Regime Change: Gambia’s Major Challenge.

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

After a three-week hiatus from the Internet, the news from The Gambia continues to be as depressing as ever. It appears as if our country has lost the ability to generate the kinds of news that can put a smile on our individual faces. The newspapers at home are replete with court cases brought and litigated by the regime, and the number of Gambians being arrested and tried on frivolous charges continues to grow. Yahya Jammeh has become so hopelessly infatuated with the court system that he is, in his effort to silence the citizenry, using the judiciary to help him muzzle the dissenting majority. And so far, the judiciary has obliged him, largely because the authorities there do not have the power or the will to contradict his wishes and orders. Today, everyone feels they owe their jobs to Jammeh rather that to The Gambia people, and this has made the struggle for economic survival more important that the abstract narrative of patriotism, or the intangible benefits of ethics and morality, and a forward looking political calculation. Yahya Jammeh and his regime have so twisted the role assigned to him by our Constitution that none of our legal minds are willing to challenge his regime’s gross abuses of authority. Jammeh’s regime operates with the kind of freedom only dictator can exercise; literally holding and controlling the livelihood and survival of many Gambians. He has managed perceptually and practically to turn the rights of individuals into privileges, which only he can give and take at his own time and at his pleasure. Moreover, the nightly appearances on Gambian Television showing Jammeh “curing” all types of diseases has become an embarrassing spectacle that is making many reasonable people to begin questioning his mental stability. Given the depth of Yahya Jammeh’s delusion, and the way and manner his regime has operated in the past, a case can be made of his mental incapacitation and by extension, therefore, bring into doubt his ability to any longer govern correctly and effectively.

One of the things that caught my attention in the news is the allegation that  “Mbarodi” -Waa Juwara, recently accepted a number of appointments and positions from his former nemesis Yahya Jammeh. This is hardly surprising, because everyone expected Waa Juwara to be rewarded for turning his back on the opposition and leaving his own supporters behind in a trail of dust. But, more than that, Waa Juwara epitomizes the kinds of politicians that Africa has become so known for: politicians who are driven not by any commitment to public service and love of country, but by narrow selfish interests. Now that Waa Juwara has reached his mountaintop, he will hopefully join the rest in pillaging our economy and turning our country into a bigger basket case. Beyond that, Waa Juwara was a distraction and a destabilizing force in the opposition, and not even the opposition U.D.P. leader Ousainou Darboe had any use for him. Apart from being a disgrace to decent politicians around the world, Waa Juwara has turned himself into an enemy of our people, and for that, there will be a price to pay for colluding with the big Satan himself Yahya Jammeh. By his actions, Waa Juwara has now lumped himself with Pa Momodou Jallow and many others who have provided aid and comfort to enable his regime commit atrocities against our people. Given all the decent Gambians who have lost their lives at the hands of this murderer and dictator Yahya Jammeh, given all the children who are growing up without their fathers, given all the fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters who have lost family members at the hands of Yahya Jammeh’s government, and given all who have disappeared from the face of the earth over the years, not to mention the scores of Gambian political prisoners languishing in horrible prisons and dreadful secret detention centers, how and why on earth would anyone accept any position, whatsoever, in Yahya Jammeh’s regime? As far as we are concerned, only selfish, heartless and wicked Gambians, who do not care about the lives of our fellow countrymen, will work and prolong the brutality of this disastrous regime.

Oh! How things have changed? February 18^th. Always gave Diaspora Gambians a reason to look forward to and celebrate in typical African fashion. Those days are long gone as most Gambians across the world feel there is nothing to celebrate when our countrymen continue to die as others are wasting away in filthy prison and torture dungeons operated Yahya Jammeh’s notorious security agency, The NIA. Across the U.S. Gambians are no longer celebrating independence as they used to do in the past when even the anticipation of the date put people’s minds in festive moods. For those of us who are very politically minded, our independence anniversary has become a terrible reminder of the freedoms Gambians have lost over the past thirteen years, and the tragedy of a murderous regime that to date continues to wreak havoc on the lives of Gambians. Today, in hindsight, even with all its shortcomings, the Jawara regime seems like a Heaven well lived compared to how we now live under: a monstrous and barbarous dictatorship. However, we will continue to keep February 18^th. in our minds always until we can once more celebrate a true Gambian tradition that has become interwoven with our culture. That day will come when Yahya Jammeh is sitting in a prison cell either in our notorious Mile II, in Sierra Leone or at The Hague and the whole world will know that The Gambia is back into the fold of the world’s civilized nations. Until then, February 18^th. will be a reminder to us of a painful chapter in our history that is still unfolding before our very eyes. But for now, there is nothing to celebrate when our fellow citizens are dying and suffering the way they are.

By now, the groundnut buying season is soon coming to a close, but reports are that it is a total failure as in some places there were no traders to purchase the nuts while others took their harvests to Senegal. The frustration among the farmers is countrywide, yet no one dares to even complain. The regime has expanded the police network to every nook and crook of the country and the police are only a heartbeat away from arresting anyone who dares to complain about anything. Up country, people used to live their lives without ever having to see much less worry about the police, but that sense of rural innocence has been lost and now ordinary farmers who are most intimidated by officials of government are arrested and jailed routinely. But, the worst is that they have nowhere to turn to for help and they remain unwilling victims of marauding police and rogue military and security personnel. It is a tragedy that the weakest among us has become a victim to a regime that seeks to intimidate, harass and plant fear in the hearts of our fellow citizens. For now, farmers are desperate and there is no end in sight to the burdensome problems of poverty and police intimidation they have to endure on a daily basis.

The ECOWAS Court recently put The Gambian regime on notice to answer for charges centered on the arrest and continued detention of journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh. This is a surprise and welcome development given that both the NIA and the police have denied detaining Mr. Manneh. Mr. Manneh was, however, picked up in broad day light right before the eyes of many of his co-workers at the Daily Observer. The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice should also invite the erstwhile Managing Director, Dr. Saja Taal to interrogate him as to what he knows about the arrest of one of his staff members by the NIA. When Chief Ebrima Manneh was last seen at the Royal Victoria Hospital last year, he was said to be very sick, weak and emaciated. If SOS Sonko or any one of those invited for debriefing by ECOWAS refuses to go to Abuja, a travel ban and an arrest warrant can be issued if they ever set foot outside Gambian soil.

This brings me to the roads infrastructure issue, which a recent traveler to The Gambia described in succinct detail. The account he narrated about the conditions of the roads in the Serekunda and St. Mary’s region, was riveting and mind numbing. The condition of the roads is incompatible with the regime’s fantasy vision of turning the country into, whatever, they are dreaming up at State House. A good road infrastructure is one of the important prerequisites for economic development. When it takes twenty-four hours to drive the normally five hours drive from Banjul to Basse, there is something really serious that could get any sitting government out of power and government officials in jail for complete incompetence. There is no reason why the twenty minutes drive from the center of Serekunda to Sukuta Sabiji Market should take nearly an hour or more. It is understood that Yahya Jammeh now travels by boat to Kanilai, which is why he is indifferent to the suffering of the masses he was once a part of.

The recent arrest and detention of two Dutch nationals and their Gambian guide is one of the many provocative instances that affirm the fact that we have become a police state under a military dictatorship. Unlike other countries like Nigeria where a military leader loses complete control of the military once they assume a civilian government role, Yahya Jammeh is still very much the real Commander of the armed and security forces and, Lang Tombong Tamba is only a decorative figurehead. The police, under this governance arrangement, are answering to State House rather than to the people through the Justice Department. The frequent arrests for any reason or for no reason at all are some of the characteristics of a police state. And the last time I checked, it was not a crime to go anywhere around the country to take photographs of any and every thing. Why do we now have any restricted area in our country, but more importantly what is there of value to restrict on a stretch of beach that goes thousands of miles all around Africa? The arrests of the Dutch nationals in Sanyang Village are, therefore, a failure of the regime to offer protection to foreign nationals in our country, but more than that, the government may also have breached a diplomatic statute that is applicable to all governments with regard to visiting foreign nationals.