The Tragedy of Yahya Jammeh-Editorial

By MATHEW K. JALLOW Associate Editor

Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh’s recent threatening remarks during the graduation ceremony of 876 recruits late last week caught my attention and piqued my interest and curiosity for two reasons. First, what did the repulsive and noisome Yahya Jammeh tell the new recruits that we have not already heard? Secondly, why were there an unprecedented large number of new recruits this time round? The answer to these questions clearly lies in his unquestionable paranoia, a result of his treacherous and tyrannical disposition, which has stretched through the better part of the past fourteen years. Characteristically, Jammeh's paranoia and palpable fear has basis in reality, and grounding in facts, because he has created far too many deadly enemies who are disposed to take his life out of spite and in a heartbeat. In the eyes of most Gambians at home and abroad, Jammeh is a cowardly monster who our country must get rid of by whatever means necessary; a terrorist whose reign of terror has accentuated the paradox which our quiescence countrymen have come to symbolize. The warning Jammeh gave to the recruits, therefore, comes as no surprise, given his pernicious style of leadership, which has formed and shaped the cloud of vulnerability that hangs over his hated regime. Due to the spate of politically motivated murders, arrests and detentions, and disappearances of innocent citizens and non-citizens at the hands of Jammeh’s executioners and enforcers, his corrupt regime is fragile and constantly under the threat of a military takeover, as evidenced by the past five coup attempts. Consequently, by warning the new recruits, Jammeh hopes to instill in them his customary calling card; fear, hoping that will restrain and preempt any thought of removing him with the use of military, civilian or a likely combination of both forces. In addition, the recruitment and graduation of so many for the security services is designed to expand the capability of a fighting force that would hopefully save his scandalously corrupt, fatuously incompetent and perfidiously divisive regime in the event of a coup. His call for the recruits to serve the country is an oxymoron in the face of his monopoly of all the branches of our security apparatus for the purpose of securing the safety of himself and his family. Now, even Jammeh’s minions and the Jola cabal with whom he runs the country, are waking up to a frenetic realization that irrespective of their military rank and positions in civil society, they are not immune to his supercilious wrath and malicious vindictiveness. Moreover, in today’s Gambia, only the courts appear to be doing any work, and the prosecution of imagined political non-conformists has become the centerpiece of the regime’s uncouth method of governance; constantly inundating the courts with cases of political prosecution, as the regime is forever putting the will and resolve of our fellow citizens to the test. Around the country too, the many unknown graveyards of our fallen compatriots litter the landscape of our urban areas and the countryside, where the remains of these sacrificial dead await recovery and the extension of proper and honorable burials befitting the political martyrs that they are. As Gambians, we are continuing to pay a heavy price for a contemptible regime whose avowed mission is to religiously eliminate popular dissent and create a malleable society that will totally surrender itself to the will and predominance of a sadist and a veritable misanthrope. The center of Jammeh’s imperial kingdom, Kanilai Village, is teeming with security personnel, from the army to the NIA and States Guards, despite the fact that there is nothing there that is of material interest to us as a country. Jammeh’s misuse and abuse of our nation’s meager resource is unprecedented in its scope and criminal in its nature, but it is our collective failure to ferociously stand up to his needless bullying, condescension and sense of entitlement that has led us to these ignoble times; these somber moments that are trying to the depth and breadth of our fidelity and commitment to save the country of our birth. Most recently, the realization of his regime’s vulnerability has undoubtedly forced Jammeh’s hand into making calculated diplomatic overtures towards the governments of Bissau and Dakar. The bilateral agreement signed with these two countries, is a marriage of convenience cunningly designed to placate Abdoulaye Wade and Nino Viera, two leaders whom Jammeh had held in contempt for all these past years. Without a doubt, Yahya Jammeh’s sole objective in these deceitful arrangements is to prevent the use of the territories of these sister countries as staging grounds for an assault against his aggravating regime, as well as for him to secure a commitment for the extradition of any Gambian dissident who dares to seek refuge there. This whimsical diplomatic re-rapprochement, characterizes the volatile and tenuous nature of his lethargic regime, and while Jammeh continues to use and turn our nation’s security forces against our countrymen, his transgressions against our people is beyond limit, even as he rides the bliss he has created for himself around our nation’s resources and our citizens collective wealth. The unforgivable wasteful spending for the vacationing to Hawaii of a group of American girls carried in the Echo last week readily comes to mind, and underscores the gravity of the incompetence of this ignoble regime. Now, to say that Jammeh and his onerous regime have no sense of direction is an understatement, and the intermittent disparaging remarks hurled at the Gambian people on the public airwaves clearly highlight his contemptible posturing towards our compatriots. Today, Jammeh can still see his reign extending beyond the horizon; he can still afford to live the bliss as if tomorrow will never come, but the mirages of circumstance are destined to forever obscure his view once and for all time. On that fateful day, the mighty emperor will hug the ground crying before he begins his lonely journey through the tunnel of perpetual darkness. It will be the day that even the birds of Kanilai will for the first time in a decade sing their sweet, mournful, and melancholic melodies to the living. It will mark the celebration of the end of a tragedy that has epitomized the cruel reign of the “mighty” and untouchable Yahya Jammeh.