THERE GOES YAYA AGAIN!
Yaya has really done it again. Ii is unimaginable that
he has actually appointed Lt. Ousman Sonko as
Commander of the State Guard Unit. If Lt. Sonko's
military bio-data was made public, military critics
would be shocked with how such an under qualified
person could possibly be commissioned as an army
officer, let alone becoming the head of a whole
Presidential Guards Unit.
In the GNA, the British Army Training Team (BATT) in
1984 set the standards derived from the syllabus of
the British military academy Sandhurst. In the terms
and conditions stipulated for prospective GNA officers
therefore, all candidates must possess a minimum
qualification of five G.C.E O' levels including
mathematics and English language. Furthermore that
person must sit and pass the cadet-selection exams
conducted normally in a three-day period. It is a test
to confirm the candidate's ability to read and write
English satisfactorily and to measure his leadership
quality in future operational tasks. Then finally
there is the important area of passing the physical
and mental test before one is considered to join the
officer corps. I can bet that Yaya would have never
passed that test if he had tried the army and not the
Gendermarie.
However at least Landing Sanneh prior to the coup made
several attempts of the test and in all cases failed
until he was officially forbidden from taking the
exams any more. But as for Lt. Sonko he did not have
the basic qualification to even apply. He was an
ordinary sergeant with elementary local knowledge of
how to fix radio transistors and play soccer
impressively. That earned him a rank more than what he
deserved in the GNA communications unit. Anyhow like
Landing Sanneh and a hand full of regular other ranks,
after the coup they walked into the office of Yaya or
Edward and claimed to have actively participated in
the coup and wanted their reward. They got the ranks
right away. From that day on Sonko and the others
became officers against all the set rules and
regulations of the GNA. But what could we say, if Yaya
could defy everything logical and grab for himself the
highest army rank in the Gambia, colonel when there is
no record of him ever firing a single weapon in the
two years he spent in the army? This could be verified
by examining the GNA Annual Personal Weapon Test
(APWT) records kept at the army headquarters in
Banjul. Yet Yaya terms himself a full colonel. Is
that not a reminder of late Sergeant Samuel Doe
decorating himself General and Sergeant Edie Amin
elevating his rank to that of a Field Martial? The
same twisted rules will therefore continue to justify
the likes of Landing and Sonko to carry their ranks
without fear or shame. But take it from me, the
appointment of Sonko as Commander by my judgement
tantamount to absolute abuse of military authority.
The question now is why Lt. Sonko to command the State
or Presidential guard unit out of all those more
competent GNA officers who actually earned the rank
the true way? Hypothetically, I would think that with
the recent killing or arresting of his former top
lieutenants, Yaya most likely had found their perfect
replacement in Sonko considering his I Q level. Or it
is very much possible that Sonko may have played a
cardinal role in Yaya's actions to wipe out his boys
in the name of crushing a coup. In any case however,
the appointment of the former radio man and soccer
player is simply another recipe for big trouble soon.
In the first instance the GNA officers and soldiers
will merely put up with him because it is a tyrannical
imposition. After all most of those serving under him
would be ten times more educated than him. So one can
imagine what that means really. No they would not
challenge him for fear of being framed and slaughtered
in vain. But they would hate every bit of the
arrangement.
Responding to some pertinent questions let me start
with the issue of tribe a focal subject of controversy
in my first submission. I think some of my readers
misunderstood what I was really driving at. Despite
perceiving them as rubber stamp executives, looking at
the composition of Yaya's cabinet there is little or
nothing to show that he favors one ethnic group
against another in the country. A lot of Gambians are
certainly pleased with that. He is in fact frequently
heard paying effective lip service in his political
rallies on the course of ethnic tolerance and
solidarity.
But when I wrote about other ethnic groups in the army
being the target of his crusade to kill his soldier
enemies while members of his own ethnic group for no
good reasons are always spared, my message was simply
trying to reflect the sentiments of the average GNA
soldier. My colleagues in the army Mandinkas,Jolas
Wollofs Fullahs or name it all have the same view of
being seriously disturbed by Yaya's killing pattern in
the GNA and I can tell you that if left ignored as
some critics may wish, it could eventually be a major
source of explosion there. Considering the nature of
our work, coupled with the constant danger of Yaya's
killer instinct in the army where also constitutional
or legal rights don't mean anything very few soldiers
would ever take the risk of speaking their minds. More
horrible tales are there in abundance but they would
rather gossip them quietly among themselves than bring
them to the attention of the Gambian public. They have
long since learnt that the public doesn't give a heck
to them when maimed or destroyed as soldiers. Anyhow
whether Yaya's selective executions of the soldiers
are deliberate or accidental we were all deeply
worried about it and we strongly think that he was
directly responsible.
How many of you have ever come across GNA soldiers
talking in the way I do? We should not be blamed for
our silence. Several soldiers I know suffered
tremendously in the form of torture to the brink of
death and others have been permanently crippled with
bullet wounds; nevertheless, they would rather keep
quiet about it than do otherwise. Doubting their
stories, a common tendency in Yaya's political
protagonists, would definitely add more scares in
their permanently traumatized emotions. Call me any
names, if you run out of some try Lamin Kaba Bajo's
explosive brother Sulayman, but I will continue to
narrate my experience the way I perceived it as a live
witness. It has nothing to do with tribalism or so.
The truth being told when in time should be able to
help in deterring or totally halting the recurrence of
such crimes in the future. One of my main motivations
for speaking out was that I thought my readers would
have by now come up with a brilliant suggestion of how
those dead soldiers buried at Yundum Barracks could be
removed and given to their families for proper burial.
It hurts to wake up every morning knowing that Lt.
Bakary Manneh's wife still refuses to mourn her dead
husband, as tradition requires because as far as there
was no body her man was still alive. It is now five
years since then but how many more years must she wait
for Yaya to hand over those bodies while some of us
academically toy around with the subject for its so
called tribal undertone.
Actually with Yaya, when it comes to his interest,
tribal affiliation means nothing to him and several
good Jolas in the Gambia know that about him. As a
result a lot of them make their disagreement with him
very clear to the Gambian public. He has demonstrated
to every good Gambian of all ethnic groups that he is
only interested in those he could use to fulfil his
personal desires most of them having a lot to do with
his survival techniques. Look around him properly and
you will see mainly unethical intellectuals, dishonest
diplomats plus those I often call the thugs and
bandits.
Having said that, I thought it relevant to reflect on
the case of Mr. Shingle Nyassi a Jola in the UDP who
totally opposes Yaya Jammeh and everything he stands
for. Last year, he was abducted from his house after
midnight on the orders of Yaya. Momodou Picka Jallow(a
Fullah) head of the militant wing of the 22nd July
youth movement was identified by Mr. Nyassi's wife as
the leader of the abductors. She also spotted out few
faces of members of the NIA. Muniru Darbo was the
director general of the NIA. However when asked about
the fate of Mr. Nyassi, he swore before the whole
world that his agency had no knowledge of the
disappearance of Mr. Nyassi. All government security
institutions echoed the same innocent position. For
days and weeks the matter remained a mystery until the
British High Commissioner together with the head of
the European Union made a tough intervention for the
Jammeh government to explain the case or face their
actions. Immediately, Mr. Nyassi surfaced from the
perimeter walls of the NIA. He spoke to the
independent Gambian press and the BBC about the
harrowing experience he was subjected to by Yaya's
thugs at the NIA. But his most interesting revelation
was how a group of Jolas members of his own tribe
after failing to intimidate him tried to use tribalism
to change his support from the UDP to the APRC. They
even promised to give him free land with sufficient
money for him to build a modern house. It was really a
cheap one. In his own words Mr. Nyassi disclosed how
his fellow Jolas told him that he should understand
and join the Jammeh party because the government is
for the Jolas and he should join them like all the
progressive ones were doing. In sharing his experience
with the world, should Shyngle Nyassi be considered a
potential threat to the coexisting tribes in the
Gambia? Take it from me I think the Gambians have
evolved beyond that although Yaya would when he finds
it advantageous use tribe to some dangerous extremes.
The question of Staff Sergeant Kanyi was raised and I
want to say a little about him. Before the coup he was
a corporal and the clown of the army .He could make
every body laugh with his jokes in the camp. But after
1994 for some strange reasons, he suddenly turned into
a vicious executioner. However with the terrible role
he played in the killing of the soldiers in November
1994, the entire army after that treated him like a
pariah and a sadistic outcast. The majority of the
soldiers precisely stopped having anything to do with
him anymore. He became a pitiful alcoholic especially
when his mother walked to the Barracks one day and
told him that she had disowned him because of the
report she got that her son was the killer at Yundum.
In the end he could no longer stand the mental torture
and the isolation in the barracks. As a result he left
the army in 1997 and was last heard working for the
Gambia Immigrations department.
Whether I took part in the atrocities was another
question asked. I am not saying that the question was
not given proper thought but if it was it must have
been rather little. Logically I would not have
willingly disclosed these stories if I had taken part
in them. As to why I did not say anything before, I
suppose I have sufficiently explained that above.
As for Mr. Sulayman Bajo I wish to sincerely apologize
for hurting your feeling although that does not mean
in any way that it affects my impression of who Lamin
Kaba Bajo is. You were to some extent right in saying
that he joined ex-President Jawara to Dakar on the day
of the coup to protect him as duty demanded of him.
That's absolutely right. You were also right to say
that he spent three weeks instead of one there. It was
Pa Sallah Jagne the former Inspector General of Police
who returned to the Gambia that same week and was
thrown in jail accused of helping Jawara to escape to
Dakar. Anyhow what you may not understand is that
special songs of praise have been composed by various
Gambian "griots" on the heroic role your brother
played with the other GNA officers in masterminding
and executing the successful overthrow of ex-President
Jawara. And he is often seen dashing those praise
singers with money for the nice songs he really enjoys
from them. In other words, your brother now associates
himself with those who actually toppled ex-President
Jawara and not those who helped to protect him all the
way to Dakar. And it still remains a mystery why
Jammeh jailed Pa Sallah Jagne for it but appointed
your brother in a top government position when they
did the same thing of going to Dakar and back. If you
don't have answers and you can't find any feel free to
do what you have shown to be very good at doing-INSULT
YOUR HEART OUT.
Ebou Colly.
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