My Fellow Gambians,
After seven years of Jammeh’s misrule, it is now fast approaching decision
time. In one week’s time, eligible Gambian voters will be going to the
polls to elect a President for the next five years.
Indeed, the moment of truth has arrived: the time to take our destiny into
our own hands has come: the time to do away with Jammeh’s awful
"leadership" is imminent: the time for us to try to rebuild our Gambia from
the ruins left to us by Jammeh, is upon us.
It is our duty to make our country a better place for all of us in the
twenty-first century, and our job starts next Thursday, 18th October, when
we shall go to the polls to rid our country of the criminal Jammeh, and
install a person of integrity and vision into the Presidential role.
This is a decisive moment in our history, and we have to do everything
right, at the same time as avoiding doing anything wrong.
Come October 18th, we have to make the right choice for our country and its
people, or else we shall certainly live to regret it, and our children and
posterity will indict us for having failed our country in its hour of need.
None of us Gambians need to be told who Yahya Jammeh is, nor what he
represents. We do not need any more reminders of what his rule has brought
to our nation in the last seven years.
None of us needs convincing that Jammeh lacks integrity, is a liar, is
corrupt to his very core, is a brutal and vicious tyrant, is a murderer of
young Gambians. We know this evil man: we know his ways: we know how he
has brought our country and its people to their knees.
It is important that we Gambians judge Jammeh and assess his rule on the
yardsticks that he himself put forward when he seized power illegally in
July 1994. Nobody put a gun to Jammeh’s head, and yet of his own volition,
he made grandiose promises and outlined the criteria by which he himself
wished to be judged in the future.
Amongst his grievances were that senior officials of the former regime
(including President Jawara) were rampantly corrupt; that they travelled
endlessly; that they practised nepotism and favouritism; that they lived in
the fashionably-exclusive areas in luxurious compounds paid for by the
public purse; that they led flamboyant lifestyles; that they sent their
children to the best Universities overseas; that they sent their wives to
give birth in the best Western hospitals.
Jammeh said that these grievances justified his military intervention and
seizure of power, and that in the place of the former corrupt regime, he
would oversee the installation of a government which would be temporary,
accountable to the people, transparent in its dealings, and based on probity
and integrity throughout.
Jammeh looked into our very eyes and told us in clear language that he was
not interested in politics; that politics was meant for the rogues, the
drunkards and the liars. He said that he would never aspire to be a
politician because he could never lie, and did not ever want to lie.
These statements by Jammeh have proved to be the greatest lies and
misrepresentations ever perpetrated on The Gambia and its people. History
tells the true story of the last seven years in our country.
In his seven years of misrule and mismanagement, not only did Jammeh renege
on his pledges, he has also instituted a regime never before, in my view,
encountered in our Gambia. Jammeh’s government has been brutal; his regime
is the essence of corruption; innocent people have been viciously and
violently killed; many people have been arrested illegally and detained
arbitrarily and without the rule of law; hundreds of people have been
arbitrarily dismissed from their jobs.
In Jammeh’s regime, appointments are no longer based on qualification or
suitability, but rather on connections with a member of the APRC regime.
"Square pegs in round holes" are now a commonplace.
A case in point is Fatoumata Jahumpha Ceesay: here is a woman who cannot
even construct a decent sentence in English, and yet she is in place at
State House as the official government spokes-person. Her gaffes and
mistakes are legendary, and she has brought our country into international
disrepute. In her attempts to please her master Jammeh, she has even this
week taken to referring to the criminal as "Baron"!!!! We should be spared
this sort of foolery!!
Under Yahya Jammeh, mediocrity and incompetence are synonymous with the
regime. Government official speeches (including Jammeh’s own speeches) are
disjointed, untruthful, and written in language that a fourteen-year-old
student might be expected to use. As a journalist, I despair at the
nonsense which comes out of State House or Kanilai, and I feel ashamed of
the so-called leaders of my country.
Standards in government have dropped so immensely, that we are now the
laughing stock of the world: at Commonwealth, ECOWAS and OAU Summits and
meetings, our country is ridiculed because Jammeh and his cohort are unable
to put forward coherent and unequivocal arguments.
Nobody in the international community takes The Gambia seriously these days.
Non-Gambians who wish well for our country find it extremely hard to believe
that a moron and a non-entity such as Jammeh can be allowed to rule The
Gambia.
My fellow Gambians, you have all seen evidence of Yahya Jammeh’s
incompetence, greed and criminality. From a simple, scantily-educated
Lieutenant in the Gambia National Army seven years ago, Jammeh now "owns"
his own personal plane; he has built mansions overseas; he has built
palaces in Kanilai and Banjul; he has set up bank accounts in his own name
overseas; he publicly boasts about his personal wealth.
There is evidence that he is directly involved in marital infidelity, the
blood diamond trade, the hard drugs trafficking business, foreign currency
scams and corrupt business deals. Jammeh has lined his personal purse with
public money, and his hands are stained with filth and blood.
Indeed, every sphere of Gambian life has been tainted by Jammeh and his
crooks: health, education, religion, agriculture, legislature, business,
security, judiciary, social, economic and political spheres have suffered at
his hands. There is not one single aspect of Gambian life which has escaped
Jammeh’s wickedness, corruption and mismanagement.
More importantly still, Jammeh’s rule has brought about mistrust and
disunity amongst Gambians. In seven years, this terrible man has undermined
the very fabric of Gambian society.
Once, we Gambian were known throughout the world for our mutual trust, our
understanding and tolerance of each other, our respect for differences, our
one-ness and genuine sense of unity, our fairness and our sense of security.
All this has gone – vanished into a sea of corruption, scandal and brutality
which began its life on July 22nd 1994.
Our country is now set against itself. There are growing inter-tribal
tensions, problems and misunderstandings. Religious groups are often at
each other’s throats. You have only to listen to Imam Fatty from the State
House Mosque, to understand how much we have lost as brothers and sisters in
faith and unity. The Gambia has lost its secular nature, and Imam Fatty now
has access to both radio and TV and uses these to lambast everyone who
differs with his views (and especially our decent Christian brothers and
sisters).
Families are also divided: Jammeh’s game is to push one family member
forward and to dismiss another. For instance, Basirou Jahumpha (one of the
most intelligent and diligent civil servants I personally have ever known)
has been unjustly victimised by Jammeh and dismissed from his post: at the
same time his blood sister Fatoumata Jahumpha Ceesay has been pushed forward
as the spokesperson of the infamous APRC regime.
Another case of a family apparently split as a result of Jammeh’s
machinations is that of my able and competent sister Hawa Sisay-Sabally and
Joseph Joof, her brother-in-law. After Hawa was relieved of her duties as
Attorney General and Minister of Justice, she went to share offices with
Joseph Joof.
Now, Jammeh has deliberately elevated Joseph Joof to the position of
Attorney General and Minister of Justice, thus bringing discord between
these two people who had previously had professional respect and family
regard for each other.
It therefore pains me to see how Jammeh has managed to divide families who
were once a unified whole, whose members cared for and looked out for each
other’s well being and welfare. Our society is now, thanks to Jammeh,
divided and unhappy, and our relationships are tainted by distrust and fear.
God help us all !
Jammeh’s strategies for government are based on an evil policy of "divide
and rule". This is his personal tactic for survival and for governance.
My Fellow Gambians!
The message is abundantly clear to us all. With Jammeh continuing at the
helm of our country, there is no hope for us, for our children or for
posterity. Our future under Jammeh would be bleak indeed, and will become
increasingly bleak with every day that passes with this immoral and
iniquitous man in power.
Jammeh makes promises which he cannot or will not keep. Do you remember how
in July of 2000, he promised that 95% of The Gambia would be electrified
by July 2001??
Of course, we all know that this is a blatant lie: you yourselves are
leading so much of your life in darkness and without benefit of electrical
current on an almost daily basis. You lead your life by candlelight, while
Jammeh and his cronies enjoy every modern convenience of the twenty-first
century.
Jammeh indeed represents despair and a total lack of hope for the Gambian
people.
HOWEVER...........................
There could be a light at the end of the tunnel, and it could be YOU holding
that light.
YOU, the Gambian Electorate, have the opportunity to vote Jammeh out of
office, and send him scurrying away in shame and fear.
YOUR chance will come next Thursday, October 18th.
I urge each and every one of you eligible voters to go out early on Thursday
next and VOTE FOR THE OPPOSITION CANDIDATE OF YOUR CHOICE.
Your votes are your weapons to fight for dignity, freedom and progress in
our country.
You should use your vote wisely and in the best interests of The Gambia and
the majority of Gambians in mind.
I urge you NOT to sell your votes to any APRC member who comes to your door
with Dalasis. If you sell your vote, you will sell your country down the
line, and you will live to regret it. The money you receive might give you
a temporary reprieve from a problem, but I can guarantee that by sunset of
the same day, your problem will not have gone away.
The problems facing The Gambia cannot be solved unless and until YOU elect
and install a government which is capable of addressing your real needs and
aspirations.
The crisis in The Gambia can never be solved by Jammeh and his band of
criminals. He has neither the will nor the wisdom to do it.
It can only be resolved by committed leaders who genuinely wish to empower
the Gambian people, and who are willing to serve them.
This is why it is VITAL that early next Thursday, YOU come out in your
thousands and give your vote to the Opposition, and NOT to Jammeh and the
APRC.
Our problems are huge, but if we elect a competent leader next week, we
shall have started our programme of putting a decent system of government
back into our beloved Gambia.
"Rome was not built in a day", and our task of reconstructing The Gambia in
a post-Jammeh era will not be easy: it will take time, patience, diligence,
energy and decisive action.
However, it is do-able: if we come together with our expertise, our
knowledge, our determination and our love of our country, then anything is
achievable.
Our first and VITAL step is to vote the tyrant Jammeh out of office.
You have the means, the power and the strength of vision to do it next
Thursday.
God help us all, and Long Live The Gambia.
Ebrima Ceesay,
Birmingham, UK
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