Gano, I must acknowledge that I used to follow your writings/blogs with keen interest and admiration. I was passionately frequenting your blog and always looked forward to reading your most recent articles. Unfortunately, that interest has dissipated gradually as I started to glean from your writings a dictatorial dogma in whatever agenda you want to sell at the time. I am not here to judge your motives but Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (RA) said “verily, in the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, the people would be judged by revelation, but the revelation has ended. Now we judge you according to your outward deeds”. Therefore we will judge you base on what you have shown outwardly herein referenced to your writings.
I hope you will take this as a subtle reminder and check from a brother indeed. As a former addict of your writings, I have noticed two main inconsistencies in your dogma overtime which I want to focus on here; firstly, you were one of the most vocal and strongest advocates of an opposition coalition with a rather convoluted conviction that it is our only chance to defeat Jammeh in December polls. You have devoted so much time and effort to convince all and sundry that a coalition of all the opposition parties through a national convention is our last resort and anything short of it is a disaster and a carte blanke offer for Jammeh to continue to perpetuate himself over us. When I saw your above named piece today, I gravitated towards it out of curiosity to see what your post-convention analysis or deduction would be knowing that you have tireless promoted the idea as our only way out (right or wrong is debatable). To my utter dismay and disappointment, I couldn’t believe that I saw you canvasing votes for GDC instead of the coalition you have die heartedly campaigned for. You are obviously entitled to your opinion and political affiliation but this for me is sheer hypocrisy and double standard from your side. I am no fan of Adama Barrow albeit my affinity to his party by relation, but I respect the will of the electorate who unanimously choose him as the coalition flag bearer. Although, my choice of candidate would have been different but now that the will of the people is Barrow I am fully behind the coalition. Allah’s hand is with the majority. For the record, I am no fan of any particular political party, rather my choice of President is based on the candidate and what he can offer. However, in this case I have shelved that principle in the interest of the greater good for the greater number of Gambians. Whoever, it takes to flush out Jammeh at the moment as long as he/she is not ruthless, monstrous, rude, tribalist and fake like the incumbent is fine with me. We can sanitise further once we root out this evil, corrupt and diabolical system like a cancer worm over us.
Secondly, you have been very dogmatically obsessed with the idea of not seeing power tilt towards those most oppressed and wronged by the Jammeh regime. What makes you think the only option to reconciliation between the oppressed and the oppressors is forgiveness and turning the other cheek? Even Allah gave the Prophet the option to either revenge proportionate to the wrong meted on him or forgive. Why do you want to convince everybody that the only option we have into a peaceful third republic is by forgiving the oppressors and turning a new leave? What also makes you believe that those wronged when empowered will not even forgive and reconcile just like Mandela did? In fact the most wise and sound position for you considering your advocacy for peace would have been the promotion of the coalition agenda irrespective of who is leading for now. When the companions of the Prophet, peace be upon united on a common cause and goal in the battle of Badr, irrespective of their small numbers (313) as against 1000, they had a resounding victory; contrastingly, when their numbers were in their favour in Uhud but their hearts became disunited (some wanted Allah and his Rasul (pbuh) while others sought after the war booty) they suffered the most severe defeat in the history of Islamic battles. Therefore forgiveness at its place and time and revenge at its place and time. When the prophet forgave and ransomed the 70 prisoners of war in the battle of Badr, Allah immediately reprimanded him by saying in; Anfal (8):67 “It is not right for a Prophet that he should have prisoners of war (and free them with ransom) before he has conquered the land” until the end. I am not in any way advocating for revenge but I just want to debunk the dogma that the only option for reconciliation in the third republic is forgiveness and as such power should not be handed to the oppressed under no circumstance.
I could have written much but I sincerely believe these few lines would be taken into advisement in your future blogs. Let’s continue to remember that our common enemy is Jammeh and as such it is imperative and critical that we bury our differences until we uproot him as the commander in chief.
Your brother
BB Sanneh
