Analysis

The Corruption of Absolute Power

By MATHEW K. JALLOW, Associate Editor

Social and political scientists have long recognized the corrupting influences of absolute power in the hands of a single individual. This prompted the coinage of the phrase; absolute power corrupts absolutely, to bring this point home. Today, in most African countries, but specifically in The Gambia, history has, as in many previous instances around the world, proved this right once again. The dizzying litany of events these past weeks happened so fast and so furiously, that it almost overwhelmed some of us who are engaged in observing the political events and activities back home. First, were the surprising firings of three Supreme Court justices; B. Y. Camara, Haddy Roche and Na Ceesay Sallah-Wadda, then came the unceremonious firing and reinstatement of forty-three security service officers posted at the Amdalai border post, and finally is the continued jailing of a number of Bundung Station police officers, for the alleged escape from their custody, of a number of inmates. The dismissal of the judges, however, was preceded by the unchallenged firings, over the years, of numerous elected officials that include National Assembly members, mayors, but also civil service officials who are not political appointees. But, as if these were not enough, Jammeh has decided not only to arbitrarily force the reduction of the price of goods, but to sell rice which supposedly “belongs to him” at a price that undercuts the prevailing market value. Additionally, both last year and earlier this year, Yahya Jammeh again single-handedly, without the consent of our “so-called’ law-makers at the National Assembly, extended exemptions to Sierra Leonean and Nigerian immigrants from payment of fees for “Alien Resident” permits. This has become all too familiar; repeated intermittently over the past decade by the rapacious Jammeh character and as in previous occasions, the fireworks are on, and everyone except Jammeh, is feeling the heat. These and many other even more bewildering and egregious stories of murders, tortures, and disappearances that continue to haunt Jammeh and his nefarious regime, provide sufficient and compelling grounds to justify his forcible removal from office.

With regard to the firings of judges and elected officials, it is quite evident that Yahya Jammeh’s hubris is undermining our Constitution and the established norms and fundamental beliefs that have guided the way we have operated both as a nation and a society with a mosaic of tribal cultures. Our country has principles enshrined in a Constitution, which provide guidance in the way our government must operate in order to more effectively produce and render services to benefit our people. Like every other country, our Constitution is a sacred document that sets the parameters and legal standards of behavior and conduct to which every government is bound by law, and no single individual or group, government or private, have the luxury to flout its tenets to satisfy their own selfish personal or collective interest, as Yahya Jammeh and his regime are doing. Sadly, the sole custodians of both our Constitution and our justice system, The Supreme Court, in a state of quandary, has stood helplessly by like a deer-in-headlight, as Yahya Jammeh continues to either blatantly or surreptitiously undermine the reverent Constitution, which binds us together as one people. In the illegal firing of judges, and elected officials, Yahya Jammeh has exceeded the bound of power that our Constitution and our Laws permit, and is therefore a treasonous law-breaker. By the same token, any judge illegally fired by Yahya Jammeh, still remains a lawful employee of the state, with grounds to challenge the unconstitutionality of their dismissals. Jammeh’s illegal meddling with the operations of the judiciary does undermine and vitiate its effectiveness and impartiality. To this extent, the inept dispensation of justice has run amok, to the consternation of citizens and non-citizens alike. Ever since he discovered how to utilize the excesses of power, the mercurial Jammeh has never shied away from deploying every means necessary to subjugate our countrymen. The audacity with which Jammeh has continued to operate outside the law and our Constitution, has assailed both our national as well as our individual dignities and prides. With no one and no law to keep keep him in check, everything Yahya Jammeh has done and continues to do is inimical to the Rule of law and the stability of our country.

For a long time now, Gambians have woken up every single day to the reality of the hapless nightmare of Yahya Jammeh’s malevolent rule. The intransigence of Jammeh and his regime, and the moral turpitude with which he and his regime have exercised power, has ossified the hatred for Jammeh, and is continuing to build a critical mass of disenchanted and unforgiving dissident movement. Let it be known to all readers of the regime’s prevaricating propaganda mouthpiece, The Daily Observer, that our love for our country will never erode, our patriotism will never degrade, but our opposition to the regime’s treatment of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers left behind, will be expressed in the most forceful way regardless of what anyone at the Observer thinks and says. Our commitment is to our country, and not to any deviant or person of such questionable character as Yahya Jammeh, and sometimes, it is not only necessary, but imperative to destroy with the unfettered truth, all the structure built with lies and propaganda. The Daily Observer’s affinity with Yahya Jammeh, its continued existence in a make-believe world, the humiliating ways in which the paper is coerced into revering the butcher of Kanilai, and the chicanery the paper uses to obscure the truth from the Gambian people, is a betrayal of trust owed to our fellow citizens. In a regime change, the paper deserves to be obliterated from the face of the earth and its employees, who have fallen victims to propaganda, must be reprogrammed to think as normal human beings. The posters of Jammeh hanging menacingly around town are a fallacious display of power, designed to fluster the general population and anyone intent on ending his abusive regime. More recently, the deaths at Mile 2, first of Malafi Sanyang and later of Tabara Samba and others before them, under mysterious circumstances, deserve to be explained to the public as does the never ending hiring and firing. In addition, we learnt recently that there are about fifteen people held incommunicado with no charges brought against them. For once, we plead with the justices of the Supreme Court to have spine and stand up to condemn the regime for detaining individuals beyond what the law permits. The past decade has taught us that Yahya Jammeh’s problems are not transient, not by any stretch of the imagination, and we must rally around our armed forces to force him out sooner rather than later. This is the verdict. Finally, congratulations to the individual or individuals who sprung the British national, Charlie Northfield, from Mile 2. Hopefully, Jammeh would be the next person to be kidnapped by British or American intelligence. Good luck to you Charlie Northfield.