Gambians are determined to separate satire from reality come December 1st. The battle to reclaim Gambia’s political soul has just began from fatally flawed characters who have hijacked our country and put us into extraordinarily risky territory. Our hopes of democracy can’t even die of old age because Yaya Jammeh has reformed it to death using dictatorship tendencies. The regime has been attacking Gambia’s own immune systems of our cherished values, cultural norms, our tolerance and now our nation is eventually made sick from the virus of dictatorship. Gambians are now aware the disorder of illness dictatorship and the chaos syndrome of its compounds effects in our society. It has other causes, too: Yaya Jammeh’s intemperate figure and rhetoric has crossed over into the downright dangerous. The list of things the regime can do for Gambia is growing shorter and no one is guaranteed immunity from their tragedy; end of story. They said much, overstayed too long, accomplished very little and enmeshed Gambia in serious scandals that put us in world spotlights. Therein, Gambians have enough of the enslavement, subjugation, marginalization and exploitation.
Moreover, Gambians looked deep into their own consciences, rummaging for one good thing- which the regime has done that have the approval of majority Gambians and couldn’t find anything resembling a common ground with the regime. Yaya Jammeh himself has proven to be the same mean-spirited closed mind with lethal consequences. We cannot afford to swallow the unpleasant medicine of a fare hike to a supercharged dictatorship nor pick our country’s own poison again in the coming election cycle. From the moment Yaya Jammeh romped himself into our State house, scandal and controversy have followed us as a nation. The unprecedented length of our current stay of this regime in our nation, have only exacerbated these problems much more — as regime continues to further divide the magnitude of the challenges our country faces up in many ways. It is very abhorrent that our children’s, our schools and communities—are forced to celebrate the day we lost our beloved country to dictatorship in the 1994 coup de tat— to the violence on our women, genocide directed at our politicians and imperialism that followed his arrival at our Statehouse.
By and large, he lacks anything resembling self-discipline, is prone to temper tantrums and appears utterly unable to focus on matters of policy that benefit our country. And the values he has espoused for the last two decades, bear no resemblance to traditional Gambian values or positions. The regime has lost credibility with their incoherent foreign policy — that has toss Gambia overboard form commonwealth which benefited us greatly, while driving us closer to fellow autocrat leaders who failed their nations, putting us right into neighboring countries centuries of territorial disputes —which is already causing enormous damage to this nation’s reputation around the world. One thing is quite obvious is—we have moral obligation save our country. Multi-generational solutions are needed because all the pillars which held us as a nationhood have been destroyed beyond recognition. We need our elders with vast experience and a lifelong dedication to public service reversing the spiral of dictatorship.
This is the starkest political choice in our living memory. It’s telling that so many APRC members— have share the existential same concerns about the directions of our country. The party’s noisy breakdown has been echoed eerily. They have distanced themselves from their party’s leader and finding a second home at the GDC party. They finally have become victim of their own hubris, believing the pain he is inflicting on Gambians for people to fear him and miscalculating the scandals he puts the country without limits will, will made stay on power until his demise at old age. As it turned out, he lacks broad popular support but the forces of evil he aroused in our country, have helped him outlive his welcome. It has become apparent he is indifferent to our needs and also to the harm of his deathly policies he has been inflicting in Gambian communities. Given the dysfunction the regime has caused to our nation, it hardly surprising that —there are newer faces on the political scene. The blood of the dead is a stain that cannot be rubbed out of every Gambians memory. It’s a sad with the state of affairs of our country, it takes politics of the fear of losing this election, for him to be very violent on opposition leaders and for him to speak ill of someone, and when he finally does, it’s a fellow Gambian.
In light of the exhausting patience, the Gambia have given Yaya Jammeh twenty-two years’ chance to prove himself but he has pushed us to the brink. The EU whom use to serve as intermediaries’ between us and him, overtime, have seen their influence fade as he become more individualistic and unaccountable about their AID money given to Gambians. Astonishingly, the regime seems incapable of working together with Gambians on anything, even when our interests align. Let’s be aware the regime might be posting some people as turncoat or troublemakers, whose efforts thus far have tied in knots on the coalition rope, for a sole purpose of obstructing our victory—well, everything. We cannot swallow the unpleasant medicine, of supercharged dictatorship again and gloating about its after effects in 2017 moving forward. The times also requires all of our opposition leaders and aspiring candidates to envisions the needs and hopes of Gambians for a better hopeful future. We are confident that this time we shall get it right. There are optimistic signs everywhere that gives us a chance to square our shoulders again.
By Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)
