Commentary
Whither Heads The Gambia?
By D. A. Jawo**
What is happening in The Gambia today is beyond the comprehension of any reasonable being. It is hard to imagine that in this 21st Century, Gambians could be subjected to such bizarre happenings like a group of people posing as 'witchdoctors' apparently hired by no one other than the Head of State himself, going round the country, escorted by armed soldiers, kidnapping innocent people from their villages and not only accusing them of practising witchcraft, but even forcing them to take concoctions in order to prove it.
While Gambians are peace loving and can take a lot, this is certainly pushing them to the brink and unless the international community comes to their rescue, it is hard to imagine what the consequences will be. Therefore, rather than waiting to subdue trouble, this is the time that ECOWAS, the AU, the UN and the rest of the international community should come to protect innocent Gambians from the trauma they are presently being subjected to by no less an institution than the very government they have elected. This is how things have began in other parts of the sub-region with nobody intervening until those countries went up in flames before the international community attempted to do something when it was too late. It appears that nobody has learned from these lessons and is still sitting and watching a similar scenario repeating itself with predictable consequences.
We have just seen how the very few people in The Gambia like Halifa Sallah who have had the guts to challenge such Stone Age superstitious practices and naked violations of the basic human rights of the people are being subjected to such travesties of justice. How can any reasonable person imagine a magistrate asking Halifa for bail in the sum of one million Gambian Dalasis (approx. US$50,000) with three sureties, two of whom must be a former Inspector General of Police (IGP) and an army officer not below the rank of Brigadier General, while the third should be an Alkalo (village head)? The bail conditions request that the two high-ranking security officers must be on retirement for a period not less than eight years and must live within the jurisdiction of Brikama.
Knowing how things operate in today’s Gambia, not only would no former security officer dare to serve as surety for Halifa, but there is also no retired IGP of such a description living in the Brikama area. There is only one soldier of the rank of Brigadier General in The Gambia, who happens to be the present Army Chief of Staff, and no Alkalo would risk his head by acting as surety for Halifa. The magistrate is no doubt fully aware of this and yet he went ahead and imposed such impossible conditions.
It is sad to see our judiciary, which was supposed to be the last bastion of hope for these traumatised people transformed into yet another institution of oppression, greed and cowardice.
It is hard to see the so-called Chief Justice and the Attorney General and Secretary of State for 'Justice' as well as other professionals in the judiciary ignoring such open travesties of justice, which are being committed under their very noses. How on earth could this magistrate in Brikama impose such impossible bail conditions on Halifa without neither the Chief Justice who heads the judiciary, nor the Attorney General, the state's chief legal adviser, doing anything about it, but behaving as if it were normal?
Of course, with this sort of phoney legal case frequently taking place in the country, there is no doubt that the majority of Gambians have now completely lost respect for and confidence in the judiciary. People now see them as nothing more than just another tool of the Executive, which, rather than acting as guardians of their legal and constitutional rights, are being used to blatantly harass and intimidate them.
It is evident that some recent cases, including the impossible bail conditions imposed on Halifa have brought so much disrepute to the Gambian judiciary that will take a very long time before it will regain the confidence and trust of the people of this country. It is now quite clear that our judiciary has been reduced to a laughing stock amongst our neighbours and it is hard to see how the Chief Justice, Abdou Karim Savage and the Attorney General, Marie Saine-Firdaus and other members of the judiciary can face their counterparts in the sub-region and beyond, while they continue to preside over such a judiciary which makes a mockery of the rule of law and the fundamental rights of innocent Gambians, apparently just to keep their jobs.
**D. A. Jawo is a veteran Gambian journalist and former President of The Gambia Press Union. Over the years, he has received numerous death threats from the regime’s Green Boys who were trained in Libyan terror camps.