More Reasons Why Gambia Must Not Host AU Summit
  More Reasons Why Gambia Must Not Host AU Summit
  By Sarjo Bayang, UK
  Apart from fulfilling the propaganda determination of Jammeh and the APRC, there is no reason to hold the most expensive African Union Summit in Gambia which now nears its scheduled time. To ensure that this is not just another blind venture and a mere politically motivated occasion for a president that is no longer in peace with decent citizens, let the government provide reasons why they believe the harmful effects of holding the summit in Gambia are less than the economic ruins that accompany it. 
  
  AU CHAIRMAN            PRESIDENT OBSANJO 
  For the benefit of transparency and accountability, let the Gambia government tell the citizens if they (the government) have conducted a proper feasibility studies which indicates Gambia will benefit from what the citizens now fear a drain on our fragile economy. If we are sure that Gambia is not lack of experts whose job is to provide sound professional advice based on competent technical assessment, let them now show up. This is the time the citizens want to know if the economy is being toyed by a president whose sentiments dictate him to use whole system like a fools model. We want to know if the experts are at work or simply feeding on payroll titles. 
  Economists, accountants, planners, permanent secretaries, specialized technicians, here is a task for you. Tell us if you are doing your homework’s or have you done so over this most controversial AU dispute between the APRC / Jammeh, and rest of decent Gambia. Only facts and figures will be traded on. No amount of rhetorics is enough. Politics apart, tell us tangible reasons and how you arrive at your figures. 
  There is already sufficient condemnation from many persons and organizations. If you lot are unable to tell us how feasible and operational this summit is for Gambia, yours will remain a total shame in your very names. There will be a name listing of all the key positions of government and one day, you will tell a panel what you have done in this crucial moment. 
  Jammeh has and continues to violate and abuse all instruments of democracy with blatant disregard for common ethics. Jammeh's political passion for image building cannot compel Gambians to settle for a programme that is only conceived to wreck us. From what common knowledge determines, it is reported that the infrastrure to accommodate the AU in Gambia is not there so to state. If a Gambian official of the AU who recently visited Gambia says the AU is impressed with Gambia's preparedness to host the summit, that assessment had gone with lot of missing data. What about the current war on citizens by Jammeh which is far from over. For Jammeh to reconcile the offensive aggression being meted out to decent citizens at this moment, he needs at least one year. Jammeh has divorced himself from the basic principles of democracy even by his recent pronouncements in wanting to cling unto power for next 30 years.
  There is trouble in Gambia and let nobody joke about this. You cannot offend and continue to threaten people and expect them to keep calm under your harmful grips. It is also incompatible that a president who is preparing to go to war with his neighboring country (Senegal) is still calling the rest of Africa to showcase a union that many continue to regard as hanging on a name. Another way of looking at it is the worst scenario prospects. Jammeh has plunged Gambia in chaos and is not able to rectify it. Just in case all the African Heads of State sit in that conference hall and Gambians take to the street and get shot by the army, that is war to start. How many of you presidents and your citizens will accept an apology from Jammeh when you find yourselves caught up in a warring Gambia? 
  If the AU is serious about promoting Jammeh, the opportunity at hand is to school him up in becoming a decent democrat. Gambians have a democratic culture and any form of despotic rule is not applicable. It has taken Jammeh close to 12 (twelve) years experiment on real people, real economy, real government machinery. In all the years, he has eventually failed to learn. There is no better school than a tolerant population of over 1.5 million citizens allowing a novice president to experiment untried, and unproven ideas for 11 (eleven) years. If that is not enough for Jammeh, that should be enough for Gambians.
  For now, the burning issue at hand is for any expert to provide answers to convince Gambian that holding the AU summit is more of benefit than the unbearable cost that many fear the Gambian econonomy is able to absorb. Once that is clear, the Human Rights abuses become next to weigh on Jammeh's scale of good and bad doings. 
  


    
Posted on Friday, April 21, 2006 (Archive on Wednesday, April 26, 2006)
Posted by PANDERRYMBAI  Contributed by PANDERRYMBAI
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