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The life and times of Yahya Jammeh; the mean-spirited, devil worshipping tyrant
Tuesday, 21 June 2011 02:36
By Mathew K JallowIn political terms, 2011 began with a bang for The Gambia. First, there was the murder of a young man from Gambisara village by security forces; a man who had barely begun his life’s journey; his parents, his community and a nation devastated by the senselessness of his loss. Before long, another promising young man in the Kombos was dead at the hands of security agents run amok, adding to the trauma of a grieving nation. And if these two horrific murders were not bad enough, the Sgt. Illo Jallow strangulation by contracted security agents crowned this spade of state-sanctioned barbarity, which once again shook a suffering nation still reeling in disbelief over the mean-spirited murders of so many
innocent young men. All these atrocious acts of criminality occurred within a short space of three months. But that is not all. In the past five months alone four children lost their innocent lives; their sad demises directly related to Yahya Jammeh’s speeding motorcades, and either the scramble for the biscuits he tossed at the crowds, or the public stampedes during his wasteful, never-ending back and forth travels between Banjul and Kanilai. And for four more families left to mourn the sudden departure of their beloved children; little angels who will never again come home, Yahya Jammeh is a bad dream, a nightmare, the epitome of evil incarnate and the monster that refuses to go away. The deaths, murders and disappearances of citizens may be the worst of the atrocities committed on the orders of Yahya Jammeh and his henchmen, but the Jammeh debacle has other dimensions that capture the manifestation of his tyranny and the trauma of a country in political distress. The tragedy of Yahya Jammeh also runs in the stream of endless Kangaroo trials that Gambians of outstanding character are forced to endure; the GAMCOTRAP’s Dr. Isatou Touray and Co. trials, GNOC’s Beatrice Allen and Co. trials, the Suruwa Wawa B. Jaiteh and Dr. Loum’s trials, the Dr. Amadou Jallow and Co. trials, Dr. Alasan Bah and Co’s trials; and the list goes on and on. The Gambian judiciary is inundated and overwhelmed with a flood of frivolous and wasteful Kangaroo trials, which more than anything else are motivated by Yahya Jammeh’s Napoleonic anti-intellectual complex. But even these anti-intellectual witch-hunts represent only an insignificant fraction of the ruinous rampage unleashed by a regime that has long lost its moral compass and found totally wanting in ethical legitimacy. And the common denominator in all these cases of abuse and state overreach are the Nigerian mercenary judges who have jettisoned the cardinal rule of jurisprudence; fairness and impartiality, to commit instead to a doctrine of greed and loyalty to the tyrant they are beholden to. But more worrisome still, each New Year has been a repetition of the previous years in terms of the murders, tortures, incarceration, and arrests and detentions, the massive spying on innocent citizens, the endemic corruption, and the destruction of the machinery of government; only the barbarianism became more brazen, and carried out with more reckless abandon and brutality. But if anyone ever wondered why Yahya Jammeh has had so much latitude for his out-of-control behavior, as we all do, wonder no more. This is Yahya Jammeh country; a lawless, godforsaken land ruled by a cabal of unapologetic crooks and bloodthirsty demons, merciless sadists and unrepentant megalomaniacs, evil personified and desensitized morons, and the ignorant and the gullible. This is The Gambia, a place, which today, is like no other on the African continent, different in so many ways, but not in a good way. The Gambia’s baptism of fire in the space of the last sixteen years has tested our resilience and challenged us in more ways than one. The past sixteen years of death and dying, murders and executions, of tortures and disappearances, of economic cannibalization and social alienation, of exiles and fearful runaways, of social disintegration and moral decadence have been a curse for The Gambia. For this land of Yahya Jammeh; a country where citizens shed tears behind the isolation of closed doors at the dead of night, only to wake up to face the impossible grind of the mean streets of the Greater Banjul. This is where heartbreaking stories are told behind closed doors; stories of loved ones lost or forever disappeared from the face of the earth, and of excruciating poverty and hunger, and the growth of a vicious underworld of crime and prostitution, vices that were once so alien to our cultures. This is a land where the values of humanity are diminished and devalued by an insane lust for power and unimaginable greed. It is the land where people are allowed to be seen, but never heard; where extrajudicial killings are common occurrences, where murders and executions are never investigated and justice is never served. This is the land where the judiciary, the National Assembly and every government institution speak not the language of the people, but that of the tyrant. This is Yahya Jammeh’s Gambia; a country governed by a battalion of 20s and 30s year olds, with little education and no experiential history to learn from, and where the nation’s best brains and its adults with the education, knowledge and wealth of experience, in their proud 40s, 50s, and 60s, are driven into exile, and those that remain have become as invisible as the ghosts of mbulumang. And it all began with an unspectacular military coup and a promise heard around the world. But The Gambia today is the land of broken promises where the soul and the character of a nation are forever changed. And now sixteen years of unchallenged authoritarianism has caught up with Yahya Jammeh, as democratic voices demand to be heard. Despite his arrest and detention, this freight train unleashed Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh defiance, cannot be stopped, cannot be delayed and cannot be slowed down. If anything, the cowardly arrest and in-communicado detention of the real professor, Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh, nearly two weeks ago, has upped the ante and tempo for the demands for liberty and unfettered rights to political inclusion. Professor, Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh represents the new hope of The Gambia and every Gambian who voice has been silenced by fear for so long, and to equate Dr. Janneh’s defiance of political tyranny to sedition and treason is a bridge too far, and an aberration that indicates the regime’s design and determination to silence the new democratic voices calling freedom. Under the guise of threat to National Security, Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh, sit behind bars, his freedom taken, his voice muffled and his rights violated by the enemy of democracy and the rule of law. If anything, it is the regime that has breached National Security by its state sanctioned murders and executions carried out with impunity, by its condemnation of people to prison as if playing with their lives is a mere a sport, and by the never-ending Kangaroo trials that have turned into another form of entertain for a bedazzled population. These are the real threats and breaches to National Security; not the distribution of T-shirts with political statement that needed to be heard so long ago. The regime’s narrow and self-serving definition of National Security, as the absence of violent uprising through control of the population, is an illusion used to limits the ability of citizens to dissent and participate in the political space. Rather, Yahya Jammeh’s coercion of the powers of the judiciary and National Assembly in contravention of the Constitution is a breach of National Security. The murders and disappearances of citizens without a trace is a breach of the National Security. Yahya Jammeh’s denial of citizens the right to freely associate and assemble, is a threat to National Security. The frequent arrests and detention with a view to intimidate citizens is a breach of National Security. And if the distribution CCG T-shirts making the political statement; “Coalition for Change Gambia; End Dictatorship Now”, is sedition and treasonous, then APRC’s political statements printed on T-Shirts and calling for “Jammeh for Life”, presidency contrary to our Constitution, must also count as seditious and treasonous. The threat to National Security as interpreted by the regime has become a mere cliché, as it ignores the state sanctioned the murders, disappearances, which constitute a breach of National Security; and the tortures, executions, surveillance on citizens, frequent arrests and detentions, search and seizures of citizens properties, road-blocks that impede the normal flow of economic activity, and the impoverished population, which create angst, consternation, anxiety and trauma, and therefore, pose a real threat to National Security. The detention of Professor, Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh, The Gambia’s equivalent of Burma’s Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the one voice that dared to stand up to the tyranny of Yahya Jammeh, is an issue that will motivate freedom loving Gambians to rally around the cause of freedom and to finally stand up to the murderous tyranny of Yahya Jammeh and seek to end sixteen years of authoritarian oppression. Gambians call on the regime to drop all frivolous and idiotic charges and release Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh, Gambia’s prisoner of conscience. True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice…author unknown.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Jollofnews.
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Comments
If you don't respect the opinions of the Gambian masses,how do you expect anyone to respect or listen to your stories?.I am still trying to figure out where to classify this man.He cannot be classified as a criminal because he has not personally committed any known crimes nor can he be classified as a journalist because he doesn't run any particular paper or page.He flops from paper to paper begging for space to download his grudge against the progressing ones.Do you remember your article about"Gutter journalism" against Pa Mbai?.These people have at least own something that they can share with you but what do you have any in return?.Absolutely nothing!.Your jealousy towards other people will surely consume you.Dida,you're a Gambian.
You are too INTELLIGENT as individual to entertain this kind of article in your paper. Let this guy go and set up his own blog and see how many people will read it.
I don't expect HIM to learn from the Balangbaa DEBACLE (he is too old to learn ANYTHING!) but really YOU are far far too intelligent for this crap.
Seriously, your grudge levels are almost comical. Speaking of devils, you ought to consider changing your picture.
I hope the day never comes when you become president or even a part of government for that matter because the hatred that fuels your soul is unholy, unfair, unjust and all the negative 'un's you can imagine (imagine away).
I sincerely hope that jollofnews reconsider posting your 'views' as they are always either an exaggeration of the truth or totally untrue. Might as well change the name of this paper from jollofnews to freedomnewspape r or worse still Gambiaecho.
The views expressed in this comment do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Jollofnews
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