Echo Editorial
Gambia-A Country of peace, its leader; a violent mad man
By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief
Following the embarrassing news leakage that Gambia’s autocratic leader, Yahya Jammeh has agreed to accept Jamaican born fanatical cleric Abdullah Al- Faisal from the Kenyan immigration authorities, the Jammeh government true to its character of pathetic lies and fabrications, has gone on a media blitz condemning segments of the international media for attempts to tarnish its reputation.
Abdullah Al-Faisal and brother Abdul Aziz Jammeh
The Gambia’s Immigration chief, the urbane Buba Sanyang (a.k.a. Zil) as well as the rapacious liar, Interior Minister, Ousman Sonko, have added their weight into the culture of denial that the Gambia had ever accepted the Muslim cleric nor has he ever landed on Gambian soil.
Today, The Point newspaper (a paper I revere so much and painfully hate to differ with) in an arresting editorial to buttress the government’s press release went berserk repetitiously stating that The Gambia is a country of peace. That the Gambia is a country of peace is a fait a compli but, what we must not overlook as editorializers is the unassailable fact that The Gambia’s leader is a mad man of violence who preaches peace everyday and kills his fellow citizens every night like the desperadoes that sent Denis Vincent Brutus out of Apartheid South Africa. The entire world knows that Gambians as a people are peaceful beings and that our country- The Gambia; the smiling coast of West Africa where people patiently wait for Allah to solve all of their problems even those that are self-inflicted. For example, every five years, Gambians go to the polls and vote Jammeh the genocidal murderer into office and whenever he kills, we pray to Allah to save us from the very murderer we just reelected. We therefore, are blessed with a peculiar kind of democracy that only we can diagnose.
However, as journalists, we must separate Jammeh the genocidal murderer from the peaceful and peace loving ordinary Gambian people. To combine the two, tantamount to an historical anachronism that we as journalists must always shy away from. Deyda Hydara, the founder co-editor of The Point newspaper cannot still rest in his grave because Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia’s violent mad man has been tormenting Deyda even in his grave. The cowards that murdered Hydara roam the streets of Banjul scot free, wining, womanizing and driving huge American cars purchased from ill-gotten wealth of the peaceful Gambian people.
Besides, as speakers and writers of truth, supposedly; we must critically analyze the events surrounding the alleged deportation of the Jamaican cleric to The Gambia and poignantly ask our selves, why the Kenyan government would deliberately choose The Gambia when the Gambian leader was never consulted? Is it possible to deport or attempt to deport to the Gambia such a high profile Islamic fanatic without Jammeh knowing? Is The Gambia a lawless state where alleged terrorists can be jettisoned to? Is the Gambia a terror save haven where any one can be shipped to without due consultation? Is the alleged terrorist a Gambian citizen?
As far as we know, the answer to all the forgoing questions is an emphatic no! Crucially therefore, we are at liberty to argue and compellingly so, that the most likely logical conclusion to this diplomatic brouhaha is that, The Gambia government of Shiekh Professor Dr. Yahya Abdul Aziz Jamus Junkung Jammeh had given tacit prior approval to the Kenyan authorities to deport Abdul Faisal to The Gambia when no other country will accept him. The only reason why he never reached the serene shores of The Gambia is Nigeria’s refusal to grant him a transit visa. Otherwise, Jammeh would have had his guest as reported by the same international media he now condemns.
Therefore, instead of using Buba Sanyang and Sonko with facile foolishness of press releases that generate more confusion than clarity, let Yahya Jammeh go on Gambian TV and denounce the Kenyan government for trying to damage the already dented image of his irredeemably corrupt and most violent regime in West Africa.
Curiously and by extension, many Gambians and international observers have been contacting The Gambia Echo expressing their disappointment why the international community has been so obsessed with recent violence in Guinea and never worried about Gambians. These apparent double-standards have been blamed on the fact that Guinea is mineral-rich and Gambia a poor land mass measuring only 11, 0000 kilometer squares. In fact, next Tuesday, the Deputy Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Gambian born Fatou Bensouda is due in Conakry to investigate alleged atrocities committed by the military junta in Guinea. By a twist of cruel irony, the same woman had served under Yahya Jammeh as Attorney General and Minister of Justice and during her tenure; several incidents of extra-judicial executions were committed by Yahya Jammeh. While it is true that this time round, Fatou is on an international mission to investigate and prosecute allegations of murder, we wonder what barometer the Court uses to investigate murder when 12 school children were butchered by the Jammeh regime on April 10, 2000 only because they too were demonstrating like their brethren in Guinea. How about the over dozen military officers that were liquidated on November 11, 1994 by the same Jammeh government when if our memory serves us well, Fatou Bensouda was Gambia’s Solicitor General? What about the 55-West African immigrants that were hacked to death by Jammeh’s government in 2005? How about the five security detainees: Daba Marenah, Alpha Bah, Ebou Lowe, Modou Alieu Ceesay and Manlafi Corr? Add Omar Barrow, Deyda Hydara, Finance Minister Ousman Koro Ceesay and UDP supporter Ousman Ceesay who was slaughtered at the Tallinding Market on the eve of the 2001 Presidential elections. What about Lt. Almamo Manneh and Dumbuya? Add Seedia Sanyang and Lamin Sanneh who later died of trauma following brutal pummeling and torture behind the harrowing walls of Mile II Prisons. Add the number of people who died as a result of Jammeh’s own madness to exorcise the country of alleged witches in 2009 and only then, will you begin to appreciate the level of violence Yahya Jammeh has inflicted on the peaceful and peace loving Gambian citizens.
Therefore, let it be crystal clear that there are many more Gambians who died in the hands of this murderous, violent, kleptocratic megalomania of a leader, Yahya Jammeh that are yet to be accounted for and to paraphrase the old adage that still holds time, what is good for the Guinean goose is absolutely and most definitely good for the Gambian gander. We too need an investigation, we too even though a very small country, are humans and we too, deserve justice.