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The Gambia: A panoramic view of the recent news
Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:31
By Mathew K JallowIt was hard to keep up with the parade of news, much less make the time to comment on all the news worthy of our undivided attention. In the past two weeks, the newsmakers were at the best of their game, and the news they generated baffled, excited, angered and even created a reptilian raged in the minds of many Gambians frustrated with the way our country is being turned into a comedic spectacle. The emotions the recent news generated were wide-ranging for a variety of reasons; sheer wastefulness, depletion of our meager resources, loss of national productivity and revenue, unbelievable frequency with which Gambians are perpetually engaged in feasting and merrymaking, and the servile mentality generated by the intellectual degradation arising from the messianic “cult” personality Yahya Jammeh is creating for himself. The news that did not directly involve Yahya Jammeh, was revealing about him and his regime.
The Bujinga Festival in The Daily Observer
One of the first initiatives of Tourism and Culture Minister Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie after her appointment was the Jamoral festival held in Yahya Jammeh’s
mother’s honor and in her “supposed home” village. In his address to participants; Jammeh disclosed that the idea originated from his mother Aja Fatou Asombi Bojang. The question then becomes, what authority does she have to influence such waste of our national resources? The promotion of unity and cohesiveness among the Bojang, Manga and Badjan families is the least Gambians care about besides the fact that it was just another lame excuse to throw yet another party event for the purpose of feasting and debauchery. But the event also had other unintended consequences; it elevated Yahya Jammeh’s mother to an influential player in running the affairs of state. At the event itself, the pictures of senior civil servants and regime ministers like Justice Minister Edward Gomez in Aja Asombi Bojang’s ashobi dresses looked ridiculous and unbelievable beyond words could describe. In the Daily Observer’s account of the festival, two things were intriguing; the paper referred to Yahya Jammeh’s mother as “Her Excellency” and “Mother” both of which put her on an elevated pedestal similar to one held by Mary the mother of Jesus Christ or the mother of a monarch. This brought to mind mothers and wives of dictators throughout history who influenced historical events, some as recent as the late 1980s, when Romania’s brutal Socialist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and his cruel wife Elena, were overthrown and executed. But Gambians will never entertain the efforts to create“cult mysticism” around Yahya Jammeh and his family, because we will continue to define them for what they are; greedy, corrupt, narcissistic and blood-thirsty family who care only about themselves. Public Holiday on Yahya Jammeh’s birthday
If there is one thing that could make somebody scream at the top of their lungs with utter frustration, this was it. To think that Gambians will observe Yahya Jammeh’s birthday as a public holiday is beyond the reasonable imagination of any sane individual. This is further evidence that Yahya Jammeh has long ago reached the point where in his dark, convoluted mind, the distinction between him as an individual and The Gambia as a country is blurred. Yahya Jammeh treats Gambia as his personal fiefdom, where he can and does do whatever he likes and no one has the guts and the fortitude to criticize him. From the tortures, incarceration and murders of innocent individuals to the frequent arrests and detentions, Gambians have borne the brunt of Yahya Jammeh cruelty in utter silence. The celebration of his birthday as a public holiday is another manifestation of his desire to create a cult personality by mystifying his name through the observation of his “birthday” as a holiday. The reality is Yahya Jammeh like most of us, does not know his real birthday and celebrating it on any calendar date only satisfies his delusional imagination. But it is worthy for the younger generation to understand what we as a country are dealing with when we are forced against our wills to celebrate Yahya Jammeh’s birthday as a public holiday. Only in countries ruled by dictatorship are the birthdays of their “leaders” observed as public holidays. I do not know if the birth of the Prophet Mohammed is observed as a public holiday in The Gambia, but Christians observer the birth of Jesus Christ, and it is called Christmas. And if Yahya Jammeh is consciously or inadvertently equating himself to Mohammed and Jesus Christ, then the time for him to have left power is not now, but long, long, long ago.
Jammeh’s Birthday musical jamboree
Even as birthday wishes to Yahya Jammeh from Gambians who have nothing better to do continue to pour into the pages of Yahya Jammeh’s mouthpiece, The Daily Observer, the celebration was crowned with a musical jamboree that cost our country tens of thousands of dollars as payment for musicians and related entertainers. The Gambia cannot afford this wasteful spending, particularly since with all these public holidays, the unending celebrations and free perpetual public feasting, our ability to create wealth for our country has been greatly diminished. As we speak, we have no funds to equip and stock our hospitals and health centers with critical materials and drugs or provide adequate supplies of teaching aids to our schools, yet Yahya Jammeh can afford to waste billions of dollars on celebrating himself and dishing our money as if we have an infinite supply of it. The never-ending parties, feasts and celebration of himself that Yahya Jammeh throws out every month are largely the reason why the out of wedlock birth rate in the country has exploded beyond imagination, with members of the military and other security forces and foreigners in the country impregnating Gambians girls and women and creating a class of citizens who much like many black Americans, will never know their fathers. This moral decadence is a danger to the very fabric of our society and Yahya Jammeh has done nothing other than to perpetuate it. It can be recalled that about five years ago when Yahya Jammeh was at the apex of his brutal (mansaya) reign, he threatened to deal with any civil servant who refused to allow their wives to go to his many Kanilai parties. He in effect, gave license to wives, mothers and daughters who have a predisposition to cheat, to travel all the way to Kanilai to do just that with complete strangers, and he dared their husbands to deny their wives permission to answer to his Kanilai debauchery calls. Besides, Yahya Jammeh’s Saturday birthday musical jamboree not only drained our national coffers of resources we cannot afford, it perpetuated the social and moral decadence in the country. But for Yahya Jammeh and his marauding band of criminals posing as a government, the debauchery never ends.
Demba Jawo on Yahya Jammeh in Jollofnews
“Therefore, a majority of the civil population are quite grateful to President Jammeh for at least putting a halt to their daily nightmares on the roads,” wrote cousin D. A. Jawo. I could not disagree with him more. Should we really be grateful to Yahya Jammeh for tearing down the illegal impediments to our civil rights which he in the first place put into place? I don’t think so. Gambians do not owe Yahya Jammeh an ounce of gratefulness, instead, he should thanks us for everything he has; the limitless power, the abundant wealth he is wasting and the slaves he has turned the Gambian population into. While I agree with Demba Jawo with the other things he referenced in his article, we cannot give Jammeh a pass for lifting the roadblocks which had been a barriers to the free movement of people and goods around the country. In fact, many of these roadblocks were lifted only after a scathing Balangbaa criticism of the military, police and other security forces practice of installing roadblocks for the purpose of exhorting money from the civilian population in order to supplement their meagre salaries. Without such kinds of pressures put on him, Yahya Jammeh would, left to his own devises care less whether or not police, security and military officers put up roadblocks, as this help him put mental pressure on the population and make it easier for him to maintain control over them.
The town crier in Freedom Newspaper
I thoroughly enjoyed the town criers serialized travel accounts in the Greater Banjul area. He took me along on a ride of a life time, so to speak. It accounts were interesting. When I out of home-sickness want to make similar tours in the Greater Banjul area and around the country to release my nostalgia, I use Google earth to navigate around, but that is nowhere near excitement generated by the town criers accounts.
The jugglers in Freedom Newspaper
The story of the feared jugglers who have wrecked havoc in plain view on our streets or out of public view in the dark alleyways and forests around the country has come into focus once again. This time their stories of cruelty and brutality were revealed for the whole world in confirmation of the atrocities everyone knew the regime was involved in. While the stories are horrifying, the fact that those who were close to these atrocities or were themselves involved in one way or another, directly or indirectly, in the commitment of these tortures and gruesome murders and executions, are coming forward to talk about Yahya Jammeh’s regime’s hidden horrors, is gratifying and encouraging. The way and manner Daba Marenah and his co-defendants were executed, has come to light, thereby dispelling the regime’s lies that they escaped from custody. As the media has always maintained, Gambians are still not fully exposed to the sheer enormity of the atrocities committed by Yahya Jammeh and members of his regime. But it is heartening to know that there are Gambians who are moved by a sense of guilt to want to expose the murderous secrets Yahya Jammeh is hiding from the Gambian public. From the executions of military and security officers and civilians in the dead of night, to feeding victim’s corpses to crocodiles in his personal Kanilai zoo, to poisoning to death of his perceived enemies and the torture chambers operated by the now marginalized National Intelligence Agency, when the story of Yahya Jammeh’s is told, not only Gambians, but the world will be shocked to realize the gravity of the crimes committed by Yahya Jammeh and his regime. And that day is drawing closer each day that passes.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Jollofnews.
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Comments
And to think that, in the face of all these endless misuse & mis-spending of state funds,the IEC is citing lack of funds for including diaspora Gambians in the presidential elections,makes it even harder for us to accept.
Someone somehow needs to stop this madness.
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