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Gambia President Not Married to State and Laws of The Land
Wednesday, 27 July 2011 14:41
A case of political prostitution in Gambia since 22 July 1994 coup(Opinion) - Tradition determines that a man and woman first get married before they can carry on any affair. This begins with a courtship by which process leads to the man or woman asking for the other partner’s hand in marriage. In tradition or by religious orders marriage is commissioned in the presence of witnesses. Along similar lines a nation gets married to the custodian, instruments of governance. Any means by which a person assumes power without due process is an abortion of rules amounting to unlawful marriage between the state and the ruler in question. Gambia’s sitting president Yahya Jammeh came to power without lawful occasion. He is therefore not married to the nation in view of legally possessing the instruments of governance through the will of the people.
To lead people, you first require them to consent
Through orderly democratic processes, any person wishing to become leader of a nation is required to seek the mandate of citizens within rules. First the person or group of persons establish a political party with a development agenda that comes to be known as party manifesto. Next the person or group of persons promote that agenda using available and readily accessible media to engage prospective voters. Other parties do similar canvassing and the public is free to make informed decision about which party or political leader has the most appealing message.
Staging a coup in July 1994 as then army officer what Jammeh and his companions did was a violation of due process. The plan to seize power was conceived and hatched in secret. There was no prospecting of Gambian voting public. Taking to the streets with guns and military gears was total breakdown of order. People had no say whatsoever. The experience in social terms amounted to raping a virgin and taking the father hostage. Jammeh and his companions already knew the most decent route for ascending to higher political position. Having served as one of president Jawara’s security guards, the role of Jammeh and the entire security outfit was to defend Gambia’s democratically elected public position holders and all the instruments of governance that those elected politicians were entrusted to preside over.
Seizing power without consent of people amounts to political raping
Therefore, the coup makers conducted with full knowledge of rules but decided to usurp power by the most violent means. At the time, only them carried guns and trained to use such lethal weapons. Rest of Gambian people could not engage the coup makers as that had prospects of descending into further violence. The public was stripped off any bargaining power as parents of the nation who were supposed to give consent getting the country married to a person or group of persons after due consultation. As this was a matter of open raid, there was no time to bargain. That is how serious everything began.
To agree Gambia as a nation was not married to her current leader is fundamental. At least the coup makers could have had the courtesy of observing decency by allowing the marriage break for other suitors soon after seizing power. That is done in better ways should the chief of mission Jammeh mustered courage to step out of power for a grace period of some years. At least two political terms of five years was adequate to permit people of Gambia form opinion between the raiding holders of power and winning parties who would have acquired power by consent of the people. Experience of Mali with Amadou Tumani Toure sezing power and stepping down was a case in point. Though he was not mandated to rule by force of arms after seizing power, he only did so within reasonable limits. Breaking away from the overstaying rule of Mali’s long serving president was seen as turning point in the political history of that nation. That was what many in Gambia expected of coup maker Jammeh and his comrade in arms.
Disappearance and emergence of political entities in Gambia
Rather than allowing a grace period by stepping down and letting genuine politicians compete amongst themselves, Gambia’s coup makers wilfully designed schemes of self perpetuation. At first they banned the most popular People’s Progressive Party PPP whose leader Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara they toppled out of power. This was done so that before any new parties could form up and gain grounds, the coup makers would entice Gambian voters in ways to make them (the coup makers) an only choice. With PPP barred from entering the political arena, the expectation of coup leader Jammeh and his companions was that no other political force presented any threat to their speedily sweeping powers.
People’s Organisation for Independence and Socialism in Gambia PDOIS already existed as political party and running a media front named FOROYAA that made a mark as keen obsevers and critical challenger to deposed PPP government. How PDOIS could not galvanise the political vacuum created by disappearance of PPP kept many observers wondering. Over time, another political party the United Democratic Party UDP emerged, under leadership of Lawyer Ousainou Darbo. The National Covention Party led by Sheriff Mustapha Dibba played low key. They called it political holiday and never resume job till another wave of political surprise hit grounds in Gambia. The populous party NCP broke away from PPP and since seen as the strongest opposition to government of Sir Dawda Jawara now played the lame duck. Party leader Sheriif Mustapha Dibba served in many ministerial positions including Vice President, Minister of Finance, Local Government and Lands Minister among other high profile political positions under PPP. Dibba’s breaking away from PPP could not be seen as ethnic as both him and former President Jawara hailed from the predominantly Mandinka ethnic group of Gambia. As Finance Minister a brother of Dibba was named in a financial scandal, the Butut saga. The rest is history.
In his later political life, Dibba abandoned his long term ambition of becoming Gambian president by joining the ranks of coup leader Jammeh’s AFPRC party. The political U-turn earned Dibba position of Speaker Gambian House of Parliament where he presided until a fracas split him and Jammeh. He subsequently died shortly after being deposed off his last political position under the Jammeh rule.
Though this is by no means full account of Gambia’s political history, some of the events are milestones for interest purposes. We can now proceed on the marriage of force between President Jammeh and nation of Gambia.
Again, tradition holds it that when two adults couple and bear children without lawful agreement, what they do amounts to adultery or fornication. Even without bearing children, society expects holy matrimony as the most acceptable union between man and woman of consenting age.
Forced rule is an invitation to further troubles
After all a nation is an embodiment of people in society. To engage a nation politically requires legal and mutual agreement between those who compose of that state and the person or group of persons who aspire to lead those people. Such is political marriage in that context. In this day and time, seizing power by force of arms is another form of terror and ready recipe for further violence. It leads people to think that the fast track to getting on top and commanding national resources is by forceful resort. That is made worse in a situation like Gambia where after seizing power and staying for more than 17 years, the coup leader insists he has to stay on ruling until anyone or group of persons more powerful than him is able to unseat him through violence. By declaring his intention of staying in power till he is taken down forcefully President Yahya Jammeh is inviting more trouble for the nation.
Imagine a situation where toiling parents of a promising daughter had gunmen raid their home and take the lady away forcefully. Imagine if these gun men refused to go by rules and kept threatening the parents that any attempts to rescue their daughter meant inviting war. Worst still imagine the gunman and his companions piling up more guns to defend their unlawful custody the toiling parents of a daughter captured by force. How long will it take to rescue this young lady from unlawful custody and to organise a decent marriage where the lady and members of her family get lasting peace by decent matrimonial occasion? The toiling parents are people of Gambia. The lady captured under unlawful custody is Gambian nation. The gun man is coup leader Yahya Jammeh and his companions. Such, my dear people, is how far Gambia stays under military rule without break for all the years since 22 July 1994. The nation of Gambia is not married to her current partner coup leader Yahya Jammeh. This is serious to let go on for good. Think of it. As children of toiling parents, how would be feeling where one your most respected sister is captured by gunmen and they refuse to surrender her back so that the family is permitted to enter into clean marital relations with more serious suitors? That’s you and your nation in the hands of uncompromising captives for nearly 20 years now. What is your say on this?
Written by Sarjo Bayang, UK
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Comments
But in Britain..it is not society that is corrupt. It is those few who were given opportunities to rise above and seek all means to maintain there position.
The balance in England, is maintained by the courts in English and Welsh law.
That even the weakest, the poorest or less well educated citizen, can challenge the strongest, the richest or the privately educated....and win at court.
The right defeats the wronged.
"The Marriage" between the citizen and the state, is at the heart of British fare play and universal justice.
Human Rights must take centre stage.
To compare the merits of a soldier against a lawyer....when seeking direction,
?
There is no contest or conflict in my mind...the Lawyer's argument wins every time.
We quickly learn what is right and what is wrong...from the wisdom and experience of our peers.
This is standard logic that governs all humanity.
Thereafter...we then enter school, education and society as growing adults to compare our parents philsophy...against those we come into contact with.
God gave us our own reason and logic.Sometimes our parents logic is challenged by those who act or were taught differently.
But through our most difficult challenges..we revert back to the memory of our basic teachings and instincts.
What is right and what is wrong.
These form our principals.
Our own personal fountain of wisdom and experience.
We then become the adults and the teachers of children.
Should we trust our parents or ourselves?
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