More of Jammeh

The Independent (Banjul)
OPINION
July 26, 2004
Posted to the web July 26, 2004

By Facuru Momodou Sillah Mandinaring
Banjul

In many ways Jammeh has brought about more in The Gambia. More schools,
more hospitals, more roads, more ministers, more ex-ministers, more
constituencies, more dalasis, more corpses, more coups, more titles, more
awards, more presidential speeches, more rumours, more hiring and firings,
more traitors, more promises, more ambassadors, more animals, more
operations, more doctors, more generators, more power-outages, more
degrees, more decrees, more television, more radio stations, more mad
youths, more arrests and detentions, more pilgrimages, more weapons, more
aides.

Ironically more of everything does not mean more qualitative development.
In spite of more weapons, there is less security. In spite of more roads,
it takes three times more hours to travel from Banjul to Basse than 10
years ago. It takes three times more dalasis to buy a bag of rice than 10
years ago. It takes three times more dalasis to buy a US$ dollar. Thus, we
have all gotten three times poorer than 10 years ago. Our millionaires are
three times poorer because a million dalasi can do three times less than
what it could do 10 years ago. The lowest government salary cannot buy a
bag of rice. How does such an employee provide for a family? We are
enduring a 300% devaluation of the dalasi against a 6% salary increase with
increased telephone, water and electricity bills. And we are expected to
celebrate the July 22 negation of our civil rights: our rights to use our
tongues and pens to express our thoughts about our country in a free press;
Celebrate ten years of toiling. We will be singing not in joy but singing
like the slaves did on plantations in the Caribbean; singing to commute
pain into pleasure; it is a skill the human being has evolved to endure
pain. It is not fun!

The same democracy that does not give American presidents more than 8 years
in that office should not give more than 10 years to African presidents if
we ever want to stop dreaming to go to that country to realise our dreams.
We thank Jammeh very much for his eventful regime but we should be even
more grateful if he would relinquish power ceremoniously. He is not lack of
wise counsel because the admonition of Mr Kofi Annan in the last African
Union summit a couple of weeks in the past is still fresh in his mind if
that mind is sound at all.

As a gesture of appreciation for the many things he brought about, we shall
inaugurate his dynasty: the Jammeh dynasty, which I suggest, should be the
last decree his regime will make. From henceforth, King Jammeh will preside
over all ceremonial state functions and the annual Roots: Home-Coming
festival will retain Kanilai as the permanent venue of Futampaff. All that
Jammeh will have to do is to make his last decree, proclaiming himself as
king by the Will of God and the Consent of the Gambian fools. Progressive
Gambians will then rally around him and organise a national referendum to
change the constitution to make for a parliamentary democracy when there
will be no Gambian after Jammeh to have the title of President. Subsequent
leaders of government shall be called Prime Minister and none of them shall
serve longer than Jammeh in the highest office of the state. The only
sacrifice Gambians will have to make is to accept the offspring of Jammeh
to be the only occupants of the Royal Palace of Kanilai until the end of
time; after all their fathers made it. Besides, I think Jammeh deserves
such an honour as a young Gambian who sacrificed his dear life to save the
Gambia from rampant corruption who was so unfortunate to have rampant
corruption in his own regime. We know he is a genuine gentleman who has the
guts to probe into the misdeeds of his own regime by setting up a
Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the dubious wealth of state
functionaries starting with his own cousin. I wonder why the commission
spares Jammeh as a sacred bull? Or is it meant to bully the scapegoats?

No! We should believe that he is himself above corruption and, therefore,
it will be a waste of resources and time to attempt to probe into his own
wealth. By and large the act of rising to a position of high political
power demanded to put ambition before humanity." Perhaps this explains an
awful lot about the world we are in". Kofi Annan and the U.N... TIME10-22-
2001 Interview by John COOPER RAMO.

Jammeh used all his military might as Colonel, his ceremonial degree as Dr
of Whatever and his moral high ground as Alhagie to fight corruption but he
was not just smart enough to hire the right people to help him realise his
lofty ambitions. He even tries to do all the jobs by himself with his big
hand and long arm bringing the ministries of food and power into his
portfolio. The coach, thus, jumped into the field trying to score all the
goals on his own. It was much ado about nothing. What a pity for a zealous
African dictator!

As dictators don't have any serious retirement plans, I hope my lofty
proposal will serve as one for His Excellency, Alhagie, Dr., Col., Yahya
A.J.J Jammeh, Leader of the Poor, Defender of Criminals, Hero of Children,
the Passionate, Forgiver of Evil, Killer of the Students, Healer of Asthma,
Husband of a Wife, Father of a Daughter, Teller of Beads, Brandisher of a
Sword and so on and so forth.

If Jammeh does not heed my proposal, I will come up with another: the
African Heritage Development Organisation (AHDO); register it as a
political party to keep Jammeh out of State House. Make him Chief Executive
Officer of the Jammeh Foundation and keep him in Kanilai. As you can see
from my writing, so far, I have a soft spot for Jammeh because I am like
him. I am myself aspiring to the position of Prime Minister but only after
my 60th birthday, some 30 years after Jammeh. In the meantime, I will have
fun making an unmaking heads of state in The Gambia, of course. People like
us like to make and unmake, do and undo because that is Power for which we
are hungry and it feels like God Who solely has the power to kill because
he alone can undo that. We act God!

It is important that we are good at it. That is perhaps why Jammeh likes to
make and unmake ministers and promises to make roads and unmakes the
promise if the users of that road do not vote for him in the next
elections. Or was that a poor excuse for poor performance? This time round
we will make sure that if we don't vote for him, he does not also have the
power to cut our telephone lines and water supply. In his speeches he
trades votes with development. That is not right. Whether we vote for him
or not we still pay our taxes and he gets paid out of our taxes. If he
knows better, he should be trading taxes with development.

Our taxes should be coming back to us in the form of improved
infrastructure and better services.

If he does not win, he will not stay on because more than ten years of
Jammeh will impoverish us more and more and we don't want that. A poor
person can be holy but poverty is not holy. I do not know how he gets the
guts to ask for 10 years more after doing so badly in the past 10 years. He
had a decade to deliver. Having failed; he should be ashamed to ask for
more time. If he squandered 10 years of time to prove himself: taking us 10
steps backwards, he should just show us his back and apologise for his
failure. All the development indicators are pointing to the negative and
that is not where we want to go. Trust me!

We will out-smart him and go our own positive way.

Don't be fooled. It is not the prospect for oil that promises wealth for us
all. So much talk about oil as if we are counting barrels per day.

There is a world of difference between oil prospects and oil prosperity.

In fact, it is against Gambian wisdom "to buy a squirrel inside a hole" and
Jammeh wants us to extend his term because oil is where it has been;
untapped. The only promise of wealth for us all is democracy in its
narrowest sense: change heads after a fixed term of office of not more than
10 years. "If you cannot change the head that leads you don't have a
democracy". After all, it takes brains to manage wealth and Jammeh does not
have a lot of that and he cannot work with good brains. He keeps firing the
same ones he told us were good. He has only kept the superstitious ones
around himself, those who believe or at least tell him that he has
supernatural powers and he enjoys himself among them when they acknowledge
his knowledge of the mysterious. Superstition is the refuge of small minds.

Only such people wilfully join him to waste millions of dalasi in the
celebration of 10 years of nonsense plus the thousands of folks forced to
march to keep their jobs in government service. Dictators are known for
mobilising large crowds to legitimise themselves. Hitler had massive crowds
( hundreds of thousands of people) cheering him as he made his Nazi
speeches. He, however, went down into history as a shame to his people.
Those who talk the most about humanity are the killers of the most people
and who says they do not have good intentions. Hitler, Botha, Sanko,
Taylor, Napoleon, Savimbi, Bin Laden, and Bush had good intentions. But the
Dutch say 'de weg naar de hel is geplaveid met goed voornemens' ( the road
to hell is paved by good intentions). May God protect us from the good
intentions of dictators because they justify their killings with sayings
like 'qui veut la paix prepare la guerre' (who wants peace prepares for
war).I am alarmed by Jammeh's speeches and highly concerned about his
sensibility.

Jammeh has carved out a place for himself beside God; dressing and talking
like that. We do not vote for him to lead us to Paradise. But the great
mistake we make here in The Gambia is that we ask God for worldly things
like development and we think he has sent us a development messiah in the
making of a politician. All the messengers of God never came with
development deliverables or miracles. They, indeed, come to tell us how to
go to Heaven by religious devotion and that involves practising justice
amongst us while we are still here on earth.

When it comes to matters of State and production of human needs, come on,
these are mundane. It is within our capacity as humans to exploit our
environment to our advantage and we don't have to ask God again for what he
has already given us and ordered us to use. I don't, for example, have to
pay electricity bills and keep praying to God for there to be power and
thank Him for giving us six hours of light a day. I don't understand why we
pay taxes to Jammeh and beg him to make our roads, or thank him for
personally donating an ambulance to our local health centres.

When Jammeh comes to meet us, we should hold him to account for where our
taxes have been going. Why our hospitals are not staffed and why they are
stinking. A beautiful concrete architecture, but stinking for lack of water
and sanitation and we expect such a facility to provide health. I am
thinking about the hospital in Bwiam. I entered that hospital saying kudos
to Jammeh. I left its toilets cursing Jammeh and everybody that works
there. I said "don't mind" to the sorry woman who apologised to me for lack
of water as the excuse for the deplorable condition of the sanitary
facilities. I have also been to Sere Kunda health centre with a burn
patient; it was an ordeal. Not only did they not have the essential
medications but they also prescribed the wrong medication. When we got to
the private pharmacy we were advised to ignore the prescription. Everybody
with a medical mind I asked about this agreed that the prescription was not
right. Jammeh himself does not have confidence in the health- care system
he is claiming to have improved. He sent his wife to deliver in the good
hospitals of the USA because the health services of his own Gambia are not
reliable.

Fellow Gambians! Join me to set up the proposed AHDO party. Our proposed
motto: No More Jammeh. Our proposed symbol: a photo of Jammeh crossed X for
out. Our proposed colour: black for African heritage and our campaign
slogan: Out Jammeh, Out!

Interested to join me in the noble struggle to oust Jammeh? Contact me on
my nowhere address: [log in to unmask] We will arrange to meet at some
geographical place in the general territory of former British Gambia. If
you have a difficulty to send email for lack of power, get hold of Jammeh.
I learned that he is personally in charge of NAWEC; Gambia's powerhouse
that cannot even power his own electric broom. Alternatively, try the
facilities of Gamtel to talk to me on my everywhere number 7702526. Only
sacrifice to pay 300% more than you would have paid last month because you
understand: Gamtel kept the tariffs low ever since (at a loss) not to shock
the public but you know it is just not sustainable any longer. Nothing
seems to be sustainable anymore. Not even the APRC and that is the reason
why we must get up on time to flush out Jammeh ceremoniously.


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