A Burning Perspective



The Independent

EDITORIAL
February 12, 2001
Posted to the web February 12, 2001

Banjul

Political differences in The Gambia have a penchant for aggravating into
insults and outright physical confrontation. The run-up to the last
elections in 1996 was a clear indication of the profound antagonism between
the ruling APRC and the UDP.

We would be fooling ourselves if we pretend that all is well and our
differences do not cut deep into the fibre of politics in this country. With
the arrogant and self-assured tendencies of the political leadership, the
country will always be challenged to walk on a tight rope.

Ruling politicians do not always help the situation with their peremptory
orders to arrest, beat, intimidate and threaten political opponents who
would prefer to die fighting than succumb to such underhand tactics. In
equal venom, those in the opposition are also always oversensitive to the
words and actions of the other camp.

But all this tense air of acrimony was supposed to be consigned to the past.
What we could have learnt from thirty-five years of the post-colonial
political experience should have been adequate to make us as peaceful and
friendly in our political differences as any other nation boasting of a
mature body politic.

But no. We are always pointing the finger of accusation at one another even
in the most ludicrous of situations as if we have the God-given license to
do so. Thanks to the antagonism between us, The Gambia today has all the
makings of a state heading for more uncertainty in a sub-region already
mired in the most complex and cruel of conflicts.

Check Guinea-Conakry for example. Its civil war started not only because
there is a motley collection of its nationals fighting as rebels within the
RUF but because of the sort of antagonism African leaders are expert at
fanning. Lasana Conte's aversion to opposition has led to a climate of
intolerance where compulsive reasoning has lost ground long ago to arrogance
and rage. Blame rebel leaders for the mayhem but don't forget to vilify
political leaders for their dogged indifference to the suffering masses.

That also goes for the situation in Bissau under Nino, Liberia under Doe and
Congo under Mobutu and Laurent Kabila. The state in Africa is in permanent
crisis and the calibre of leaders we have around are no match for it even as
we are ready to cross the fifty year mark of self-determination.

There may be some hope as the democratic wind of change blows across the
African continent. But there is no guarantee that the leadership crisis
which began immediately after the colonial period will be banished forever.
There is no reason to believe that a new generation of African leaders would
come with a new standard of governance that would allow people to have a far
greater voice in state matters and end the myth surrounding The President.

It is good to dream about an Africa with the requisite knowledge and
infrastructure to deal with calamitous poverty, ignorance and disease and to
reckon Africans as a revived race of educated, mature and productive people
who would never look up to today's advanced world for the most negligible of
help. But that dream is a bit too far-fetched as we begin the millennium
with the same old story of underdevelopment and dependence, worsened by the
disruptive political divisiveness engulfing the whole continent.

The Gambia like any other African nation should put her political house in
order before anything else would happen on the road to economic prosperity.
Nkrumah's "seek ye the political kingdom" is as pertinent today as it ever
was in the early days of independence. We better take note.


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