Hello Again,

It is sometimes scary to seeing people on the top position of a society using tribal sentiments just to feed their own egos. As the election is drawing nearer, I wish the opposition disregards Yahya’s tribal sentiments red in the news papers and focuses on their agendas of peaceful and strategically propaganda. Yahya on the other hand, should be aware of the fact that, Gambia is too small for tribal propaganda and more so, Mandingos are dominants, Therefore, A party that is demoting the value of the Mandingo tribe in the Gambia, will not prevail. This tribal issues should be played down by the media and politicians alike as well as we the diasporas because the problem here is not the issue of tribalism but the economical difficulty facing the greater majority of the people of the Gambia which of cause should be addressed hence it is the people, that the government is representing therefore, their voices should be heard and their worries catered for.

If any government been Wolof, Mandingo, Jola, or Fula is not in the foreseeable, future able to cater for people’s need should resign than engaging in tribal politic Even whereas, the leaders build mountain of goal for the country, doesn’t give him/her to engage in tribal politic due to it’s sensitivity towards destabilizing a country and therefore, at the end of the day, the creator of such inhumane act will therefore, face international justice for instigating such crime or pay a heavy price for their deeds if only they are wise to acknowledge those simple facts. We are all Gambian as long as democratic thinking exist, Arnold is elected in the US and could even be some day a president, more so Mrs Ghandi of India who was a born Italian.

Inequality is in every society even in the most simple hunting and gathering band, some people are bigger, stronger, and smarter than others. .Physical and intellectual capacity, power, wealth, and status may or may not go together. Politicians in some countries can enjoy status and power without wealth; businessmen, wealth and power without status. Such inconsistence between the various areas are often problematic. In African context, these are resolved by making the area more consistent. That is, politician use the power given to them by the people to acquire wealth more so the businessmen will enter politic to acquire status. Some countries in Africa, "specifically", handles power like it was given to them by themselves, power in any form is powered by people, as a businessmen will never prevail without consumers or customers participation, politicians will never succeed without the vote of their citizens even if one is physically powerful from gym, or any kind of sport, will
 never be a success without people around you.

We, however, seems to be ignorance of the fact that power without control end up hurting oneself like we are seeing in Serbia, Ghana, Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan to name just few. Yahya particularly was not diplomatic when it come to facing his own people due to the previous background. Despite his military background, he have been there for long to learn to become a better politician than retaining the military mentality toward his people. People are, however, his sources of power as far as democracy is concern as a result, they will have to prevail at the end of the day if their needs are not met. Authority survives only where it is matched by obedience as Gambians have been in the last seven years. The question remains, will their obedience change in the coming years? This depends on the way they are treated by the leaders.

Scandals involving leader in Africa, are expected and so is the fact that, they will be covered up. If something goes wrong, the blame will go to people lower in rank. If it goes too bad, there come revolution which also ended in failure even if they success because in the end of the day, they repeat the same reason that put them in power. When will people learn from the mistake of others? When can we have honest leaders? When will the politician deliver the basic needs of their people without been too greedy? How can Africa be respected in the international perspective if leader are not competent enough?

In the Gambia, more so other parts of Africa, power was and is seen as a basic fact of society which decides the choice between good and evil instead of by law to decide, therefore, Its legitimacy is irrelevant, this statement may rarely be presented even thus it reflected in the behaviour of the leaders in power as well as the ordinary people. This is unfortunately, rooted from the parenthood whereby children are always wrong against there parents as well leaders are always right even if that is not true but due the respects and obedience enjoyed by them, they are never wrong. Whoever, holds the power is right and good. Skills wealth, power, and status should go together. Power is based on friends and family and ability to use force and political systems are change by changing the people at the top, as the father will despise the child to threatening other member the same if disobeyed.

I am not saying those behaviours from parents are wrong because they are with their respective pros and cons, what I am trying to say is the fact that it effect the independent of our minds and thoughts, again it helps us to respect each other as well our elders even if all those seems to fade away after leaving the country and when we started to learn about independence of mind and freedom. In our culture, however, powerful are entitled to privileges, and expected to use their power to increase their wealth than using it to create better lives for the people. The status is enhanced by symbolic behaviour which makes them look as powerful as possible in the eye of ordinary people but they should realised that nothing last forever. What is difficult in making more good positive use of their reign before it end in-order to free themselves from future confrontations?. Everyone eats from their harvest but if you eat all your yearly harvest in a day, might hurt yourself and others around
 you in the long run.

Edi




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