--Also Jermaine Jackson Dines with Gambia’s Judas

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Yet again, The Gambia Echo has been vindicated four days after we broke news that Gambia’s Deputy Army Chief, Major General Yankuba Drammeh was sacked. Today, Gambia’s National Stenographer- Daily Observer (excuse our sarcasm) quoting a presidential release, reports that Drammeh has been axed and is replaced by Brigadier General Ousman Badjie.

In a related development, Officer X (a.k.a “OX”) has just phoned in, reporting the sacking of Lance Corporal Sanneh, a presidential aide. Sanneh’s sacking from State House follows the sacking of Captains Baba G. Jallow and Saikou Jallow. The latter has since been arrested and being detained incommunicado at an unknown location. According to OX, Yaya Jammeh is sleepless these days. He spends the entire night monitoring international media as well as frantically surfing the Internet.

Significantly though, what the Daily Observer fails to report is that, the new Deputy Army Chief, Brigadier, Gen. Ousman Badjie, is a biological brother (same parents) to Gambia’s errant Inspector General of Police, Ensa Badjie (a.k.a Jesus). While I hate to be running editorials that border on ethnic matters, it is increasingly becoming unavoidable given the worrisome trend Jammeh is propelling The Gambia to.

Today, Gambia’s President, Yaya Jammeh is Jola, his Foreign Affairs Minister, Ousman Jammeh is Jola, Local Government Minister, Pierre Tamba is Jola, Interior Minister, Ousman Sonko is Jola, and Finance Minister, Abdou Colley is Jola. Jammeh also continues to run the three key Ministries of: Agriculture, Works & Infrastructure and Petroleum as if there are no competent Gambians to be appointed. People close to the presidency say the reason behind Jammeh’s holding of these key offices is to be able to hijack all contracts and aid money for these ministries.

The greatest irony about Yaya Jammeh is that while he continues to accuse ministers and public officers of corruption and incompetence, he is the most corrupt and most incompetent Gambian ever. Today, we have a president who is the chief jailer, chief murderer, chief womanizer, chief pedophile, chief rapist, chief power supplier, chief baker, chief butcher, chief rancher, chief miner, chief fisherman, chief liar and above all, Thief-In-Chief. Sometimes, one wonders if those who support Yaya Jammeh are blinded by all these or are they just doing it for notoriety or may be security of tenure.

Lest we forget, the Yaya Jammeh who came to power on July 22, 1994 is not close to royalty, came from the poorest of families, was and remains lacking in candour, substance, education, charisma and character. He lacks the requisite wherewithal that minister to statesmanship and fifteen years after the July coup, Jammeh still struggles to rise to the bar set for the oval office. In sum, he remains an over grown Boy’s Scout, still trying to be a President! To cover his numerous conspicuous deficiencies, he invites musicians, academics, artists and entertainers to play to the gallery so Gambians can forget their worries. His monopoly of both the radio and TV provides the vehicle for Jammeh to continue to play on our people’s minds presenting himself as an international icon that has attracted the literati, the  high and mighty. Beneath the façade however, is the stark reality of Yaya Jammeh’s international irrelevance. In the United States, Yaya Jammeh is not even considered a president, many serious American officials that we speak to; see him as an idiot; others call him a clownish fool, out of date, out of time and out of steam.

While we never wanted to even dignify his diplomatic blunders, we are forced to comment on it now that Michael Jackson’s brother, Jermaine Jackson, is in The Gambia casting Jammeh in borrowed robes. To punctuate Jammeh’s total lack of statesmanship and irksome ignorance of world affairs, The Gambia Echo was shamed and embarrassed when our State House operative, Kissy Kissy Mansa,  informed us last year, of President Jammeh’ sending of a letter of condolence to President Barrack Obama on the death of Michael Jackson. Upon learning of this, we contacted the Gambian Embassy in Washington, DC, but the official who picked the phone, hung up on us. So we then contacted the State Department and lo and behold, it was true, but the laughter we received from the State Department was not only palpable but humiliating. “We have never seen anything like this, Michael Jackson even though a remarkable human being was not a Federal employee and whoever advised your president, lacks grounding in protocol” a highly placed source in the Department of State told this reporter and went on to laugh continuously.

Well, as if wonders never cease to exist in Jammeh’s regime, early, 2009 while he was lambasting the west, Our State House operative, Kissy, informed us that Jammeh had written to the State Department for his wife, Zeinab Jammeh to meet President Barrack Obama. The indignation this letter created within the State Department was not only shocking but insulting to any Gambian citizen with conscience. When we contacted the State department, we were told that normally, first ladies do not meet presidents unless if they are on state visits with their spouses. “According to protocol”, we were told, “Heads of state meet Heads of state and not vise versa” as Jammeh’s twisted sense of diplomatic logic would have it. Can you imagine Jammeh writing a letter asking for his wife, Zeinab Jammeh, a notorious gold-digger, a shameless simpleton by every stretch of the imagination, to meet President Obama? Seriously speaking, Jammeh should grow up now, stop pretending and ask those who are immersed in diplomacy to take charge and stop appointing his relatives and clueless idiots as diplomats. Otherwise, The Gambia will continue to be the laughing stalk during diplomatic dinners.

Crucially still, while he is notorious for insulting America and western powers, Jammeh relentlessly clamors for American recognition and routinely lies to Gambians that America granted him citizenship but he rejected it and returned to serve his country on purely patriotic grounds. We have established that Jammeh only spent less than five months in Alabama-Fort McClellan for a police officers’ training program and we all know that in the United States, citizenship is conferred by the federal government. How a police academy in Alabama may have conferred Jammeh-an insignificant quantity with US citizenship; remains the biggest hoax in living memory. Paradoxically, what we have learnt is that while here for that brief period, Yaya Jammeh was sexually molesting an under-age girl. (See our up-coming scoop of how Jammeh molests teenagers). For now though, we recommend that Yaya Jammeh undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine if all of his pathological lies are not symptomatic of a mental problem.

For Jermaine Jackson, we have this to offer- apologize to the Gambian people because you have angered many of our citizens and inadvertently, offended your fans for speaking about Yaya Jammeh in a light that was totally false. While we recognise your contributions to the arts and to humanity in general, dating back to your Jackson Five era, it was grossly irresponsible and totally ignorant of you to cast Yaya Jammeh as a man of truth. To most Gambians, Jammeh is the exact antithesis of a man of God. Simply put, he is evil, pure and simple! We suggest that you read about Gambia and please request a copy of the State Department’s annual country report to know the character in Jammeh. Even to attend Friday prayers with a so-called witch-hunter and lie about a fool like Jammeh, invoking inspirations from the Islamic faith, is considered highly offensive to the faithfuls.

Your newly found friend is the biggest thief in The Gambia, the biggest religious hypocrite, the biggest murderer and womanizer. Your very association with Yaya Jammeh has ignited serious speculations as to your own sense of judgement or sanity and this goes further to suggest that either some of our Afro-American brethren are being corrupted by Jammeh’s ill-gotten millions or those that deal with him, have no sense of history. From the diplomatic arena to the arts, it is becoming an all too familiar pattern that, only our Afro-American brethren seem to be dining with Jammeh the devil. Now, how can great grandchildren of slaves and indentured servants who have suffered centuries of dehumanization be supporting a tyrant who mimics the harrowing brutalities of slavery in a 21th century African nation? This has been a troubling trend ever since the days of Ambassador George Haley and to date, not only has it worsened progressively, but considered the new normal. We are studious students of history and know that the Afro-American experience has always been a symbol of hope for earlier generations like Nkrumah, Azikiwe, and others; that a people long oppressed, will find ways to liberate themseves but we are troubled by recent developments in The Gambia where, those who know oppression first hand, are now in tandem with the oppressor and this must cease if the Jermaine Jacksons, the George Haleys and the Barry Wells of this world are to bequeath to posterity that sacred baton of honour- fighting for justice, peace and equality in the world- amen!

As went to press, we have been reliably informed that Gambians have started sending messages to Jermaine Jackson’s website:  www.starpulse.com/Music/Jackson,_Jermaine/Links/  and we encourage our readers to follow suite. We have also established contacts with the Los Angele Times protesting Mr. Jackson’s dining with the Gambian devil.