Juwara Hits At Charles Sam Says He's a Hypocrite



The Independent

November 16, 2001
Posted to the web November 16, 2001

Lamin Dibba
Banjul, the Gambia

The organising secretary of the United Democratic Party Lamin Waa Juwara has
described as shocking The Daily Observer's description as realistic, Mr.

Charles Sam's views on the way forward for The Gambia.

In a chat with The Independent recently Juwara said that "we have lived the
spirit and letter of the National Anthem up to the 22 July 1994, when a new
dispensation was introduced into our body politics".

He said Mr. Sam could not help but agree with him that Ghana, Sam's country
while under the leadership of J.J. Rawlings facilitated the deviation from
peace, freedom and justice in the continent. He asserted that The Gambia
before 1994 was a haven of peace and a place of truth, and that if today The
Gambia is what Mr. Sam believes it to be then the ruling APRC should be
blamed. "We have just gone through a presidential election and it is
absolutely clear to all and sundry that it was not a national election but
sub-regional election because even the chairman of the IEC cannot tell us
the number of registered voters."

He suggested that Mr. Sam should have taken the initiative to put the blame
where it belongs because there is no point castigating the moral standing of
a whole nation that has been taken hostage by a few self-centred people who
never worked for the common good of all.

"Mr. Sam will agree with me that Ghana by accident has had its bad sons at
the helm of affairs and it will be unjustifiable for anybody to blame
Ghanaians for the moral decay that they found themselves during the period
of military rule" he charged. He said that Ghana was nobody's envy under
Akuffour, Affrari and Kotokas but the bedrock of Ghanaian society was still
alive. He also said that Ghana under its founding fathers was the envy of
Africa because Kwame Nkrumah was a new breed African. "He was a
Pan-Africanist and it is the self centred army officers that brought to an
end that bright and resourceful history of Ghana and we are experiencing
here a carbon copy of what happened in Ghana", said Juwara. He advised
Charles Sam to be honest enough to share Ghana's experience under its
successive military regimes that reduced the country to poverty, insecurity
and an abyss of human rights abuses in the continent.

"Mr. Sam is a dishonest intellectual who believes that Africa should sink
while they survive. How can slaves and their masters reconcile? How can we
so dispossessed of power be able to appoint our village headmen and district
headchiefs?" questioned Juwara.

He challenged Sam to tell Gambians about who appoints paramount chiefs in
Ghana, saying that Sam was so dishonest to call on the Jammeh
administration, the opposition, the security agencies, the business
community, the civil service and the media to end hostilities and be
patriotic enough to iron out their differences with each other to move the
country forward." He likened it to calling on Gambians to accept being
enslaved as patriotism and reconciliation.

"We will continue to pray for the peace, progress and prosperity of our
nation but we will never abdicate our rights as human beings in the name of
patriotism and reconciliation" Juwara concluded.



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