Half The Year Is Gone, What Does the Rest hold for Gambia?

Half the year is gone. 2010 is rushing to become history. In the next 6 months we will enter the 17th year of AFPRC/APRC rule. 2010 will however go down in Gambian history as the year of trials for Drugs and Coups d’etat. Never in the history of the Gambia have so many high profile trials taken place within so short a period of time.


July 22nd will be celebrated this year without a single member of the original coup makers being in government other than President Jammeh. The most prominent personalities of the Coup period are President Jammeh, Sana Sabally, Sadibou Hydara, Edward Singhateh and Yankuba Touray. Sadibou Hydara is dead. Sana Sabally is in exile, Edward Singhateh and Yankuba Touray are out of the public view.

Apparently, all the heads of the armed and security forces of the Coup period have all disappeared from their posts. Civilian personalities like Baba Jobe, Aziz Tamba, Fatomata Jahumpa Ceesay and Neneh Macdouall have also disappeared from view.

It will be interesting to note which personalities will emerge to carryout the campaign of the APRC for the next presidential elections. It is very clear that the face of Gambian politics has changed as former belligerent opposition figures become ardent defenders of the APRC, while former party bigwigs fall from grace and move into political obscurity.

Despite all these trials and tribulations the struggle for political and administrative relevance among the Gambian elites tends to mask the tremendous changes that have taken place in the executive, administrative and security apparatuses in the country. Instead of being concerned with the rapid erasure of the institutional memory of many establishments because of the growing insecurity of tenure, those people who are competing for positions are in fact unbothered by the rapid changes. It is very common to hear applauses from some quarters when heads roll. Elites who are opposed to each other’s progress would show their anger when their rivals rise and dance when they fall. The issue of Justice and National interest become meaningless and the nation functions like a musical chair while many hope to take their turn in getting their share of what they call a ‘National Cake’. It is beginning not to matter whether one occupies a seat for a day or two
 as long as one would be able to add it on one’s Curriculum Vitae. Hence people talk more about the personalities involved than the act that magnetises or throws them into the wilderness of obscurity.
Foroyaa has been keeping track of the number of Ministers who have occupied the various Ministries since 1994. Some Ministers were even appointed and removed before they even reported for work.

There is no doubt that 2010 is a decisive year for the Gambia. The old forces are no longer united and new forces are yet to emerge to give shape and form to a new polity. Gambia is a nation in search of a Sovereign People capable of guiding her destiny. It is a country at a crossroads. What will 2011 bring is written in the stars. Only the future will tell.






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