Overcoming Our Collective Apathy is the Answer; not Political ‘Heroes or Saviors.’
By Mathew K Jallow, Associate Editor
Associate Editor Mathew K. Jallow
July 22nd, has come and gone fifteen times. Scores of Gambians have died and atrocities of unimaginable gravity have occurred. All the while, endemic corruption has developed and became entrenched to a level we could not even imagine. Today, not a single day goes by without Jammeh’s actions portending bad signs for our people. Over the years, Yahya Jammeh has gotten away with the kinds of brutal repressions that can only be assigned to some of the worst dictators Africa has ever seen. It is time for a change. We cannot go on living this nightmare any longer. The movement towards arresting the further downward spiraling of our country is in our hands. In this day and in this age, we don’t need single saviors or heroes; what we need is to overcome our collective fear and stand up to this evil and cruel devil of a human being; Yahya Jammeh. This is a different age and most certainly a different time, to leave the fanaticism of heroes and saviors’ worshipers drown out the voices of reason and level headedness. The heroes and saviors belong to a bygone era; the 50s and 60s; to be more precise, when information was in the hands of the few educated individuals who used it to manipulate their citizens. It is now time to leave this ignorant political demagoguery and stupid hero-worshiping to the Dear god Leader Kim IL Sung, and his enslaved people of North Korea. Today, The Gambia’s problems and challenges are too serious to be politicized, too grave too for any individual to resolve, and too deep to expect that we can make any progress towards freeing our country if we don’t collectively stand up and say; “we have had enough.” Gambia’s atrocities must be seen as a human rights debacle that we must address out of the motivations of collective moral obligations. It is not a time to politicize the national tragedy we find ourselves in under Yahya Jammeh’s brutal regime. Besides, we already have our heroes who did not seek to be heroes, and they are all dead, murdered by the devil Yahya Jammeh; Koro Ceesay, Deyda Hydara, the school children of April 2000, and now sadly, we can add the name of Chief Ebrima Manneh to this unbelievable story of cruelty. We all must begin to see in us the power of citizenship, love of country and our required obligation to end this terrible social, cultural and economic degeneration that has consumed our country for so long. It is time to stop waiting for a savior because one is never going to come; ever, nor shall we expect or elevate anyone to that level. We all possess the bravery and necessary commitment to be our own saviors, for this God-given power resides in each one of us. Hamat Bah and Ousainou Darboe do not have the power to save us; if they had, Yahya Jammeh’s corpse would have been eaten by maggots long ago, and neither could Halifa Sallah or Omar Jallow (O.J). Simply put, we don’t need any sacrificial lambs, what we need is to come together and work with our impoverished and embattled military and our security forces to restore a civilian government to power. We, our military and security forces must snap out of our collective amnesia in order to save our country from ruin. We don’t need any of that hero, savior and sacrificial lambs crap. It is as simple as that.
Yesterday, when the APF reported the death of Chief Ebrima Manneh, it was like ripping our hearts yet again. If the mystery of his disappearance had not produced enough agony already, now they have killed him too and Gambians are left wondering how this could happen again. What adds to this pain is the knowledge that Mr. Manneh may have died long ago, but Yahya Jammeh, Marie Saine Firdaus, Isatou Njie-Saidy and the rest of the clique did nothing to tell his anxious parents and The Gambian people why and how he was killed. Like the deaths of Koro, Deyda, the school children and all the other civilian and military and security service victims, Manneh’s death will never be forgotten. Now that we know the fate of Chief Ebrima Manneh, we can finally give him his earned recognition as one of our many political martyrs. Journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh was arrested three years ago, accused of attempts to reproduce a BBC story critical of the regime in the Daily Observer newspaper during the 2006 African Union Summit in Banjul. Since then, until his confirmed murder yesterday, journalist Manneh has been seen in public only once; at the Royal Victoria hospital looking horribly emaciated and terribly sick.
Last week as a horrible tragedy unfolded off the coast of Libya, which took the lives of three hundred Africans; twenty seven of them Gambians, Yahya Jammeh was celebrating a winning football match at the Independence Stadium. In fact, on that fateful morning, only The Point Newspaper carried the story of what happened to the more than two dozen young Gambian lives who were venturing into fortress Europe for the opportunities they cannot find in Africa. To the western world, African lives are disposable, and not worth the coverage that could shine light on this epic and often tragic migration attempt into Europe. But as significant as the partying at the Independence Stadium was, while dozens of Gambian lives perished in the open sea, Yahya Jammeh’s doling out of twenty seven million dalasis; one million dalasis for each football player and the team’s support staff, ranks as one of the most insensitive activities that Jammeh and his cronies could ever undertake. That morning, the entire country should have been mourning this loss of life, but instead, Gambians went partying with the Partier-in-Chief; Yahya Jammeh. I don’t have anything against football, in fact, I was a big football fan when Augustinians were at the top of their game: George Gomez, Charles Thomas, Solomon Gomez, Moses Trinn and the indomitable Azziz Coker of the Phantoms, but I think Yahya Jammeh’s giving players that amount of money just for winning a game, is a ridiculous waste of our poor nation’s resources. Twenty seven million dalasis could have started some type of factory that could offer employment to some of those who perished crossing the Mediterranean Sea into Spain. Beyond that twenty seven million could provide clean drinking tap water to people and livestock in nearly hundred communities throughout the country. With our roads around the country in total ruin, medical drugs in short supply, and with schools in disrepair, teacher shortage affecting the quality of education and children at dumpsites foraging for food, there are better ways to spend twenty seven millions dalasis than just paying for winning one football match. But, Jammeh always does what pleases Jammeh and to hell with the rest. Well, we have allowed Jammeh too much power for so long and he has misused it and now he thinks he owns it. Let us prove him wrong. Together, we can do it: the military, the security services, and the population coming together can show Jammeh who the real power belongs to; us or him. Already, Yahya Jammeh has condemned himself to fates worst than what Charles Taylor suffered and far worst than what his new friend former Bissau President Nino Viera suffered; gruesome as it was. And guess what; Jammeh deserves it. And besides, when we take care of him, no one will cry for him; The Gambian Press made sure of that by publicizing how an evil dictator he has been all these years. It is hard not to imagine that Yahya Jammeh’s days are numbered.