From the onset of his rule, Yaya Jammeh’s desire to mix it up things has broken all the pillars of our nationhood that took too much work and suffering and — at times — bloodshed to produce and protect. The un-expectations that greeted our country from Yaya Jammeh even with astute people around him has been too painful to narrate. The list is by now obvious and tiresome to most readers because everyone is fatigue by either one, two or multiple heartaches on the list since his crimes against Gambians— are not define on the dictionary or easily classifiable compared with crimes of known dictators of the worlds. Even those he has done his level best to not to alienate — think the same about along the lines of his victims. Yaya Jammeh’s self-serving politics has even dried up all the source of motivation of some of those who use to give him the benefit of the doubt and now, he has resorted to giving global retrograde awards demonstrating he still hasn’t risen above his petty grievance. His chameleon tendencies of setting up people, careless accusations to advance his agenda, distorting events, unspeakable brutality, daily reshuffling, coupled with his lack of credibility and untrustworthiness, have left us Gambians with too many doubts about him to continue leading our nation.
Those doubts, combined with our fundamental disagreement of how he has turn our country into dictatorship and he does not have the answers to the pressing immediate challenges he put us in as a result of his reckless persona and his demeanor which is alien to our culture. Yaya Jammeh even more so in light of the “Ramadan” after the tragic death of Solo sandeng by his approval, he was still moving court cases to far end of the country to seek conviction of tortured women and making “fasting” sympathizers trek to end of the country. This man does not play fair in anything—even giving the death their right, let alone in elections. It’s was hard to understand what Yaya Jammeh hoped to gain from that mendacious subterfuge, but his decision to go along with jailing our women raises legitimate questions about her character and judgment. Yet at the same token, the worst of the conspiracy theories about his tribalist nature have once again being proven to be true. His demeaning comments against Mandinka’s and actions toward women make a mockery of our culture which so many have worked so hard to establish. His hostility towards the dead and by extension alarms our conscience. Those actions will never be overlooked in our history once written again — especially as that motivation may have contributed to the extraordinary jailing of UDP executives rather than searching for the truth.
so it is hardly not surprising to Yaya Jammeh now Gambians nevertheless, know him as someone who is insensitive even in delicate moments, thin-skinned, cruel to opposition, doesn’t back down even after the most obvious missteps and cannot exercise self-control of his desires. It is distressing, if unsurprising, to find security forces—whom for the most part have become too content with the status quo by always coming to the rescue of Yaya Jammeh in every event and celebrating their deeds in open public. The apparent assumption upon which military took over our country by perfecting our democracy and healing the few wounds of the Jawara era has turned out to be a cruel hoax with bunch of bandits who hijack our country for their own personal gain. We are worn out as citizens due to the constant unrest marked too often by violence on women, mass incarceration of our elders and now lethal ambush attacks on opposition especially —UDP all the way down to nursing mothers — and assassination of political foes has become too rampant for our consumption.
Aside from killings, disappearance, breaking the rules of respecting our elders, disruption of traditional politics, the things that had everyone upset is the skirmish dictatorship now fully off-leash out at us continues to amputate our youth’s futures by failing them to backway journeys and our sisters sold as domestic slaves in Arab countries. Gambian people are definitely able to control their destiny and Yaya hasn’t proven worthy to have the last word in our affairs. Once again, he has proven himself unfit for the office he is trying to seek again come December. Well, now, perhaps, we can put an end to this perpetual dictatorship and regain our country back. Gambia can do better but the question remains; will this election rest the button on dictatorship? If ever a vote is required more than ever, the kind of purity test activists are so fond of, refusing to back a Dictator, tribalist megalomaniac would be the time. So far, we all have to acknowledge the crowds GDC and UDP are attracting is very promising, but Yaya Jammeh will never be fair to them.
Optimistic Gambians are predicting this will be another Janha Dukureh moment because —she emerged from nowhere and was able to deliver on the FMG campaign by continuing the work of experience Dr. Isatou Touray, Amie Bojang and Imam Baba Leigh. Will Gambians rally behind a united front of GDC, UDP, GMC, PPP, PDOIS and maybe nrp to deliver our nation out of this misery? Both the time frame and political options are narrowing for the upcoming elections —that needs all parties to come together and take the painful steps necessary for a united front. As the saying goes, “better late than never” but however late in the game foot-draggers come together as one voice, it is better for our future because the stakes are too high and the necessary steps must be taken to ensure fulfilment of the mission. That’s why so many Gambians are aghast and applying the pressure on all political parties to act, forge ahead by seeking the deep engagement necessary to embrace a new era of shared sacrifice “Compromise” to rescue our nation and stop pandering to public fears on the topic.
Lastly, the attack on both UDP and GDP party executives targeting them with violence and prosecutions rings the bells in our mind that the dictator is under practical pressure that now look insurmountable, hence the reason why his desperate nature has touched a new depth. He has encouraged his thugs with clear-eyed use of force to protect his rule at all cost. Yaya Jammeh and his military have been clearly stung by the defiance of Gambians in the midst of terror to map out and clips off certain citizens unfairly, he continues to use retaliation instead of reconciling with Gambians to exit gracefully. The self-absorbed man listens to no one but himself even after 22 years of blunders but if elections haunts him deep into his fall as a result of his political upside stubbornness, then let’s throw our marbles at the rainbow barrel of unity and win one for the solos.
By habib ( A Concerned Gambian)
