What is Gambians problem today? Someone whom the country raised all the way to adulthood, yet still stuck in childhood mentality of personal vendetta, still spoiled as a self-entitled whiner, sitting on our eyelashes whiles being unperturbedly non aspirational and worst of all —impossible to please. Everything we do or say in our mother land tantamount to treason. Yaya Jammeh doesn’t see anything wrong with the system of governance he has introduce in Gambia and wrongly imagines Gambia belongs to him. He often forged political victories on Gambian with violence instead of hopeful messages. Well, that’s how he dealt with Solo Sandeng over electoral reforms. Yaya Jammeh naturally find solace in our division but this time around, we will give him the surprise of his life. The days of collegiality and compromise of our principles are long gone as long as Yaya Jammeh keeps forcing himself on Gambians because everyone knows that he is a killer and very brutal to our elders.
When you have cabinet ministers that hides their faces or speed off at neighborhoods, partisan cherry picked leaders who cannot communicate their beliefs in a persuasive manner, law makers abdicating their duties, civil servants leaving many decisions for your approval, APRC surrogates all running away from your policies you champion as development— and they barely even embrace it, how can you expect Gambians to doomed themselves to failure by supporting the regime? The one man dictates everything policy does not bring about the development near the same pace as a collective group of diverse people in their expertise working together. The national challenges of the country are left out to stale because citizens who show an ounce of initiative to challenge them are considered threats to the regime. Gambia’s are smart people and want the same privilege others citizens of the world are enjoying. Most people have grown out of culture of perspective segregation of dictatorship because it is brutal, brittle to such an extent that it does not allow vibrant and dynamic minds to contribute their quota of national development. Our institutions fail inspire people because the old guard fear losing their positions and the only thing guarantee of our future is stagnant in the old century. and our vision of the cloudy.
The military old guards ran away with the exception of few now talking on both sides — often dramatically after endless circles of violence on them. However, the dictatorship find itself entangled with the new generational shift of Gambians, dissatisfied by lack of freedom, isolationism, breaking the strong bonds of culture of fear and are willing to take on the tough challenges to embrace the future. Anytime Yaya Jammeh sought to divide our nation, the new generations of Gambians— more thoughtful than ever, responded with stubbornness, with a sense of unity, purpose driven and resolved to take on the issues head on. This has proven more consequential with the dictator because he was in the midst of writing his own history whiles waiting for the ink of the first twenty years to dry. He was caught of guard by Gambians offering thoughtful analysis about his misrule to demystify him, putting up solutions and recommendations that not only guide of his decisions but inform everyone about happenings in the country. The dictator with his lack of thoughtful consideration before doing anything, have long depended on his attack-oriented and vitriolic skills of scaring Gambians. Today, he finds himself on the defense against articulate voices of Gambians on the air ways and social media advocating for policies that benefits the nation and are economically and fiscally responsible. Gone are the days when Yaya Jammeh deliberately try to ignore Gambians, focusing instead on his primitive ideas and self-interest.
This culture of ignoring Gambians, casting spiritual spells on people or belittling us will not make us go away in fighting for our people nor preaching false tales to the choir does little to move a country, make progress on anything for Gambians or change minds. It does not make sense to sell dictatorship to Gambians in the Diasporia who have seen real development, freedom to do anything to succeed in life, impactful in our communities, thoughtful when it comes to issues, constructive in solving our family issues across different continents, very articulate in describing the list of pains the regime put us under and cogent as any other freedom loving citizen. Not all critics think the election approach is foolhardy because despite the howls of outrage of taking on the dictatorship giving him run of his money, many are praying their heartburn from the bitter pill of dictatorship to end. whatever blowback we may face for this particular episode of taking him on, we hope the rabble-rousing people will understand we answered the call of history. Gambians are determined not to allow someone calling himself a president of Gambian whiles comfortable in his bubbles until election time. Given the significance of this election cycle as a do or die thing as Gambians find themselves in remarkable quagmire with tremendous consequence, if we do not put an end to an error we made allowing dictatorship to ruined our nation. We have been outmaneuvered politically because of fear and violence every way thinkable by Yaya Jammeh over the past twenty-two years. Given the tentative nature of this particular election and all the various compounding factors, we cannot afford to fumble this election once more by refusing to encourage our political leaders to coalesce. But the battle is not over but we can win it hands down by God’s grace.
by Habib ( A Concerned Gambian)
