By Ebrima G. Sankareh Editor-in-Chief
The old adage that empty barrels make most noise is true to its meaning in contemporary Gambia than any where else today. The question “Fatou Who?” is deliberate because in a true democracy with all the complex ingredients that make up a nation’s real body politic, Fatou Jahumpa Ceesay cannot even qualify to serve as a messenger let alone House Speaker. In case you did not know, like most of Yahya Jammeh’s functionaries, the Gambian Speaker is an 8th.Grade dropout. Fatou Jahumpa Ceesay was kicked out of Armitage High School in Form Two Alpha in 1972 after two years of dismal academic record. She was among five students rusticated the same day from Armitage. I will spare the rest the embarrassment and continue with the loquacious Speaker’s twisted past. Unlike the rest, young Fatou’s father was a powerful politician and at the time Gambia’s Finance & Trade Minister. No sooner had she returned to Banjul than the late I. M. Garba Jahumpa rang up the Gambia High School (GHS) Principal who accepted Fatou Fortune without hesitation. What she did at The Gambia high school pales in comparism with her Armitage School wheelbarrow pattern of academic snail sailing. It was terribly abominable but those who watched this pampered Cinderella grow argue that it did not defy gravity. Conscious of the potential embarrassment, we will simply say that Fatou Jahumpa was rusticated in Form Three (9TH. Grade) at The Gambia High School much to the consternation of the much-respected Jahumpa family. However, since Ms. Fortune was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, the dean of Gambian politics Ba Jahumpa secured her a Wollof Announcer’s post at The Radio Gambia. Wollof being her native tongue, it was much easier to learn how to translate English news bulletins into Wollof especially, with father figures like Alhaji Mansour Njie and Alhaji Assan Njie at her disposal than the didactic rudiments of Pope’s lexicon or Newtonian physics offered at Armitage and GHS. For many years she was at the radio but like a few Gambians who had access to the corridors of power, Ms. Fortune had the sky as her limits. She quickly secured a position at The Department of Youth Sports & Culture as Female Youth Leader, a position that would expose her to international fora and potentially, propel her to political greatness. In 1982, Fatou Fortune was nominated together with famed musician Bai Janha to accompany Hon. Nyimasata Sanneh Bojang, Parliamentary Secretary Ministry of Education to Tripoli, Libya to the first Pan–African Youth Festival. Three years later, in April 1985 Fatou Fortune was headed to Kingston, Jamaica as a delegate to the First World Youth Conference & Festival. In fact, while attending the conference, the phone rang from Banjul and Fatou was informed that a young Russian graduate called Sulayman Masanneh Ceesay had married her in absentia. Saul as he is affectionately called flew from Banjul and Fatou flew from Kingston. They met in London for their honeymoon. Since then, Ms. Fortune has been learning and perfecting her skills in Sycophancy until in 1994 when she secured a four-month Media Workshop package administered by the US State Department. While here in 1994 she interviewed Gambians like Professor Sulayman Nyang and sent dispatches to The Point Newspaper. I had the privilege to edit all her dispatches. My colleague, the late Deyda Hydara kept fisting at the juvenile nature of Fortune’s reports. I have never seen so much low calibre reporting by a Gambian journalist my entire career as a reporter. One thing was evident- Fatou Jahumpa spoke better English than she could write. No wonder Armitage let her go! Believe it or not, it was those reports (rewritten and edited by Ebrima G. Sankareh but given the by line “By Fatou Jahumpa Ceesay, USA”) that she collected and shown Yahya Jammeh as evidence of his popularity and more significantly, as evidence of her propensity to support the coup. Little did we know that Sister Fortune was using The Point to lobby the dictator?
However, for those of us who know Fortune, the Point story mirrors her entire adult life. Before the coup, Fatou was at State House 24 hours. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the Speaker knows State House more than Yahya Jammeh. Lady Chilele Jawara was her mentor and Fortune her protégée. She always called Chilel Mama Chilel but that was before she seized the crown and catapulted herself to greatness. With this scanty biography, we hope those who questioned Fortune’s motives at attacking intellectuals will now know that Fatou Jahumpa does not have the requisite wherewithal to be an intellectual let alone appreciate the sprit of genuine intellectualism. Like Yahya Jammeh, Fatou Fortune is Speaker thanks to the Power of Chance!
This brings us to The Interior Minister Ousman Sonko a confessed rapist who by all accounts should be at Mile Two. We at The Echo had long predicted that he too was poised for political greatness and his promotion as Interior Minister is no surprise at all. We still wish to remind Sonko and his boss Yahya Jammeh that indeed Sonko is a confessed rapist and we still have the witnesses and the victim’s name. To refresh your memory, the girl is the niece to Staff Sgt. Khan. She was a 14-year-old girl at Yundum Army Barracks at the Bahamas. We also wish to remind Yahya and Sonko that we have evidence that Sonko and Musa Jammeh killed Lt. Almamo Manneh. Our correspondent Officer Ox is willing to go to court any time to spill the beans. We also remind Sonko of recent developments in neighboring Liberia where the Presidential Affairs Minister Willis Knuckles resigned because he was caught having sex with two ladies. Can you image what would have happened if Mr. Knuckles were a confessed rapist?
Talking about rapists and sex maniacs brings us to the Youth and Sports Ministry. Sometimes the news is so bad that we hasten to ask whether Sonko’s sickness has contagious effects. You never know because once a disease methestasized, it can quickly spread to other branches of government. When Sanko was at State House, he operated a room called Back Gate Marena and soldiers tell us how many female officers dreaded this office. What happened at Back Gate Marena is what now happens at The Ministry of Youth Sports & Culture. This development appears to punctuate what the expelled UNDP Resident Representative was predicting. Once Gambians believe that Jammeh has clues to the keys of the AIDS pandemic, sexual promiscuity will be rife. We wish to remind the Youth Minister-our good old friend Sheikh Omar Faye that Gambian youths need help. Let him make sure that the reports we are getting stopped before we will come out with a special report. Brother, let us help the sisters, because they are powerless. Let us also not take advantage of the sisters. The boys especially those in the UK are really complaining about the apparent madness and we hope it will cease before it is too late.
Like Sonko and Faye, we hope Yahya Jammeh too will help the sisters. Like Willis Knuckles Yahya Jammeh too needs to be stopped before it is too late. It has not been The Echo’s style to expose these sexual escapades but now that things have reached fever pitch we have to. We know Yahya Jammeh’s girls even though on a daily basis he wields the Koran and his string of rosaries pretending to be a learned scholar. Take it from us that Yahya Jammeh cannot recite a single verse from the Koran!! For instance, there is the case of Fama Tazz Yakarr. Yahya Jammeh loves this girl so much that anytime Tass Yakarr misses her appointment the President feigns illness and refuses to eat. Some of us who know Tazz are not surprised because even, Boy Lunette, Yakarr’s Ex- boy friend used to complain anytime that Yakarr leaves town. When Yahya caught up with Yakarr little did he know that Tazz was much more experienced than he was? We know for a fact that he had promised to marry Tazz but that will be good for us at The Echo because we will get any news we want if Fama Tazz Yakarr becomes First Lady. Let all our readers pray for Fama. “Besimilai…-Amen!”
Then there is the case of Juliet Muna Lai. She is married, educated, loyal but likes to lie about what she can and cannot do. One night in a distant land Juliet Muna Lai surprised everybody and went into the presidential suit quasi-naked and remained there until 10:00am. Since that day Muna Lai has seen promotion after promotion.
There is also the case of Mrs. Captain. She is the wife of a loyal soldier and for now we will only call her Mrs. Captain. Usually, when Fama Tazz Yakarr disappears Yahya sends Captain on a mission and while he is away, Mrs. Captain becomes his guest. We will see if our photographer will be able to get us some photos.
As for Fama and Juliet we have numerous photos. Fama in fact, has some photos with the Echo Editor and has promised to send us some beachfront photos with His Execellency Retired Colonel Dr. Ahaji Yahya Abdul Aziz Jamus Junkung Alphose Jammeh.
Editor's Note: In our next analysis we will examine our Permanent Secretaries.