Gambia: Dr Janneh’s Caging Should Be A Rallying Point To End Injustice

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Gambia: Dr Janneh’s Caging Should Be A Rallying Point To End Injustice

Monday, 23 January 2012 18:31

Landing Nyassi

(Opinion) – Tears ran down my cheeks as I navigate through the cruel verdict handed on Dr Janneh and Co. for a crime that any rational person would find difficult to digest. How can someone be sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor for distributing T-shirts bearing the following “Coalition for Change the Gambia End to Dictatorship now”. This verdict did not come as a surprise for it is the way despots operate to silence disgruntled population.

Leaders who want to perpetuate their reign resort to strategies of intimidation so that no one dare to challenge their authority but no force or evil stratagems can withstand the engagement that would ensue when people are pushed beyond limit.

Landing Nyassi

It is high time to call it “enough is enough”. We have no rallying point to end the impunity that is taking place in our country than the jailing of the erudite scholar. Today it is him and tomorrow who knows who it might be. We have to understand that no one is immune to the ill gotten machinery of the current regime. Jammeh’s speech at the swearing in ceremony said it all that he is going to be more dangerous in the next five years than when he was in the military.

If you are sleeping comfortably in your soft bed and drinking “Attaya” in the evening remember that there is someone in Mile two prisons in a cell of appalling condition and having to succumb to the annoying noise and bites of mosquitoes. If you are in the midst of your kids and giving them the fatherly attention remember that there are kids who are today cut off from that for their father is languishing in jail. If you can run to the comforting arms of a husband remember that there are some women who are left with nothing to console them in the wilderness of the night.

Today you can rejoice or maybe say “Masha” in closed doors to the victims of this brutal regime but remember that this brutality could hit you at any moment as long as the status quo remains. It is time to act to free ourselves from bondage. Freedom would only come to those who fight for it. To Dr Janneh we say to be behind bars doesn’t mean one is a bad fellow. You are a prisoner of conscience and history would vindicate what you stood for.

I was listening to the Howard University lifetime achievement award holder Professor Sulayman Nyang’s deliberations on muslims in the United States; moving from the foot note into the main text. One narration caught my attention and it is the ordeal of a Moroccan Prince who was a slave Merchant but ended up being sold a slave too. This goes to strengthen the statement; what goes around comes around. Today many youths are sent to mile two prisons for some bogus allegations but it is the earlier you correct your ways and release all those unjustly locked up lest you follow the faith of the Moroccan Prince.

It is high time we all stand up for justice. Whether it is the farmer at the far end of Fatoto, businessman in the midst of Banjul, the lawyer facing the tax evasion commission or it is the teacher in the classroom we say stand up for justice. We have to bear in mind that unless we match words with actions and unless we break down the shackles of the “maslaha” syndrome we would continue to be down trodden by heartless despots who hijack the law to suit their egoistic interests.
Written by Landing Nyassi
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Comments

0 #2 2012-01-30 16:01

SORRY, this comment is meant for the EDITORIAL!

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0 #1 2012-01-30 14:47

Respected former colleagues, Kemo and John. Why is this piece at all necessary? Halafa and Forayaa have PULLED-BACK in their editorial of 27th January 2012. Is it just that Gambians love meaningless fights?

Very sad.

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