Hamjatta, thanks for a brilliant piece once again. As you rightly pointed
out, the opposition should be calling for more fundamental reforms beyond
fighting for the reinstatement of Johnson. Johnson is not on our side. But
besides that obvious point, there are conflict of interests issues here if
the opposition take an active role in fighting for Johnson. I think Bamba
Laye was also hitting at this point in reaction to your piece. What would it
look like if Darboe is seen in court defending Johnson who is supposed to be
neutral in Darboe's fight with Yaya? If Darboe gets Johnson reinstated,
would Johnson owe Darboe? At the very least, it would not look good.
Johnson's removal is clearly unconstitutional. There are numerous willing
and able lawyers in the country beside Darboe and other politicians, that
can help Johnson to prove the illegality of his removal. If Johnson is as
independent as some are trying to make us believe, he would fight the
government. I doubt whether Johnson has the courage to stand up against this
injustice. We must always remember that Johnson's case was dismissed. Both
Johnson and Pap Cheyassin Secka lost before the Supreme Court. The only
victors were the Gambian people and Democracy. If Johnson had his way, a
corrupt APRC dominated parliament would be controlling the Local Government
elections. Some of us in the opposition tend to have very short memories and
we tend to be too eager to appease these Yaya apologists. These people dine
with the Devil and abuse us while they are in Yaya's good books. When Yaya
kicks them out, they come to us with crocodile tears and expect us to forget
all the evil they did and accept them unconditionally. Some of them even
want to join the opposition and create turmoil in the struggle. We should be
careful how we treat these people when they fall out of favor with Yaya. We
should not allow them to take us for granted. I am sure that if the news
about Musa Sillah's and Momodou Jallow's dismissals are true, we will have
so-called opposition members coming to the G_L and elsewhere trying to
convince us about how good these people are and how we should forget about
all they did to strengthen Yaya. Like I said before, there is nothing wrong
in welcoming such people in the struggle. But we should at least wait until
these people repent for their sins and indicate to us that they no longer
want to collaborate with Yaya. We should be unequivocal in our hatred for
Yaya and his cohorts. I hope Karamba et al learnt a valuable lesson from the
Tamsir Jasseh saga. These people do not deserve our respect and our praises.
This is war. If we go around dealing with our enemies as if they are our
friends, they will not take us seriously and will continue in their evil
ways without fear of reprisal. How can Tamsir Jasseh be a good man if he is
prepared to take marching orders from a child murderer? How can Cheyassin
Secka be a good man if all he is interested in is taking away our God given
rights? How can Johnson be a good man if he is not willing to do his job and
safe-guard our right to vote in a free and fair election? It is
mind-boggling to me how people can stand by these vermin when there are no
credible indications that these people even want our support. If Jasseh
wants our support, he will tell the whole world about the orders Yaya gave
to the police to murder our children on April 10 and 11. If Johnson wants
our respect, he will ask the courts to declare his dismissal
unconstitutional. As far as Secka is concerned, he is a lost cause. I do not
believe that the man is capable of doing anything to convince me that he is
a decent human being. Like Hamjatta, I think the opposition should stop at
just stating for the record that Johnson's dismissal is unlawful. Let
Johnson fight his battle. Having said that, the opposition should be
focusing on the new appointments. Is Roberts acceptable? Is the opposition
going to allow Yaya and Secka to reform the IEC by making it an ad hoc body?
The opposition should call for new rules to govern the hiring and firing of
Electoral Commissioners. The power to hire and fire Commissioners should be
reposed in the hands of  a panel of Supreme Court judges as opposed to Yaya.
Those are the kinds of reforms and issues that should occupy the opposition.
Johnson is not our problem.
KB

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