Term Limit
By Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr
Dear editor: My article this week discusses the point of Time Limit for African Presidents highlighted in my last paper. It is my strong belief that it is the ultimate magic bullet for solving the problem of decades of unprecedented monopoly of power by unscrupulous politicians responsible for the stagnation of our dear continent. Until recently, African governments past and present have been rather reluctant to embrace the concept. However in West Africa today, we have now seen all Anglophone nations specifically Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia adopt this logical trend of democratization. The Gambia remains the only Anglophone country in the sub-region yet to adopt the dynamic system. Anyway as much as this change for the better involves a complex revolutionary process, it also has a clear evolutionary component as well.
By Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr
Starting from Nigeria, the biggest that could have set the pace for the rest of Africa long after independence, it took Nigerians 39 turbulent years of different civil and military governments, twelve Heads of State, three years of civil war that wasted an estimated 3,000,000 human lives and God knows with how many coups and counter- coups before they realized the need for term limit as the only road map to peace and progress along with genuine democracy. After independence from Britain in 1960, like most African nations, the politicians who took over from the colonial masters were mainly demagogues who exploited the ignorance of the masses in a bid to perpetuate themselves in power. Historians have generally agreed that colonialism and slavery coupled with the demarcation of the African continent among European nations in the Berlin conference of 1885 were the key factors that started the chronic hostility among Africa’s diverse peoples. The Europeans never really cared about the economic, cultural or political ramifications as well as consequences of what they did to their colonial subjects. Instead, what suited their best interests, which included among other things keeping us under their dominance as long as it was possible mattered most. The political strategy of divide and rule was supreme for the success of the early European explorers. We had had no choice. Those who tried to resist them were subdued by force. They were certainly resisted but in an era of survival of the fittest, I think they prevailed because of the superiority of the gunpowder over our forebears’ rudimentary spears and bows and arrows.
That was it! The actual European dominance over Africa resulting in centuries of slavery and colonialism was made possible by their military might. Tales of mighty African kingdoms ruled by warriors endowed with supernatural powers that enabled them to turn cocks’ spurs into lethal projectiles meant zilch to the blitzkrieg of the European conquerors with their machine guns. Nevertheless, stories told by illusionary historians giving birth to ancestral rights to particular tribes, religions or regions in Africa that lost their entire relevance in the colonial days have been the rallying point of many political parties that emerged after independence. They had laid all blames of their past economic, political and social miseries not on the very Europeans who orchestrated the causes but the members of the nearest ethnic, religious or regional group who perhaps have been enduring the same woes or worse under the oppressive colonial conditions.
Anyhow in the three or more critical centuries the Europeans ruled Africa they were able to dismantle every form of our political, legal, economic and social structures and replaced them with their own systems. And we must not forget that prior to the advent of European colonialism, the Arab impact left us the first divisive marks that had permanently diluted our religious and cultural beliefs.
I must emphatically say this again, in the end, apart from the history derived from oral traditions told mainly in myths by different ethnic groups, nothing or little is known about what we had in place in pre-colonial days. Hence the nations we have today in their form and substance came to be as a design of the colonialists. Yet after independence instead of holding the Europeans accountable to this factious structure and looking into means of rectifying it with the aim of unifying the people above their regional, ethnic or religious differences, the politicians used it for their personal gains. In Nigeria for instance, the main ethnic groups, Hausas, Yorubas and Igbos spent the last three decades ruthlessly battling each other over problems clearly caused by colonialism. Those conflicts often fueled by greed played a great part in politicizing the military that, we must remember, was also created by the Europeans for their own plans and objectives. From General Yakubo Gowon to General Sani Abacha, military officers also came and departed but not before exploiting every political and economic opportunity for their selfish desires. But by the time Gen. Abacha mysteriously died in 1997, the Nigerians had woken up from their slumber and demanded the constitutional amendment for term limit to Heads of State. President Obasanjo the first to enjoy that political Experiment tried to change the Constitutional Clause for a third term or to stay in office longer, but the Nigerians fed up with political fraud aggressively challenged and defeated the motion.
In Ghana as well, formerly known as the Gold Coast, after their independence in March 1957, Nkrumah, the first post-colonial Head of State whose international image was viewed as one of the most impressive at the time, used exploitative sentiments of the common ignorant masses and organized a Referendum in 1964 that changed the country into a one-party state and declared himself life President. No wonder in 1966 he was toppled by the British created military followed over the next thirty years by four more coups, several counter coups and few more failed civilian governments before they tried the term limit thanks to the last government headed by Jerry Rawlings. Since then, Ghana has been transformed into what experts believe is a stable developing nation with all the right ingredients available for a promising future.
Sierra Leone had similar political revolutions that recently evolved the former British colony to adopting the term limit. It had however appeal to them recently after they had paid dearly for the crimes committed by past greedy politicians and military leaders. Forty years of one-party government, several coups, counter coups and a bloody civil war waged for ten years brought them to their senses to finally go for it.
Liberia however had a slightly different political development that started in earnest when liberated slaves from the Americas were resettled in that country in 1820 to form what eventually became the government. For 133 years these freed slaves known as Americo-Liberians ruled the country excluding the indigenous population who simply adapted to the conditions imposed on them. In 1980 Master Sergeant Doe shattered that century-old status quo when he overthrew the hereditary government of the Tolberts. Where Doe shepherded Liberia during that period until Charles Taylor took over after his gruesome death and a costly civil was is common knowledge today. In short, after losing over 200,000 lives plus over one million of them scattered as refugees in neighboring countries, the Liberians finally realized that it was not about Americo-Liberians, or Krahns, Gios and Manos tribesmen that determined good leadership and progress but competent minds found in all Liberians irrespective of religious or ethnic affiliation. Term limit had to be adopted for the realization of that dream.
As for Gambia, there is no doubt in my mind that after Jammeh, another new government would adopt the same formula. Jammeh could have done it like Rawlins did and save himself and especially, his family from being hounded like what happened to the Abacha family after the Nigerian strongman suddenly died 10 years ago. All of Abacha’s fortunes estimated to be in excess of billions of dollars were seized and returned to the Nigerian people from foreign banks. His family members have been in virtual hiding in fear of vengeance from those victimized by the late Head of State.
Jammeh has however vowed to rule The Gambia for three more decades before considering retirement. Looking at the demographics, that is quite possible in his eyes. He knows he wouldn’t ever lose general elections in a nation where electoral fraud has become the norm. He is also aware of the timidity of the Gambian people when it comes to confronting him irrespective of how difficult the conditions are or how oppressive his government becomes. Like the PPP he knows that if not removed by force in a coup or similar means he will continue to be there for the period he had pledged to be President. Considering the sycophants around him telling him how indispensable he is for the survival of The Gambia and his claim to have turbo-supernatural powers and you might see what I mean when I say that Jammeh might never leave voluntarily.
President Jawara had governed the country on similar terms when he was propped up into believing that he was indispensable and that without him no body could rule The Gambia for even a day. I could vividly recall in 1992 when one bimbo Permanent Secretary at President Jawara’s office walked to me and said of the Ex-President “the man is a Saint”. To make his argument, he swore by his soul that Jawara had the supernatural ability to change the tone of his skin color depending on his mood or whenever he felt like it. The man used to claim being Jawara’s nephew and was arrogantly powerful. Certainly, I was shocked but more by the person peddling the silly idea than the idea itself. When it came to supernatural matters Gambians could entertain anything from devils slapping humans from tree branches to voices talking to Presidents straight from religious scriptures; but an official of the calibre of a Permanent Secretary at the President’s office, the custodians of national policies on how to manage the affairs of the country coming up with such asinine tales was the epitome of sycophancy. I wonder whether Mr. Nephew is still in touch with his uncle because the last time I checked, 90% of those who used to boast of having close family ties with President Jawara when he was in power have distanced themselves from such statements after losing hope in seeing him back to power.
Anyhow among the most dangerous sycophants of the PPP regime were those believable political con artists who played the ethnic card with total ignorance and lack of conscience. I want us to go back a little in time during the PPP days when the late Dr. Lamin “Napha” Saho through tribal politics secured himself a ministerial position in charge of Information and Broadcasting. Then in what he attributed to correcting a tribally bias radio program put in place by the British colonialists, Saho effected the change by rearranging the order in which the news was broadcast daily over the National Radio Gambia. The British had always started with English the official language, then Wollof the predominantly urban language and last Mandinka the spoken language by the majority ethnic group that founded the PPP party. They were mainly located in the rural parts of the country. In Minister Napha’s changes therefore, he left the English news (the saintly colonial language) in the first place, the Mandinka second and then Wollof last. He had argued that the Mandinkas were the majority and therefore, deserved to hear the news first before the Wollofs, but the English who were long gone and with the few in the country probably not interested in our national agenda, still had to hear it first. A more reasonable arrangement based on his parochial sectarian reasoning should have been Mandinka first, Wollof second and English last.
But just as I said earlier, colonialism in almost every African country had succeeded in fermenting irrational antagonistic feelings amongst major co-existing ethnic groups who otherwise should have been united in love, harmony and progress. But that beautiful aspect of our world was all surrendered to the “Toubab” masters.
Mr. Saho’s radical move was very popular among the politically minded Mandinka youth particularly those resident in the urban area, the heart of Wollof land.
While in Nigeria the British shrewdly pitched the Hausas, Yorubas and Igbos against each other, and in Ghana the Fante, Gas and Ewes, in The Gambia- a smaller country, it was primarily the Wollofs against the Mandinkas. Although it was not as bad in The Gambia as it had been in other countries where tribes had fought and killed each other because of hatred caused by colonial maladministration. It has been as ridiculous to where a Gambian being called a “Toubab” (white) is considered an honor; yet we hated to be mistaken for being members of other ethnic groups other than our own even if our similarities far overshadow our differences. Well, Mr. Saho didn’t go too far in his phony crusade before his loyalists soon discovered that the rabble-rouser was nothing but another self-centered person immersed in serious corruption. Dr.? Momodou S.K. Manneh; perhaps the most brutal and arrogant PPP Cabinet Minister of Economic Planning & Industrial Development was another one whom I had had some personal experiences with when he was a very strong militant in the PPP cabal. I will leave that story for a special paper.
Anyway such irrational squabbles among the major ethnic groups also helped in keeping the Jawara government in power longer than necessary and would have still kept him there if he weren’t overthrown. He would have continued winning elections and using all kinds of tricks especially, those that made him looked like the only one who could be there forever.
Jammeh had to kick him out of office. But as a member of the Jola ethnic group however, Jammeh has been caught up in a more treacherous position. Members of his ethnic group by colonial making between the French and the English have always been placed in a small minority clique with their roots mostly traceable to Cassamance, southern Senegal. As a result his government though similar in many ways to that of his predecessor’s, if he doesn’t get his act together and take immediate dressing from Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone by adopting the term limit for the modern progressive democracy, he might end up in the same predicament; one of doom and gloom that has always caught up with leaders like him. It is the only way he could design a political strategy that will guarantee him and his children a safe and promising future.
I was going to recommend a means of halting electoral fraud for better democracy, a topic I have discussed in my book Coup D’e tat By The Gambia National Army, but I will have to stop here till next time.
On a final note, may I argue briefly, that a change of government in The Gambia will not only significantly reduce the brain drain adversely affecting the country’s growth but will surely encourage thousands of very educated people abroad keenly awaiting for that day to return home and take the nation to a higher economic level.