COMMENTARY

Yahya Jammeh’s Cesspool of Corruption, Reign of Terror

By Mathew K Jallow, Associate Editor

He has a hospital named after his father Sulayman Junkung Jammeh in Bwiam, a police station named after his mother, Asombi Bojang in Kalagi, a health center named after his wife Zainab Jammeh in Koina, a skills center named after his son Mohamed, somewhere in the Greater Banjul area, and a whole country named after himself. His name, in case you don’t know, is Yahya Jammeh.

But, that is just a tip of the iceberg. He is heavily involved in business, despite the moral and ethical dilemmas presented by a so-called politician’s dabbling in profit-making adventures. His business interests span the gambit; from sales and manufacture of bread, to transportation, supply and sale of meat and meat products, operation of equipment at The Gambia Ports Authority, the supply of consignment products to the hotel industry such as agricultural produce, meat and bread, and he owns nearly half a dozen of highly mechanized farms in the Western and North Bank Division of our country; not to mention nearly hundred farms poor villagers all around the country are pressed into cultivating for him by village chiefs and Governors. In fact, he took possession of the entire Abattoir operations and the facilities of the Abattoir in Abuko to bolster his monopolization efforts of the meat supply industry.

But wait, that is not even the end. Real estate! Let us come to real estate. A few years ago, the African Union, European Union, United States, Taiwan, ECOWAS and The Gambian regime all pooled together to provide funds for the construction of the African Union village for African Heads of States and other dignitaries from around the world in Brufut for The African Union meeting in Banjul. That village, built for the benefit of the entire Gambian population, is now tightly in the hands of Yahya Jammeh to do whatever he pleases. This is not to mention what happened to proceeds of properties seized from Jawara era officials and sold by the regime after the coup in 1994. We know what happened to the properties that are not sold; they are also all in Jammeh’s hands and he dictates to the Assets Management Commission what to do with them. We know for a fact that a Jola’s military contingent is housed in at least one seized property, supposedly to act as defense reserves for Yahya Jammeh in the event there is an uprising against his regime.

But, perhaps one of Yahya Jammeh’s most lucrative ventures is the construction industry. Jammeh has managed to broadside Tapha Njie and Banta Kaira and the other big players in this sector of the economy. And what did he do to Banta Kaira and his old friend Baba Jobe? He seized their properties and converted one of them on Kairaba Avenue, which belonged to Banta into the Kanilai bakery. Jammeh is also heavily involved in the foreign exchange market as well, this, in addition to the most despicable of his venture activities; the illegal trafficking and trans-shipment of drugs to the Americas and Europe. Jammeh’s abuse of power does not end there. Recently, we saw the repetition of last year, when tens of hundreds of civilians and government employees, including some of the most senior members of the Civil Service, like Abdoulie Sallah and Omar Sallah, who are old enough to be Yahya Jammeh’s father, sweating under the hot Kanilai sun, slave laboring on one of Jammeh’s many farms. But perhaps, one of the things that horrified me most was the sight of hundreds of military recruits seen providing free slave labor for Yahya Jammeh at his Kanilai farm. And to top all of this, Yahya Jammeh’s image posters are plastered everywhere in and around the urban centres especially, but also elsewhere in the country too. This is his effort at creating an atmosphere of intellectual morbidity by stifling objective voices and curtailing public debate in our country. In addition, Jammeh travels around with thousands of dalasis of our money following him everywhere he goes, and in this age of Internet banking, money and plastic card purchases; he gives money to people who submit lording and agree to be enslaved by him. And Yahya Jammeh has just the perfect person to do his dirty work for him in the clueless and heartless Isatou Njie-Saidy, who likes her slave-master Yahya Jammeh, bought her fake doctoral degree.

One of the things Jammeh will soon be remembered for is the way and manner that he has turned The Gambia into a small Jola fiefdom. For instance, in the past eight years, there was only one Mandinka, and not a single Fula serving in his Cabinet; two groups who constitute 60% of our population. In addition, every Cabinet minister except two comes from the Fonis and the Greater Banjul area. And recently, at a Ports Authority related project, all three key speakers were Jolas, a glaring manifestation of a mortifying tribalism: Lamin Bojang, the Works and infrastructure Minister; Modou Lamin Gibba, the Managing Director, The Gambia Ports Authority, and Mustapha Colley, Chairman of the Board, Gambia Ports Authority. At another meeting two days later the cast of characters were Jolas again: Ousman Sonko, Interior Minister and Ensa Badjie, Inspector general of Police. This does not include the seven Jola Cabinet Ministers out of the thirteen minister portfolios of the Cabinet, considering the Jolas makeup a paltry 6.5% of our population. Jolas appointed by Yahya Jammeh also hold the Finance Minister position, head of the Army position, GNA, head of the Intelligence services, NIA; and the Police. The Gambia Embassy in Washington D.C is now effectively in the hands of Ebrima Kujabi and Lamin Sabi Sanyang who with Yahya Jammeh, embezzled millions of dollars from our treasury as reported extensively last year in The Gambia Echo. And of the twenty-three military promotions we all read about last week, half or eleven of them were all Jolas and the remaining twelve were spread among the remaining tribes. It is necessary to bring these tribal issues up to highlight the injustices of Yahya Jammeh and how he is creating a social and economic chasm between some of his fellow tribesmen and the rest of our population. This is a poisonous environment to foster in any country and it will create unnecessary divisions, acrimony, anger and rage against an entire tribe when in fact most Jolas are also victims of Yahya Jammeh’s madness. In fact, Jammeh appears to have killed more Jolas that any other tribe. But he almost outdid himself even in this area too; by running down the ground, a profitable and perhaps Africa’s hitherto best managed telecommunication system.

But if you thought Gamtel/Gamcel are the only causalities of his rapaciousness, think again. First, he sold Gamtel to foreign profiteers without consulting any members of the National Assembly and took it back fast and just as brazenly as he sold it. And today, the Central Bank could well be called Jammeh Family Bank Inc. For not only did Famara Jatta, Bala Musa Gaye and current bank Governor Saho facilitate Jammeh’s evacuation of millions if not billions of dollars into foreign banks accounts, they also helped themselves to the same "free" money Jammeh was scavenging from; our money. The way Jammeh has operated until recently was predicated on the belief that he too, like the late Bongo of Gabon, Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, Kabila of Congo and similar African dictators, will remain in power until his son can succeed him, just as the children of these other dictators have done or are on the verge of doing.

But, The Gambia is unlike any of those countries and we will not allow that to happen; I hope not. We are determined that soon the lights will go out in Kanilai, and the ghosts will return to town. The drums and the endless festivities will be silenced. The descript palace Jammeh built will be visited by the demons of Yahya Jammeh, where the hardy grass finding nourishment underneath concrete slabs, burst out into the sunlight to create artful partitions between imaginatively decorative stonework walkways.

But, the one thing Jammeh has not counted on is that soon he will be history and he will be either brutally killed or he will escape. In either case, the people he left behind and made rich by stealing Gambian resources will have their properties seized, their bank accounts frozen, their dignities tarnished, as they are paraded before the counts in full view of the Gambian population and the entire world, with only the clothes on their backs as their entire lives possessions. You bet they will lose every dime, every ill-gotten property and every respect they did not deserve, but unlike Yahya Jammeh, we will accord each and every one of them the due process of law they deserve. We will not butcher them in the dead of night, and we will make sure their wives and children are cared for and protected from harm, because unlike Yahya Jammeh, we are not animals and we respect our laws. Yahya Jammeh must understand that "what goes around comes around."

Gambia’s Most Wanted List.

Yahya Jammeh: Wanted for 60 counts of extrajudicial executions, 3 accounts of murders by association, 150 counts of crime against humanity, 100 counts of tortures, 9000 counts of public terror, unspecified counts of running a slave labor camp, and unspecified counts of public corruption, embezzlement.

Isatou Njie-Saidy, Unspecified counts of corruption and an accomplice to extrajudicial executions, murders, embezzlement and tortures.

Lang Tombong Tamba: accomplice to executions, murders, tortures, corruption, rapes and embezzlement.

Edward Singateh: Extrajudicial executions, murder and concealment of the evidence by incineration of crime scene, corruption and embezzlement

Ousman Sonko: Corruption, accomplice to executions, murders, embezzlement and rapes

Famara Jatta: Corruption and embezzlement

Musa Balla Gaye: Corruption and embezzlement

Marie Firdius: Perjury and corruption

Lamin Sabi Sanyang: Corruption and embezzlement

Ebrima Kujabi: Corruption and embezzlement

Modou Lamin Gibba: Corruption and embezzlement

Mustapha Colley: Corruption and embezzlement

Ensa Badjie: Accomplice to executions, murders, corruption and embezzlement

Yankuba Colley: Corruption and embezzlement

Gibril Badjie: Corruption and embezzlement

Bun Sanneh: Corruption and embezzlement

Samba Jallow: Murder

Alhagi Martin: Murders

The Green Boys

NIA: Unknown number of torturers and murders,

 

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