*Discourse with Dr. Jammeh: First things first*



By Baba Galleh Jallow



Of course Dr. Jammeh, since we are embarked on a discourse, we might as well
try starting as close to the beginning as possible. And so we would beg to
start by asking whatever happened to your solemn promises of 1994-95 to hand
over power to an elected civilian government after a transition period of
two years? Whatever happened to “we are not here to stay; we are here simply
to rectify the mistakes of the past regime?” Whatever happened to that
famous slogan of yours - transparency, accountability, and probity!?
Whatever happened to “in fact, ten years is too much?” These too, are
questions that have been raised innumerable times, and that will continue to
be raised until the very last possible or necessary moment.



You remember, Dr. Jammeh, that when you overthrew Sir Dawda Jawara’s
thirty-year old People’s Progressive Party government in the military coup
of July 22 1994, there was a loud national and international hue and cry
against “your illegal usurpation of power from a democratically elected
government.” You remember there were loud calls from powerful foreign
governments and international institutions that you immediately hand over
power and return to barracks. The British Government, the United States, the
Commonwealth and other bodies condemned your action in no uncertain terms
and threatened to impose sanctions on The Gambia. Given the tragic
experience of military regimes in contemporary Africa, it was inevitable
that your coup would assail the human mind with tragic images of yet another
African country headed for collapse. As responsible citizens in the media,
we recognized and highlighted the irrationality of these demands for your
immediate return to barracks. Of course you wouldn’t return to barracks. We
argued that given that fact and your protestations of goodwill, especially
your mantra of transparency, accountability and probity which, sadly, has
long since disappeared from our political lexicon, you should be given the
benefit of the doubt. Sanctions would have affected the poor ordinary
Gambians more than they would have affected you and your colleagues in
power.



It sounded particularly assuring to hear you declare that your and your
fellow coupists were soldiers with a difference. You declared in a *Daily
Observer* interview that you would never allow anyone to ever again stay in
power for more than ten years, adding, “In fact, ten years is too much.” You
pledged to put a limit of two five-year terms for the presidency and
declared your disdain for praise-singing, drumming and dancing in Gambian
politics. You claimed that you were not politicians and would never allow
politicians to destroy this country. You cast yourself in the role of
national savior and didn’t hesitate to make it loudly known that you risked
your lives to rescue Gambians from the brink of certain disaster. And
because you so risked your life, you declared that no one was going to tell
you what to do or not to do. You set up the National Consultative Committee
under the leadership of the incorruptible Dr. Lenrie Peters of blessed
memory in order to demonstrate your sincerity and consolidate the legitimacy
of the AFPRC regime.  The NCC boasted a membership that instantly inspired
confidence in the Gambian people and in the international community. Chaired
by Dr. Peters, the NCC’s membership included Bishop Michael Cleary, Bishop
Solomon Tilewa Johnson, Amie Joof-Cole, Alhaji AE Cham Joof, Deyda Hydara,
trade unionists, journalists, businessmen, and other eminent citizens. When
the NCC submitted its Report and Recommendations, you scored yet another
political goal by announcing that you had accepted the two-year transition
period chosen by the Gambian people through the NCC consultations as well as
the other aspects of its report.



Seventeen years later Dr. Jammeh, you are still in power and there is no
term limit in our constitution; which means that you reserve the right to
contest the Gambian presidency for as long as conditions permit. Just this
July (2011), you loudly declared that neither ballots nor bullets are going
to make you leave power. It seems evident that you are bent on hanging on to
power for as long as possible. For this reason, among many others, we make
bold to argue that you made all those solemn protestations, declarations,
and promises of the immediate post-coup days merely to buy time to
consolidate your hold onto power. The historical evidence admits of no other
interpretation. Shortly after accepting the NCC report and recommendations,
our “two plus two four” shows that you engineered the so-called campaign by
the so-called opinion leaders from across the country to beg you to stay in
power; then you declared that since the Gambian people wanted you to stay in
power, you had no option but to retire from the army and contest the
presidential elections. You seem to have equated contesting elections with
actually staying in power. There was no doubt in your mind that you would be
elected president.



Shortly afterwards, you duly retired from the Army after promoting yourself
from Captain to Colonel and changed the name of the AFPRC to APRC – the
Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction. We were struck by how
similar your new APRC acronym was with your AFPRC acronym. It suggested a
certain troubling continuity. Even more seriously, once you decided to
contest the presidency, you duly purged the 1997 draft constitution of term
limit provisions, thereby paving the way for your perpetual occupation of
that position. You were later to declare that “if Jawara stayed in power for
thirty years, why not Yahya Jammeh?” Our answer then is our answer now:
Among many other reasons, Yahya Jammeh had solemnly promised the Gambian
people that he would not seek reelection and when he broke that promise and
sought election, it was expected that he would at least be content to stay
in power for two five-year terms and hand over to a new leader who may or
may not come from within the ranks of the ruling party. You have not done
so. You have been in power for just over seventeen years now and you have
repeatedly told us that you will stay in power for as long as you want.



You see Dr. Jammeh, The Gambia does not belong to you or any individual. We
are all citizens of that nation merely by the accident of birth. And so God
intended that we all equally share the country, its land, its resources, its
opportunities, and all its other spaces. It is unacceptable that you or
anyone who comes after you should consider The Gambia their personal fiefdom
to be kept for as long as humanly possible. Gambianism holds that it is
dangerous to stretch the limits of human possibility. Most who do so often
come to rather unhappy ends. We shall elaborate on this point in subsequent
conversations. For now, we propose to continue our discourse by examining
the strange phenomenon of “orders from above” under which some of us have
been arbitrarily seized and placed under detention without charge merely for
expressing opinions contrary to yours or for criticizing the actions and
policies of your Government. Sometimes, our only crime has been to offer
your government good, well-meaning advice motivated by love of country and
of our fellow beings. But a certain lack of sincerity on your part made it
too difficult for you to digest good advice. You would rather have the
sycophantic boot-licking and praise-singing that you so vehemently opposed
in the early days of your coup.


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