In today's quote, Brother Sanusi Owens wrote:
<<"Contrary to the intentions of the military, every
detention against me strengthens my resolve. Every act
of persecution through police cell or criminal charges
advances the cause I fight for. Anytime I am arrested
and taken to the police cell or to the prisons, I am
not sad and I don't feel inconvenienced simply because
I am not there because of myself fighting my own
cause."
Chief Gani Fawehini. Nigeria's Human Rights Crusader.
This quote is dedicated to all political activists who
were unlawfully detained in The Gambia during the
First and Second Republic.>>
Brother Sanusi, with your kind permission, can i be more specific and single
out the brave, heroic and patriotic stance of a Brother, who not only
selflessly defended constitutionality on July 22nd. 1994 but, most
importantly, defiantly defended his actions on that fateful day, and paid
the price of being illegally detained for said stance? The Brother in
question is Ebrima Ismaila - formerly of the Gambia Police Force. But before
i proceed to say why i think Chongan is worthy of my deepest amiration and
respect, let me cull yestesday's quote, which you provided, and the
appropriateness of this exercise would have a better context:
<<"It is not the duty of the army to rule or govern
because it has no political mandate...... If the
national interest compels the armed forces to
intervene, then immediately after the intervention the
army must hand over to a new civilian government
elected by the people and enjoying the people's
mandate under a constitution accepted by them. If the
army failed to do this , then it has betrayed the
people and the national interest. "
Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's First President and Founding
member of the Pan Africanist Movement>>
When i read this quote yesterday, the mouse that ran in the attic of my
memory was how this quote aptly described the stance Chongan and his men
took against the mutineering soldiers, who by quirk twist of fates ended up
with an unintended "coup d'etat" in their hands. Imbued by the admirable
ideals of constitutionality, Rule of Law and a grand sense duty, Chongan and
his men valiantly defended first Denton Bridge from the onslaught of the
mutineers, and when the tide went against him and his small band of loyal
patriots, they took the fight all the way to Radio Syd. It was only upon the
realisation of the futility of further exchanges with the mutineers, and the
young Gambian lives that could invariably have gone that Chongan -- with
dignity and his integrity intact -- asked his men to lay their arms downs
and negotiated a compromise.
For this stance, Chongan and every right thinking individual amongst his
small band of patriots were illegally detained for months; they tortured,
harrassed and intimidated relentlessly by such sadists like Sanna Sabally et
al. During those emotionally trying and perplexing times, Chongan stoically
persisted with the ideals that imbued him to take his heroic stance against
the banditry of Yaya et al. He never wavered in his belief that the position
he staked on July 22nd. 1994 was the right one, and wholly defensible. Much
froth and nonsense has been written -- especially on Gambia-L last year --
about Chongan's motives on that fateful day, to the effect it had been
erroneously and nastily insinuated that the reason why he defended
constitutionality on that fateful day was because he (Chongan) was a mere
PPP operative. This is nonsense on stilts: not only has Chongan taken an
astringently liberal slant in the course of executing his duties, especially
the executing of the conditionalities of granting permits for political
rallies in the First Republic, but, most importantly, he had granted such
then radical groupings like PDOIS permits as and when they applied for one.
These liberal interpretations and executions of conditionalities for permits
didn't go down well with the PPP establishment; but Chongan was a
conscientious PUBLIC SERVANT, serving the STATE and NOT any other political
grouping -- be it the PPP, NCP or PDOIS. It was his understanding of his
duties as an employee of the State which proplled him to interpret and
execute his duties as he had sworn to do so when he joined the Services
decades ago.
Much to the AFPRC/APRC's chagrin, the case they tried to build against
Chongan failed; and they were forced to release him. As it happened,
Chongan's resolve, principles, integrity and conscience was further tested
by the APRC when he was released: he was offered a job by Yaya, and Chongan
turned down the offer. Chongan knew then, as now, that men of conscience,
principles and impregnable integrity are incapable of a worthy relationship
with Yaya's. But unbeknownst to him, by refusing this job offer on grounds
of incompatible principles with the APRC, this stance was to be used against
him when he left the Gambia for the UK, and sought political asylum there.
Indeed, the job offer was used as anecdotal evidence to the effect that if
his life were under threaten by the APRC, he would not have been offered a
job the APRC. Luckily for him, his one-time boss in the police and former
Mile Two detainee, Pa Sallah Jagne, who did accept jobs from Yaya with
disastrous consequences, defected from the APRC and bolted before the stable
doors were locked on him. Signally, Jagne's fall from grace in the scheme of
APRC politics, and subsequent defection to the US rendered obsolete any such
claims that Chongan will ever be safe in a Gambia under the tyranny of Yaya
Even in the UK, life was never as easy as he may have anticipated. With much
brio and principles, Chongan literally went through countless setbacks,
seemingly never-ending trials and tribulations that invariably comes with
migrations, especially migrants migrating with a young family. An instance
of Chongan's self discipline, hard work and sheer knack for sticking to
principles under considerable strain was how he got his first degree. The
Brother paid his first year through university from his own pockets, whilst
weathering the emotional and financial storms of bringing up a young family
on his own in an alien country by working full time at night and studying
full time during the day for his degree. As with stories of perseverance and
dignified struggle against the odds, Chongan's trials and tribulations paid
off handsomely: he's now got his LLB Honours Degree under his belt; a new
career in the British Civil Service; and a family integrating with him in
their host society -- a society that has shown time and again that it is
relatively tolerant, fair-minded and rewards hard work and self-discipline.
I hope that by going this far to commemorate the dignified trials and
tribulations of such an admirable and inestimable fellow like Chongan,
others who know of specific individuals -- who stood against the tide of
tyranny in the Gambia -- will name names and deeds.
Finally, i wish Chongan and his young family all the best in the new Odyssey
they've embarked upon in the UK. I have no doubt in my mind at all that his
life from July 22nd. 1994 to date is a vindication of the admirable
principles he defended valiantly on that regrettable and fateful day.
_________________________________________________________________
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