National Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in The Gambia ( NMRD-G )

                                                      Press Release

Fellow Gambians and friends of The Gambia around the world, we are extremely pleased to introduce the National Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in The Gambia (NMRD-G). The organization was incorporated in February 2009, in the state of Wisconsin, United States. The primary objective of NMRD-G is the restoration, nurturing, and institutionalization of democracy in The Republic of The Gambia. NMRD-G is a membership organization and we encourage Gambians and friends of The Gambia around the world to join the new movement in the struggle for the liberation of our country.

At this stage, it is necessary to engage in some retrospection in order to understand why a movement like NMRD-G has become necessary. In July 1994, the military overthrew a democratically elected government under the leadership of Sir Dawda Jawara, promising changes and the restoration of democracy within a reasonable space of time. Today, more than fifteen years later, rather than vacate and restore power to the hands of a civilian leadership, the military has reneged on all the promises made on that fateful day in 1994. The intervening years have seen one sham election after another held in an effort to justify prolonging and entrenching military leadership in the hands of Yahya Jammeh.

The story of our country under the leadership of Yahya Jammeh has been a nightmare we would not even wish upon our worst enemies. Our once stable economy is now in tatters, with a handful of people under the patronage of Yahya Jammeh, monopolizing the resources of the country at the exclusion of everyone else. The bureaucracy is dysfunctional, the roads are in total disrepair, medical facilities lack drugs and the necessary manpower, the schools are physically disintegrating, teacher shortage has reached crisis point, the agricultural sector is in shambles, corruption is rampant, drugs are destroying the youth, prostitution and crime have become a fact of life, and the regime continues to execute innocent citizens without due process. The dictatorship is also engaged in the murder, torture, illegal arrest and detention of citizens and non citizens alike.

Today, everything Yahya Jammeh’s regime stands for is antithetical to the hopes and the aspirations of our people. At the very least, our fellow citizens deserve to be free from the overreach of this regime to enjoy their peace, even if it is in poverty. Instead, military contingents prowl the countryside under Yahya Jammeh’s instructions, arresting petrified innocent villagers and subjecting them to harassment and torture. Some villagers have lost their lives as a result of being forced to take poisonous concoctions prepared by Jammeh and his co-conspirators, and at least one young man committed suicide after his mother was arrested for witchcraft. But this is just one among a litany of egregious incidents of harassment which have resulted in the death and unparalleled intimidation of poor innocent citizens. The abuse, torture, murder and intimidation continue unabated, and prisons and jails around the country are teeming with innocent Gambians, who are condemned to suffer in the worst prisons in Africa. The people in our country need someone to protect them from this insanity, and NMRD-G plans, in the mid and long term, to provide them with the protection they need and deserve.

If there is one area upon which we all agree, it is that our country is in a dire situation, and that it will take men and women of good conscience to help to remedy the tragic conditions under which our people are living. The National Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (NMRD-G) was founded by a group of Gambians against this backdrop, the founding members having come to the conclusion that we Gambians must stand up to help to free our country from the lunacy that has held it hostage for so long. The founding members share the vision that we must now move from apathy to concrete action, which means that we Gambians must take the lead in this struggle. If we do not, nobody will come to our rescue, for we ourselves are the ones we have been waiting for. We are aware that once we begin to go to work, Yahya Jammeh will attempt to corrupt our membership by offering them money in an effort to thwart the noble work of the movement. We neither need nor want elements which will be susceptible to Yahya Jammeh’s corrupt ways of buying Gambians to help him remain in power and wreak havoc on their fellow human beings. Our members will never sell their souls to this devil. 

Having arrived at the conclusion that Gambians must take the lead in the effort to liberate our country, NMRD-G’s founding members have jointly and severally determined that it is imperative to map out a strategy to achieve this goal. They have come to recognise that only through information and education will it be possible to empower Gambians to lead in the struggle to free themselves from the oppression of Yahya Jammeh’s regime and, in order to achieve this, it has been decided to have a presence in Dakar, Senegal. In the short and mid term, NMRD-G will broadcast educational messages from Dakar to inform, to educate and empower our fellow citizens in The Gambia, but the long term objective is eventually to own our own radio and television station broadcasting from Senegal. But the use of mass media in Senegal to speak directly to our fellow citizens is just one of a list of measures NMRD-G will employ. NAMRD-G will leave no stone unturned and will adopt any necessary means to help in the liberation of our homeland.

Over the coming weeks and months, NMRD-G will launch a fundraising campaign by a variety of means, including a membership drive and contributions from fellow Gambians and friends of The Gambia all around the world, in order to enable us to buy television and radio air time in Senegal. We plan to begin our daily radio broadcast to The Gambia from Senegal, and when funding permits, television airtime will be purchased as well to offer us this unique and effective medium to communicate directly with our fellow citizens.

A detailed plan of action will be unfurled in the coming days, and details of a bank account will be provided where our treasurer will receive all contributions to this effort. We thank those who have already contacted us expressing interest in joining the movement. Membership cards will be issued in due course to all who wish to join this effort, and anonymity will be provided to those who desire it. Ladies and gentlemen, let us get to work now. There is so much to do and so little time to do it! God Bless The Gambia.