President Jammeh Claims Demons At War

       --One Demon on the Loose, Mediation Efforts Afoot

By Alfa Sanyang   

In what many see as a precipice towards lunacy, President Yahya Jammeh has once again stunned the nation by a recent announcement that his demons are currently entangled in a serious clash. The announcement over Gambian national television punctuates the errant leader’s latest trend of using precious airtime for baseless claims of mystery, and false oracular bravado; a pathetic sequel to his cruel hoax of a HIV/Aids cure.

The President, wearing a somewhat beleaguered face, appeared on national TV announcing that the worst tragedy has befallen him, but reassured the general public that he was working round the clock to abate the simmering tension among his demons. “I have an announcement to make to the nation. My demons are fighting. The fight has been so serious that one of them has gone missing. Despite all efforts we have made in seeking his whereabouts, our search bore naught!” laments a distraught President Jammeh before national television, in a speech punctuated with gesticulations reminiscent of the proverbial figure crying for a lost mother.

According to people who spoke to this reporter, the nation is still astonished at the seeming deterioration of the President's state of mind, thus calling for the need for attention. Things even got scarier with the general population when President Jammeh attempted to control their movement by calling for people to be indoors around twilight in order to avoid the wrath of the angry wandering demon yet to be accounted for. But, the Gambian leader reassured the nation that despite the serious crisis currently unfolding among his demon folk, he has interceded and that the demons have so much regard for him that they listen to whatever he says; an apparent insinuation for a probable laying of arms. Do we call it a demonic cease-fire? The President added that it was imperative to note that his demons have been obedient servants and that the current fight should not be construed as an anomaly. “Created beings are mot perfect and there is always the potential for feuds” he claimed.

When this reporter got news of the President's announcement, The Gambia Echo lunched an investigation into reports that seemed unbelievable, which was corroborated by independent sources in the country. A text message coming from The Gambia in response to our question on the matter read thus: “...he says one of them is missing… sorry the phone was off.” However, analysts have commented that President Yahya Jammeh's modification of his claimed HIV/Aids cure to mysticism lays bare, the height tyrants can climb; that tyranny is a too steep mountain that no one could afford to fall from.

Argues a keen political commentator, “if you think Jammeh is mad, then you must be mad yourself. He knows exactly what he is doing. He knows what kind of people Gambians are, and that is why he does this. You could not do this in Senegal, not even Guinea Bissau. When Jammeh began his killing spree, we said it was a mistake until it became apparent that he was cleansing the country of all his perceived threats before we believed that he was indeed a dictator. So now, he is claiming mysticism and some people are laughing calling him a mad. Nothing is wrong with him. He is just playing with Gambians...riding on an opportunity we have given him. All he is doing is to further enhance his grip on power by creating the culture of fear around him. The next thing he will do is to claim prophethood and, the sycophants, whose number has been soaring in our country, will still believe him,” he said.

The demon crisis hoax follows the claim barely a week earlier that his supernatural powers killed a perceived enemy. That tragic figure, collapsed and died instantia, at a presidential rally in the Tourism Development Area, following what many attribute to cardiac arrest. Again, the President seized that opportunity, appeared before national television and claimed that the deceased had evil intentions to harm him, but given his (the President's) supernatural prowess, the man collapsed and died. That didn't go down well with the family of the deceased who was allegedly, a strong supporter of President Jammeh and was at the time of his collapse, said to be grinning as he struggled with others to shake the Gambian leader's hand, a familiar phenomenon in Gambian politics.

People who spoke to The Gambia Echo on the demon scare issue, have indicated that some people have indeed taken heed to the President's warning and that many have chosen to stay indoors during the ours around dusk.

“Now that the President has come clear by confessing that he owns demons, he needs to proceed to tell the nation whether he should be seen as a Muslim or Fetishist. You cannot be both. And, as far as we know, those who claim to deal with demons are those worshiping oracles (Jalang).” The analyst observed.

So far, no religious leader in the country has commented on the latest comedy that seems to have religious connotations. But, such culture of omission to act among the country's religious leaders, who instead prefer encouraging the President, is a cruel phenomenon Gambians have now come to accept as the new normal.