Mboge

Cogent, respectful, mature, and to the central and only issue in this difficult but necessary conversation. The matter is one of high principle and although I accept reasonable people may disagree on the point, I am solidly in the camp that reflects your outlook.

I commend you for an absolutely compelling and non-personal response to Sidi Sanneh. 


No one who shares these distros with you can be in any doubt about your fierce independence of mind.

I salute you, and celebrate your willingness to ask why anyone, especially former critics armed with cutting edge information about freedom and its values, would want to work at Professor Jammeh's policy councils after 2000 when the permanent features of his style of governance were fully formed and in no doubt. 

As you are wont to say, Best



LJDarbo


________________________________
 From: Modou Mboge <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Thursday, 21 March 2013, 19:03
Subject: [G_L] A reply to Sidi Sanneh’s piece “Mboge: I cannot win for losing”
 

A reply to
Sidi Sanneh’s piece “Mboge: I cannot win for losing” 
By Momodou Olly Mboge
Koto
Sidi, 
I
address you as Koto Sidi since you take exception on being called ‘Seedy’ which
as you are aware is also a common spelling of your name in the Gambia. 
You
admonished me to ‘… argue
your [my] case cleanly, clearly and with facts.  Never use a broad brush
to paint - a bad idea’(Sidi Sanneh).  As my elder whom I owe respect beyond political discuss, I accept your
advice, though I insist that I never ‘use
a broad brush to paint- a bad idea’.  I take responsibility of my actions and words in whatever context.  I only agree with folk based on my own
analysis and understanding of issues, however flawed they may be on occasion.  No one can bully me to agree with them on any
issue.
In the case of Joe Sambou and LJD
and the like, I agree with them on some things but not everything and I guess
they know that.  As a matter of fact, I
refute your allegation that Joe Sambou “has
scared the Bejesus out of you….  I
wonder what Joe has that can scare the hell out of people to the extent that we
never disagree with him.  I disagree with
folk when I think it is necessary.  People are disagreeing with the Joe Sambous and LJDs every day on many
different issues.  Before you joined the
Jammeh government, I cannot remember anyone ever accusing you of ‘herd mentality or scared some folk’ simply
because you agreed with some people who were very vocal and uncompromising in
their condemnation of the Jammeh regime. It will be nice to allow us to make
our own decisions on whom to agree or disagree without being labeled.     
Koto Sidi, I agree with you that
just as anybody you have the right to defend your character and reputation and
I have no power or desire to stop you exercising such, but you as well cannot
change the fact that you have no power to stop people expressing their
anxieties and concerns on those who enabled Jammeh.  The fact remains you knowingly joined a
regime that you have called over and over undemocratic and dictatorial.  In your case I entirely agree with the
following statement by LJDMarch 19, 2013:
Naive"? Absolutely not! "...
obviously wrong in ... assessment"? Again, absolutely not! The UNEP, FAO,
and ADB angle is mere elitism. In the main, those people never overtly
displayed any real interest in the public life of The Gambia, and especially
where it mattered most, on the critical question of the rule of law. They were
role models for Sidi, and people with his type of priorities.
Koto Sidi, sorry but I believe in
the rule of law, freedom, human rights, democracy and I am not prepared to
compromise with those who flagrantly and wittingly show contempt towards these
values in justifying their reasons for joining  the criminal and evil regime of President Jammeh based on some so-called
‘ result-oriented, problem-solving, practical approach’  or ‘ subversive motives’.  
Koto Sidi, indeed you reserve the
right not to explain or justify to anyone and especially to small fish like
myself on why after being so vociferous against Jammeh, you joined his
government.  Now you’ve given your
reasons, it is up to us the readership, to accept or refute your
explanation.    I simply ask of you to
allow me to ventilate my disappointment to my elders who should have known
better. I will do the same if my sister or anyone close to me were to join President
Jammeh at the level you did.  
Let
me make a comment or two concerning you and your wife’s relationship with my
sister Amie Bojang-Sissoho and her husband.  
Koto
Sidi you wrote: “You don't know me but your sister Amie knows me -
she's our neighbor.  She knows my wife even better.”Indeed, I do not know you but I am aware of Amie’s
relationship with your family.  I know
how close your wife’s house was to Amie and her husband’s family home in Bakau.
I know also your wife and Amie have been good friends.  I grew up with your wife’s half-brother in
Latri-Kunda whom I shared a flat with in the UK.  He is now married to my cousin.  I am as well acquainted with other members of
your wife’s family.  In writing this I am
not trying to cuddle up to you especially knowing the cynicism that comes with this kind of narration in some
circles.  As in the only email I ever
exchanged with you as Sidi Sanneh which was about a decade ago when you were in
Abidjan, in it I mentioned that I was in the same ‘Daara (Koranic School)’ with
Pap Morro and Fatma, your two elder children.  As a young boy I remember you living next to LK Secondary School in the
house where the late Jabez Ayo Langley stayed before he relocated to Cape
Point.  Of course you are right I do not
know you per se but no doubt I know you
a little bit. Now back to the important issue.
Koto
Sidi you wrote:  “This herd mentality must stop.  It is hurting your course.  To
denigrate, besmirch, degrade, humiliate is not the way for you, Mboge.  (Sidi Sanneh).   
I respectfully
disagree with the above statement of yours.  I do not think there is any ‘herd
mentality’ and I refute the idea that I am part of any gang or herd that is
trying to ‘denigrate, besmirch, degrade,
humiliate…’ anyone especially you.   The real manifestation of herd mentality
is from the camp that insist on us to just shut up and accept any kind of
excuse given by former ‘enablers’ of President Jammeh’s regime who suddenly
pretend to have the solution for the way forward.   For me the people wanting us to shut up or
put up are the ones doing the ‘degrading’.   I for one will never ever stay mute when
people try to force me to accept their flawed arguments against naked facts.  
 
There is
nothing denigrating, besmirching, humiliating in asking questions about those
who were serving at the highest level of a government they themselves have
labeled all kinds of names.  And for that
matter they were among the most vocal and vociferous in the anti-Jammeh camp
before jumping ship.  The following statement
is a legitimate one to make in my book about the:  
 
“…Sidi Sanneh's who lived
and worked in democratic countries in North America, and Europe, they are no
doubt aware of the great value of freedom. If, as Gambians, they openly
eschewed the values of the rule of law in the only country to which they are
native, the inbuilt contradiction in their conduct must be seen as extremely
troubling. Sidi Sanneh is quite charming, but oh my God on the important stuff!” (LJD March 19, 2013
Gambia-l).  
 
Koto Sidi, it continues to seriously
trouble someone (not that this matters to you or anyone who had served Jammeh)
like myself when I see highly educated and ‘supposedly’ sophisticated
individuals joining regimes like the one we have in the Gambia, especially
after professing to value democracy, human rights and dignity.  Nana Grey-Johnson seem to have learned from
precedence set by others.  Looking
forward to the reasons he will be giving when he finds himself where the former
‘enablers’ are today.   
 
Koto Sidi, of course, you are not asking and
you do not need permission from anyone if you intend or want to be part of the
force that aims to dislodge Jammeh, if I infer such anywhere please excuse me,
it was not intended.  You further stated:Show me, Mboge, where I, Sidi Sanneh, dissed
any of the opposition party leaders (Sidi Sanneh).  Well, in the parlance I understand, ‘dissing’ is another form of ‘put-down’
of other peoples efforts and I read that in your replies to Fatou Jaw Manneh’s
(FJM) questions about the opposition. Indeed, your responses are very similar
to those made by former Jammeh employees who have proclaimed and believed to
have assumed the lead in the charge against their former boss.  Your reply
to FJM’s questions regarding the opposition in my view affirms my statement
about former enablers of Jammeh and their "pretensions that
they (indeed including A S Janneh, Seedat Jobe etc) know better and their
annoying dissing of the opposition parties and politicians with their
so-called humble observations (Momodou Mboge). ’ 
In your
interview with FJM you mentioned politicians being sincere and believable and
went on to say that: “…I think it is also
time for the opposition to self-assess and decide whether they should continue
doing the same things over and over again with the same outcome - defeat. Their
inability, and some would say, refusal, to unite against the APRC is baffling
and a source of frustration from diaspora opposition supporters” (Sidi Sanneh
with FJM).And as well you suggested that the
old politicians should call it a day and give way to new faces. I think it is
wrong to assume the opposition parties on the ground are not assessing the ways
they do business and I do not doubt their sincerity or believability, may be
they are not doing the way some of us want but it looks like the majority of
their members seem to be happy with what obtains in the respective parties.  The reasons for their continuous defeats are
more complex than the lack of unity.   
Why should
the leaders of UDP and PDOIS listen to advice knowing many of the ‘hecklers’ are staying very far away in safety of distant
lands.  Last time I check no one is
stopping any new faces from entering the political arena in the Gambia.  We have a fresh face in Mai Fatty of the
Gambia Moral Congress (GMC); I hope I get the name right.  He has his reasons for choosing to stay
outside Gambia.  The new group of former
enablers or should I say our Mandela-like saviours choose to be headquartered
in Dakar and the diaspora expect the UDP or PDOIS leadership to give way. I
don’t think the UDP or the PDOIS should pay any attention to such utterings.
The UDP members still want Lawyer Darboe to lead them last time I check and
there is no evidence that the PDOIS membership want any change in their
leaders.  It is very clear those calling
for change in party leaderships are not the ones on the ground but those
staying outside.  If these people to use
your words are ‘sincere’ and ‘believable’ at least one of them should pack up
and go home and join these political parties to effect the desired change which
people like you so much desires.  I would
also like to see the former enablers go back to the Gambia and face Jammeh and
be prepared to face any consequences that may come their way.  Until then, Koto Sidi I maintain the
so-called humble advices you guys keep giving the opposition amounts to nothing
but ‘dissing’.  Your interview is full of inferences about the
opposition on the ground being unable to deliver.  Indeed, many acknowledge that there is a need
for some improvement within the opposition on the ground.  The diaspora may have some power to influence
the parties on the ground but I do hope they are not overrating such
influence.  
Koto Sidi, I
understand your angst in no condescending manner in defending your integrity
and reputation but I refuse to accept your statement about you addressing: ‘a couple of lies told about me [you] by Joe
Sambou - lies that you, Mboge, and the rest of the St. Joe's Tabernacle Choir
helped incubate in the bowels of the Gambia-L and The Gambia Post for nearly a
decade.  
I cannot
speak for Joe Sambou or any other in the ‘St.
Joe’s Tabernacle Choir’, but my concern with you is a fact no one including
yourself can refute because everyone knows that at some point you were one of
the most vociferous advocates against Jammeh’s corrupt and evil regime.  Yet for some reason or perhaps based on your
‘result-oriented’ principle and belief you decided to join a regime that has
killed school children and keep imprisoning innocent Gambians.  You were at one time the international face
of this regime and representing it around the world regardless of all the
atrocities it committed against innocent people, hence my interest in talking
about your role.  I have at no point insinuated
nor accused you of anything else other than knowingly joining a regime like
Jammeh which you condemned so vehemently.  I don’t think there is any element of incubating anything anywhere on my
part.  Just a note ‘Sanusi Owens’ is not
my point of reference and unless he uses his real name which we all know will I
acknowledge whatever he says.
 
With all due
respect, I have never accused you of corruption or anything of that sort.  I still maintain my position and refuse to
accept your characterization of ‘herd
mentality’ inhighlighting your
public role as a Secretary of State in a regime you condemned and still
continue to refer to as ‘tyrannical’.   And finally, with or without your
approval I know I am decent.  I equally
do not seek nor do I solicit your approval or Amie Bojang-Sissoho’s, your
acknowledged family friend to confirm my decency.  I as well see Joe Sambou, LJD and many more as
decent human beings who are consistent and I wish to be associated with them in
their relentless and fearless focus in the fight to dislodge the Evil Jammeh Regime in the Gambia.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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