Contrary to the conventional wisdom that the former Interior Minister Honorable Mai Ahmad Fatty deserve universal strictures for finally recognizing the illegality of the deployment of a Senegalese military contingent in the Gambia, independent of the 2017 internationally-approved ECOMIG force, when he disputed it yesteryear, to me, signifies a novel position rather commendable than condemnable. Factoring the principal role he played in Dakar Senegal as a key witness to the whole inauguration process and to take a 150 degree turn now and tell us that the agreement to augment the original ECOMIG force was exclusively validated by Presidents Mackey Sall and Adama Barrow, should be a welcomed disclosure and an opportunity to further beg him for more details of the secret deal. Indeed, Mr. Fatty was at the time in Dakar the most vocal and visible actor among the principal coalition party members to appraise the document and advice President Adama Barrow about it before its binding endorsement.
It is still fresh in people’s minds when a negligible number of us were expressing concerns over the illegality and unconstitutionality of the occupation force and the Ex-Minister brazenly declaring his replacement of Hon. Halifa Sallah as spokesman of the transitional government.
For a while I thought Hon. Sallah with his outstanding gift of both mastering the Gambian constitution and his steadfastness to foster its conformity was going to raise a red flag on the incoming foreign forces, especially after Ex-President Jammeh peacefully took off and the heads of the security services guaranteeing him their loyalty to the new government. So, was the Serekunda NAM too shocked and surprised by Hon. Fatty’s unorthodox coup to react as expected or was he also another distrustful Gambian like many, convinced of the false notion that the Gambia Armed Forces was predominantly composed of MFDC and Charles Taylor rebels who needed to be flushed out right away?
However, in either way I don’t think Mr. Fatty could have suddenly turned against Mr. Sallah without the approval of Adama Barrow and perhaps with the support of some other rookies blindly taking orders from President Mackey Sall. But that’s another subject for a different time.
Essentially, Mr. Fatty, a lawyer by every measure was the closest adviser to President Barrow at the time. Besides, until clinically proven otherwise I still stand by my inclination that our gentle and nice president is dyslexic and therefore, in the absence of a comprehensive interpretation of any accord presented to him, he could sign anything he may not necessarily understand. I had therefore expected Mr. Fatty to have played that key advisory role in the same manner I believe Halifa Sallah the original driver of the coalition engine should have in Dakar. Though the least I expected from both was to insist on waiting for the Gambia National Assembly to formally ratify the treaty before their deployment. It will thus be mind boggling if Honorable Fatty denies any knowledge of the deed, its contents or of how the two heads of state even arrived at ratifying it which if so would border on hoodwinking Barrow into a deal he misunderstood.
I wish the honorable minister of foreign affairs Doctor Mamadou Tangara, another principal actor during the impasse will one day do the same and explain to us what he had read or understood about the agreement because of his bilingual edge of understanding both French and English. Sorry, another topic for another day.
Of course, the best time the ex-minister could have enlightened the population about the troops was soon after they shot and killed harmless Harona Jatta from Kaninlai Village. Since then however, he has uttered three seemingly impulsive political statements that haven’t helped much. The first, while still in office was his infamous assertion of Jatta being killed for carrying traditional weapons with a group of Jolas, mobilized to fight the foreign soldiers. That was fleetingly proven incorrect. The second, uttered after his removal from office somehow blamed President Barrow for being in charge of the troops who did the killing. And, thirdly, in a recent online-TV interview, after attributing his hawkishness at the time to his crusade to extinguish the flame of dissenting APRC supporters bent on derailing the transitional government, he still insisted that the killing of Harona Jatta had nothing to do with the Gambia Police Force under his jurisdiction and everything to do with the Senegalese forces under a higher executive order. That must be Barrow, right?
It is fair to say that almost all of them in Dakar including President Barrow were raw rookies on government policies especially on national security issues and perhaps merely accepted everything the experience Senegalese suggested to them.
That was where I noticed the final crumbling of the spirit of solidarity and success among the coalition members and not as wrongly believed to happen after Lawyer Ousainou Darbo join them out of jail. In fact the first crumbling brinks started to fall when the initial election results already accepted and celebrated by the APRC leadership was compromised by the second results read three days later by the IEC, ultimately opening a window for Senegal to takeover the narrative with the help of Barrow but mostly with that of Jammeh’s diplomats. Nobody still wants to admit that major sticking point which is the root cause of their whole failure.
A well-informed national security advisor committed to maintaining the sovereignty of the Gambia should have warned President Barrow against any haste of adding or even bringing in foreign forces given what had transpired before to trigger the 1994 coup. The demoralizing effects of the foreigners on our own forces are abysmal with its political and economic ramifications even worse.
Gambian soldiers are increasing getting frustrated by their marginalization and the government’s indefinite dependence on the foreign troops who enjoy far better salaries coupled with special privileges. Politically, no presidential aspirant discusses his or her strategy of tackling the problem if they replace President Adama Barrow next year. Unless they also plan to connect their umbilical cords straight to the Dakar Palace because hearing how far Mackey Sall will go to retain his troops and a friendly government in the country of which Barrow has proven to be the most desirable for the task, I am afraid contenders would have to be extremely bold and crafty to change the dynamics. Anyone aiming to retrain the status quo with Senegal should therefore let Barrow continue.
I don’t think the Senegalese are bothered about the negative political or economic impact their presence in the Gambia is causing. But logically, foreign investors will hardly want to commit their wealth in the country while the government depends on foreign troops. And the more our economy tanks the greater and longer we are forced to depend on Senegal’s assistance.
In this precarious moment however, I believe Honorable Mai Ahmed Fatty knows more about the 800 pound gorilla in the room than he is willing to tell us. And I am one person keenly interested.
Moreover, our lawmakers at the National Assembly appear clueless and indifferent to the whole subject. Typically manifested when Defense Minister Shiekh Omar Faye blatantly misled them with the argument that the Senegalese troops in the Fonis were part of ECOMIG and nobody disputed it after the ECOMIG spokesman already told us otherwise.
And as stated above, Mr. Fatty could have then added his voice in support of the ECOMIG statement; but I don’t blame him as a politician who always measure when, where and how to talk.
Nevertheless, going by the revelation of Hon. Mai Fatty it is now abundantly clear that the Senegalese forces occupying Foni under the guise of ECOMIG and on a dubious agreement never ratified by our lawmakers is illegal and unconstitutional to the core. Will the NAMs be duty bound to once again summon defense Minister S.O Faye to explain the reason for the deception or the insincerity the other day? I doubt it because, like I said before, I think Faye did a great preliminary job that day of disarming them with sweet words well before the session commenced.
Speaking to a colleague about how admirable Mr. Fatty now is for coming out to denounce the the bad Senegalese hombres in our territory, the guy in his dogmatic Gambian mentality of irreversibly stigmatizing anyone proven wrong yesterday as not capable of ever being right again, dishonestly changed the subject just to convince me. He explained how the ex-interior minister was directly responsible for terminating my employment as deputy ambassador at the Unite Nation soon after the Barrow government took over. That’s intellectual dishonesty in that he was for a long time aware but quietly concealed that story from me until now. I laughed and simply told him how someone else in the government would have fired me anyway if he hadn’t, considering the “undesirable” role I had played during the 2017 impasse to support the APRC government to the bitter end. I was not only supposed to be fired but many folks had recommended my arrest and prosecution with a few unfortunate one infected with the hateful disease against “Samsudeen Sarr”, killing them slowly.
But you see, sound minds pursuing consequential objectives, evolve constantly and are hardly stuck with any poisonous prejudice. All scriptures teach about how prophets founded and developed their religions on tolerance to the extent of befriending and accepting their worst adversaries including those confirmed to wish them death. All they ask for was their ultimate conversion to the creed they preach.
By the way, in the religion of politics, when did we cast away the commandment of followers not to permanently be loyal to friends or foes but to party’s interest? Only the “Byfaal” often with low-IQ easily forget that number-one commandment. Just learn from the Republicans and Democrats in the USA where the religion of democracy originated from.
Hence, regardless of our disagreements in the past, when new agreeable matters are raised before us I believe judging the message would be more logical and beneficial than the messenger. Holding grudges is toxic to the owner and reconciliation is its best antidote.
Consequently, any Gambian political leader who genuinely understand the problem I have been bitching about over the foreign troops illegally occupying our country because of its security economic downturn, is in my book a candidate I can cast my vote for. And Honorable Mai Ahmed Fatty and few others are showing signs of that kind of understanding. If Barrow understands it, that will be much better.
Thanks for reading. Till next time.
Samsudeen Sarr
Banjul, The Gambia.
Yes, I am Back home folks.
