2006, THE MELTING POINT OF THE APRC AND JAMMEH

By: OUSAINOU MBENGA



WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AGENT  PROVOCATEURS!


As we march towards a proud-future Gambia, coming out  of the most repressive 
ten
years in our recent history; the serious among us  must strive to acquire an
indomitable spirit of resistance against the works  of provocateurs. Simply 
put, a
provocateur is a mean-spirited individual  driven by low self esteem and is
habitually bent on disrupting the good deeds  of other individuals or 
organizations.
The provocateur takes pleasure in  creating an atmosphere of suspiciousness 
among
individuals in an organization  with the intent to paralyze all genuine 
efforts to
build unity among the  members of the organization.

Following the January 14, 2005 demonstration  at the Gambian Embassy in 
Washington,
DC and the subsequent protest held in  New York City on February 18, 2005 
(the date
of our “independence”), we are  beginning to see an increment in social 
consciousness
among Gambians. An  increasing number of us are discovering the essence  of
demonstrations/protests not by accident but by participation. Once we come  
to the
realization that our desires and intentions to bring about concrete  changes 
to our
beloved Gambia cannot be held hostage and confined in the  comforts of our 
homes, the
churches, classrooms and mosques, but rather to be  liberated from these 
confines
into the streets, only then can we become a  formidable force to reckon with.

Subsequent to the signing of the  Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by the 
coalition
of “opposition parties” –  better known as the ALTERNATIVE – the APRC has 
nervously
unleashed its  arsenal of detractors and agent provocateurs to undermine the 
momentum
of our  unity against the Jammeh regime in the USA and indeed on the ground 
at  the
home front. It is quite apparent that the regime’s sycophants and  
opportunists see
no need to change the system; they rather have superficial  reforms to 
maintain the
“status quo” thereby retain and maintain their  “foolish prestige”.


But why are we sounding the alarm on agent  provocateurs and detractors? 
Brothers and
sisters, an event of historical  significance took place on January17, 2005 in
Banjul. This event was the  signing of of the MOU, which gave birth to the 
National
Alliance for  Democracy and Development (NADD) , the first sign of the demise 
of  the
APRC.

Many Gambians, in their wildest imagination never thought  that such an 
honorable act
of UNITY can possibly come from Africans. Many of  our conquered-African 
minds were
waiting to utter the familiar phrase, “I  told you so; Africans can’t unite 
around
any important issue”. Yet, others  are overly and senselessly critical of our 
efforts
to form a formidable  coalition as if they want it to fail. We must remember 
that the
most  important aspect of the coalition is the sincere support from the  
people.
Attempts to undermine these efforts must be exposed.

The fact  is agent provocateurs never have anything to offer, therefore 
resort  to
slander, disruptive behavior and delaying tactics. Nothing should progress  
unless
they figure prominent in the process.

With sincere humility, we  have a strong conviction to change this rot-of- a-
society; we believe we  have something to offer Gambia and Africa. And 
nothing can
shake this  conviction out of our hearts.

This is the reason for our sincere signing  of the MOU. We will claim no easy
victories in our quest for freedom. We are  not in this for narrow selfish 
ends but
for our collective  prosperity.

We raise these issues at this juncture to prepare the ground  for the 
struggles ahead
of us. We are not concerned with Jammeh’s sycophants  and his herd of “
graduates with
illiterate ideas”. Those who sold their souls  to protect their jobs; those 
who are
beyond redemption can stay with the  AFPRC-APRC sinking ship. Our concern is 
with the
rest of us – the forces of  victory – the solution to the problem. We should 
do our
utmost to maintain  our ranks and not lose any of our forces to the Jammeh 
camp. The
protests  must continue in Washington, DC, New York and any other city in the 
USA.
Let  us not allow foolish and childish rumor mongers to break our united 
front.  We
are in the right direction and all attempts to undermine this honorable  
effort to
restore sanity in our beloved country will not work. This is the  moment to 
strive
for political maturity and flush all provocateurs and  individuals who are 
driven by
envy and jealousy.

With the increasing  bankruptcy of the Jammeh regime and the visible 
crumbling away
of the  AFPRC-APRC state apparatus, we take it as our patriotic duty to 
express  the
no-more-secret yearning of the vast majority of Gambians to end Jammeh’s  
tyranny.
All Gambians who are in unity with us must bring their lives to the  level of 
the
real REVOLUTION that will transform the Gambian front of the  African 
revolution into
a society of strength and  self-confidence.

This is the era of doing the impossible among ourselves;  where there is 
disunity and
isolation, we will work towards unity; where  there is mistrust we will sow 
trusting
and where individualism prevails we  will reassert our collective philosophy 
for
harmonious existence.

We  are witnessing a massive shift in human conscious-ness from the  
strangle-hold
tradition that certain things are destined to remain the same  despite the 
tragic
consequences of the greed, exploitation and the “lust for  self- 
aggrandizement” by
presidents, ministers and the “impotent elite” that  make our lives 
miserable. The
fact that we catch the brunt of every known and  existing misery on planet 
earth; we
should be at the focal point of this  shift and raise our consciousness to a 
higher
level, beyond impoverishment,  misery and the “beggardom” that we have 
become. We
must declare without  compromise, that life is not synonymous with suffering.

Our nightmares  under APRC have reached horrifying proportions, we must be 
willing to
step  out of line and become the spark that would ignite all the individual  
fires
into a united front. The quest of the coalition is to fire the  imagination 
of our
compatriots; open the hearts and minds of Gambians to  change for a 
proud-future
Gambia.


Never Allow Destruction of  Democracy

LONG LIVE NADD! LONG  LIVE AFRICAN UNITY! PROTEST! PROTEST!


OUSAINOU MBENGA
Deputy  Secretary General
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC ACTION MOVEMENT  (NDAM)





DARE TO INVENT THE FUTURE! ‘TIL VICTORY  ALWAYS!

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