The philosophy of one man is that one should protest a bad act. For a moment, it looked to me Mama Fatima Singhateh appreciated this philosophy coming to the TRRC.

Thursday’s showdown between Mama Fatima Singhateh and Haddy Dandeh Jabbie was probably the biggest battle of two women since the TRRC was set up. What do you think?

Somehow, Mama knew she was going into the trenches and opted to wear all her arms. But she found an equally battle-ready lawyer in front of her.

One thing I did not see coming though is her rejection of almost every claim. I’d at least expected her to own up to certain things. She disappointed me, just as Amie Bensouda, who confidently said the bad decrees she created for Jammeh were in fact good. If she lied? I will leave that to the TRRC.

While Mama wouldn’t hesitate to bellow ‘that’s totally false’ into the microphone, it was her battle mate Haddy who would not stop either. In two instances, Haddy was cruel as she was savage.

‘We know the law as much as you do,” Haddy blasted her in one instance. Another savage put-down that would have seen the two women exchange blows if it were not for the cameras was when Haddy sarcastically told Mama she for a minute thought it was Jammeh himself speaking when Mama said she found it concerning foreigners were preaching human rights to Gambia. Those actually were Jammeh’s exact words.

Something that one may not forget about this war is Mama’s claim she did not know about the human rights violations. I dare say she must be living under a rock to not know the human rights violations that occurred while she served in Jammeh’s government. Again I will leave that to the TRRC.

Gambians have since discovered new terms such as ‘legal jungler’ referring to Mama and her ilk. The ruthlessness of Gambians laid bare once more. Pretty much.

By Basidia M Drammeh

The fuss and the row over President Barrow stepping out of the red carpet at the Freetown Airport are implausible and unjustifiable. In my humble opinion, the President’s deviation from protocol etiquette was spontaneous to get closer to his excited compatriots who converged on the airport to greet him and get a glimpse of him. After all, the protocol etiquette is not sacred, nor is it unalterable.

The Head of State represents an entire nation. Therefore, the hounding of the President during his overseas trips to pick on him is not only demeaning to him as a person, but it also degrades the solemnity of the Office of the President and the country, by extension, in the eyes of the world!

It’s high time that we focused on issues of substance, not persons. Instead of discussing means of leveraging the historic bilateral ties between the two nations for our mutual benefit, attention was entirely focused on this minor, and probably trivial issue.

I don’t want to say it but I have to: President Adama Barrow will win the December election.

UDP folks will assemble here now and say I have been bought, that it’s ‘Covid money’ that is talking. I am in trouble.

“I know I have what it takes to defeat President Adama Barrow,” the party’s leader Darboe told me shortly after the party returned him as flagbearer earlier this month. I don’t think so.

The December election will surely make for the most vigorously contested election in Gambia’s history. For some, it’s about revenge. For others, it’s about saving their skin. APRC comes to mind with the latter.

One thing cannot be disputed: UDP has been the most pragmatic party on the ground since 2018. Officials of the party have gone everywhere in a bid to get the buy-in of voters. That’s actually a smart tactic.

Yet, the power of incumbency is dangerously working against them. A once unpopular president is getting more and more popular, something I bravely put down to money. These NPP folks have money and they are not ashamed of splashing it.

Another thing that is bringing trouble to UDP is the party’s belligerent supporters. All they do is bully people. While they think that’s a way to bring people to the party, they’re unconsciously sending them away.

I will hate it to see President Barrow win this election. Five years is more than enough for me to know he is incompetent at this job. I wish someone else was president in December.

I voted for President Barrow in 2016 not just because I disliked Jammeh but also because I found him to be honest. He said he was going to serve for only three years and I believed him. When he wrote off that pledge, I felt he duped me and I have since not been able to forgive him. What is a man if he can’t stay true to his word?

But it’s further disintegration that awaits UDP if the party fails in December. The likes of Momodou Sabally are certainly not people minted to stay in opposition forever. There is every likelihood they will swift ground if it ever occurred to them the party can never take power.

My dad is 100% UDP and I hope this article is not read to him.

Lamin Njie is the editor-in-chief of The Fatu Network. The views expressed in this article are his and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Fatu Network. You can follow him on Facebook @ Lamin Njie official

On September 2, 2020, the Trump administration announced that the United States had designated the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and the head of the Office of the Prosecutor’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity, and Cooperation Division (JCCD), Phakiso Mochochoko, for sanctions. These actions are a backlash from the ICC’s investigations in Afghanistan and Palestine. President Biden on April 2, 2021, ended the sanctions and the visa restrictions, thereby rescinding Trump’s orders.

My reflection will focus on the pitfalls of such sanctions on individuals from ‘less-powerful’ states given the countries of origin of both Prosecutor Bensouda from The Gambia and Mr. Mochochoko from Lesotho. Bensouda was the main target of the sanctions given that she was granted approval in March 2020 by the Appeals Chamber of the ICC to investigate possible crimes committed in Afghanistan since May 2003. US forces are alleged to have ‘committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence’ in Afghanistan.

The Woman from The Gambia

I must confess that I have a shared history with Bensouda who was born in The Gambia like me. As a girl growing up in The Gambia, which is a male-dominated society, I had stood up against bullying in the community, fought against injustice in my school, and gave myself a voice on family matters to the extreme annoyance of the male members. As a result, from an early age, I wanted to be an advocate for women’s rights like Bensouda. I find myself, like the majority of women in Africa, in spaces where I continuously have to contend with gender challenges, stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination. ‘A woman’s place is the home’ and ‘women cannot be leaders’ are two discriminatory statements, which pervaded my environment and which I had continually challenged. Our society and its gender system are deeply patriarchal illustrating how embedded restrictive gender norms define who gets into leadership positions. We share a mutual detestation for injustice, and love and belief in supranational organs and human rights bodies to ensure justice for victims of atrocities. She is a feminist and lawyer and an awe-inspiring role model for African women and girls. Bensouda’s leadership of the ICC is also premised and informed by her position as a woman from a small West African country. This insight is essential to how her commitment to ensuring justice for women can be seen in the strategic direction of the Court in challenging impunity for rape and sexual exploitation of women and children in war and conflict.

Business as Usual

Through Executive Order 13928 on ‘Blocking Property of Certain Persons Associated With The International Criminal Court’, U.S. officials added both Fatou Bensouda, and Phakiso Mochochoko to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDNs). The assets of persons on the list are generally blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them. These sanctions came in the wake of the 2019 policy on visa restrictions for them and their immediate family members. The orders against these staff of the Court are an attack on the international justice system. Bensouda was acutely aware of the potential challenges, including political pressure, on her path as the prosecutor of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. In 2012, in responding to what kind of ICC she hoped to pass on at the end of her term, she stated: ‘We’ll prove that [the Court] is a truly independent judicial body. It won’t happen overnight. Our legal institution is going to continue to operate in a difficult political environment and attacks against it won’t subside.’

During the period when the sanctions were imposed on Bensouda, we saw the deafening silence of the African Union due in part to its turbulent relations with the Court. This is partly due to the primary focus of the Court on African conflicts and State-sponsored violence, which had angered African leaders who have accused the Court of bias against the continent. Despite earlier support by Africa of Bensouda’s election and the hope that it would have led to better relationships between the continent and the Court, Bensouda has been accused of being anti-African as the primary person responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes. This criticism and hostility were spearheaded by her own country, where then-President Yayha Jammeh, in 2016, withdrew from the Rome Statute and left the ICC labeling it as the ‘International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans’. The country has since reversed its decision to withdraw from the ICC under President Barrow’s administration.

When the sanctions were announced, the Gambian Government under President Barrow expressed dismay noting that it constitutes ‘gross interference in the mandate, independence and impartiality of the Court in the fight against impunity for perpetrators of the most serious crimes of international concern’. While the Gambian civil society has generally been supportive of her, it has accused her of turning a blind eye to atrocities committed by Jammeh and lack of investigation to bring #JammehtoJustice. In 2020, Bensouda noted that she directed ‘ICC prosecutors to examine Jammeh’s record, but his actions were deemed to fall short of war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity that constitute an ICC case’. The operation of the Jammeh’s death squad, the ‘Junglers’, was only recently known. There has been a general curiosity as to whether she would be asked to testify before The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission, given her experience as Jammeh’s Deputy Director of Prosecution in 1995 and former Minister of Justice from 1998-2000, and that she was adversely mentioned for corruption of justice.

Bullying Tactics

Trump’s administration tried to force the Court into submission by bullying Bensouda and Mochochoko with hegemonic tactics including sanctions. It is opined that these are bullying tactics on the Court’s staff who are from less powerful nations. As she has noted, ‘some believed that I should just stop there and let it go because it concerns a very powerful [state],’ but for her ‘it’s about the law. It’s not about power’. These sanctions also mean that in the future, nationals of less powerful States may not get the top and most strategic positions in the ICC for fear that more powerful nations could deny them necessary support or place obstacles before them in the execution of their mandate. Such effect can only further alienate less powerful nations from the international justice system and hence turn the ICC either into a moribund institution or place it completely in the hands of more powerful nations, or both. However, The Gambia’s recent campaign to protect the Rohingya from genocide, which led to provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Myanmar must take immediate action to protect the Rohingya group, is a reminder that small countries matter. Despite their size, small countries like The Gambia and their nationals can play a major role in the international justice system.

At the heart of Trump’s actions against Bensouda is a rejection of the ‘international liberal order’. This was in line with his ‘America First’ agenda that placed national interests and values at the core of all his policies. His actions bolster the argument that the imperial nature of American foreign policy forms a part of it, illustrating the contradictory nature of their accountability stance. Starting from the Nuremberg trials, the American concept of accountability seems to revolve around victor’s justice without any genuine interest to submit themselves to the same standards they require of others. Besides, there are also contradictions in the USA’s dealings with the Court. For instance, the U.S. has voted in the Security Council to refer situations such as those in Libya to the ICC but does not want the ICC to investigate international crimes allegedly committed in states like Afghanistan that have exercised their sovereign right or prerogative to become parties to the Rome Statute. What this practically means is that the U.S. is de facto above international law and community.

Conclusion

That the complicated relationship between the U.S. and the ICC further deteriorated under the Trump administration, which was epitomized by open hostilities against the Prosecutor, is an example of how convenient it is for a powerful country to cast such nationals from less powerful states as ‘thorn-in-the-flesh’. The sanctions send one message to the rest of the world: the U.S. cares only about itself and its special interests. Moreover, the sanctions are a direct threat to international human rights and to the individuals who are tirelessly working to end impunity. The U.S. betrayed its legal and moral duty of holding perpetrators accountable. Consequently, Bensouda should not be faulted for picking a legitimate and necessary fight. The defiance of Bensouda to continue with the investigations sums up the temerity of a woman who detests injustice, bullying, arbitrariness and impunity. The commitment to justice, and accountability is what drives her.

The writer, Satang Nabaneh, is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, and the Founder and Executive Director of Law Hub Gambia. She currently pursues research interests including international human rights law and monitoring mechanisms, democratization in Africa, and Gambian constitutional law. The article was first published on the blog OpinioJuris.

By Momodou Ndow

After rejecting the Junta’s offer to be their Attorney General a few times, Fafa Mbye finally accepted their offer to serve with the persuasion of some elders yukor sopa toropp! But his acceptance came with some conditions, which he outlined in two MOU’s he wrote. They were between himself and the AFPRC. He wrote them after his meeting with the Junta, because he deemed it necessary to have an agreement with them to be signed by all parties. Goloh signed on behalf of the Junta.

In both MOUs, Fafa focused on five major things; his commitment to restore democracy, the settlement payment due to his client from a lawsuit suit he won against the previous government, funding of the full education of his three sons in the UK, his personal security and that of his family and associates, and redress for his grievances against the previous government, which he believed were perpetrated against him by corrupt elements. In the five conditions Fafa Mbay laid, four of them were for his direct personal gain. The common good seemed secondary.

Once Fafa entered Goloh’s cabinet, his office went to work, cranking out decree upon decree. Twenty four decrees in six to seven months. That’s about four decrees a month. Decree happy if you ask me! The goal was to legitimize a criminal government, and Fafa Mbye was there to guide them. Under his watch, draconian laws were passed, and the Junta was on its brutal way! In his MOU with the Junta, Fafa’s fifth condition was for them to address some of the injustices he suffered from the previous government, and the decrees did just that. The decrees went after a particular category of people with a vengeance, who were part of the previous government. Could it be that some of those were the corrupt elements Fafa believed to have perpetrated injustices against him? He had an axe  to grind, and the decrees were busy chopping down anything in their path.

According to Fafa, bad laws properly executed, are better than good laws improperly executed. That left me scratching my head. If good laws can be improperly executed by corrupt judges, then what about bad laws, especially in a military regime? Fafa became the Junta’s ferocious defender, and wasn’t shy to defend them anytime the opportunity arose. On the cassette tape of his interview with BBC which he proudly shared, he could be heard promoting the Junta. And when asked about the mess the Junta had created in The Gambia, he responded that there was no mess, and that the Junta came to power to clean up the mess left by Jawara’s government. A couple of months later, those same decrees he defended and tried to justify, came back to bite him mercilessly. Now Fafa the AG was no more, and he immediately became a member of the Victim’s Club, crying foul over his victimization. Ironically, Fafa is still unable to recognize the impact of his actions that had left him and the Gambian people at the mercy of young hooligans.

The degrees passed during his time in office are his shadow, and no amount of running will separate him from his shadow. Fafa Mbye testimony was meant to set light on some of the decrees the Junta used to subjugate the people, but it ended up being a deflection session. Instead, he made it all about Fafa Mbye; his intellectual prowess, his degrees, his clients, his chambers, his trials, his accolades, his admirers, his “uncle human rights defender” title, and his house in Pipeline (with every item listed, baku ak chunuwarr rek la fateh). Smh. To say that Fafa Mbye was oblivious to the plight of Gambians is an understatement. He was indifferent, and it was crystal clear all through out his testimony. It was all about Fafa Mbye the lawyer, not Fafa Mbye the witness. Fundamentally, Fafa Mbye left me with more questions than answers, and I hope that doesn’t extend to the TRRC. And here is the killer for me! When Lead Counsel Faal expressed the high regard in which he held Mr. Fafa Mbye, instead of appreciating it with some level of humility, he responded that he wasn’t surprised by Faal’s admiration of him. What a narcissist! I wonder at what point was it about the country, and not Fafa Mbye? I might have missed it.

By Zakaria Kemo Konteh, ZKK

When the Myanmar military and extremists Buddhist allies went on ethnic cleansing rampage against the minority Rohingya Muslims, the world watched in horror and outrage. The bloody crackdown also created one of the worst humanitarian crisis as the battered and injured Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh and elsewhere to escape the coordinated persecution. But like the 1994 Rwandan genocide,  reaction to Rohingya massacre was largely mute as there was very little or no practical effort to protect them.

Thus, Gambia was instantly recognized and hailed domestically and globally and our then Justice Minister, Baa Tambedou, became an international icon when our country championed the Rohingya cause and led groundwork to hold Myanmar government accountable at the International Criminal Court for its direct participation and supporting roles in the extermination campaign of the Rohingya Muslims. It was a bold,  courageous and moral decision. Gambia took the mantle of leadership among nations to prosecute horrific crimes against humanity and protect the vulnerable in one of the world’s most volatile countries  – Myanmar.

But the emergence of the so-called honorarium – about $200,000 fees paid by OIC  to and shared among then Justice Minister Ba Tambedou, then Solicitor General Cherno Marenah and current Justice Minister Dawda Jallow for heir legal services – is quite shocking, duplicitous and dirty. If there was to be any payment for Gambia’s involvement in the Rohingya case, it should have been made directly to the Gambia government because Ba and his team were not acting as private legal practitioners but working for the government and people of the Gambia. They were using state resources and public funds to carry out their responsibilities in the case and, therefore, any personal monetary compensation to the named officials reeks of nothing short of corruption!

It is equally bizarre, shameful and concerning for Gambia government to defend such corrupt practices by former and current serving  senior officials. The press release issued by government smacks of a blanket legal justification for official corruption and highlights the Barrow administration spineless to stand up to major infractions within the government establishment that erodes public confidence and undermines our country’s international reputation. We cannot let our public officials get away with brazenly elicit conducts but even more so, we can’t allow our government to give them the legal and moral cover to do so.

By Ousman Sidibeh

It’s almost impossible to have a conversation with those who wear feminism to even light chats, as they seem perpetually set for combats, misunderstanding even obvious jokes. My own version of feminism, while advocating dignity of the woman, isn’t combative.

Feminism of the irrationally angry is a mere stereotype campaign against the male. Absolute bullshit. That you were raised by an abusive father, or lived with an abusive husband or boyfriend, is not an excuse to demonise other people’s father, brothers, uncles and nephews.

Not every man is like your father or husband or your boyfriend. Some are responsible family men. Not every man is an idiot. You don’t promote sexism in your campaign to stop sexism.

The society may be unfairly built to have the woman subjugated, but any form of militant ideology with which every man is demonised isn’t right. You need to fight patriarchy, ally with the sane men to grant the women vehicles for a drive into desired liberation. No man will ever respect you if all you have as a woman is your anger. A childlike combative approach to everything.

You can dismantle people’s line of thinking or argument with a superior position without resorting to an infantile name-calling. Your inability to do so only reveals your emptiness, and it’s hard to tell how such is different from mainstream violent extremism.

By Madi Jobarteh

It is 21 years today, yet there is no justice and accountability for that infamous day when 14 young Gambians were brutally shot to death by the country’s own security forces under the orders of its elected and appointed public officials led by Dictator Yaya Jammeh. Section 17 of the Constitution imposes an obligation on all of these public officials to respect and protect the human rights of Gambians. Yet, in total contravention of the Constitution, they decided to deliberately damage the sovereign rights of citizens. Twenty-one years later, impunity continues to prevail as the law that was created to cover up that heinous crime and protect its perpetrators, the Indemnity At 2001 still remains firmly rooted in our statutes!

When will there be justice and accountability for April 10 and 11?

Yes, the new Government of Adama Barrow launched a transitional justice program since 2017 and key among its objectives is to establish the truth about the human rights violations committed in the 22 years of tyranny. As we await the TRRC to conclude and provide recommendations, we recognise that the Gambia Government has provided an initial 50 million dalasi to TRRC to serve the needs of all victims of these bloody 22 years. I understand at least two April 10/11 survivors have obtained medical support in Turkey, thanks to that money.

Clearly this is a very small amount of money, which actually came out of the proceeds of the sale of Yaya Jammeh’s ill-gotten assets which amounted to 1.4 billion dalasi. Where is the rest of that money? The President, the Minister of Justice and Minister of Finance must tell Gambians where these monies are? Furthermore, my understanding is that Senegal had also donated another 50 million dalasi to the Government for victims, but which was neither given to the Victims Centre nor TRRC. So where is that money too?

While we need transparency and accountability on these issues from the Government, it is sad to note that Pres. Barrow however continues to stab victims in the chest by maintaining many of the decision makers and actors in the April 10/11 massacre and the APRC regime as a whole in his Government. Top police officer Gorgui Mboob is one example. Defence Minister Sheikh Omar Faye with his Cabinet colleagues Mamadou Tangara, Mamburay Njie, and Yankuba Sonko are the others, not to mention Seedy Njie and a host of other enablers in the police and military!

By this decision, it means Pres. Barrow is the very one who is undermining his own Government’s transitional justice agenda. By keeping these enablers, it means there will be no system change as we have witnessed no qualitative change since 2017. Rather what we see is how these enablers have now become notorious for downplaying the true history and experience of our people by seeking to generalise, minimalize, deny, distort, and falsely rewrite that gruesome history of the AFPRC/APRC Dictatorship. By so doing, it means Barrow and these enablers have now become the greatest threats to the freedoms and rights of citizens and the democratisation of the Gambia, contrary to the objectives of transitional justice.

The evidence of their notoriety and stance against victims and the Gambian lies in their failure to conduct any system change through constitutional, legal, and institutional reforms. Until today, there are immunity provisions in the 1997 Constitution which this Government failed to remove. This is why Junta member Yankuba Touray, without fear or shame, tried to rely on that illegal provision to refuse to testify before the TRRC. If not for the progressive stance by our lawyers – Gaye Sowe, Neneh Cham, Salieu Taal and Abdoulie Fatty – to submit to the Supreme Court that those provisions cannot provide immunity for heinous crimes, and the Supreme Court agreeing with them, one could safely say that justice and accountable are dead and buried in the Gambia.

That notwithstanding, until today the Indemnity Act is still alive and kicking. Until today the Public Order Act is also alive and kicking. Until today there has been no security sector reform such that up to today, security forces shoot and kill Gambians as we saw in Faraba in June 2018. Until today Gambians are subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention and imposed with trumped up charges as we saw in Sanyang, or the illegal closure of media houses, not to forget the illegal re-arrest of Three Years Jotna members after they were actually bailed by the courts! It appears the only security sector reforms taking place is the unending series of promotions and mounting of more checkpoints! But the same mentality and modus operandi persists within the security forces without change!

Thus, as we mark yet another April 10/11 anniversary, it is necessary that Gambians rise up to demand full system change that will bring about durable justice and effective accountability. This country has not still transformed, qualitatively from dictatorship to democracy even after four years of booting out the tyrant. What we are witnessing is only a passive change and a semblance of democracy. But the fact that the same personnel, institutions and mindset that kidnapped this country for 22 years are still in place means the current democratic space is only cosmetic and therefore will not last.

Having been in suffering for so long, a little reprieve can make one feel like there is positive change. The fact however is that the current political dispensation is indeed fragile and moving more towards dictatorship than toward actual democracy and good governance. The evidence of this lies in the widespread prevalence of corruption, insecurity, weak institutions and poor service delivery, increasingly high cost of living and low public trust and confidence in the government. These are the hallmarks of a weak state in which the government and its leaders are neither transparent nor accountable. Hence the tendency for the use of force and violence by such a government is always high hence the return to dictatorship. Wake up, Gambians!

For The Gambia Our Homeland

By D. A. Jawo

Many people are wondering what has really happened to the New Gambia’s mantra; “Never Again”, when virtually on a daily basis, we are witnessing a repetition of exactly the same bad deeds and actions that used to happen in the Yahya Jammeh era.

One of the things that everyone had been complaining about during the former regime was the frequent misuse of public facilities by former President Jammeh, including using the State House and other state facilities like his personal properties. We also witnessed how he was frequently using the public media, especially the GRTS, like a propaganda organ of his ruling APRC.

Has anything really changed in that area? Obviously, nothing seems to have changed, instead the misuse of public facilities seems to have become even more blatant. We have seen how President Adama Barrow has also been frequently using the facilities of the State House, and no doubt government resources, to mobilize ethno-linguistic and other parochial groups to come to the State House to sing his praises and pledge allegiance to his NPP. He is also using the facilities of the GRTS to highlight those purely political jamborees, exactly like what used to happen with former President Jammeh, using it as a propaganda organ of the NPP. It is certainly unfair for a state broadcaster like GRTS to allow itself to be transformed into the mouthpiece of the ruling party in this New Gambia, while denying such facilities to the opposition.

This is definitely not what Gambians bargained for when they risked both life and limb to come out in the streets to vote out the Jammeh dictatorship.

It is quite hard to understand how the Barrow regime seems to have been so intoxicated with the trappings of power that he and his minions seem to have so easily forgotten that these were the same unfair tactics that made Gambians despise the Jammeh regime and voted him out.

By Simon Sabally

At least one indicator is prevalent: The instigators of Yaya Jammeh to challenge the results are currently in the NPP, for example, Sidi Njie.

I have, for a long time, propose for the enactment of a TRANSITION BILL which will specify the nitty-gritty of the 90 days transition period, including the handing over of the mantle of the presidency. Most countries have such nitty-gritty of transition in their constitutions, while others have legislative instruments on it.

The 90 days transition period enshrined in section 69(2) of the 1997 Constitution is far too long for sycophants to convince any ambitious incumbent to finds ways to discredit the results, similar to what happened in January 2017. The Gambia’s current economy and the psyche of her people cannot withstand another impasse.

A transition law creates orderly and smooth transfer of power from one government to another.  Therefore, the AG should propose a TRANSITION BILL as soon as possible before the 2021 polls.

By Basidia M Drammeh

Almost one month after the Gambia’s Inspector General of Police’s unceremonious demise, Alhagi Mamour Jobe, Abdoulie Sanyang has been named as his successor, with President Adama Barrow widely acclaimed for the move. However, the President has been chided for taking too long to name a replacement or an acting police chief in light of the crimes ravaging the country in recent times.

Prior to his elevation as the nation’s new police chief, Sanyang has been praised for his impeccable record as a straight shooter and a no-nonsense officer.

Mr. Sanyang’s appointment comes when the country grapples with an unprecedented rise in crime, including murder, rape, armed robbery and burglary, which has exacerbated a sense of insecurity in the country.

Cognizant of this reality, the police have declared war on crime by launching a “Zero-Crime operation, aimed at clamping down on crime and criminals. The campaign has led to the arrest of a significant number of alleged culprits and the seizure of drugs, arms and many stolen items.

While a section of Gambians has maintained caution over the move, many have welcomed the crackdown expressing hope that it might restore sanity, peace and security to the country.

It’s an open secret that the Gambian police are ill-equipped and largely demoralized mainly due to low wages, so the Government is duty-bound to consider the plight of the police by increasing their salaries and improving their living conditions. Corruption within the police ranks cannot be eradicated without concrete measures to improve their lives and livelihoods, considering the risks associated with their work. That, in fact, should be a top priority for the incoming police chief in order to maintain momentum and goodwill. He must step up to the plate, or else the euphoria over the police’s crusade to crack down on crime and the success registered will be short-lived.

On that note, I congratulate Mr. Sanyang on his appointment as Gambia’s third Inspector General of Police under the Barrow administration.

By Madi Jobarteh

In honour of Maria, there’s an urgent need for a national conference on girls and women. Yes, there are so many laws and institutions including law enforcement agencies mandated to protect girls and women, yet it is open secret that enforcement is a challenge. Furthermore, service delivery for girls and women is limited simply because budgetary allocations and capacity of institutions are also limited. The necessary monitoring of public institutions by the National Assembly to ensure that girls and women are catered for and protected is also limited.

Above all, the sociocultural background is not helpful. The prevalence of patriarchy, the caste system and the intense materialism and pop culture serve to further undermine and threaten the rights and dignity of girls and women. This is exacerbated by the fact that access to education and control and ownership of productive resources by women are low. Anyone who is less educated and poor is in a more vulnerable state especially in a society where injustice is prevalent like The Gambia.

Patriarchy coupled with low education and less economic well-being therefore affects the voice and participation of women in decision making hence limit their access to power. When the voice, participation and representation of anyone is limited it therefore affects their entire social, economic and political standing in that society – security, justice, equality, freedom, development, growth and happiness!

Much talk continues to take place in The Gambia about women’s rights. For example we are quick to post comments, hashtags, pictures, videos and images on social media just to show our utter concern and disgust at the marginalization, oppression and exploitation of girls and women. Sometimes we even march for girls and women about maternal mortality, rape or education. Indeed these actions must be done and should continue. The tragedy is, that is where we stop!

Yet we know that this violence is fueled by ideas with which we are all socialized in our culture and society and homes – by our parents and ourselves from childhood to adulthood. We know that this violence is taking place in our homes and work places and all spaces. Sexual harassment and violence against girls and women in general are a pandemic in our society!

Therefore the time has come to sit back to really review ourselves as to how to, finally end oppression and exploitation of girls and women. We must commit ourselves with strong determination without maslaha to create a just and equal society. Otherwise we cannot call ourselves a civilized God-fearing and modern society! If that requires that we abolish and criminalize certain cultural words, beliefs and practices, then we should do that. If it requires that we change and create more laws so be it. If it requires institutional reforms and other budgetary and administrative measures, then let it happen!

But we cannot continue to compete in who is the first and the loudest to condemn rape and the killing of girls and women just like that. We cannot continue to commemorate every designated day for girls and women yet our wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, female colleagues and partners continue to be subjected to abuse everyday with impunity.

How many rape cases have been reported to the police so far or are in the courts already yet very little progress is being made? For how long shall we get amazed and disgusted at one case after another only to wait for another case to erupt? For how long? Indeed our society does not look like a modern, civilized and just society!

Our society and culture have many good things but they also carry lot of exploitative and oppressive ideas and structures which are the bases of the discrimination and injustices that manifest in such violence against girls and women! We have to dismantle and crush these unjust ideas and structures altogether. Now. That’s what civilized and serious people do as we see it happen in other countries where girls and women enjoy a higher status.

Therefore I think the relevant institutions in government including the National Human Rights National Human Rights National Human Rights Commission, The Gambia CSOs, the private sector as well citizens must convene a national conference on girls and women. Otherwise we shall only be counting case after case of violence against girls and women as another girl after another becomes a victim! For how long?

Remember, countries that register progress, protection and justice for girls and women at one point in their history saw the need for such convergence. The world itself had to convene in such conferences in Cairo in 1994 and Beijing in 1995 which conferences lay the basis for women’s rights globally today! Therefore let us also have our national conference on girls and women now before another girl, another woman is violated!

For The Gambia ?? Our Homeland

By Famara Fofana

When photos emerged of who appeared to be President Adama Barrow nestled between the SIS Supremo Ousman Sowe and few others, presumably family members on a certain day that our intelligence czar appeared before the TRRC, the reaction online was telling. It was one of fury and despondency for many who saw it as a move by the head of state to cozy up to a man who is at the centre of allegations of evidence tampering at the NIA complex.  In truth, there is nothing absolutely wrong in a president interacting with anyone serving mother Gambia or not. However, the timing of that photo op with Sowe just after being grilled by Essa Faal on account of his deeds and misdeeds at the notorious NIA, was misplaced and ill advised. Whether by design or coincidence, that meet-up between a president and a security chief did not hit the right notes and could never have been taken to kindness by anyone hoping for some form of justice when eventually the TRRC winds up its mission.

While that episode of a controversy is now out of sight, the remarks by another highly experienced security person – the Minister of Defence- in a recent virtual interview with the ‘For The People By The People’ anchors set even more tongues wagging for all the wrong reasons.  Sheikh Omar Faye’s ‘suck it up’ comment in reference to the Jammeh-era atrocities, his usage of ‘missteps’ as well as blaming almost everyone for all that went wrong came as a clanger from a minister who holds a strategic portfolio under the Barrow government.  As expected, any such utterance even from the common person would always trigger a meltdown in people- victim or non-victim. The reactions on social media and out of that space were ferocious.

So, in the wake of the heavy condemnation that came the way of the former ambassador Faye, what was expected is an apology that would have calmed the waters and not only tame the waves but settle the matter once and for all. Turns out, what came next would create a bigger furore. The media dispatch from the Ministry of Defence seeking to be a ‘CLARIFICATION’ wasn’t that reconciliatory.  Not only was the tone harsh, but the wordings as in ‘unscrupulous persons’, ‘maligning and discrediting’ paradoxically added more fuel to the fire.  At this point, I will also disagree with the Defence Ministry’s assertion of ‘distortion of facts’ on the part of the public. Qualifying people’s views in that manner is accusing them of committing a partial representation of totality.

The Minister or the Defence Ministry’s image handlers ought to have been more strategic in their messaging. Rather than threading on an apologetic tone, they went about unleashing the wrath of that ministry on concerned Gambians in a manner that echoes the outlandish ‘us against them’ press statements that used to be employed by Yahya Jammeh against opponents within and without the country. Boxing Gambians into ‘genuine’ ‘well meaning’, among other camps doesn’t bode well for a country where serious fragmentations still reign supreme. Those kind of reactionary press statements are very common in Banjul and almost adopted by even non-governmental entities, never mind the incoherent and substandard templates floating around town.

Moving on, the Gambia government and its agencies should adopt a Public Relations approach that would not end up turning people off, sow the seeds of further agitation amongst the populace. In situations where serious gaffes have been committed, it will serve themselves   and the citizens well if someone caught in the firing line would take up responsibility for their actions. Next would be stating the facts(honesty), express remorse, and endeavor to make things right. Those are the rudiments that PR persons in our government and elsewhere must fall on as their guiding principles. Even after stating commiserations with the Victims Centre and the One Gambia agenda at the end of that dispatch, it would appear that it came as a vanity project thanks to a three-worded phrase.

Damage limitation is a better safety valve than switching onto defence mode which will always boomerang in the end.

Famara Fofana is freelance journalist and a postgraduate student in Media and Communications Studies at Ankara University’s Graduate School of Social Sciences.

By Sainey Darboe

It’s stunning how we all pretend Barrow’s attitude with the accompanying incompetence and outright deception is a marked departure from the norm.

Matter of fact, the poor attitude the occupant of State House displays is replicated at individual level across Gambia. People blatantly lie, fraudulently obtain money from others, let down their families and nobody puts up a spirited fight.

The state of health care system in The Gambia is unacceptable. People are dying with alarming frequency of simple illness while the government watches with callous indifference.

The government cannot even provide basic needs like water and electricity for people, yet they allow themselves to be led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb. Successive Gambian governments have conspired in the suffering of our people and disastrously changing the course of lives without any respect. And with immense ruthlessness.

In conversations with people back home, one is struck by how everything that goes wrong in our lives is ascribed to Allah. God damn it. Let it be said with the least bit of respect that the state of our lives is a consequence of the decisions we have made as a people.

What changes lives and countries is not Allah or some higher power, but the decisions we have made over time, who we put in power and what we give of ourselves and our time.

Barrow has made himself victim of his own sect to be immolated on the flames of infinite greed. He has fed on fallacy and corruption, he has fed on dishonor and avarice. He has put himself above his feverish appetite and his congenital fear of losing his protruding pot belly, without knowing that it’s an endless vice the satiety of which generates its own appetite until the end of time.

He has known since his beginnings that they deceive him in order to please him, that they collect from him by fawning on him, that they coerce with bribery the huge crowds that line his routes with ululations of glory and venal signs of eternal rule to the magnificent one who has killed the lion. But he has learned to live with those and the miseries of glory, as he discovered in the course of his years that a lie to his people is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth.

He has arrived without shock at the ignominious fiction of commanding without power, of being exalted without glory, of being obeyed without authority when he became convinced in the trail of yellow leaves that he had never been master of all his power in that State House in a state of gracelessness.

He realized he is condemned not to know power except in reverse unless he set about casting into political purgatory the father that was not his. He is condemned to decipher the seams and straighten the threads of the woof and the warp of the tapestry of illusions of reality without suspecting even too late that the only livable life is one of truth, love and honor. But why am I pouring oceans of ink on a clueless president. Oops…just discovered too late he is not worth the effort.

Now back to our people. And back to the future. It will be impossible to put our beloved country on the path to development when we give up on our agency and ascribe our state to absentee superior powers who have forsaken us through centuries of endless suffering of a people dispossessed. We should get to work and stop congregating at mosques in hope of some miracle.

To paraphrase Frank Underwood in House of Cards, there is no solace above or below, only us, small, solitary, striving, battling one another. I pray to myself for myself.

Gambian-British rapper J-Hus captures our sad state best in his latest album Big Conspiracy. He raps:

‘How you gonna run the world?

You can’t even run your life

I’m Destiny’s Child, every day I survive

No time to plan, I had to improvise

If you was real, you would recognize

How do you sleep at night

When you don’t even fight for your right?

How do you sleep at night

When you never even fight for your right?’

By Madi Jobarteh

Sheikh Omar Faye had the audacity to face Gambians and insult them only to rush to his Ministry to issue an equally insulting press statement as a cover up! Shame.

This is a very nonsensical statement that is unbecoming of a Minister of Defense! Let the ministry name those ‘unscrupulous persons’ to lend credence to this shameful press statement.

The Minister used the words ‘suck it up…crying over spilt milk… move on’. Can the Minister clarify what he meant by these words which were spoken in relation to gross human rights violations and victims?

It is cheap to pontificate about God and country. Any bloke can do that. But the facts are clear that the so-called philosophy expressed by the Minister himself do not manifest patriotism, godliness, honesty, and justice. He spoke with the intention to bury, deny and distort our history and experience! He spoke with the intention to subvert and cleanse his own shameful role in upholding tyranny in The Gambia.

As we speak today, the Ambassador of Myanmar at the UN has rejected the military junta in his country and continues to speak against them at the UN just because they ocerthrew a democratically elected government and unleashed violence on citizens. Did Sheikh Omar Faye ever do that?

Did Sheikh Omar ever denounce and reject the AFPRC regime when the junta massacred fellow soldiers in November 1994?

Did Sheikh Omar Faye denounce the APRC regime when it massacred Gambian schoolchildren in April 2000?

Did Sheikh Omar Faye denounce the APRC regime and Yaya Jammeh when they tortured and killed Solo Sandeng and compatriots in April 2016?

He never did any such thing to denounce the human rights violations of that regime. Rather Sheikh Omar Faye maintained his despicable association with Yaya Jammeh inside The Gambia and abroad! He proudly represented Yaya Jammeh with utmost loyalty and dedication even when he knew that this man was a evil tinpot dictator! Sheikh Omar abandoned The Gambia to stay with a murderous tyrant until the end of the road!

Therefore what commiseration is he talking about? What closure can you have for victims when you slap them with such insolence as suck it, stop crying over spilt milk and move on!

Surely if Sheikh Omar’s children were among those massacred schoolchildren, he would not have asked victims to suck it up? If Deyda Hydara was his father, Sheikh Omar would not ask Gambians to stop crying over spit milk! We know that Solo Sandeng’s children will not ask for us to just move on! Koro Ceesay’s sisters will not ask Gambians to suck it up! How dare Sheikh Omar Faye tell anyone to suck it.

Sheikh Omar Faye is the typical parasite who has only benefitted from the misery and blood of Gambians! All throughout the time, as Gambians cried and bled and thrown out of their country, Sheikh Omar was only enjoying the high offices of the people at home and abroad.

He was enjoying the sweat and blood of our people who were paying him the fat salaries and the outlandish incentives with which he enjoyed life to the fullest!

It is therefore an insult and a gross disrespect for that Sheikh Omar Faye to face Gambians to ask them to suck it up. It is a shame that the Ministry of Defense would allow its platform to be used to insult Gambians. Rather than ask your minister to withdraw his despicable comments and apologize, you have the temerity to spread such rude statement!

I hereby call on Sheikh Omar Faye to resign in shame!

By Kexx Sanneh

The much talked about and long-awaited 2021 election is around the corner. We have 243 more days to go. This means that we have about 8 months 3 weeks to the election.

Since 1965, Gambia has held 8th general Presidential elections. The 2021 elections would be the 9th Presidential elections held in Gambia from 82, 1987,1992, 1996, 2001,2006, 2011 and 2016. What difference have all these elections made? Have the outcomes of these elections brought any genuine transformation to Gambia and Gambians?

The hard truth is that these elections are yet to promote socio-economic equality, enhance prosperity and revive the broken hope of the Gambian people after 56 years. What can we do differently in 2021 to change our story?

We have a choice to make as a nation and a people in December 2021. Either we decide to choose a better future over a bitter future or we decide to choose a bitter future over a better future. Either we decide to choose prosperity over poverty or we decide to choose poverty over prosperity.

We must use our ballots wisely in 2021 to put the right person in office who will promote our general welfare for our collective interests. Can 2021 make any difference? Can you do it for the sake of Gambia and generations yet unborn?

The World is watching. We cannot afford to make another mistake. If only we (Gambians) allow patriotism and nationalism to lead our choices in 2021, the outcome of our votes would be extremely amazing and rewarding.

2021– A moment to make Gambia better. Let’s take charge of this opportunity and together bid farewell to poverty and despair. CHANGE is possible. I am still optimistic about a new Gambia beyond 2021. Your vote – your voice – your power – your destiny.

I see a new Gambia rising above the African Continent only if we put the right political party and leader in power.