Culled from Allafrica.  Mr. Jawo, thanks for having the courage to tell
emperor Jammeh that he is butt naked.  I wished many of our country folk
would cast their fear aside and tell this knucklehead that he overstayed his
welcome.  He insulted all the men in that country and nearly all the men
kept silent.  He threatened football players and the ball players, adults,
the GFA, and other sports organs in the country stay mute.  He threatened
poor farmers to pull their daughters from school and threatened the alkalos,
etc., and everyone kept silent.  His ignorance and stupidity seeped from his
starch stuffed head in Bakau and the people of Bakau and the entire country
just kept quiet.  The cat is even abusing our kids by turning them into
beggars and praise singers and all are silent because of fear.

How long do we intend to be paralyzed by fear?  This clown has insulted the
entire country in any way possible with the little brain capacity imbedded
in that starch mash, and the entire country still remain comatose.  This is
incredible.  Yaya would line up the elders, Clergy, Imams, fathers, mothers,
yai/bai compins, opposition leaders, etc., and tongue lash all with all the
garbage he accumulated and they all just bow their heads in submission.
Folks, let us put Yaya out of his neurotic misery before he goes red on us.
Something is fundamentally wrong with this fellow, but I equally think that
something is also definitely wrong with the rest of the nation for this
battered person syndrome that we're exhibiting.

This brings me back to the doorstep of the opposition parties and their
leaders.  What are you going to do about this emperor with no clothes?  Why
is the opposition so docile and lethargic?  Your tactics are not working for
the people, so, please wake up and smell the coffee.  Waa Juwara is heading
in the right direction by challenging Jammeh's stupidity and defying his
silly football ban as a first step and I hope Hammat, OJ, Halifa, Sedia,
Darbo, etc., join him in that defiance.  This is not about football but all
about stopping Jammeh from trampling the nation to a pulp.

I know the rest of the opposition will not be caught dead standing next to
Waa or any other opposition for that matter, but I will say it again, you'll
dug up your grave and bought your headstone, and are a step away from being
buried to extinction, with your help.  What must we do in order for the
opposition leaders to see the urgency to rescue what's left of our dignity.
Your actions seem to support Yaya's silly tirades that the country is not in
a crisis situation.  For, Yaya can kill, maim, rob, insult, and starve our
people and you just stand and watch.  Why would anyone then see you as
someone that can deliver them from the madness that is Yaya?  Yaya's actions
has impoverished and starved the masses, only to turn around and hand them
crumbs and he knows that they are vulnerable and would gladly take crumbs
when crumbs are offered.  The job of the opposition is to help the masses to
have the strength to not accept the crumbs and replace Yaya for a better
future.  However, the opposition is neither helping the masses nor stopping
Jammeh.  They just exist, for what?  That's the million dollar question the
citizens are asking.  If the opposition leaders are not willing to be the
agents of change, then why should the people rally around them?  Mr. Jawo,
thanks again for showing Jammeh how stupid he looked and sounded during his
clown tour.  No wonder why the West is having Africa for breakfast, lunch,
and dinner.  With the majority leading the 52 or so countries just like
Yaya, one does not have to come up with any grand schemes to rob Africa
blind, the fools willingly hand them the keys to our resources.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou


The Meet the People's Tour And Its Negative Implications

The Independent (Banjul)

COLUMN
February 10, 2003
Posted to the web February 10, 2003

D.A. Jawo
Banjul

The recently concluded Meet the People's Tour by President Yahya Jammeh and
a large entourage was indeed another watershed in the ever degenerating
governance environment in this country. The tone, utterances and comportment
ofthe President and some senior members of his regime throughout the tour
was once again another clear manifestation of the arrogance and belligerence
nature of the APRC regime and the ever widening gap between it and the
realities on the ground.

Apart from the daily doses of cheap political rhetoric on radio and
television, that had been the hallmark of the tour throughout the country,
it was also quite scary and disturbing to hear President Jammeh use threats
of imprisonment and other dire consequences against the poor rural folk for
a series of 'offences', ranging from playing the traditional 'Nawetan'
football to pulling out their daughters from school to get them married.
This is definitely not the type of situation that Gambians had bargained for
when they voted for him during the last presidential elections. No one ever
anticipated that in this day and age, we would have a head of state who
would talk and behave like an absolute monarch with executive, legislative
and judicial powers to make laws, enforce them and imprison people, which
encompasses the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

Whether or not President Jammeh actually meant all those threats he was
making, is another matter, but the very fact that he was making them has its
own possible consequences. We have heard him for instance, promise to not
only deal with anyone who plays 'Nawetan' football, but he has also
threatened to imprison the alkalo of the village where the match takes place
as well as the seyfo of the district. What a ridiculous edict. One would
wonder where he got all those powers to prescribe for the people what they
should or should not do. He is certainly not behaving like a servant of the
people of this country but instead he is acting like their master and king.
I wonder what guarantee he has that stopping the people from playing
'Nawetan' football or sitting at the bantaba would be enough to compel them
to become more productive. The most sensible thing to have done was to use
persuasive means to encourage the people rather than threaten them with
imprisonment and other punitive measures as if he is addressing his children
rather those who voted him into power.

May be some one needs to tell him that he neither has the power nor the
moral authority to force the people to do what they do not want to do.

I also entirely agree with those who compare the 'Nawetan' football to
President Jammeh's extravagant 'Futampaf' festivals and wrestling contests
which he usually organises at his home village of Kanilai which often last
for several days and no doubt cost several thousands of Dalasis. However,
while the 'Nawetan' football is a good training ground for Gambian football,
the 'Futampaf' and his wrestling contests benefit no one apart from himself
and those few people who go there to eat the abundant food he provides as
well as the money that he dishes out to them.

Apart from the 'Nawetan' being a recreational activity, it is also the most
effective means of training footballers. Therefore, any move to stop it
would have serious consequences for the development of football in this
country. As we do not as yet have football academies in this country, we
depend on the 'Nawetan' to train the footballers, and any attempt to stop it
would strike a death blow to Gambian football. Those threats by President
Jammeh to stop it is yet another manifestation of the arbitrariness that has
been the hallmark of this regime. I have no doubt that if he had consulted
with his Secretary of State for Youth and Sports and the technocrats, he
would have seen the negative consequences of such a move. It is however
surprising that neither the Department of State for Youth and Sports nor the
Gambia Football Association have so far made any comments on the issue. It
is a shame that no one in those institutions seems to have the guts to point
out to him the negative consequences of such arbitrariness.

While President Jammeh has neither the constitutional nor the moral
authority to enforce such edicts he is making, but knowing the type of
governance climate operating in this country today, there is a high
possibility that the local officials would do everything possible to enforce
them. The very fact that he has even threatened to deal with the alkalos,
seyfos and even the commissioners if his edicts are not enforced, then it is
very unlikely that anyone of them would even dare to take chances by failing
to enforce them.

Another interesting aspect of the tour was President Jammeh's sustained
criticism of the men folk of this country, describing them as lazy and not
ready to work like the women. He even went to the extent of suggesting
exchanging the Gambian men with their Senegalese counterparts, because he
said the Senegalese were more enterprising.

While there is no doubt that there are some lazy Gambians, but it was wrong
for him to generalize that all the men are lazy. One would even wonder why
he chose to antagonize the men folk as if he would never need their support.

Another phenomenon of the tour was its political nature. While the tour was
supposed to be a state function, where only matters affecting the people
were expected to be discussed, but instead, a greater part of it was
concentrated on discussing political issues that have very little relevance
to the problems facing the people. It is indeed very unfair to have
transformed a national function financed from public funds for the benefit
of a particular political party. It was quite obvious that the people were
being encouraged to talk about trivial political issues instead of the
problems and constraints facing them. There was obviously no place in the
tour for carpet crossing and other purely partisan issues. It was even a
shame to hear some senior members of the regime telling the people that the
government would only help those areas that voted for the APRC. That is
indeed a very negative tendency for anyone to even contemplate
discriminating against the people on the basis of their political leanings
when the funds used for the development of the country belong to all
Gambians, regardless of which political party they belong to. Another vivid
aspect of the tour was the dishing out of money by President Jammeh to
schools, women's groups and individuals. That is certainly contributing
greatly in transforming Gambians into beggars, with virtually everyone
either singing his praises or behaving in other condescending ways in order
to get his money. We have seen how school children, for instance have been
kept in the sun for several hours waiting to sing for him, and also how they
have been made to compose all kinds of songs in praise of him, apparently
all that being part of the efforts to get money from him.

I sometimes wonder whether he and those involved in such a scheme know the
possible negative implications of such a cult syndrome on our children.








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