Breaking News: Adama Barrow Wins Gambia’s Elections

The Candidate of the Gambia’s united opposition Coalition has denied incumbent President Yahya Jammeh fifth term in office. Adama Barrow has won the December 1st presidential elections by a slight margin. Based on votes compiled at spot counting centers across the country, it is clear that Mr. Barrow defeated Yahya Jammeh by 21, 114 votes. The Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission Alieu Momarr Njai is yet to announce the results in both the Kanifing Municipality and West Coast Region where Mr. Barrow made significant gains. Adama Barrow has swept the polls in most of the regions in the country. Yahya Jammeh is yet to concede defeat even though he is privy to the spot counting results.

Lawyer Darboe, Others Freed

News just arrives confirming the release of Lawyer Ousainou Darboe and others. Their release comes after the high court in Banjul acquits and discharges them. In July United this year, Justice Eunice Dada sent almost the entire leadership of the Democratic Party and some supporters to prison for holding a peaceful protest, demanding the release of Solo Sandeng dead or alive. Mr. Sandeng was rounded up with other UDP activists on April 14th. He was not only beaten to death but his family was denied the right to bury his remains.

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Hunger Killed Man At APRC Basse Gala

The death of a drummer at the ruling APRC Basse youth rally has raised more questions than answers. The drummer who hailed from Bakadaji in Jimara is reported to have died while entertaining people at the four day event that kicked on September 29th. The cause of the man drummer's death has not been made public. However, many people who spoke to our Basse correspondent have blamed the death on hunger. Besides the low youth turnout, the Mansajang hosted political jamboree, which was meant to shower youths appreciation on President Yahya Jammeh, has been mired in complaints of hunger and poor accommodation. The event has led to the closure of schools in Koba Kunda and Basse. The schools that are closed to shelter APRC supporters include St. George's Upper Basic and Basse Ahmadiyya Senior Secondary School. Students and teachers in these schools would not understand why their classes would be suspended for a useless political event. Some say the choice of Basse for the jamboree is a provocation. It is the home of the late popular politician Bubacarr Michael Baldeh who was refused burial rights in Basse.


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Sonko,s Mother In Tears

The psychopathic former Gambian Minister Of Interior seeking asylum in Sweden have one person crying over his downfall. The frail and elderly mother of killer Ousman Sonko is said to be disoriented and confused at the sudden turn of events in her life. Blood is thicker than water.

Ousman Sonko’s mother is reported to have complained that “all her sons are arrested and missing and she doesn’t know why”. However, the elder mother was quick to remain silent due to the fears that befall the nation. Our reporter was able get one opinion from the old lady. She was of the opinion that, ‘Jolas are safe from the long hands of dictator Jammeh’s brutality and killings.’

The granny learnt what every mother is going through that has their loved ones killed, jailed, abducted, sacked, exiled, and tortured for no reason. The immoral men and women promoting and encircling President Jammeh are no different from him. All those enabling and associating with him have a hand in his murders and crimes. To the frial mother of Ousman Sonko, the Gambia is bleeding and noble men are sitting in jail whilst Ousman Sonko who was meant to protect the citizen as the head of security aparatus was himself taunting and tormenting innocent citizens. Granny Sonko, welcome the Gambia under dictator

Hunter Being Hunted: Ousman Sonko,s Victim Demand Redress

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By Abdoulie John 

Calls are intensifying for a large scale investigation into the case of the Gambia’s former Interior Minister who fled to Europe following his removal from office. Ousman Sonko’s untimely exit has revived demands for victims of the Jammeh regime to get redress in a court of law.

“He thought he could find safety and protection there. I know for sure that he will be granted time to be in Sweden while they investigate his case,” Sweden-based Gambian pro-democracy activist Kebba Samuel Nyanchor Sanneh told this reporter.

Last week, local news media in Sweden reported that former Gambian Interior Minister landed in the Scandinavian country and filed for asylum shortly after his arrival. Ousman Sonko has been linked to different types of atrocities committed by the Jammeh regime. In the wake of the police crackdown on opposition supporters, he did not hesitate to speak out against protesters. “We will never compromise the country’s security,” he was quoted as saying by local newspapers.

Sanneh, who is currently spending his vacation in the Senegalese capital Dakar, stated that depending on the findings, Sonko will be asked to stay or leave.

The presence of the ex-minister in Sweden has already  sparked widespread criticism and some members of the Gambian community are planning to take to the streets to challenge his political asylum. Many human rights groups are calling for his indictment by Swedish authorities or Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).

Omar Joof, exiled President of Gambia Students’ Union (GAMSU), who spoke to this reporter recalled how Ousman Sonko’s tenure with the Jammeh regime has done havoc to the Gambian people.”They should all be ready to square up with Gambians after liberation,” he warned.

Gambia is ruled with an iron fist by President Yahya Jammeh who seized power  in a bloodless 1994 coup. Activists describe his 22-year rule as being marred by gross human rights violations. He has vowed to vie for a fifth term in the forthcoming Presidential Election scheduled to take place in December 1, 2016.

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May God Save Dear Little Gambia Part 3

This is the third and final opinion on this topic. In a little over two months, if Yaya Jammeh or Mansa Jakut has his wish, Gambians will perform their designated role in another choreographed ritual –  officially dressed up as an election, but which in fact is meant not to seek their consent as to who will govern them, but rather will only use them as props to give the appearance to an unsuspecting international community that an actual election has taken place.

In reality, what passes for an election in the Gambia is nothing but an elaborate daylight con job on a whole country. And it has happened twice already!

In 2010, based on a hunch and later, corroboration from a one-time insider and childhood associate of he Yaya Jammeh himself, I included in my Round Holes -Square Pegs… series information on how he has completely bastardized the Gambia’s electoral system not just by the more generally known wholesale registration of his ethnic kinsmen from southern Senegal in the Gambia’s Voter Roll, but worse by the more daring stuffing of ballot boxes by his sanctioned military thugs. I called it “Security Votes”. To recap, here is the gist of  how the scam goes: Jammeh  orders the same materials as the electoral commission; he has his hand-picked military  men under his direct command fill the ballot boxes beforehand; then they take the stuffed boxes  around the country on election day to counting centers; they create or manufacture excuses and distractions at each location they reach in the name of security in order to avail themselves the opportunity to mix the illicit boxes they’ve stuffed with the real votes that  Gambians  have cast at the polls. Bottom-line, they ensure that the boxes that they’ve stuffed at Jammeh’s behest are counted around the country. This way, they nullify Gambians’ votes against Yaya Jammeh!

This is why Jammeh keeps bragging that he’ll win elections even if Gambians don’t vote for him because djinns will vote for him due to “how I’ve developed this country”! And precisely why he is so diametrically opposed to changing the voting system in Gambia. 

You see, we are so full of jokes in The Gambia that we have become a complete joke as a country. To begin with, from its very inception, the so-called Independent Electoral Commission has operated as an extension of Yaya Jammeh’s party. This electoral scam I noted wouldn’t be possible without the connivance of the Electoral Commission. Unfortunately, all but one of the Electoral Commission’s past Heads were known sympathizers of Jammeh’s APRC. Not surprisingly, the lone stand-out, the late reverend Bishop Telewa Johnson was the only one who defied Jammeh by making a valiant effort to be an impartial umpire by refusing to collude with the APRC and better heeded popular calls by introducing On-the-Spot-Counting. He knew the risk he was taking by doing the right thing, but he it did anyway out of honor and integrity. Predictably, Yaya Jammeh quickly fired him and took his job back. Bishop Johnson kept his honor and integrity intact. May god bless his soul.  Wouldn’t The Gambia be a better place if our high profile imams show similar courage and integrity? What kills me is some of us Gambian Muslims still actually think we have an upper hand on other religions.  Twenty-two years of madness, and pure evil rule and one cannot find even a couple of big-mosque imams courageous enough to speak up for the oppressed Gambian Muslim masses. Mention this obvious fact to some people, and they’ll accuse you of heresy or what have you. The way some tell it, you get a sense that Allah will come down physically to deliver us from Yaya Jammeh. We really are a funny people.

On a related note, my source says, this electoral heist is ALWAYS sealed with the blood of a virgin girl based on the advice of Jammeh’s Jalang priest! And not only does he know where they bury these poor innocent victims, he knows the killers who carried out the first two operations. All I can say is, the average Gambian has no idea how truly depraved and power-hungry Yaya Jammeh really is.

In Part 2, I noted our culture of not paying attention to details because Jammeh is by nature a very indiscipline person.  He talks a lot for a leader and sings discordant tunes. In doing so, he indirectly reveals tidbits about some of the many crimes he engages in publicly often without realizing it. Sadly, many of us miss these clues because -  well, we don’t pay attention to details.

In the last two elections, a curious thing was apparent, Jammeh’s proportion of the total votes which was in the mid-50s in 1996 magically jumped to the low 70s! This is phenomenal growth.  It would signify remarkable popularity for any politician if it is real. It is not. You know this because not only is it out of sync with the vibe of the country, he Jammeh has made no secret of his anger at the largest ethnic groups in the country –  especially the Manding, for hating him. I’ve had calls from countless Mandinkas over the years many of who wonder how it is possible that Mandinkas could hate Yaya Jammeh when he gets over 70% in majority Manding areas of The Gambia during elections. My answer to them is: Yaya Jammeh has conclusive evidence that he loses badly in majority Mandinka areas of The Gambia. Here is the reality: Yaya Jammeh is among the few Gambians who know the number of votes actually cast by Gambians at the polls. For the record, NO election result gets announced on Gambian radio or TV on election day unless Yaya Jammeh gives his explicit approval! This is the first key point to note about who actually calls the shots at the electoral commission.  So when Jammeh says people in this area don’t like me, he knows for a FACT that they don’t because he has actual data on votes cast for him in that particular area. He knows how many phony votes his thugs drop off in each Region because he personally tracks them. So all he does to gauge his popularity in any part of the country is back out his phony votes from the total that he has in that area!  The urban areas are eclectic and harder to tell. Not so much trouble when it comes to the provinces.

Officially, Jammeh has been winning over 70% in majority Mandinka areas like Baddibu, Kiang, and Jarra in the last two elections. Yet he is mad and constantly engaging in ethnically incendiary diatribes against Mandinkas. Many are perplexed and frustrated by this.  Some think it’s baseless. But Jammeh knows something they don’t because he sees the real numbers, and as any astute observer knows, it’s easier to lie to others than to lie to oneself. This is one of the main sources of Jammeh’s anti-Mandinka rage.

Jammeh cannot share this information publicly without betraying the fraudulent ballot stuffing operation he engages in. Call it a Crook’s dilemma or being hoisted to his own petard!   

The way the current electoral system is, no one can tell the difference between a phony vote stuffed inside a ballot box by a jack-booted thug at State House on a weekend in November 2016 and a real one cast by a duly registered Gambian voter on voting day in December 2016 because as anyone who has studied the system knows, it is archaic and lacks any Audit Trail. The marbles that are used as votes in the system have no unique features.  Nothing ties any marble to any voter in any way. Worse, even the voter identification system used is not an assurer of the voter’s true ID – unlike anywhere else in West Africa presently. Multiple voter registration by the ruling party especially is rampant. Currently ALL other West African countries have adopted some form of biometric-based voting system that have helped to not only sanitize their electoral systems, but have also deepened confidence in their democracies. In the event of disputes in such systems, science-based facts are easy to establish and follow to resolve the disputes.  The Gambia is threading a lonely path. The fact that Yaya Jammeh had the UDP activist Solo Sandeng murdered in cold blood for merely calling peacefully for reforming this anachronistic electoral system tells us everything we need to know about the threat he believes changes to the current electoral system will pose to his chance of maintaining the lie that he is interested in cultivating true democracy in The Gambia.

I mentioned the lack of standards in my earlier post. Beside the corrupt and complicit electoral commission, lack of standards is Jammeh’s biggest tool in subverting the will of the Gambian people. Let me explain: anyone who understands basic demography knows the Gambia’s Voters Register is heavily padded.  Now what makes this so easy for Jammeh to do is, there is no standard way of spelling any Gambian Family or Last Name. As such, the people he wants to use to buff up the Voter roll register multiple times using different names or spellings and even normal computer data validation rules don’t raise any red flag. For instance, the computer sees Modou Ceesay and Modou Sesay and Modou Sisay and Modou Sise as separate individuals. Equally, it assumes Amie Njie is different from Amie Njai, who is different from Amie Njay who is different from Amie Njaye when it’s the same person with the Last name spelt differently. A biometric system will spot the fraud and nip it in the bud, but the current Gambian environment is a conman’s dream. All I can say is how about we get such fundamentals right first before imitating others in talking about lofty ideas that have NOTHING to do with Gambian reality?

Knowing all these, my heart bleeds for those who actually think the opposition can defeat Yaya Jammeh at the polls. Even after side-stepping the silly side show surrounding the opposition coalition talks and the price some are asking for a coalition (avoiding stating the obvious about certain candidates,) I can only think of a single reason for investing in elections at this point: to build a moral basis for what in all probability will eventually happen to Jammeh.

Otherwise, one has a better chance of finding a ten billion barrels oil well in Jarra Soma than beating Yaya Jammeh, his military thugs, and his IEC lap dogs at their game. No biometric electoral system, no On-the-Spot-Counting?  But what do I know.

Recently, a friend called to say he has heard on a Gambian radio station that the ballot stuffing operation is well underway at State House and up to half a million vote may have already been put away for Jammeh. Now I don’t have any way to verify this, but the one thing I know is never to doubt Yaya Jammeh’s penchant for the outlandish – be that crime or otherwise. When I first heard about this operation of his from someone who used to be pretty close to him, I was incredulous. But on second thought, it made perfect sense. How else can Yaya Jammeh possibly poll over 70% in Gambia given the way he has been ruling the country especially since he murdered his main ally Baba Jobe in 2001?

In Gambian opposition political discourse, there are two camps: 1.) those that see the present dispensation exactly as what it is, and therefore open up to other options however unconventional those may seem to some; and 2.) those who obstinately cling to the idea of what the Gambia ought to be as a democracy despite overwhelming evidence that the country is in fact moving more and more away from a democracy two decades after the current second experiment began.  Call it the Realist versus Idealist dichotomy.  Need I say which camp I belong to?

Throughout this Jammeh era, we have lived Public Lies: official v. unofficial; nominal v. actual. Officially, Isatou Njai Saidy is Number 2 in the country. In reality, She and everyone else in government knows that to be a lie. She is nothing but a pathetic errand girl that Jammeh sends to places to humanize him when he wants. The second most powerful person in Gambia is a man called Lt. Gen. Saul Badjie, Commander of the State Republican Guards. In reality, his name is neither Sulayman “Saul” Badjie nor is he a General. In fact, he has never set foot in ANY military school in his entire life because learning has always been a struggle for him at both Primary and Secondary levels in Bwiam where he hails from.  His real name is Karafa Bojang. He had “borrowed” the school certificate of a much younger man whose name he now bears to enlist in the Gambian army. That young man who is nick named Paul Badjie lives in London.  In a serious country, Karafa Bojang would have long been dismissed from the army for impersonation. Didn’t I say we are a joke?

But here is the light at the end of the tunnel in all this madness. The House of Jammeh is on fire – politically, militarily, and socially. What is being touted as a new kid on the opposition block is in fact a manifestation of the political implosion of Jammeh’s APRC. Worse, and of greater consequence is the clear implosion in the military that has burst open with the bolting and sudden self-exile of alleged notorious killer O.U. Sonko. And if information reaching us are accurate, Jammeh’s enemies are no longer the usual suspects. What gives these rumors real credence is in the recent past   some astounding social events have been taking place. Those that speak some Jola may have noticed some unusual phenomenon. Several videos have been posted on YouTube showing many Gambian Jolas openly denouncing Jammeh in very strong language.  The videos speak volumes about the seismic changes going on in the Jola community. I have no doubt that Jammeh will rig himself in again this December.  But I have little doubt also about the aftermath of that action because as Abraham Lincoln told Americans in his short extemporaneous speech at Gettysburg during the American civil war” a house divided against itself cannot stand.” What the hapless opposition cannot do to him, his own just might.

Which brings me back to my subject: May god save Dear Little Gambia!

Bankrupcy Fear Engulfs APRC

       

Senior members of the Gambia’s ruling Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (APRC) are convinced that their once affluent party is facing bankruptcy. This comes ahead of the APRC’s planned meeting in Basse, which must be funded by the party’s senior members. According to leaks arising from a secret APRC held few days back, the cost of the Basse campaign will be shared among chiefs, members of parliament and women leaders (yayi compins). The campaign, aimed at diffusing the fast growing United Democratic Party grassroots support, costs 1.7 million Dalasis. It was decided that each of the seven chiefs in the Upper River Region would provide two cows while chiefs in other regions each contribute a cow. Also each APRC sitting parliamentarian is asked to provide D10,000. Women leaders (yayi compins) who own APRC tractors will each dash the parry D20, 000. Even ordinary party members in respective wards have to contribute. Each ward is asked to provide two vans.
Reaction to the details of secret meeting has been full of anger and disgust, with APRC members questioning the rationale for emptying their coffers for the sake of a Greedy, Arrogant leader who is richer than the country. The APRC camp is riddled with sadness, one party source that begs for cover, tells Kairo News. 
Kairo News sources say Yahya Jammeh is scared of an opposition defeat in Basse. He is not happy that the UDP held its rally in Basse, a town whose natives have beef with Mr. Jammeh for denying their former fallen minister burial rights in the land of his ancestors. Hon. Buboucarr Michael Baldeh of blessed memory was buried in Medina Qunas in Senegal instead of Basse Mansajang Kunda where he was born.
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Vindictive Rhetoric and Malice Behind Ideology Critique

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Dear Editor!

I will be remiss if I fail to acknowledge a significant milestone in my immediate family before tackling the subject matter at hand. My Grandmother for whom I was named for passed away onAugust 8th. Yesterday, Friday, September 16th we observed her fourty-day charity. May ALLAH SWT ease Her Barzak and grant Her Jannah on the day of reckoning. Aaameen Ya Rabb! It has been a period of grief and mourning for me yet at the end of the day, we thank ALLAH SWT for blessing us with such a Great Gift. My Grandma clocked 107 years. SubhanALLAH!

Kindly allow me some space in your paper to share some thoughts with regard  to Ousman Manjang’s appeal for the release of Sajo Jallow and the uncalled for vicious attacks on Manjang in the guise of  ideological critique.

Ousman Manjang did what he felt his conscience dictated for him to do….to stand up by Sajo Jallow and his distraught family in our moment of pain. Ousman Manjang is an upright man. A man who can easily defend himself on the choices/decisions he makes.

I first met Ousman Manjang in the winter of November 1985 in Sweden. Ironically, we (Dumo Sarho, Sajo Jallow and myself were just arriving in Sweden as political refugees fleeing political persecution from the PPP government of Sir Dawda K. Jawara. That shall be a span of  31 years this year.

Ousman Manjang has heart as he has brains. He is one of the smartest people I am happy to know and feel blessed to respectfully call Suma Magji! That affection, love and respect is shared to an even greater degree by Sajo Jallow. A bond not borne out of “emotive sensibilities” but a bond tested and proven by a shared ideology whose mantra reads:

“In order to build social movements with the capacity to carry out the task of social emancipation, there is a need to organize around the material needs of the people.” That is one of the instances where Sajo Jallow excels being “more instrumental (than anyone else for that matter) in the transfer of millions of Gambian dalasi of project funds from a couple of aid organisations in Sweden to Gambian workers in the early 1990s”. That desire and concrete work to transform lives continues to this day whether somebody sitting in Sweden knows about it or not. For Sajo Jallow is not a man who blows his own trumpet. The testimony comes from Ousman Manjang, who is a first-hand witness to the unfolding success stories that those millions generated and continue to this very moment. The beautiful story of GAMSEM (Gambians for Self-Employment), The Tanjay women’s cooperative selling fish, Bee-keepers in Brikama and the Carpenters and Masons Associations in Jarra Soma and Basse. Sajo Jallow could have siphoned some of those funds for personal aggrandisement, material enrichment but guess what, up to the last butut was audited and accounted for, leaving Sajo Jallow not a Dalasi richer. The man does not even own a mud house, the reason why he is today renting at the Vice President’s house in Kerr Sereign where he was abducted in the morning of Friday September, 2nd , 2016.

I will re-iterate that Ousman Manjang is an upright man. A man with principles, a truthful and honest man. A man who can take a position and defend it without maligning others, alienating them or hatching conspiracies. Ousman Manjang has a conscience standing tall. In presenting political pluralism within MOJA-G, he was to my understanding, simply stating the facts. That in MOJA-G, we debated issues and there was no physical or mental coercion in persuading divergent views. You may have your Trotskyite leanings and another is allowed their support of Vo Nguyen Giap whereas your spouses maybe non-political. But at the end of the day, the foci was on bringing lasting democracy to The Gambia and transforming the lives of ordinary Gambians.

Talking about spouses, the fact is the Mr. Momodou Sidibeh taking the moral high ground here was beating his wife purple black at the time but he was not suspended from the Movement. The sad thing being he was not alone. Wife-beating is not MOJA’s political ideology and their actions did not mean MOJA-G was a group of extra-terrestrial misogynists visiting from planet Neanderthal. Yes, we had wife-beaters and

Mr. Sidibeh was No.1 on that list yet nobody expelled him based on his violent behaviour unworthy of a revolutionary activist. Appeals were made and  comrades counselled to exercise restraint and behave as they preach. That  marital dictatorship where wives are literally struggling for justice and freedom from domestic violence, battery and repression does not tell well on a movement portraying itself as progressive. So, yes, while Mr. Sidibeh’s theoretical and or ideological ramblings about binaries—tyranny vs. democracy, good vs. evil etc., may be appealing to the casual reader, his own reprehensible history of domestic violence against a defenseless wife feeds well into that narrative as its exact antithesis. So which Mr. Sidibeh do we believe—the diabolical wife beater; an unprincipled reactionary dweeb masquerading as a progressive or the one supposedly crying foul over systemic usurpation of women’s rights in The Gambia?

The MOJA-G that Manjang meant was a movement where there were no personality cult or hero-worshiping. That we were brought up to think differently, analytically and with conscience. Any honest person will clearly see that Manjang made no misrepresentation, but simply stated a fact, the very same reason why Sajo Jallow could not beat me to sing the APRC song. Sajo Jallow was never a wife-beater. The same reason why Mr. Sidibeh can seek Mr. Manjang’s opinion on his so-called ideology critique and get an ok to go ahead and publish it. That is the beautiful political pluralism in MOJA-G Manjang was talking about; one foreign to those who abducted Sajo Jallow because I am a member of the UDP. But the feeble-minded would never embrace the true picture. They restrict themselves to what suits their interest in bringing down Sajo Jallow and all of us. Even if that means questioning Manjang’s integrity and giving others the chance to insult and call him names.

I, (Jainaba Bah, Mrs. Jallow) have never been a member of the AFPRC/APRC. Did I support Jammeh when he came to power? Yes, I did, even though people like Zaya Yebo advised against it. My support for Jammeh died with the establishment of the facts that he was responsible for the April 2000 student massacre which Mr. Sidibeh highlighted in his commentary.

Before Sajo Jallow accepted his first appointment from Jammeh as Minister of Works, Information and Communication, he sought counsel from some of the MOJA-G leadership and he got their blessing, that it was ok to go and serve country. Which he did in a benevolent manner and was never involved or collaborated in any human rights abuses.

Sajo is never an apologist. Here is a man who can defend himself anytime, anywhere if given the opportunity. Sajo Jallow continued his good works of the 90s. The Kombo Coastal road was completed under his watch as Works and Communication Minister. He built The Gambia’s first ever and so far State of the Art Chancery in Addis Abeba with staff headquarters on land offered by the Ethiopian government thereby saving millions of Dalasis for The Gambia that would have gone to pay rent for decades to come. That land and Chancery is ours, it belongs to us Gambians.  He worked hard to get Ethiopian Airlines to carry Gambian pilgrims to Hajj. He negotiated and helped row home the funding for the Trans-Gambia Bridge-Barrage project. Unfortunately, Yaya Jammeh announced freezing the implementation of  that project. In December 2013 and January 2014 when most people were celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with their families and loved ones, he was part of the delegation under Jammeh’s Chairmanship negotiating for a cease fire in South Sudan between Salva Kirr Mayardit and Riek Machar in Banjul. Diplomatically, fighting for the people of South Sudan to have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with their families and loved ones. Anybody who watched GRTS would attest to that fact as we all are aware of Jammeh’s penchant for self-glorification when doing laudable work.

To Ousman Manjang:

All those whom I shared your appeal with, the response was a unanimous applause. Some wept with me, including my sisters. When others shut down their phones to be unreachable, out of fear, indifference or both, you opted for the least popular and unconventional, knowing deep in your heart of hearts, Sajo Jallow would have never hesitated to do the same for you. This purity of intention and fearless upright stance is what made people share your appeal knowing that you have given your assurance…it is ok to be published.

Even though you made the appeal on behalf of Sajo Jallow, what came out at the end is the upright and true comrade, brother and friend you are…A fearless human-being without pretense, ambiguity or two-faced hypocrisy. Even though it is easy for some to chorus the fabricated and malicious venom being spewed, the Majority out there would want to associate with and have you as a friend!

Thank You Suma Magji, Ousman Manjang.

With Love & Respect!

Jainaba Bah

Ideology Critique: Ousman Manjang On Sajor Jallow’s Abduction

                   

I sincerely join Mr. Ousman Manjang in demanding for the immediate release from detention of Mr. Momodou Sajor Jallow who was as swiftly stripped of his ministerial position soon after he was appointed. I would also like to use this occasion to call for the release of Ousainou Darboe and all leaders and militants of the UDP, as well as all political detainees unlawfully jailed or made to disappear by the APRC government led by Yahya Jammeh.
Mr. Manjang’s readiness and willingness to trade places with Mr. Jallow gives credence to his personal closeness to the erstwhile minister and former MOJA comrade; a closeness that goes beyond political fraternizing, borne undoubtedly of decades of camaraderie welded together perhaps by personal, and shared emotive sensibilities over the years. I understand and respect that relationship. Yet it appears that Mr. Manjang’s characterization of Mr. Jallow’s credentials is done at the expense of MOJA’s credibility as an ideologically firm and politically progressive organization. To suggest that political pluralism inside MOJA was as teetering and unprincipled as to promote allegiance to democracy and tyranny at once, or to enable spouses to separately struggle for justice and imperious repression is a uniquely unfortunate misrepresentation, to say the least.
MOJA was ideologically opposed to coups for various reasons: it held that coups are the outcome of conspiracies generally lacking both political and organizational roots within the masses they claim to rescue; that from our African experience, coup-makers have proven more than often to have the capacity to morph into dictatorships more brutal than the governments they overthrow; and that soldiers substitute themselves for the working classes they hope to lead, conveniently forgetting that they acquire legitimacy by the usurpation of a monopoly of violence. These were the ideas behind the reasons MOJA officially gave for not endorsing the AFPRC takeover, although it offered its subsequent government critical support. The 1994 coup was a fait accompli and all of us in MOJA welcomed it, if even half-heartedly. But some members, including Mr. and Mrs. Jallow, made a calculated and decisive choice to join the AFPRC caravan. Mr. Jallow continued to serve the APRC regime even after it butchered schoolchildren in April 2000. The decision to serve the AFPRC and APRC regimes was Mr. Jallow’s alone. It was not the consequence, directly or indirectly, of the tradition of political pluralism in MOJA. It was deliberate schizophrenic and banal opportunism.
Let me be clear. Everyone in MOJA knew what the difference is between despotism and democracy, between tyranny and humanism, between wholesale impunity and the rule of law and between a brutal and a brutalizing crackpot and a just, fair and visionary leader.
Of course it is Mr. Manjang’s prerogative to attempt to give Joe Doke a finer name. But what anyone can see is a Sajor Jallow, who with his left hand, helped in “… empowering the poor, the disadvantaged and dispossessed …” (Manjang’s words); while with his right hand, went on with “the more important business” of serving a despotic crackpot whose agents excel in crushing the heads of Gambians and murdering peasants in the Foñis and elsewhere; a bloody zero-sum game of empowering the dispossessed while brutally dispossessing them.
I pray and hope that Mr. Jallow, together with all other political prisoners and detainees, is immediately set free and that he subsequently acquires the good sense to join Jainaba and his family who must be agonizing over his undeserved incarceration. He has been after all an ardent AFPRC/APRC loyalist for a good part of twenty years.
Thank you for offering me this space.
Momodou S Sidibeh
Stockholm/Sweden
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May God Save Dear Little Gambia Part 1

                    

By Sulayman (Saul) Saidykhan
Less than two weeks ago, the female trailblazer, Dr. Isatou Touray caused considerable buzz both within and outside The Gambia by announcing her candidature as an Independent in the country’s presidential poll slated for this December. Perhaps not surprising, much of the excitement revolves around the novelty of her gender and the artificial barriers she has broken. However, while these are great achievements for Gambian women in particular and African women in general, what is lost in this hysteria is the crucial fact that Dr. Touray is eminently qualified for the position she is seeking unlike the current occupant and most of the male candidates competing against her in opposition to the same loony tyrant we have in control in Gambia today!
I have advocated severally in the past for Gambians to place a premium on Standards by assessing potential leaders base on their “Skills Set” or” Body of Work” (a combination of academic and or professional experience and antecedents.) This is not a guarantee that we’ll always have a good leader, but at the very least, this will mitigate the risk that a country like The Gambia takes in electing a new leader. The worst thing The Gambia can do to itself is allow another semi-literate predatory hustler to weasel his or her way to power after Yaya Jammeh. If that happens, it will take the country literally a whole century to recover from the damage the country would have suffered since 1994!
Exactly twenty years ago last month – in August 1996, I wrote an article in which I argued fervently that the then AFPRC Chairman Yaya Jammeh and his entire team lacked the “education, experience, and foresight to run the Gambia.” And that if allowed to lead Gambia, the consequences would be dire. Today, there are very few right thinking Gambians that will belabor this point. But at the time, I couldn’t even get the article published in a Gambian paper which I contacted for reasons I’d rather not rehash. (Those curious can google the Gambia-L archives for this article which I posted there in 1999.)
I am no clairvoyant. I’m merely a life-long student of history and world politics. After a while, connecting dots, and recognizing warning signs of impending scams and trouble become second nature. What has genuinely surprise me is that supposedly intelligent Gambians are surprise that a semi-literate buffoon like Yaya Jammeh has messed up the Gambia the way he has. I have told some in person and I repeat here: what the heck do you expect to happen when you let a monkey play with a cigarette lighter? Seriously!
I hope and pray that someday Bob Marley will be declared a saint for being the first to recognize “educated fools” among the wider African family. Or maybe it’s just hypocrisy…
When we were growing up in the PPP era, there was at least a regular process established and followed as a standard when it comes to the public service. One cannot advance to the higher echelon of the civil service without a certain minimum level of education and or experience. For instance, to be Divisional Commissioner, you have to serve a certain number of years in the public service after graduating from university though the Gambia had none of its own. Same goes for Director, Under-Secretary, Permanent Secretary, or higher. In certain cases, specialized professional certifications are required. Overall, the Standards were adhered to.
Even for the basic starting levels of the civil service, Radio Gambia carried daily announcements that went something like: “Applications are invited from suitably qualified Gambians to fill the vacant post of so and so … at the ministry of so and so; The criteria/requirement for the job are listed; And finally, the MOST important point: Candidates without the minimum requirements will NOT be considered!
Yaya Jammeh has long gotten rid of all these standards for obvious reasons! For evidence of his self-centered motivation, let’s recall the case of one of his kinsmen Alieu Jammeh who he appointed to head The Gambia Customs agency over ten years ago. When some young reporter dared ask Alieu if he is up to the job he was handed on a silver platter, Alieu without thinking about the implication of his answer blurted out: ”even the president is not qualified for his position.” Ditto! Poor Alieu was quickly withdrawn from that appointment only to be transferred to another national institution.
You see, one of the biggest tragedies of the Yaya Jammeh legacy is that there isn’t any minimum requirement for any public service position -however high, anymore. Jammeh has dragged the bar so low that even actual school drop-outs and all manner of semi-literate predators now think they can rule or misgovern Gambians just like he Yaya Jammeh is doing. This is a direct result of the attitude he embodies that Standards don’t matter. This is very dangerous. Unless we stand up to this, we will pay for this ignorance for generations to come! Sadly, though, many Gambians seem to embrace such nonsense instead. This explains why you hear seemingly sensible Gambians say they don’t care who becomes president. Nothing scares me more than hearing such rubbish.
You see, at face value, the idea that any normal adult Gambian can run for president sounds progressive and egalitarian, and reflective of a just society that values all its citizens. Until one pulls back and mull the issue just a tiny bit. When one does that, it becomes obvious that it is a bad -nay, make that ASININE idea precisely because it is more faithful to romanticized ideals of fairness or lack thereof than it is to assuaging the peculiarities of our particular context.
Here is the painful reality about our Gambia: it is still a country that is non-industrial, non-technological, and has weak institutions characterized by no Checks and Balances. To compound our problems, government is not only the biggest employer of labor, it is also the biggest client any private business in the country could have. Given these facts, ask any professional who knows anything about Assurance and Attestation services, and they’ll tell you that the MOST important element in changing the organizational culture in such an environment – especially given the history of lax ethics and outright criminality we’ve had in our national government is the “Tone at the top.” In other words, the person in charge! So Gambians that discount the irrelevance of the president’s personality really don’t understand their own country.
In industrialized-technological societies, citizens have wide choices in terms of employment, food and other life styles. Most people work independent of government and more importantly the gestation period between changes in government policy and its impact on the population tend to be very long with the law always placing the burden on the government to protect citizens against the ill-effects of its policy changes. On the other hand, in countries like The Gambia, the reality is different. The decision taken by the president on Monday directly impacts the life of most Gambians on Wednesday of that same week! There is no cushion or support from any government agency. Unlike industrialized-technological societies where people go to the market once every two months or so, Gambians go to the market every day! And the price of basic foodstuff keeps changing daily. We buy petrol not by gallons but by liters because we cannot afford to. The list of harsh realities of Gambian life goes on. And it doesn’t matter who is in charge of making such impactful decisions in our country? What in the world is wrong with so many so-called educated Gambians?
Ends