By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor.
Events of the past several weeks are a clear manifestation of the accelerated unraveling of this murderous Jammeh regime. Jammeh’s attempts at reinvigorating his government by drawing in some new and fresh blood, cannot undo the damage that his mismanagement of our resources brought upon our country. Even as our institutions are failing, and there is no longer an existing government to guide the social and economic development of our country, Yahya Jammeh continues to live in denial. His delusional state does not permit him to see and to recognize that all around him his government is crumbling one brick at a time. There is widespread dissatisfaction in the Civil Service, from the police, the army, the bureaucracy and even many elements of the murderous NIA, Jammeh’s last line of defense. It is evident that not everyone at the NIA condones the atrocities committed in the interest of prolonging Jammeh’s murder, torture, imprisoning and humiliation of our countrymen.
The defection of so many security personnel to Senegal, effectively turning them into dissidents, speaks to their concerns about the injustice and the brutality of the government they served so slavishly for so long. Gambians in the Diaspora are calling on other security personnel from the NIA to the military to withdraw their support of this government and if personal safety necessitates it, cross the border into our sister country Senegal. We are encouraging mass defection of our military and other security personnel, because without their support, Yahya Jammeh cannot last one day in his fantasy castle at State House. The military and other security services have one basic question to ask themselves. Is it in the interest of our country to have hundreds of our best and brightest, our very own brothers, sisters, uncles, nephews, fathers and mothers living in exile in Senegal, Europe and U.S? Do the military, the NIA and the other security forces that are there solely to protect Yahya Jammeh, believe that Jammeh alone is more important to our country than all the hundreds of our countrymen who cannot return home for fear for their lives? If they think so, then they can continue defending and protecting this cruel murderer, but if they do not think so, then they have a unique opportunity to separate themselves from the regime that has done so much damage to our country. But more than that, our military should without wasting any more time, arrest Yahya Jammeh, Lang Tombong Tamba, the murderers Musa Jammeh, Samba Batchi Jallow and anyone else who is known to have brutalized and murdered our countrymen. Additionally, the few good God-fearing NIA officers should effect the arrest of the evil and bad ones among their ranks who have participated in the intimidation, torture and murder of our fellow citizens. We cannot continue to allow Yahya Jammeh to tear our country and our people apart by brutalizing and separating them by his policies of tribalism. Since coming to power, Jammeh has had the distinction of giving his Jola tribesmen extraordinary power, opportunity and access to our national resources at the exclusion of all other tribes. From education, promotion, employment to scholarships and community projects, Jammeh has clearly shown himself steering our national resources toward his tribesmen as if the other tribes don’t matter. The Gambia belongs to all its tribes and if they can share its pain, agony and bad times, surely they have the right to enjoy in its fruits without being discriminated against just for not being of the Jola tribe.
As of today, Jammeh has single-handedly destroyed our once wildly successful institutions like Gamtel/Gamcel, the Central Bank, Ports Authority and Customs and Excise and other institutions by constantly and continually demanding money from them to fund his lavish personal lifestyle and his many private projects, which include a palace and a farm in Kanilai, properties in Morocco and Guinea-Conakry, personal bank accounts which are known to containing hundreds of millions of dollars of our nation’s finances. During the last A.U. meeting in Banjul, millions of dollars were provided to finance the meeting, but in addition, individuals and Para-statals in our country were coerced into providing millions more dollars, but to this day, no one knows what happened to these funds. From time to time, Jammeh is also in the habit of making individuals, businesses and corporations in our country give money to his bogus projects/causes, only for these monies to end up in his pockets. Today, Jammeh has effectively usurped the authority of every government institution and agency from the Supreme Court to the Education Department, to the extent that now, local scholarships, ambulances, vehicles, police motorbikes, books for schools, medicines for our hospitals and health centers, overseas scholarships, and many other areas of government activity too much to list, all seem to be funded from the personal pockets of Yahya Jammeh and his Jammeh Foundation. Everything Jammeh does is done for political reasons with a view to perpetuate his corrupt rule, and it is time we end this nightmarish and brutal regime. Since coming to power thirteen years ago, hither to unimaginable culture of brutality and violence has taken root in our country and our own government, the supposed protector of life and limb, is the primary perpetrator of the worst brutalities our country has ever seen. The extent of the acceptance of this status quo is manifest in the absolute indifference exhibited by our citizens to the murders, tortures, killings, disappearances, incarcerations and intimidation of our fellow citizens. Beginning with the Nov. 11th murders of Basirou Barrow and Dot Faal, to the cowardly massacre of fourteen school children, the equally brutal massacre of fifty-five West African immigrants, to the very cruel murder of Koro Ceesay, and the execution and disappearances of close to two dozens former military and security officers, the most recent involving Daba Marenah and six other officers, Jammeh’s madness continues unchecked to this day. Just last week, more than a dozen of our security and military personnel absconded to Senegal. For that to happen, there must be a good reason, but more importantly, it also tells us that Jammeh’s house of cards is finally falling apart from the inside out.
Today, Jammeh has become a virtual prisoner in our country, because he fears that if he travels, he might not be allowed back in again. To preempt the possibility of being denied landing at Yundum International Airport, he has promoted his fellow Jolas to the top military and security positions, and in the process he caused mass dissatisfaction and alienation in our military and security services. For the seven percent Jola population to rule the ninety-three percent of our citizens is no longer acceptable and we must fight to restore civility and the brotherly relations that existed between all our tribes, the Jolas included. In the same vein, there are today far too many Casamance residents in our country, and the number has grown exponentially since Jammeh came to power. The issue with these immigrants is that many of them are not in our country for the right reason. It is not a secret that Jammeh is harboring many Casamance rebels and he has given them carte blanc to pour across our border unhindered, which puts our citizens near the border at risk when rebels are fleeing from the Senegalese military forces. By offering refuge and sanctuary in our country to the rebels, he is also contributing to prolonging the conflict in Casamance, and the killing of Senegalese security forces. The presence of the rebels in our country is a national security issue; which our military should never allow to continue. We cannot afford to alienate our closest neighbor Senegal with the kinds of provocations Jammeh has continually used to irk the government of Abdoulaye Wade. It is now time to stop Jammeh’s madness. We need a government that cares about its people, not one that kills and jails them for no reason. We have had enough of Yahya Jammeh, and there are Gambians qualified in every field and enterprise ready to take over and return our country into the club of civilized nations. It is time for Jammeh and his government to resign immediately and give us back our country. Our people have suffered enough, and this nightmare must come to an end. Whenever a country loses most of its educated and intellectual class for fear of their government, then it becomes clear that it is the government itself that must go. This is the situation we are in right now. Everyone of us in exile around the world have family and relatives, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters, uncles, nieces and nephews, friends and neighbors that we have not seen in many years. Why should one man, Yahya Jammeh, have the right and the power to prevent us from returning to the country we are born, the country we love more than any other country in world? We cannot sacrifice the national interest of having our most educated class, for the interest of having one dictatorial murderer in power. Over the past twelve years, so many of our intellectuals and educated class have left our country, and today the Civil Service is mostly populated by semi-educated folks and self-imposed slaves, who don’t have the slightest clue how to govern over a pack of pigs, much less a whole country of people. We therefore, urge our brave men and women in the military and security services, our students, and our workers, to stand up for our dear country and to reject this government of kleptomaniacs. We need to take back our country from the hands of these corrupt and criminal thugs who are looting our resources for their own personal and selfish ends. The time to do so is now.
Finally, the issue that has caught us all off guard and relating to the brothers in blood and in crime, the Singhateh brothers, has turned into a stunning development with the dismissal of Peter Singhateh. The brothers-in-crime will never find peace in our country for as long as they live. The crimes perpetrated by Edward Singhateh are so heinous, that it is even disturbing to describe and mind bugling to even begin to understand how he executed, butchered and slaughtered some of his victims. The level of cruelty Edward has exhibited is both indescribable and incomprehensible. Edward’s crimes are enough to make Yahya Jammeh look like a saint. But he has come to realize that a crime committed against any Gambian, is a crime against all Gambians. For now, he should be under the watchful eye of our security personnel to prevent him sneaking out of the country. All our neighboring countries especially, the authorities in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania, should be alerted for his appearance and to place him under arrest for extradition as soon as he is found. It is time for Edward to face Gambian justice in Sierra Leone or at The Hague. With regard to his brother, if it is found that Peter too is complicit in any crime, the Irish authorities must be ready to extradite him as soon as the request is made. The Rule of Law and the hand of justice must take their course. Since he is out of the country, it is unlikely Peter will ever return while Jammeh is still in power. If he cannot return now, then he will likely never again see The Gambian even if he lives to be a hundred years. If he returns now, Yahya Jammeh’s five star hotels are waiting for him at Mile II Prisons or perhaps in Janjangbureh. For now, we collectively sigh a sigh of relief, and say good riddance to the Singateh brothers. YAHYA JAMMEH TOO MUST GO, NOW. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this article or any other article or image, or portions thereof, in any form or context without the expressed permission of The Gambia Echo Newspaper.