Letter From Birmingham: God Save My Beloved Gambia

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Letter From Birmingham: God Save My Beloved Gambia

Tuesday, 17 January 2012 21:28

(Column) - On January 19th, thousands of Gambians will yet again gather at the Independence Stadium in Bakau to see Yahya Jammeh take another oath of office following his controversial re-election.

The ceremony, which is likely to cost millions of Gambian Dalasis will give Jammeh, who has been in power since July 1994 the mandate to rule the country for another five years.

I see the colourful ceremony as a complete waste of resources and time. Why should a cash-strapped country like ours waste millions of Dalasis APRCS_YAHYA_JAMMEH

in the coronation of a president we all know never abides by the oaths he takes?

From 1997 to date, Mr Jammeh has always sworn by the Muslim Holy Scripture to respect and govern the country according to the dictates of the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia. However, he governs the country with an iron first and in total disregard to the constitution and other laws of the country.

For nearly 20 years now, the Gambian people are being held hostage by a brutal dictator who is governing the country like his personal estate to deal with as he pleases. In his desire to remain president for life, Mr Jammeh has given himself unlimited powers and is pushing the Gambian people to the wall.

Blinded and absolutely corrupted by his powers, Mr Jammeh thinks as president, he has the right without any basis in Gambian law to label anyone who refuses to bow before him a criminal, saboteur or detractor and then lock him up in Mile Two Prisons and throw the keys into the River Gambia.

Almost every Gambian now have a close or distant relative who is either jailed, killed or exiled for one unexplained reason or the other by Mr Jammeh. Our name as the Smiling Coast of Africa has disappeared. We are no longer a beacon of hope. We are not being governed according to the motto - peace, progress and prosperity that are on our national coat of arms.

As I write this piece, a court in Banjul has handed long jail terms to former Information Minister Dr Amadou Scattered Janneh and three others for printing and distributing T-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Coalition for Change -the Gambia: End Dictatorship Now’.

PK_Jarju

Despotism, irresponsible governance, violations of people’s rights and freedoms, lack of respect for the rule of law among others which are a recipe for political instability are ripe in our country. I don’t know about you, but I am really afraid of what the future holds for my beloved Gambia.

The situation in our country is getting worst by the day and the Gambian people are getting fed up. They complain every day in their homes, bantabas, street corners and market stalls about the evil deeds of the Jammeh regime.

As a former soldier who was thought to obey every order, Jammeh often forgets that he is president of a 'democratic' country, where people have a right to say no. And as a result he has transformed our country to a sorry state. Our country is in such a mess that a military coup today would be more justifiable than Jammeh’s own coup of July 1994.

It is our responsibility as Gambians to do anything we can to save our country. We have to remind Jammeh of his responsibilities as president of 21st century Gambia and the need to govern the people according to the dictates of the 1997 constitution, which he swore in the name of Almighty Allah to respect.

The Gambia is our only home and we should not just sit down and watch Jammeh continue to destroy the future of our young generation.

Comments

-2 #1 2012-01-19 23:09

This is the time when all Gambians should come together and fight this wicked dictator (I can't call him a president). He cannot jail or kill the whole country. People should start speaking their minds and stop hiding in corner and saying "ndeisan" to Amadou and co. These people put their lives on the line for us. The least we can do is to show our support. People like Amadou Scattred Janneh do not have to do this, he was living large in the United States and was working for the Government of the United states. The only reason he did this is his love for his country and his people. If everyone stands up to Yahya then change will happened, one person can't do it. Everyone in the Gambia is affected directly or indirectly by this Animal. Please, people lets think about our kids and grandkids and make sacrifices to make a change, if it means death then so be it. we are all going to die someday, lets die for a course. Yahya thinks of Gambians as cowards, i know we are not.

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