By Abdoulie Jallow

    Perhaps it is naiveté, but U.S President Lincoln's claim that you can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time sounds quite convincing to me. Could it be then that The Gambia’s President His Excellency Dr. Alhaji Yahya Abdul Aziz Jemus Junking Jammeh has proven Lincoln wrong? Oh, and yes, Bob Marley comes to mind too.

While many politicians deceive, only a few have made deception the hallmark of their operational criterion – a modus operandi. Many well meaning Gambians have publicly or otherwise concluded that Jammeh cannot be trusted one bit; not the least what he spews with impudence very so often. Beyond the damage he has done to our peace, tranquility and to Gambia's economy, Jammeh has introduced and nurtured a culture of mendacity into Gambian civil and political affairs. One need only examine recent history to realize that the most dangerous regimes evolve in countries where leaders lie without shame. A shameless leader is a leader who can commit atrocities like killing twenty-thousand Gambians and going to sleep. Yahya said he can do that, it is on record. Matter of fact, that is one lie we wish remains a lie for ever.

Clowns will always be what they are, circumstances of power and abjection alike being merely vehicles for their display of inherent absurdity. Utterly unpredictable Yahya Jammeh, like clowns, is always predictable. May be, as Heraclitus would have it, you can never step into the same water twice, but you can always take the same pratfall every time you try. Indeed, what pathos there is in sad Yahya Jammeh’s actions has to do with his inability to stop being a clown, no matter how much he tries.

The main difference between a tragic hero and a clown is that the hero, after making a flop, does not get up again. Therefore, measured in flops, you get more by way of amusement from a clown than from a hero, though flop counts are not the preferred way to measure the history and define the destiny of Gambia. Like all clowns, Jammeh could never change, but would remain always as recognizable as the Bozo he is, is making him something of an icon (frightening) for our times.

For the uncivil clown that he is, bawdy as a child is immoral and capable of the most outrageous mockeries of all that is most revered, he will always be an outcast in the league of leaders, a lonely self-absorbed figure dancing jerkily at the outer edges of the humane leadership domain, a freak of sorts and set apart. A clown trusts no one and Yahya trusts no one because he does not really share in the Gambian enterprise. He may for a time, lead and conduct that enterprise, but not for long any more. He belongs not in the league of wise leaders.

In the past few weeks, we witnessed the making of the most extortionate claim ever made by a sitting president. This story had begun its life as a theatrical satire, using the most pandemic dreadful disease ever known to mankind as the centerpiece of a large historical circus, ring-mastered by non other than the demonic superhero Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh – the doctor who discovered the cure for AIDS. The Gambia, witch doctor, three bananas and green paste will not be the same anymore thanks to our self proclaimed conqueror of human mystery. Not even BET could resist the urge to share the story of the clown who got the mandate. Ah yes! Sixty-seven percent gave him the mandate, in case you missed that.

With the heartfelt help of the iconic decent citizen in my dear brother Momodou Buharry Gassama, I was able to watch the circus unfold at www.raaki.com. As the story moved, overripe with nonstop high-wire acts, into a thriller, I recognized the clown striding in his sultanic grand styled all white hundred percent cotton “mbaseng” with the white latex glove tightly secured. What possessed him? I wondered out loud. What has gotten in my president’s head?

It could be told by the look on his face, he ached for that inclusion into the domain of the wise which would never come, even when it was his to create. His act on national TV was the very model of futile diligence in this comical pursuit with his dark-putty face and uncoordinated movements, his puffy cheeks and overstretched flattened nose. His smile was like a mechanical problem he could not quite master, as though someone was pulling a dummy's string and the mechanism was broken, making the result seem artificial, half-cracked, and menacing. And of course it truly was menacing.

But above all, I suppose, it is Yahya Jammeh’s absurd view of doing good for humanity and Africa especially, that most mark him out as a clown. But wait, Jammeh knows more sometimes than the kings before him; the Musa Mollohs, the Mansa Kangkangs, the Samori Toures. His knowledge, not so much as something learnt is simply what possesses him. Where the rest of us see the sanely ordered world, he sees a cruel joke. So when he received the mandate, this clown can show us things no other can. He will forever create crises for himself or fall haplessly into such crises; we will laugh at the ludicrous ways he will seek to extricate himself from this pratfall.

The real fool, Socrates warns, is the one who does not know he's one. Lincoln may have been right after all.