveness. Seriously?

Well today is the 12th anniversary since the assassination of Deyda Hydara, a top Gambia veteran journalist who together with Pap Saine founded the Point Newspaper on 16th December 1991 coinciding with his wife’s birthday. Since 1994, Deyda played a fundamental role in ensuring that freedom of expression is upheld as guaranteed in our constitution. He fought for democracy and exposed the corruption in the AFPRC cum APRC regime.

He played his role effectively and efficiently as required by the constitution under Section 207 that the role of the media is to hold the government to account on behalf of the people. In his columns, ‘The Bite’ as well as ‘Good Morning Mr. President’ he was clear and direct in pointing out the shortcomings of the government and offering suggestions directly to the president. He spoke on each and every national issue to ensure that the respect for human rights and the rule of law are protected. He was a champion of free press and democracy.

Here is what he said was his role. Young journalists, please take note.

“Journalism is a profession with its rules and one cannot be a journalist and flout its basic principles. What’s more, the fundamental law of this land guarantees that we make sure that government is accountable to the people for things it does in their name. Here again we didn’t draft the Constitution, which got inspiration from the covenants and other international laid down rules about freedom of expression. Meaning that even if the Constitution failed to empower us to do so we could rely on these instruments that The Gambia as a nation ratified.”

On 16th December 2004, while driving some of his members of staff home after having a birthday party for The Point newspaper in their office, a group of killers assaulted them behind the PIU headquarters. He was shot dead instantly while some of his staff sustained injuries. Following intense local and international pressure, the government reluctantly launched an investigation and on 29th April 2005 the NIA produced its so-called confidential report on the murder of Deyda Hydara.

This is one of the most insulting, most falsified, most unprofessional and most criminal report ever produced by an intelligence agency in the history of investigations. In this report, the NIA Director General who was Daba Marenah at the time shamelessly wasted public resources by blaming Deyda for his own death. They claimed that Deyda had offended several people, groups and institutions in his columns. They went to the ludicrous height of maligning Deyda’s reputation by saying that he was even dating a woman which led to her divorce and the lady’s children and former husband were furious with him.

Without shame, the NIA said Deyda was rude, promiscuous, erratic and irresponsible. All in all, the NIA said the individuals, groups and institutions offended included Yaya Jammeh, Kofi Annan, Baba Jobe, Alphonse Benoist, Wally Muhammed Hakim, a Nigerian businessman, Green Boys, GAMCO, Capt. Bunja Darboe. They claim anyone of these people could have wanted to kill Deyda because of jealousy, settling old scores, vengeance, and some other ridiculous accusations.

Yet since 2005, the NIA did not arrest any person except Mr. Hakim for a brief period. No one has since been charged and the murderers of Deyda continue to live in peace inside the Gambia. But as a supposed professional intelligence agency, the NIA did not speak about the bullet that was removed from Deyda’s body. They did not say what kind of bullet and registration it has. They did not say what type of guns use that type of bullet and if that gun was registered and who is the owner of that gun. Every gun in this country is registered hence any bullet found should be able to lead the intelligence to the owner of the gun.

Therefore if Yahya Jammeh is indeed interested in peace genuinely as he spoke to the religious leaders let him re-open the Deyda Hydara murder investigation right now. In fact he does not need to re-open it because he knows who are the killers and who gave the orders. Let him arrest them and take them to court. Let him go to the family of Deyda Hydara and tell them the truth and seek their forgiveness. Let him go to the national television and tell Gambians how and why Deyda Hydara was killed because he has every information about the murder. This will show that indeed he means well for his people.

It was Shakespeare who said the evil that men do lives after them. But Shakespeare should have said rather the evil that men do lives with them right now.

Gambians, you gave your power to Yaya Jammeh and he became arrogant by attempting to place himself in the same position as God The Almighty. Only the ignorant, immoral and uninformed human being will become so arrogant like that. Yaya Jammeh has no power. Everything he has and everything he was able to do was not because he was powerful. It was because Gambians, you and me gave our power to him. We did the good and bad job for him. Instead of him becoming humbled by that and use that power to do good and serve the owners that power, instead he thought he was more powerful than even Allah Subhana wa t’Allah. When a human being reaches that level of vanity, Allah will show you that you are nothing other than a piece of dust.

Yaya Jammeh, Allah has just started to show you what and who is the true Source and Embodiment and Owner and Giver of power. Get ready.

By Madi Jobarteh

This isn’t simply a meaty topic to shrug under the carpet because it’s symbolic of the bind that we are in. The situation Gambia is in today is too complicated for easy allegory. Therefore, writing this piece, I have to hit certain themes repeatedly, and correctly for the esteem readers to capture the whole picture. Now, if you’ve been following the news lately – and by lately, your ears and eyes having been burning — because Gambia is being mentioned everywhere in the world.

The reason is — it seems Yahya Jammeh and his generals are hardwired on an ideology no one understands. Are they letting us know their brains don’t have the space to rehash these simple words “Time’s up” ? With Yahya Jammeh, we know two things about him: There is always an evil intention lurking somewhere in him.

Secondly, the Presidency means more than his life so much that it has outsized his faith. Going by objective standards of reason and fairness, these are the simple facts that define his life. The most glaring example of this is, today, such thinking has become institutionalized in our military — whom are seen holding guns everywhere. And the blame hardly ends with them alone because his enablers in strategic political leadership positions behave the same way too.

Going by what we know, after losing elections, accepting defeat and then a week later refusing to entertain calls to step down, many observers are still trying to figure out what Yahya Jammeh’s game is. That’s because rhetorically and substantively, he seems to be in another world unilaterally sidestepping everyone intentionally. He then tried to bait the Gambians public into a tedious trip of pursuing his own agenda by playing victim card. It failed. Then they pushed through tribalism charges using fake profiles. Once again, it failed because those agents were ousted and their gassy sound bites — is exactly from the dictators well-worn out script. Suddenly! The sheikh professor who sold himself as a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, lifted his middle figure to the Gambians metaphorically, to let us know — he can’t leave his comfort zone because his life depends on it .

In his televised address ,Yahya Jammeh refused to even take note of the IEC chairman’s historic statement that the elections were conducted fairly and the results wouldn’t chance. Yahya Jammeh continues to talk as if everything should be going swimmingly his own way only, prompting him to take over the IEC building and later his party prepared a petition to challenge the results — knowing fully well their flawed arguments are already dead-before-arrival. The Dictator can keep talking and talking and talking but UN made it clear — no matter how he slice things, his time is up to vacate that seat. He called on the religious leaders on Thursday Dec.16th, but he didn’t particularly like their advice — but want them to continue his propaganda for him. Attempts to find a middle way with him always fall short because he only sees his own interest.

For those of us paying attention, it’s often hard to tell where realism ends with Yahya Jammeh. Nearly every conversation he holds — gives us a clue about his personal vendetta, less about manners and more about showing off his muscle on people. Sadly today, Yahya Jammeh has forced Gambia and much of the world into a debate no one wanted or needed. The problem is Yahya Jammeh is categorical denial. Think of it this way. He placed the presidency more than his life so much that it has outsized his faith. That’s what dictators do. Well, now we have a problem. It’s like someone lost their parents and refused to believe they died. But this is different because he didn’t lose anything. After all, he staged a coup to force himself on us.

Luckily, we have ECOWAS-UN therapy to help him. We hope that the wonder-working power of their words-can get Yahya Jammeh to stop believing his lying eyes and ears. But, as a practical matter, Yahya Jammeh was trying to bully his way out of Gambian but now, he has no good options.

A similar attitude pervades his so-called Generals .The same confusing rhetoric’s holds true with holds true with them. They came for the ride after our victory, dance in the streets with us , and later got bought off with enticements and promotions. Moreover, these are the kind of things that breed suspicion. Many of these people maybe do not understand they are dealing with the world. They are ill prepared on their statements, they don’t understand the nature of the threat they are putting our country and their faces tells it all — – they are afraid of speaking the truth to Yaya Jammeh. Falling back on sanitized euphemisms is the rhetorical equivalent of pixelating Gambian people. This is the same thing Yahya Jammeh is doing. They are forcing us into only bad options and they themselves know the center of their arguments is not holding. The regime lost! What is hard to understand about that.

The world cannot allow Gambia to be held hostage. There’s no doubt that is true because it seems this is what Yahya Jammeh wants. Morally, Yahya Jammeh knows that in our culture people with “Guns” are feared, resented or reviled because that’s not the way most of us where brought up pre-1994 era. The great irony here is will Yahya Jammeh follow the advice of the Gambians and the world to hand over power by Jan 18th. Time will tell.

By Habib Drammeh

Beyond life and property, there is another value of a human being or society that must be protected because without it, the potential for the human being or society to lose its worth, dignity and self-esteem is quite high. And when a human being or society loses that value, that human being or society could transform into its worst form and perish. This value is what I call virginity, innocence, purity or sanctity. It is divine.

Just like a man or a woman can be virgin, so also can a society or country. The Gambia, as a society is a virgin whose innocence and purity is being threatened by 22 years of the misrule of Yaya Jammeh. The virginity of a society lies in the compactness of the bonds individuals and communities share. It is about the culture of care and share that exists between them. It is about the respect and the reverence individuals have for themselves and each other, particularly in the relationship that elders and the young share. The innocence of a society is reflected in the humility and honesty of its members and the adherence of the members of that society to the common good and justice. A society’s innocence is peace, trust and confidence in oneself and towards ne another. When a society loses its innocence, it self-destructs.

Until now, the innocence of the Gambia is largely intact despite the severe bruises that the AFPRC/APRC regime has inflicted on it. But the innocence of a society does not last forever. Hence it has to be protected and cherished because when it is destroyed, it fundamental changes the bearings of that society. How does a society lose its virginity?

A society loses its virginity by the manner of its governance and the attitude of its leaders. Leaders produce behaviours and attitudes in people. When the leaders are humble and honest and caring, they will produce a society of good men and women. When a leader is dishonesty, callous and pompous, it will produce men and women of vanity. It will create a culture of shamelessness and disregard of the sacred values and virtues embedded in the culture and religions of that society. Such a society becomes an enemy and a parasite onto itself. It becomes a dog society of man eat man; woman eat woman. This parasitic culture is what the AFPRC/APRC regime has been inflicting on the Gambia.

Failure of Yaya Jammeh to relinquish power would potential force our society into an open armed conflict. One of the leading causes of the destruction of the virginity and innocence of a society is war. In war, human beings engage in acts that outrage the conscience of humanity. This is why you have concepts like war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide as the highest forms of crime a human being can commit. War causes men to rape women. War creates child soldiers and makes them killers of their own mother and father. War makes human beings to mutilate and butcher their fellow human beings. War hardens the hearts of people. War destroys all the sacred virtues and good norms and values of a society and its culture and religions. War transforms a people who share and care and live with each other in respect and love to become enemies and haters of each other. War makes a society eat up itself like how fire consumes paper. War destroys the future.

In our lifetime, we have seen war and its effect on societies in Africa. In Sierra Leone, fellow citizens brutally and mercilessly butchered each other’s limbs and life. In Rwanda, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Congo, Somalia and many other places, we have seen how war has destroyed a society.

We the Gambians, must not allow the little innocence and virginity that is left of our dear country be destroyed by one man who has been hell-bent on the destruction of our society since 22 July 1994. The evidence is abundantly clear. Who would imagine that a small boy like Minister Sheriff Bojang could openly disparage an elder like Dembo (By-force) Bojang even in the context of partisan politics when this man could be older than his own father? Who would imagine a small boy like Seedy Njie of the National Assembly could disrespect an elder like OJ as if this man is not the same age, if not older than his father? Who would imagine that small boys like Pierre Minteh or Babou Gaye Sonko could face elders in the opposition and insult them as if they do not belong to our society and culture? Above all who would imagine that a small boy like Yaya Jammeh could face the nation and say that he will circumcise imams and community elders if they allow any female circumcision in their locality? Who would imagine that a Gambian president could face our people and tell them that women bleach all of their bodies but not their private parts? Our innocence is being damaged!

As a child growing up, it is taboo to speak about sex and sexuality openly. Elders, any elderly person is deserving of respect from the young. We had the innocence and purity, which made us the embodiment of humility and respect and self-esteem. It is this innocence that Yaya Jammeh is gradually destroying in the Gambia for the past 22 years. By his numerous festivals and parties of vanity, he has not only inculcated a culture of wastefulness and uselessness into our youth, but he has equally corrupted our elders as imams, chiefs and alkalolu that today most of our imams and chiefs have lost complete reverence and confidence in our society. Who respects the Imam Ratib of Banjul today? Who respects the imams of the Supreme Islamic Council today?

Gambians, this is why we must save the Gambia by standing up and together we demand that Yaya Jammeh steps down. Failure to make him step down means he will force this country into a conflict in which the little left of our innocence and purity as a society will be damaged. We will then have a society of immoral and intensely selfish people who fear no God and have no regard for the good norms and values of our culture. We will become a society of Nyaaka Jom, Malibaliya, Hamadi, Kulubaliya, Rewandeh. A society in which people lack self esteem and do not respect each other. A society of parasites where we have no regard for the common good. A society of selfishness where truth and justice are trampled upon without shame. This is why we must save the Gambia.

Stand up for the Gambia and save her innocence, virginity and purity.

By Madi Jobarteh