Ebrima,
Thank you, for your powerful messages to the Gambians. They will be very helpful
to the opposition. We are also talking to friends and relatives to vote against
this satanic regime, so that peace can come back to the country. May God bring
us the best for our country. Keep up the good work!
Elhajj.
Ebrima Ceesay skrev:
> My Fellow Gambians!
>
> In today’s message, I shall attempt to paint the bleak picture of The Gambia
> in the coming years should you, the electorate, fail to vote Yahya Jammeh
> out of office.
>
> Therefore, it is vital that the right choice is made on October 18th,
> otherwise we shall be haunted for a long, long time to come.
>
> For the past seven years of Jammeh’s misrule, we have all seen at first hand
> what this terrible man is capable of. He has virtually destroyed all
> aspects of Gambian life: he has led a regime which is synonymous with
> repression, incompetence, brutality, nepotism, abuse of office, abuse of
> power and gross corruption.
>
> Just the other day, I undertook some independent research into how much
> money Jammeh has taken in national loans since 1994. To my horror and
> amazement, my findings indicated that in excess of 420 million US Dollars
> has been taken out in foreign loans. The government will obviously try to
> deflate this massive figure since it would seriously embarrass them were
> the truth to be told.
>
> However, using my sources and contacts in the International Monetary Fund,
> the World Bank and other international financial institutions, it was
> concluded that this figure of 420 million US Dollars is accurate.
>
> It is therefore no understatement to say that whoever replaces Jammeh will
> have a difficult task ahead: these criminals have drained our resources and
> burdened us with this massive debt.
>
> Even three generations from now, the debts will still not have been repaid.
> The interest we are having to pay on these loans is a crippling amount for a
> small country like The Gambia.
>
> Consequently, we have a duty to ourselves, to our consciences, but more so
> to our children and posterity in general, to try and make things better for
> them, so that tomorrow they might judge us in a more kindly way.
>
> Our country is at a crossroads and we have to do everything within our means
> to make The Gambia a better place for all of us to live in.
>
> The problems we face are immense: the causes of the problems are
> multifaceted. But let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the prime
> cause of all our current troubles is Yahya Jammeh himself and all that he
> represents.
>
> Therefore the first and major step towards beginning to solve our problems,
> is to unseat Jammeh from the presidency on Thursday.
>
> Over these seven years, we have witnessed how Jammeh has misruled our
> country, how he has paralysed the economy, how he has crippled businesses,
> how he has destroyed the civil service, how he has swindled public funds,
> how he has illegally detained innocent people, how he has sacked people
> unjustifiably, how he has quite openly dished out public funds to his
> cronies, how he has boasted about his personal wealth to the extent that he
> said that even his great-grandchildren would never have to suffer.
>
> As a result of all this injustice and corruption, most of us, apart from his
> clique of gangster colleagues, have been lamenting the situation in The
> Gambia. We have feared for our country, we have cried for our country, we
> have been disheartened because of the manner in which it is being run. We
> have been talking about how The Gambia is being mismanaged and
> maladministered by Jammeh. We have lamented how incompetence is now the
> norm in central government.
>
> We have complained about how our meagre resources are being squandered or
> stashed away by Jammeh and his gang for their own personal use and
> aggrandisement. We have been saddened by the knowledge that our citizens
> have had all their hopes lost because of this barbaric regime.
>
> We have talked about how Jammeh has destroyed the human resources of our
> country. If you go to South America, to the USA, to Canada, to Asia, to
> Scandinavia, to Northern Europe, to the UK, you will find there talented
> Gambians – men and women – who have so much to offer their own country and
> their own people, but yet the political situation at home prevents or deters
> them from returning: their talents are ignored by the ignoramus Jammeh, as
> are the talents of people in The Gambia who are being forced into exile
> because of daily repression, daily injustice, daily corruption at the heart
> of government.
>
> Today, thousands of talented Gambians have found themselves contributing
> substantially to the political and economic lives of other countries, when
> if things were right, their contributions would have been directly to and in
> The Gambia. Charity, they say, begins at home, but the reality is that the
> climate at home does not only prevent the recall of talent, it also expels
> and exiles talents.
>
> We no longer need reminding of what Jammeh represents for us and our
> country: the facts are in the open and for all to see. Any Gambian in his
> or her right senses needs no convincing that Jammeh is a liar, a thief, is
> corrupt to the core, has killed innocent school children, is despotic, is
> incompetent and is a laughing stock throughout the world.
>
> Having seen the hardship, the impoverishment of our people, the injustices
> perpetrated on our people by Jammeh, we have all been looking forward to the
> elections to give us an opportunity to right the wrongs in our nation and to
> uproot Jammeh once and for all. We have all been looking forward to
> election day, when we shall close the Jammeh chapter and open a new one.
>
> During the past five years, after the 1996 elections, we have been longing
> for the next presidential elections in order to unseat the tyrant. Because
> of our conscience, but more so because of our love for justice and the
> truth, we have all been looking forward to the 2001 elections so that we can
> teach Jammeh a lesson he will never forget in his life.
>
> If you take the year 1997, the repression in evidence then (and continuing
> to the present day) was too much. The levels of poverty intensified, the
> arbitrary dismissal of people from their jobs increased, business went into
> the doldrums throughout the nation. We started then and there to look
> forward to the elections, but realised how far they were from 1997.
>
> Well – in my part of the world, they say that "time flies", and indeed, time
> has flown. At long last, the elections are days and not years, months or
> weeks away.
>
> It has been difficult, all these years; it has been tough for Gambians
> everywhere. Words cannot begin to describe how awful these last five years
> have been for all except a few of us. Every sphere of Gambian life has seen
> the hardship – teachers, nurses, doctors, taxi drivers, shop keepers, market
> vendors, journalists, members of the judiciary, farmers and housewives. All
> of us have suffered.
>
> Well, anything that has a beginning must also come to an end: the
> opportunity has now come for us to get rid of Jammeh. He has abused us,
> disrespected us, cheated us, lied to us. Now it is our time and turn to take
> our destiny into our own hands. This is the chance we have to turn to our
> best advantage.
>
> Let us now think about the unthinkable: let us imagine what will happen to
> The Gambia and its citizens if you, the electorate, fail to vote him out of
> office.
>
> If you the electorate do not take this election seriously, if you do not
> take your vote seriously, if you do not make the right choice, if you do not
> make the right decision, then more hard times will be ahead of us all, and
> we shall all soon live to regret it.
>
> If we fail to get rid of Jammeh in the polls, then in the first instance,
> Jammeh and his cronies will have been given carte blanche to act without
> regard to the people of The Gambia. They will have more and better food to
> eat than the rest of the country, they will live in better houses and
> palaces, they will travel even more extensively in first class, they will
> have treatment for themselves and their families in the best Western
> hospitals and clinics.
>
> We, the Gambian majority, will struggle to pay our daily travel expenses at
> home, we will fight to afford enough food to eat, we will see our levels of
> accommodation deteriorate, we will remain impoverished, destitute and
> without access to decent levels of medical care, education and social
> welfare.
>
> The impact on our children of Jammeh hanging onto power will be huge. Poor
> diet in the early years, restricted access to lower and upper basic levels
> of education, poor health care and lack of medicines and vitamins, early
> death. This will be our children’s legacy if we allow Jammeh to remain in
> office. And be sure that the rich cats, the fat cats (as we say here in the
> UK) the Jammeh sycophants in our land will get richer and fatter at our
> children’s expense.
>
> If you think we have seen enough of Jammeh’s corruption, tyranny and
> brutality, his heavy-handedness, then you are totally mistaken. These past
> seven years, as tough and as hard as they have been, are just the tip of the
> iceberg.
>
> Those of us who know Jammeh and have observed him closely for some time, are
> convinced that Jammeh is capable of more treachery, more dishonesty, more
> brutality and more corruption than he has shown to date, or than you would
> believe possible.
>
> You see, Jammeh’s psyche is deranged: he truly believes that Gambians
> should thank him for ruling us! His megalomania knows no bounds. Instead of
> him being our "elected" public servant and with us as his masters, he has
> subjugated us to an extent never before witnessed in our country’s history.
> He puts himself forward as our undisputed and omnipotent King. For Jammeh,
> the Gambia and its people are his personal property to dispose of as and
> when he wishes.
>
> Jammeh is deranged, mentally unstable and does not deserve to look after a
> herd of cattle or a flock of goats, let alone a nation of decent citizens !
>
> My Fellow Gambians! Jammeh has already hinted at what his intentions are
> were he to be re-elected. He wants a clause inserted into the Constitution
> which would give him the power to appoint Chiefs and Alkalolus: he wants
> another clause in the Constitution which would increase the term of the
> presidency from five to seven years. He wants to dissolve the IEC. He wants
> to give additional powers of arrest and detention to the NIA and to the
> Army.
>
> I know that some of the clauses in the Constitution which he wishes to
> change are entrenched: that is, they can only be changed by a national
> referendum. But we all know that Jammeh has no regard at all for the rule
> of law. He will do as he pleases and when he pleases.
>
> Consider the plight of those innocent Gambians who are still held without
> charge and without regard to the due process of the law: people like Dumo
> Sarho, Ebrima Barrow, Lt. Lalo Jaiteh, Lt. Omar Darboe, Momodou Mareneh and
> many, many more. They will continue to languish in detention, and be sure
> that they will be joined by many others if Jammeh hangs onto power.
>
> Jammeh has publicly claimed that he wants absolute powers to appoint senior
> public servants directly, rather than through the Public Services
> Commission. Jammeh wants all appointments to be centralised in the Office of
> the President, and already in practice he has accomplished this, to the
> extent that the PSC is a body in name only.
>
> My Fellow Gambians!
>
> The opportunity is here. The election is four days away. Let us close the
> Jammeh chapter. Let us put an end to this dark page in our history. Let us
> know that Jammeh has failed us miserably. Let us know that he does not have
> what it takes to lead our country forwards.
>
> Jammeh is interested in his personal well being: he is interested in the
> welfare of his immediate family and his cronies. He does not, and never has
> had, The Gambia at heart. This is a man who boasts about our Gambian health
> sector, and yet sends his wife abroad to deliver her baby in the USA: this
> is a man who banned skin bleaching in The Gambia and castigated young
> Gambians for marrying Westerners, and yet he himself has married a
> light-skinned Moroccan having dumped his first Gambian wife.
>
> Jammeh now travels extensively in "his" private jet, paid for by the public
> purse. During one of his recent trips, he went with more than fifty two
> people all of whom were paid Imprest and Per Diem allowances by the tax
> payer ! They are all accommodated in the best and most luxurious hotels.
>
> Jammeh boasts about paying for his relatives in Universities in America and
> in England, and he is buying more and more international properties for
> himself (at the last count, 1 in Egypt, 2 in Morocco, 1 in Libya and 1 in
> the United Arab Emirates).
>
> He has personal bank accounts internationally, and recently it was disclosed
> that he has opened a further account in Abu Dhabi in the UAE, which is
> believed to hold 17 million US Dollars ! All this is for one man !!
>
> Really, the truth is that Jammeh is a thief, a liar, a scoundrel, a
> murderer, a buffoon and a laughing stock. He is an enemy of our country,
> which he has brought to its knees in his seven years in power.
>
> Only you, the Gambian electorate, have the power to see the back of this
> man, peacefully and through the polling stations.
>
> I urge you not to let Yahya Jammeh stay in power for one second more after
> October 18th. It is your duty to save our nation from this evil man and his
> gang.
>
> Go in your thousands and VOTE HIM OUT OF OFFICE.
>
> God help The Gambia. God save us all.
>
> Ebrima Ceesay,
> Birmingham, UK
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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