My Fellow Gambians!
In today’s message, I shall try and paint the picture of what The Gambia
could have been like, and will be like in the future, without Yahya Jammeh
at the helm. You the electorate, have it in your power to change the
fortunes of our wonderful country and to start the process of change by one
simple act of will: vote against Jammeh on Thursday 18th October 2001.
Tell your family, friends, neighbours and fellow workers why you are voting
against Yahya Jammeh: be a civic educator for those around you without
benefit of access to the Internet or to copies of the messages coming from
the Gambia-List.
You have it in your power to transform our nation and the lives of the
people in it. Use your electoral rights, and vote to get rid of Jammeh once
and for all.
However, before Thursday, take time to reflect on what has been inflicted on
us for the last seven years: it is important to do some soul searching
about the Jammeh era. It is important to review Jammeh’s reign of terror
and what it has meant for our country. It is important to re-evaluate the
Jammeh years in a serious and sober frame of mind. It is important to think
profoundly about what has happened to our country and to ourselves since
1994.
Once we have deeply reflected on these awful years, it becomes clear that
The Gambia has lost her innocence. Our conscience must tell us that Jammeh
was the worst thing to ever happen to our country. If we want a better
future, then it has to be one without Jammeh at the helm.
Once we reassess the Jammeh years in detail, we shall not only appreciate
the level of destruction he has wreaked on our country, but we shall also be
resolved to see to it that he is unseated from the presidency on Thursday.
One conclusion we shall unanimously reach, when we pause and consider all
that has happened since 1994, will be that Jammeh has been the prime cause
of all our country’s ills. It is he who has led a regime typified by
brutality, dishonesty, flagrant disregard for the rule of law, flagrant
disregard for the rights and freedoms of individuals, massive corruption and
worst of all, murder.
We now have the opportunity to correct the wrongs of the past: to set the
ball rolling for the reconstruction of our country. We now have the chance
to try and build a Gambia that will guarantee its people respect, dignity,
prosperity and genuine progress.
The first and right step towards building this new Gambia is to vote against
Jammeh and force him out of office, through the ballot box, and in turn to
vote in a leader of integrity and honesty, who is committed to addressing
the people’s real needs and aspirations.
There is a saying in the U.K that "in every cloud there is a silver lining":
that from every bad situation, a good thing can and does emerge. Well,
the Jammeh years, as terrible and as destructive as they have been, have
also strengthened the Gambian people’s resolve to never again tolerate
incompetent and corrupt leaders.
We are now more enlightened than before: Gambians now follow politics
keenly: we now know that politics govern our own very lives and as such, we
now see the need to follow political events closely in order to ensure our
own betterment.
Besides, this is now an information age: we now have the Internet at our
disposal: more private radio stations have opened in our country; the
independent media (apart from the Daily Observer) is trying its best to
maintain its integrity and independence. Gambians now realise that if we do
not scrutinise our leaders, and allow the country to go to rack and ruin
because of unchallenged bad leadership, then we, the people, will be the
first victims.
Even illiterate men and women, I am told by friends in The Gambia, now buy
newspapers and ask their loved ones to read the content for them.
Persistent injustice has brought about resistance in The Gambia: it has
also brought enlightenment and awareness of the need for change in our
country.
Gambians have been maltreated by Jammeh’s regime: they have been repressed
by this regime: they have been impoverished by this regime. But, these
Jammeh years have also brought on a determination and vigour on our part to
change the status quo.
Gambians in The Gambia and outside the country are now working together to
see how best we can end these dark years in our history. Gambians are
networking more than before: Gambians are debating more than before;
Gambians now require higher standards in public life: Gambians now demand
greater professionalism in central government: Gambians now abhor
corruption, nepotism, injustice and tyranny.
We now yearn for a society where there will be true liberty; where there
will be respect for individual freedoms; where there will be peaceful
co-existence between our diverse peoples; where there will be a society
offering better standards of health care, education, housing, a better
environment.
All these things are possible and realisable if our people make the right
choice on Thursday 18th October.
There are talented Gambians in The Gambia and outside it, who are more than
willing to serve their country in its hour of need. There is an army of
talented individuals who will use their particular skills for the betterment
of the country, if they are given the right welcome, the right
encouragement, the right opportunities.
The important thing now is to install a new leader who will usher in better
times for all of us.
My Fellow Gambians ! Under Jammeh, our nation became one without hope for
the future: every good intention, every hint of progress, every positive
hope and dream would be met with the corrupt mind, heart and action of Yahya
Jammeh. Jammeh’s own special talent has been to transform everything good
and decent into something corruptible and tainted.
Let us look at those areas where we could reasonably have expected progress
in our country:
The new international airport: well it was built on loans, and I am told,
is now falling down into ruin. The external wall tiles, I am reliably
informed, fall off regularly endangering people’s lives. Also, unless
urgent work is carried out on the runway, I am told, there could be an
accident waiting to happen. Besides, the loans remain unpaid, and the
interest on the debt is crippling.
The "celebratory" Arch 22: a white elephant conceived by a megalomaniac
which cost millions in tax payer’s money and is now in danger of collapse,
according to reliable reports.
The new hospital at Farafenni is under-equipped, under-resourced,
under-staffed and functioning at a minimal level without medications to
treat even a common cold.
The hospital at Bwiam, I am told, is still under construction and with no
sign of it ever being completed: now it is the subject of investigation
into the overseas funding it received. Millions of dalasis are unaccounted
for.
The new schools: well, most are working on shift systems and are manned by
a despondent and over-stretched and over-stressed workforce; lacking
furniture, books, even blackboard chalks.
The new roads: some of them are not built to the original tender
specifications: poor quality materials used in insufficient quantities, so
they are already disintegrating rapidly.
The old roads are now mostly impassable, even during the dry season.
As for the new market in Serrekunda: I learn that many stalls are empty
because of inflated rental charges.
GRTS remains a government-skewed media outlet featuring the poorest quality
programmes and pandering in the main to the egotistic whims of Yahya Jammeh.
The University of The Gambia is lacking well-qualified lecturers;
incoherent programmes of study lacking resources such as computers, books.
Struggling to cope with inadequate buildings and equipment.
NAWEC: still promising us an electrified nation !!! Who knows when ?????
GAMTEL: once the show piece of the West African world, and now an archaic
and overpriced shambles.
The Judiciary: no longer independent and impartial: a mouthpiece of Jammeh
and the APRC.
The list could go on and on and on.
My Fellow Gambians! All these areas of development, had they been overseen
by a competent, well qualified and honest leadership, could have put an
entirely different complexion on Gambian life.
However, as it is, many of these developmental projects have become merely
the means through which Jammeh and his cronies have been able to line their
own pockets and fill their own bank accounts. They have used our money to
buy their palaces, their four wheel drives, their foreign holidays, their
foreign health care, their overseas education. OUR money !!!
Many of the projects (funded by overseas agencies or loans of dubious
origin, which will need to be repaid by us, our children and their children)
have lacked proper procedures for tendering. These projects have been given
away to people like Amadou Samba and Tarik Musa, to the Jammeh cronies.
Money has been siphoned off by using poor quality materials and short-cut
methods of construction.
Now imagine how it could have been had Jammeh not been at the helm. We
would now be genuinely celebrating success stories rather than failed or
failing enterprises.
Imagine a Gambia with decent roads, a decent health service, a decent and
affordable education system to tertiary level, decent access to electricity,
water and transport systems.
Imagine a Gambia without massive corruption: where there is a genuine will
to see the country make progress; where people receive a fair day’s salary
for a fair day’s work.
Imagine a Gambia governed by leaders and civil servants of integrity, with
relevant experience and with high professional qualifications.
These things need not be left to the imagination. With a competent,
hard-working, dedicated, sincere and committed President, leading a
government with similar qualities and backed by a high performing civil
service, an independent judiciary, a disciplined and well-trained army, a
reliable and brutality-free security force, then these dreams could be a
reality for our country following Thursday’s elections.
The future for our country could be a bright one....................
BUT, the only way in which you can ensure this, is by voting Yahya Jammeh
out of office in the elections.
Getting rid of Jammeh will be the first and formative step in changing our
country’s future, and in having a positive and beneficial impact on the life
of every Gambian citizen at home and abroad.
I try not to be an idle dreamer: I am a realist, and I know full well the
extent of the problems and challenges that are facing our country and its
leaders. It is not going to be a quick fix: we cannot change things
overnight. Our next leader is going to have a tough job to do, BUT the
going can only get better if we take the first step and oust Jammeh from
power.
Some of us have medium or long-term commitments overseas, as we seek to
complete our studies and upgrade our professional qualifications. But I am
sure that I speak for most of them, when I say that we shall do all in our
power to help the process of change in The Gambia. We are as keen as
Gambians still at home to be involved in the transformation of our country,
and we will give our help and expertise when and wherever we can.
However, the first job is YOURS.
Elect Jammeh out of office: see him on his way.
Change the destiny of our beloved country, and set it on the right path into
the future.
God bless The Gambia.
Ebrima Ceesay
Birmingham, UK
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