Sister Jabou,
You wrote, " No one in a dictatorship like that run by Yaya Jammeh does
anything without his knowledge and consent, and Baba Jobe's handling of YDE
could not have happened without the consent and blessing of Yaya Jammeh."
I cannot agree with you more. Baba Jobe takes his orders directly from Yaya
Jammeh, and it would be naieve for anyone to think that he was not aware of
all what was happening pertaining to the YDE. But I beg to defer with others
who see the episode as a struggle between Jammeh and Jobe, neither do I see
it as Jammeh trying to dump Baba as a result of external pressure. If I am
ask whether Yaya Jammeh can dump Baba Jobe, my answere will be yes; but if
asked whether he will do so, My answere will be no. The fact is Baba Jobe
has emerged in the post July 22nd era as not only Yaya Jammeh's most loyal
supporter, but also his staunchest. He has control over the political
machinery which is loyal to no other politician but Yaya jammeh. Allow me to
explain:
The reason we insist on using A(F)PRC, is because political elements that
are loyal to Yaya Jammeh and will mostly remain loyal to him are few. They
come mainly from the July 22nd movement and the Gambia National Army. The
vast majority of politicians in the APRC, are basically elements of the
Jawara-PPP, and those members of the NCP, who joined the "boys", in the
early days of the "revolution". Those from the Jawara-PPP, are mainly people
who mostly declare their loyalty for the party in power, and always fancy
being on the winning side in the political equation. Those from the NCP are
basically people who have become fed-up with having been on the loosing side
all the time, or based their political judgement on fragmented national
considerations. None of these can form a viable political entity, because
they also constitute what are normally referred to as swing votes. I am
therefore convinced that Yaya will never dump Baba Jobe because that will
tantamount to political suicide on his part. But will Baba Jobe ever be
provoked into abandoning the Jammeh regime, the answer is an emphatic no.
The guy has structured all his pollitics around Jammeh to such an extend
that the two of them have become synonymous with the A(F)PRC. The two of
them must go together, and they have reached a point in their political
career where everything is not possible.
So what is this episode we are all witness to? Well there is a problem
indeed, no doubt about that. But this is not the end game some of us are
predicting. This is a mere gimmick designed to clear the air and then
everything goes on as usual. Take for instance Yaya's declaration that YDE
belongs to him. This must have already done a devastating blow to morale in
the prosecution camp. Some of you may not know this, but one very
reactionary mentality in the public service in the Gambia is that an action
against any person who works for the government of the Gambia, is an action
against Yaya Jammeh. We dont even talk about someone who takes his/her
orders directly from Yaya Jammeh, like Baba Jobe.
Thus in a situation like this, the alternative parties and the coalition for
change should not adher to a wait and see attitude. This is all campaign
material, and our activists for change should be covering all corners of the
Gambia to give good analysis of the current scenario. Action is the word!
There are many Gambians out there who are merely waiting to be convinced
that we mean it, and we have the resources to effect change in the country.
Omar Joof.


>From: Jabou Joh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [Fwd: Jammeh: YDE/Omar
>Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 09:26:03 EST
>
>In a message dated 11/29/03 10:26:30 PM Central Standard Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
>President Jammeh's government presided
>over the summary execution of officers and men of the Gambia national army
>without going through the due process of the law; it presided over the
>inhuman murder of a state minister; it presided over the brutal murder of
>peacefully demonstrating students; and it continually presides over the
>looting and dislocation of our national economy, yet president Jammeh has
>the audacity on the occasion of the blessed feast of Eid Mubarak, to blame
>our woes on Islam and Muslims?
>
>Omar Joof,
>
>Yaya Jammeh knows that his economic misdeeds of using state funds as his
>own
>personal invenstment fund are out in the open now,  not only beforeGambians
>who have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to know this by now, but also
>before the
>Bretton Wood institutions from whom he has borrowed untold amounts of money
>in the name of our country to squander on himself and his cohorts. He is
>being
>called to account for these funds and he has to do something to unload the
>blame on any scapegoats he can find.
>
>No one in a dictatorship like that run by Yaya Jammeh does anything without
>his knowledge and consent, and Baba Jobe's handling of the YDE could not
>have
>happened without the consent and blessing of Yaya Jammeh.
>Baba Jobe and anyone else he can find any blame to lay on are the fall guys
>in Jammehs' attempt to appease those who are calling on him to give account
>for
>the gross financial mess that our country is in at this moment, and which
>he
>is directly responsible for.
>
>The EID happened to provide an opportune momemt for him to try to present
>his
>excuses to the people, and he saw the gathering of religious leaders as a
>safe place to publicize what he knows he cannot keep hidden anymore, that
>indeed,
>it was Gambian state funds, borrowed funds that he uses for his own
>investments that were used to set up this so-called YDE which is nothing
>but another
>personal financial venture for him. He clothed  the ugly fact in a nicely
>wrapped package called " doing it for Gambian youth" He was doing nothing
>of the
>sort. The cat is out of the bag, and he had to own up to it, and so he
>included
>the usual smattering of insults to our religious leaders while dropping
>this
>bombshell.
>
>Close scrutiny of this mess will reveal that Yaya Jammeh set up this
>venture
>to monopolize the sale and purchase of commodities in the country, and if
>the
>venture succeeded, he would be laughing all the way to the bank and finding
>other areas he can monopolize at the expense of the Gambian people. Yaya
>Jammeh
>is now poised to put small vegetable sellers out of business by under
>cutting
>prices with vegetables he grows at his own farm. Gambians have to be fools
>to
>believe that he is doing this for their economic well-being.
>What this revelation has done more than anything else is to make it
>abundantly clear to Gambians that Yaya jammeh indeed uses state funds for
>his own
>private ventures. Just ask yourselves where Yaya Jammeh would have gotten
>the
>amount of money invested in this venture? Did he get it from the annual
>salary of
>the President? If he has private ventures from which he earns money, where
>did
>the initial investment for all of those come from if not from state funds?
>Was
>Yaya Jammeh a wealthy man before he came to office or did his family posses
>wealth, or land or anything else before that?
>
>What this revelation should do is to make Gambians and whoever else Jammeh
>is
>trying to appease realize that this revelation is ample proof that those
>being used as scapegoats are emissaries of the person trying to offload the
>blame
>on them. It is a move that incriminates Jammeh rather than vindicating him
>or
>supporting the false claim that his intentions were to help Gambian youth.
>Yaya Jammeh is learning the hard way that tyranny  and fraud does not pay,
>and that  running a country demands competence that the APRC regime does
>not
>posses and that brute force cannot and will never be a substitute for
>competence
>and the good character that leadership demands. That he can plot to get
>rids
>of his scapegoats, but in the end, he will have to render account to the
>people
>and to the international institutions alike.
>Let not Yaya Jammeh's tirades against Islam and his disrespect of our
>religious leaders perplex anyone. His character and actions have nothing in
>common
>with that of any muslim who fears Allah and follows His directives. The
>religious leaders he is blasting know this more than anyone else, it is
>just that they
>are living under tyranny and challenging a tyrant may cost them their
>lives.
>
>Jabou Joh
>
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