My fellow Gambians:
As I promised some time ago on Gambia-L, I am now able to re-commence my
contributions to the Gambia List, and shall be writing regularly and
consistently from this point onwards. During College vacations, it is not
easy for me to have Internet access, and I have had some (technical)
problems getting my home PC up and running.
Anyway, it's good to be back and to be passing on up-to-date and accurate
information about our wonderful homeland, as well as providing commentaries
on the political, social and economic conditions prevailing in The Gambia.
Again, I urge people to distribute these postings (my messages) as widely as
possible, especially in The Gambia, where Yahya Jammeh and his regime have
put the impartiality of the media under constant and real threat. My
contributions to Gambia-L are based on irrefutable information provided by
totally reliable sources at the very heart of Government, as well as on my
in-depth understanding of Gambian affairs.
My aim is to both report and comment on events as they take place in The
Gambia - to interpret the complex issues surrounding these events, and to
ensure that people have the information they need to make the right choices
for the future. To this end, I call on all informed and concerned Gambians
and friends of The Gambia to help me fulfil these aims. Our role in helping
our country to avoid the catastrophes that have befallen other nations is
vital and I pray that this call will not fall on deaf ears. Without our
interventions, the future of our country is in grave jeopardy.
Also, I want to point out at the onset that I am not writing these articles
for Gambia-L just for the sake of writing. I am rather committed to using my
good editorial judgement, and to writing what HAS to be written. I am
spending most of my free time getting to the bottom of current events in the
Gambia and verifying the facts and information, in order that our citizens
have up-to-date information about the true state of affairs in the country.
In this regard, I am indebted to my courageous sources in The Gambia: these
people are centrally placed and committed, as I am, to seeing the back of
the current band of thugs who are leading our nation down a path to despair
and destruction.
My fellow Gambians, the situation in our country is now so critical and
alarming that we, who contribute to Gambia-L, really should not waste any of
our precious time in petty squabbling or personal issues. Rather, we should
be joining hands and hearts and trying to formulate a package/blue-print
whereby we can save The Gambia from the chaos and strife that is
increasingly the hall mark of the country.
So, Brothers and Sisters let us stop the wrangling and the infighting, and
deal instead with real issues. Our priority has to be the speedy removal of
Yahya Jammeh from office: in six years, this man has plunged our dear
country into despair, lawlessness, poverty, misery and fear. The man who
heads our country is corrupt, tyrannical, ruthless, and egoistic; he is a
pathological liar governed by self-interest, and he is showing increasing
signs of insanity. He has, without doubt, made The Gambia a laughing stock
in the sub-region, in the continent and throughout the world.
In today's Gambia, the people are finding it more and more difficult to lead
an ordered life. The country is in disarray, and the numbers of those
leaving our motherland to look for greener pastures elsewhere is growing
daily. Who can blame them, anyway, when every aspect of life is affected.
Our business community is barely functioning, and staple commodities are
becoming scarce and spirallingly-expensive. I am told that the price of
rice, sugar, petrol, kerosene, cooking oil etc. is going beyond the pockets
of ordinary Gambians, and there is a real struggle to make ends meet.
Unemployment continues to rise at an alarming rate, and the prospect of jobs
for our school leavers is bleak indeed. Young people are becoming
disaffected and disheartened by the lack of opportunities open to them:
their discontent is palpable throughout the nation.
They certainly have every reason to be angry with government. Every sector
of Gambian society is in the doldrums - from Agriculture, to Education, to
Culture, to Sport, to Tourism, to Health, to Public Utilities like
electricity, water and transport, to Women's Affairs. There is not one part
of Gambian life that has not been tainted by the mismanaging hand of Jammeh
and his faction.
At the heart of our country lie our dedicated farmers who battle very, very
hard to produce the food we eat as a Nation, and yet they are continually
neglected by the Jammeh regime. For the farmers, the situation is
desperate: seeds are in constant short supply, and there are no fertilisers
to be had. And who, among them, has the money to buy fuel for one of
"Jammeh's tractors?" Only those who are the lackeys of the APRC have
benefited from the forty tractors donated to the Gambian nation, and claimed
by Jammeh as his own gift.
Ordinary farmers continue as usual to till the land and raise their crops by
hand. And for two consecutive seasons now, the Jammeh Government has failed
to pay promptly, or in full, for the farmers' groundnuts; there is real
distress in the rural areas as people struggle to have money to buy the
necessities of life.
In fact, the Jammeh regime still owes over 20 million dalasis in arrears to
the farmers. And needless to mention, the rural-urban drift is becoming a
flood, as people leave the land and head for our overcrowded towns for the
prospect of employment, which is not there.
My fellow Gambians, the ever-increasing cost of educating children in our
country is meaning that parents are finding it impossible to make ends meet.
More and more children are being forced to abandon their education, and a
worrying number of our children never even have the opportunity to start at
a Lower Basic school. In the town schools, I am informed, a shift system is
operating which is resulting in many teachers leaving the profession because
of being over worked.
Who can possibly teach classes in excess of forty children from 8.30 am to
6.20pm, without burn-out? Those stalwart teachers who remain in post are
working like slaves to give our children a chance at a good education, and
they are doing it with dwindling resources. The usual reliable bank of
teachers from other West African states can no longer be counted on, as
Jammeh makes it obvious that he wants them out of the country. No wonder the
teaching profession is in despair: no wonder that parents are anxious for
their children's future.
As for the much-vaunted University of The Gambia, it is operating without
proper equipment, without a decent library, and without suitable qualified
personnel and yet the Government trumpets its offer of one hundred and fifty
one scholarships! Who, outside The Gambia, will recognise the degrees
conferred by this institution?
In the year 2000, one would expect to be able to rely on electrical power
and easy access to fresh drinking water. Now both these utilities are a
privilege to be found 24 hours a day ONLY in Kanilai. The average electrical
power supplied to Gambians is less than 2 hours daily! It is more normal NOT
to have electrical power than to have it! What a deplorable state of
affairs: how much longer can we possibly live like this? Every day life is
becoming more and more difficult, especially for our women folk who bear the
burden of no electricity and water in short supply.
Jammeh has made much of his empowerment of women in the political field, but
the vast majority of Gambian women are still suffering terrible hardships in
their day-to-day life. In truth, Jammeh's brand of patriarchy is dangerous:
the man shows no respect to our women, and openly supports female genital
mutilation. One wonders whether baby Mariam will soon be subjected to this
practice? (Perhaps ex-ADC Paul Sambou, now released from detention after the
personal intervention of Madam Zeinab Jammeh, will intervene to prevent
it!).
In the tourism sector, my fellow Gambians, there has been such gross
mismanagement at the top that there are serious concerns for the future. The
Tourist Development Plan (one of the few worthy documents produced by this
regime) has remained just a plan; a paper exercise which has resulted in
NOTHING happening at all. This summer, I am reliably informed, most of the
hotels and surrounding businesses are closed and people normally employed in
the sector are facing six months without income.
And those few tourists in the country now report increasing harassment, even
by young children. Of course, in desperate times, people have to resort to
desperate measures to survive, but what sort of impression do foreign
visitors to The Gambia come away with? Thanks to Yahya Jammeh's policies and
the ineptitude of his ministers.
Meanwhile, the whole infrastructure of our beloved country is falling to
bits - like Arch 22 whose floors, I am told, are now covered in water and
whose elevators lean to the right: like Banjul International Airport whose
golden dome, I am further informed, has started to peel and whose external
wall tiles regularly drop off to inconvenience arriving and departing
passengers!
Also, our ferries are reported to be in a dangerous condition and constitute
a huge safety hazard, as does the sewerage system in Banjul where Cholera is
now gaining ground. Needless to say, street lighting is limited to Kanilai
and the area around State House, and refuse disposal is almost non-existent.
Our state-controlled radio and television services are functioning at a very
low level: the quality of programmes and presentation is infantile and
getting worse! Recently, I was sent TV programmes from GRTS and they were
horrible, to say the least. Who wants to watch Part 4 of Jammeh's Visit to
Sierra Leone or read poorly-spelt and grammatically incorrect public service
announcements from GRTS? Not me, anyway.
Frankly speaking, with the amount of investment which has supposedly taken
place, one would have expected a service from our TV and national Radio
which is second to none in the sub-region: instead, we are offered rubbish.
In the sphere of telecommunications, The Gambia used to rank second in
Africa. Now we are in sixteenth ranking for telecommunication services.
People struggle these days to telephone into and out of the country, and the
levels of customer support are at an all-time low. Unless you have a friend
in the APRC, it is virtually impossible to get connected to the telephone
system. People pay their connect-up charges and then wait for three years
and more! And yes, this is the twenty-first century!!
Elsewhere in the communications field, the government's hand is
characterised by brute force. The recent attacks on the premises of Radio
One FM, and on DJ Alieu Bah fill us all with disgust and despair. Jammeh
continues to threaten media people with death or deportation if you are a
non-Gambian.
Next on his hit list is Radio Gambia's Peter Gomez, the talented and
competent writer and broadcaster. Peter Gomez, who I must say is one of the
best broadcasters in the Sub region, has fallen foul of Jammeh by refusing
to refer to him as anything other than "President Jammeh". Jammeh is angry
with Peter Gomez because he said Peter does not call him "Dr" Jammeh when
reading (or editing) the news. No sycophancy from Peter - and long may he
continue in this.
As for our Civil Service, it is, as we all know, in total disarray: the
best people have left or been driven out by Jammeh and his thugs. Nowadays,
telephones calls to government offices go unanswered, as there is no-one
around to answer even the simplest query. Repression is the order of the
day: arbitrary arrests and kidnappings are regular events in this culture of
harassment, and people are becoming increasingly tired of Jammeh's empty
rhetoric.
My fellow Gambians, it is therefore clear, based on the cited examples, that
Yahya Jammeh is indeed Public Liability Number One. He is the nation's worst
criminal, a "murderer" tainted with the blood of our children: a "thief" who
has lined his own pockets and those of his cronies with public money; a
"liar and a cheat". It is now our bounden duty to get rid of him before our
country disintegrates totally.
So, what are the ways forward?
In my view, at present, we have two options open to us:
1) Violent confrontation: there are some people who have expressed the
opinion that it is only through violent confrontation that we can succeed in
removing Jammeh from the presidency. These people perceive that a violent
solution will be the speediest. However, I counsel against this option: not
just because of the danger of plunging the country into a nightmare of civil
war, but also because we should not allow for any hint of martyrdom in the
future annals of the APRC. Besides, the price of war is very costly. Civil
war only comes with massive numbers of dead and untold destruction and we
should therefore do everything within our reach to avoid it.
2) The ballot box: to vote Jammeh and the APRC fair and square out of office
come the next presidential election in November 2001. Despite all the odds,
I still believe that we should try and pursue change through the ballot box.
Yes, I am well aware that historically, incumbent tyrants like Jammeh, with
the machinery of State behind them, are more likely to hold onto office than
be thrown out. I am not naïve: I know precisely how hard it will be to get
rid of Jammeh through the ballot box. Jammeh will surely do his utmost best
to grip on to power because he is aware that once he loses that power, he
will be humiliated and subjected to eternal pillory.
But, my fellow Gambians, it is still POSSIBLE to unseat him from the
presidency through the ballot box (just look at the example of our
neighbour, Senegal). In my view, with proper organisation, and with people
working together, we can surely accomplish the dream of changing the
direction of our homeland through democracy.
I therefore urge the Leaders of our Opposition parties to coordinate and
organise themselves and the people to ensure, for a start, that the
forthcoming Local Government Elections are free and fair: that the electoral
process is carefully monitored throughout, and that they work hand-in-glove
with the Independent Electoral Commission to ensure, as much as possible, a
free and fair electoral process.
The IEC, in my view, needs all our cooperation and support. However, the IEC
must also make sure that it guards its integrity very jealously. They owe it
to themselves and the people of the Gambia to conduct and supervise not only
free and fair elections but also to ensure that the process leading to the
elections is indeed free and fair. They have to condemn forthwith any
attempt by the Jammeh regime to rig the elections, or the electoral process.
Being a man of God, I am confident that the IEC chairman, Bishop Solomon
Tilewa Johnson, would conduct and supervise the elections without fear or
favour.
I also urge our Opposition Parties to keep the doors of forming a tactical
alliance open. If compromise means that we can rid ourselves of Jammeh and
the APRC, then compromise should be our solemn aim and duty. Points of
principle should not stand in the way of saving our nation from the Bandit
Jammeh.
Now, if our nation does vote the APRC out of power at the presidential
election, and Jammeh refuses to accept the will of the Gambian people (and
this is a likely scenario), then I publicly warn him that he will have a
fight on his hands: Gambians will see him go, come what may and even with
bloodshed. In this case, it would be a noble cause or justifiable to use
violent means to remove him from the presidency.
Meanwhile, I call upon all Gambians, and especially the Opposition parties,
to use the forthcoming Local Government Elections in November 2000, as a
litmus test. We need to be acting as monitors NOW, to ensure that the
electoral process is fair and above-board, and that there is not the
slightest whiff of corruption attached.
If we can get these forthcoming municipal elections well organised and
supervised, then we have an ideal chance to have a preview of the November
2001 Presidential election. We need to be checking and rechecking that the
whole electoral process is fair and transparent, and that Gambians can speak
their minds without fear.
If there is any doubt about the sacrosanct nature of these forthcoming Local
Government Elections, then we shall know whether or not to boycott the
Presidential Election and look for other ways to get rid of the regime.
My fellow Gambians, the message is therefore clear: Gambians should not just
be complaining about the terrible conditions prevailing in the country; they
also need to be taking action based on what they know of Jammeh and his
cohort, and they should be using their voting rights to speak their minds.
Let Jammeh hear the voice of the people and follow their dictates.
Of course, the UDP, PDOIS and NRP say they would want to test their
popularity by contesting the first round of the Presidential election
separately, but I urge them to remain open to the idea of having a first
round tactical alliance. Meanwhile, they need to be looking for ways of
working together to ensure that the elections are fair, and I ask each of
the parties to mandate their respective presidential candidates (Darboe,
Sidia and Bah) to work as a triumvirate not only to monitor the electoral
process, but to try and look into the possibilities of forming a tactical
alliance in the first round of the elections.
As a triumvirate, they could then monitor the electoral process vigorously
and if they find any irregularities, let them make their findings known to
the IEC, to The Gambian people, and to the international community. Let them
(the Opposition) be prepared to work jointly to address common issues such
as voter eligibility, army neutrality, equality of access to media coverage,
and let them cry FOUL if they get any evidence of corruption or unfairness.
For the sake of a better future for our beloved country, we have to act as
one body, and keep pushing at Jammeh until he and his rotten party collapse.
And it is my wholehearted belief that we can do it, if we work together to
make the dream a reality.
Ebrima Ceesay,
Birmingham, UK.
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