My Dear Gambia-lers,

It is very sad that our beautiful country, The Gambia, is on the brink of
CONSTITUTIONAL DISASTER. The bed-rock of our constitution is turned upside
down by our moron President, Yaya Jammeh. Never in the history of our
country that a foreign Army is allowed into the country to perform any
particular duty without the approval of our Gambian Parliament. Even in the
times of the previous Administration, during the time of which the country
had experienced the duties of three foreign Armies: The British Army
Training(BATT), Nigerian Army and the Senegalese Army, there had never been
a situation where the previous Administration stretched the envelope or
violated the constitution in order to bring any of those foreign Armies.
Even in the case of BATT, an Army which have very close ties with us since
colonial days, requesting their services for training, the previous
Administration had to seek Parliamentary approval. It is a matter for
Constitutionality and Parliamentary procedures that Parliament, which is the
Law making Body of the nation, must be informed and briefed about which ever
foreign Army is allowed to undertake a specific duty in the country, and
more significantly, the motive for allowing a particular foreign Army to
serve in our country must be taken into account. Or to put it mildly, will
that foreign Army's Service serve our national interest. These important
questions are matters for Parliament to determine.

What we have seen in the very short period Moron Jammeh has been president,
is CONSTITUTIONAL ASSASSINATION: Absolute violation of the constitution,
without Parliamentary approval. Now, there are confirmed reports that Guinea
Bissau troops are training the State Guards at Kaninlai without
Parliamentary approval. This came to light as a result of the past serious
incident which happened at Kaninlai, where soldiers, including a Guinea
Bissau training officer died and scores injured during heavy weapon training
at Polodi Range. And also, there are confirmed reports of Moroccan
Machineries guarding President Jammeh at Kaninlai, yet again without
Parliamentary approval. This is the President, the leader of the country
turning the constitution upside down. The fundamental question to ask is:
Are we living in an animal kingdom, where there are no Laws, and virtual
human decency is non-existence? Even during the Gulf War, where there were
clear violations of International Law and Order, and human decency, the then
President,  George Bush had to seek Congressional approval first before
committing troops to Kuwait, even though he had the Constitutional mandate
to dispatch troops into Kuwait.

In our own country, there is total disregard for our constitution, the very
constitution which the President himself put in place; instead, President
Jammeh runs the country like how a Platoon Leader runs his platoon: Obey and
complain. Sometimes, he looks like those ancient traditional rulers: Foday
kaba or Ansu machine. Please, President Jammeh, at least we now live in the
21st Century.

Ansumana Kujabi
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