By DA Jawo
I have always been saying that the forthcoming presidential elections are like a referendum for Babili Mansa’s Islamic State project and if Gambians decide to elect him for another term, the first thing he would do will be to introduce full-fledged Sharia and other draconian laws that will regulate the way that ordinary Gambians will conduct their lives on a daily basis, thus destroying the very norms and values that we have always known in this country.
Another scary possibility is the prospect of Babili Mansa giving such Islamic radicals like Dr Zakir Naik the free hand to virtually run the country by proxy, making all the decisions that would affect our daily lives.
This extract below is from an analysis of what we should expect after the December elections made by a prominent Gambian academic and social commentator who has quite a deep analytical knowledge of the situation in the Gambia:
“After the December election, Jammeh is definitely planning to implement fully-fledged Sharia law in the Gambia to “regulate” public behavior. Apparently, the Indian Islamic preacher, Dr. Zakir Abdul Karim Naik, while recently praising Jammeh for his tough stance against gays and lesbians, did make a slip of the tongue remark on Peace TV when he revealed that Jammeh would be implementing a fully-fledged Islamic law in the Gambia from 2017 onwards.
“Jammeh plans to change the national flag to “reflect the Gambia’s new status as an Islamic country” and he also intends to ban any non-Muslim man marrying a Muslim woman. Among other things, I am told that Jammeh also wants to make sure that after the election, even meat to be eaten in the Gambia must have come from animals that have been “sacrificed” to Allah – “Halal”; a Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim or converts to Christianity will be sentenced and that even theft is going to be punishable by amputation of the right hand.
“After the election, assuming that Jammeh will remain at the helm, the Gambia is going to be mired in the most severe crisis it has known since independence from Britain in 1965. The country’s future seems so bleak and hopeless. Jammeh will keep trying his luck – doing things that involve risk, and hoping to succeed. Knowing Jammeh, he would push his luck too far, and yes, there comes a time in your life when you have reached where you say enough is enough. I believe that that time is slowly dawning on Gambians”.
So if this apocalyptic analysis is not scary enough for Gambian voters to take the bull by the horns and get rid of this regime come December 1, then I wonder what would ever stir them to take the necessary action to save Gambians from such a looming catastrophe.
Therefore, this should be even enough food for thought to propel the opposition to intensify their search for a single candidate for the December elections, particularly the GDC who are said to be making quite unreasonable demands before they would join the proposed coalition.
