Ebrima Ceesay's summarized account of President Jammeh's record since the
young men in khaki toppled the PPP government in 1994 cannot be more
damning.  The catalogue of crimes and criminal activities of the AFPRC/APRC
government looks like pages uplifted from a crime best-seller.  The
difference is that we're dealing here with fact and not fiction.

The APRC fact sheet is pretty alarming.  It is incomprehensible how African
leaders such as Yahya Jammeh can behave so callously towards their people
almost four decades after our nations broke off from colonialism.  It is
indeed insulting that our societies are still left behind due largely to the
wanton destruction of our economies by childish and irresponsible leaders
such as Mr.  Jammeh.

Almost every leader who comes to power, whether through the ballot or the
bullet, utters the same empty promises and nonsense to his people only to
reduce them to mere beggars.  They plunder their economies and loot the
national treasuries in a fraction of a second.  I, therefore, believed
President Jammeh when he reportedly said that his family will never again be
poor.  Most people have either joined in the looting and murder or closed
their eyes to the crimes with the argument that: "man bokuma chi polotic
(sic)", i.e. "I'm not interested in politics".

Yet politics, in my opinion, is when you as a farmer do not get paid for
your agricultural produce, cannot afford to pay your children's school fees,
cannot purchase aspirin for a headache or when you have to go all the way to
Banjul just to uproot a tooth.  I've been just been told that there is no
dentist in the Bansang and Basse hospitals.

Of course, politics is more than the simple gesture of casting a vote or
attending a political rally under the scorching sun.  It is the senseless
death of pregnant women due to acute anemia and under-nourishment.  It is
the shooting down of a child who dared raise his voice against injustice.
Whether we make our political options in the closet or at the 'pencha',
we're the sum total of the decisions made by our governments.  A person
either takes part of the credit or part of the blame.

Looking at the current situation closely, it is the very children of some of
these destitute families who are today shamelessly aiding and abetting the
corrupt APRC government destroy The Gambia.  The very children who yesterday
spoke against PPP economic debacles and castigated ex-President Jawara
through vapor and verse are now the henchmen of the Jammeh hegemony.   I am
overwhelmed to see people who yesterday engaged in revolutionary cant and
who would have sacrificed their lives against falsehood and thuggery join
the camp of thieves and murderers.

African societies have been so much abused by their leaders that it is
almost resorting to 'everyone for himself and God for us all'.  The strategy
of the leadership is simple, but effective: impoverish the people,
intimidate them into submission, and occasionally give them some incentives
(e.g. hajj tickets, utility vehicles, scholarship, etc.) out of the very
money you stole from them. Simply, a carrot and stick policy. This is no
doubt one of the reasons for the increase in voter apathy in most African
states.  The incessant wars and civil strife are nothing but an indictment
of these leaders and their governments.

It is heart-rending that President Jammeh is slowing pushing our country to
mayhem through his quest for power and self-aggrandizement.  Those who stand
by him today should wait for the day when it will be said: "look ye how the
mighty have fallen". Unless the Gambian electorate frees itself from the
shackels of ignorance we will see many more Yayha Jammehs in our political
history.


Hamadi.





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