By Mathew K. Jallow

It was a victory of some sort, though it was a long time a coming. The erstwhile Ethiopian dictator, Mengestu Haile Mariam, the butcher of Addis Ababa, was finally sentenced to a life behind bars. In the courtroom, in rapt attention, stood more than half a dozen of his collaborators; the bloodthirsty rag tag that enabled and enforced Mengestu's reign of terror. They stood there, grim faced, lost, and looking every bit the animals that they are, but now destined to spend the rest of their lives behind prison walls. The failure of the court was that none of these butchers would experience the misery of having bullet slugs lodged between their eyes for the atrocities perpetrated against the good people of Ethiopia. The coward, Mengestu Marian himself, was still in hiding somewhere in Zimbabwe, where the buffoon, Robert Mugabe, has offered him sanctuary. And this brings me to Yahya Jammeh and his own day of reckoning. But first, the resilience of The Gambian people is measured by the amount of pain they have endured at the hands of Yahya Jammeh. Jammeh may not be a bright person, but there is little doubt that he has chosen the country he will likely seek refuge in, in the event he escapes our hunger to bring him to justice to pay for all the crimes committed on his orders. Whenever Yahya Jammeh faces our justice system some day, he will have company, a lot of company, for like Mengestu, he has some close collaborators who too will face possible capital punishment for their crimes against Gambians. Yahya Jammeh’s collaborators include, but are not limited to; Lang Tombong Tamba, Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay, Yankuba Touray, Musa Jammeh, Bala Garba-Jahumpa, Amadou Samba, Tumbul Tamba, Saja Taal, Akomoye Agim. This list is neither complete nor is it conclusive, and additions are welcome from the public. One thing is certain though; these and other enemies of the state must answer to the Gambian people for the years of abuse and murders of our fellow citizens during Jammeh’s reign of terror. As it is, Jammeh himself appears oblivious to all the death and dying around him, living his blissful life as if tomorrow will never come. He is making the same mistake many before him have made, never learning from the lessons of history, and doomed to repeat it’s mistakes. But, when the sun sets for the last time and never rises again for him, it would be too late, and the friends he cherished will no longer know him and the wife he thinks he knows will forsake him. He will leave behind an anguished mother whose wisdom he chose to ignore, but a mother who will never stop crying for his evil son. The end of Yahya Jammeh’s rule will cause neither anguish nor mourning on the faces of the Gambian people, rather, the country will sighy a big collective sigh of relief. There will be dancing and jubilation on the streets, in the markets, in the farm fields, school classrooms, there will be dancing everywhere, as we open the doors of our prisons, and planeloads of Gambians descend on Yundum Airport from every corner of the globe. Then we will unlock the mysteries the NIA hid from us for so long, as we fire guns in the air and the air rife with joy and laughter as Yahya Jammeh sits chained to a wall to await his fate at the place he mockingly calls a hotel; Mile Two Prisons. When Jammeh’s time comes, he will not know what hit him, and before he can even blink it will be all over for him. Ironically, even as I speak of his demise, Jammeh is preparing for a future full of uncertainty. Just sometime last week, he was admonishing the more than twenty-five former APRC Assembly members that he so unceremoniously sacked from their political jobs, warning them to remain loyal to him and his party. As always, Jammeh equates his interests with the interests of his slavish followers, and despite denying them and their families their livelihoods, he still expects every one of them to serve and be loyal to him. His distorted thinking makes him to believe he is not only owed blind loyalty, he also thinks that he can make people do things that run counter to their own personal and their families' interests. Now that Jammeh has chosen to intimidate his former puppets, it is left to them to decide whether they will follow their own personal interests and align themselves with the opposition, or follow Jammeh towards where there is no hope or future for them. It is regrettably, yet likely that some of the other APRC NAM members like Churchill Baldeh, will slavishly stand behind Yahya Jammeh, with the hope that they may land them ambassadorial positions some day, some time and somewhere. But, for most of the former APRC NAM members, there is no Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay sister to crawl before Jammeh on their behalf as FJC clearly did for his brother. Bala Garba-Jahumpa may have his sister to thank for the job he first lost and then regain, but he, nonetheless, feels obligated to Jammeh and pays him by being one of his echo chambers. At a recent political meeting in the North Bank, Bala Jahumpa warned against the practice of tribalism, yet he ignored the fact that the head of the Armed Forces is a Jola, the governor of the Central Bank is a Jola, the SOS Local Government is a Jola, the SOS for Education is a Jola, the SOS for Tourism is a Jola, not to mention the Jolas in governorships and other positions of power. Together, the Fulas and the Mandinkas comprise more than 60% of the population, yet there is only one Mandinka Cabinet Secretary and no Fula, whatsoever. The 7% Jola population holds more senior level jobs than the combined Fula and Mandinka 60% of the population. If that is not tribalism, then nothing is, yet every opportunity Jammeh and his griots have, they open their big mouths to rant and rave about the tribalism Jammeh so artfully practices every waking minute of his divisive presidency. While Bala Jahumpa is traveling around the country to echo Jammeh’s empty rhetoric, Jammeh himself is busy being generous with our money. It was stunning to hear Jammeh’s suggestion to airlift 150 football fans to Congo in addition to promising $1million to the team should they win the match. This is in addition to the huge amounts of money used to send dozens of Gambians on the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Quite frankly, this is the worst way to spend the people’s money, particularly when we are also drowning in debt. It is not the way to run an accountable, transparent, and ethical government; Jammeh must therefore desist from spending our money on wasteful celebrations, annual Hajj pilgrimages, and other ill-conceived selfish activities. We are a poor country, and Jammeh has no right to spend our money like a drunken sailor. The government of Taiwan has facilitated Jammeh’s behavior by building a corrupting relationship with him based on consistently giving him money without requiring accountability of any kind from him. Consequently, the Taiwanese people must realize that Jammeh is the sole beneficiary of their government’s largesse, so the people of our country do not feel morally obligated to support Taiwan at the U.N. in any way, shape or form. The minute Jammeh leaves office; our country will exercise our vested interest in establishing full diplomatic relations with China as the sole representative of all the great people of China. While we want a peaceful resolution to the two China political impasses, Gambians can no longer ignore the reality of the world we live in. We continue to ignore the reality of China as a growing international force at our own peril. We can no longer afford that. Any diplomatic favors Taiwan has bought from Jammeh will end with his demise. Speaking of diplomacy, as the National Assembly elections draws near; Jammeh has succeeded in creating bad blood all across the country. There are families and communities split over party affiliations, there is increasing tribal politics, and rising anger and rage over party candidates, all as the possibilities of violence looms over the whole electoral process. In some places, some people have forgotten which party they belong to; specifically, Waa Juwara of all people, is now rubbing shoulders with the devil’s party; The APRC. By campaigning for the APRC candidate, Waa Juwara’s only interest in the Niamina Dankunku elections is motivated by his deep seated tribalism. Despite the fact that Mandinkas are by far the minority in that constituency, Waa has chosen to throw his weight behind the APRC Mandinka candidate as opposed to the UDP/NRP Fula candidate. Some years ago, the educated Fulas from Niamina Dankunku and Niamina West, decided to take over the chieftaincy in both districts as well as the National Assembly representations, and they did just that. Today, years later, to elect APRC candidates Essa Saidykhan in Dankunku, and Lamin Jadama in Niamina West, both of them Mandinkas in predominantly Fula constituencies, would be turning the clock back two decades. Besides, this will also significantly reduce the number of Fulas in the National Assembly, weaken the political leverage the Fulas have over Jammeh, and so the people of the two Niaminas must not allow that to happen for one moment. Finally, in order to succeed in our efforts to get rid of Yahya Jammeh once and for all, we must be prepared to make some personal sacrifices. There is a saying that goes like this, “it is not how you begin that matters, but how you end.” Some of us experienced a rough life growing up, and getting where we are now, took some guts and a lot of sacrifice. There is absolutely no need to be subservient to any human being, and no amount of material wealth is worth losing ones dignity, honor, and pride to another person. We do not need to suffer in silence under the weight of Jammeh’s dictatorship, and contrary to what some say, we are not helpless, because we are empowered by our humanity to take our destiny into our own hands. And speaking to our civil servants, there is no law in the books that gives Jammeh the power to fire public servants who have done no wrong, and committed no crime. As a result, the never-ending cycle of hiring and firing by Jammeh are illegal and are likely unenforceable under our laws. In order to lose one’s job, there must be a crime or wrongdoing that is provable before a court of law. No one has the right to wake up one morning and begin to fire or hire public servants without going through the proper channels provided by law. The Public Service Commission (PSC) is the independent government agency authorized and empowered to deal with issues of hiring and firing of public servants. Yahya Jammeh has no legal authority to do that agency’s job for it. His meddling has gone on for far too long, and the time to act in our own collective interest is now. The nationwide strikes in Guinea are an example we can emulate. We can organize a countrywide work stoppage for all public service employees until we bring this government to its knees and out of power. The Jammeh tyranny must end, and with the realization that no one will do it for us, we must bring our acts together in order to do something about this snake; Jammeh. The Gambia has reached a point where we cannot take the agony and the pain anymore, and so it is time to end this reign of terror now. There are enough Gambians around the world ready to join this cause, and besides, only a very, few of our young men in the army are loyal to him and committed to lay down their lives to save him. We very often see our nephews, sons, uncles, cousins and brothers in the military and other security forces being murdered by Jammeh’s government under the pretext of the treason law, yet most of those who have already died, never had their days in court, even though the law provides that they have full access due process. Additionally, no dissention is tolerated under pain of death, and it is as if Yahya Jammeh, a Cassamance citizen transplanted to The Gambia as a child, now owns the bodies and souls of our boys and girls in uniform. Why should we allow a citizen of the Cassamance to rule our country, kill our young men, and loot our national treasure. This is really a national disgrace, and we are all complicit in allowing it to go on for this length of time. Enough is enough. It is now time for us to act.

Editor's note: The views expressed here are exclusively those of the author.