Dear Folks, I wrote the piece below couple of weeks and sort of forgot it languishing in the hard desk. Just bumped into and thought to share it with you all. Hope you enjoy it. One of those occassions when I relax into the comfort of my sofa and think deep about the troubles of Africa and The Gambia. This time, I could not resist the temptation of writing about it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘WHAT YOU SOW IS WHAT YOU REAP’ This is a very simple and straightforward aphorism which, I have grown up to believe, and so is, I imagine, most other people that right brings right and wrong brings wrong. It is as unfussy as that. No matter how long it takes, time always catches up with us. And when it does, it can only be for two things: fulfilment and being held in high esteem or disillusionment and being abysmally cast to the hollow of the waste bin of history. It is about how we evaluate ourselves and how we are judged. In either way, our actions leave behind ineffaceable corollaries into posterity. The troubling question is: How many of us take note of this in our day-to-day activities? How many of us learn from the successes and failures of others, decipher them and relate to ourselves? Again, it is said that history is there to teach us and indeed, that history repeats itself. A lot of us deliberately ignore this reality, more so, by people entrusted with the responsibility of looking after the affairs of other people. They are the leaders and their style together with the environment in which they operate, carries a heavy weight in determining the general well being of the people of that environment. A close look at the African environment reveals the deplorable truth of it being bedevilled, for many years, with retrogressive leaders who have submerged it into stupor because of their superciliousness of disdain to the views and opinions of people over whom they rule. A leader, in their sense, is superior, unquestionable, infallible and a divine reservoir of wisdom with answers to all the needs of the people. To them, the people are mere followers who merit no kind of positive engagement in the process of determining their own faith. The culpability of the Amins, the Does, the Siad Barres, to name but a few, of such mentality of leadership, speaks volumes about the reasons for the collapse of their various countries. In the end, everybody suffered - them and the people over whom they have ruled. The Amins and the Barres died on the run, the Does butchered to death, whilst their countries wallow in despair and irreparable fracture to social cohesion. The point is a simple one. Can a system exist very long and thus achieve its objectives unless its citizens identify with it? How can a government solve problems unless the people view themselves as part of the unit? These are simple questions to pose but without simple solutions. The reason being that a lot of the systems that our leaders preside over only stay to antagonise and alienate the people that they are suppose to serve. A brief political history of Liberia will illustrate this point well. As I sympathise with the Liberian people, I believe that their experience as a whole should be a lesson to all open-minded people in order that, it could be avoided in other countries and most importantly in Liberia itself in the future. Freed black American slaves found Liberia, after a Latin word ‘Liber’ meaning free, as a sovereign and independent republic in 1847. Their descendents became known as Americo-Liberians and live alongside about sixteen different native ethnic groups. From 1847 to 1980, for over 130 years, their party, ‘True Whig Party’ exclusively ruled the country with total domination of its basic political and economic structures, so much so that some scholars would refer to this period as ‘black imperialism’ or ‘black colonialism’. The people who should have mattered, the native people, were never given the opportunity to play an active role in the running of the affairs of the country. When the system constantly failed to accommodate their desires, their indignation precipitated the coup of 1980 and dramatically ended the True Whig Party dynasty. One would have thought that a system that has existed and ruled over a people for over 100 years would have made itself relevant and tolerable to the people by equitably giving and taking from them. That was not to be. The True Whig Party was exclusionist and oligarchic. The message is simple: how ever long a system lasts, so long as it does not epitomize and embody the wishes and desires of the people that it is suppose to serve, that system and its pioneers are doomed. This was the plain fact with slavery, colonialism, and apartheid in South Africa. These systems were cruel and abhorrent and the people fought hard and well against them until they were eventually gotten rid off. Doe’s reign, although for only 9 years, suffered a similar faith. Recently, Taylor had to go too. Again, for the bare truth that he only brought misery to the people of Liberia and their neighbours. He will most probably live the rest of his life with guilt and being hunted by the images of all those people whose lives he has either directly or indirectly made miserable. His wealth, perhaps ill gotten, will be of no comfort to him. The world has already proven hell to him to live in, I assume. The end of tyranny, theft, arrogance and disrespect is ignominy, loneliness and regret. Who wants to live through such a life? The Gambia is at a critical juncture in its political life. We all love our country so much and all peace loving people like to appeal to wisdom that could save this beautiful country from cataclysm. However, it most be said that recent developments in the country have the hallmark of factors that have savaged other countries. It basically comes down to the crunch of balancing between the needs of people and what they are able to get. It is undoubtedly hard times in the Gambia, of magnitude, perhaps, never experienced in her history. The economy is not doing well and the people feel beleaguered with fear. There is a growing sense of misunderstanding between communities. This is the time when the people need a leadership that accepts responsibility, honestly identify the problem of the people and try to solve it. Remember, a leader is there to serve the people. When this is not possible, the leader most be prepared to gracefully find the exit. Pitifully, the brand of leadership Africa has known for sometime has been the one that has failed the people numerous times but stayed to take them hostage. I pray for the day when we will all rise up and stand firm on our two feet to free ourselves from the manacles of backwardness and instead bring happiness and joy to all the faces of the people of Africa. Gambia should not allow itself to turn away from this noble crusade. Alieu K. Jammeh _________________________________________________________________ Are you in love? 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