'You Can Fool All the People Some of the Time And Some of the People All
the Time, But You Cannot Fool All the People All the Time' - Abraham
Lincoln the Women's Solidarity March - Evidence of Coercion

The Independent (Banjul)
OPINION
August 2, 2004
Posted to the web August 3, 2004

By D.A. Jawo
Banjul

President Jammeh's address at the main commemoration of the 10th
anniversary celebrations of the July 22nd "Revolution" at the Independence
Stadium was a big surprise to many people. While it contained very little
substance, contrary to people's expectations, and hardly anything to do
with the development agenda of his regime, apart from a repetition of his
unrealizable dream of encircling the whole country with an ultra-modern
railway line, but what surprised most people was that it was devoid of his
usual verbal antics and unconventional language, which are a hallmark of
such occasions. Therefore, most people saw it as positive developments for
which many of them commended him.

However, such commendation was short lived because the following day while
addressing the women's 'solidarity march' at the Arch 22 in Banjul, he went
back to his usual tirades against the opposition, describing them as a
bunch of irresponsible people who he said would never rule this country in
a million years. He did not however stop at that but also gave a stern
warning to the journalists to write exactly what he said or else he was
going to deal with them. He even described journalists as people who had no
love for their country.

In his address, he went further to advise those women whose husbands do not
support the APRC to leave them and come to him so that he would find better
husbands for them. Of course with the reaction from the crowd, it was quite
obvious that the women did not approve of such interference in their
personal lives. Indeed that comment was yet another manifestation that
President Jammeh does not seem to have much respect and regard for the
women, otherwise, he would not have asked them to break their marriages
just for the sake of his political survival. There is no doubt that if
indeed he had that much love and regard for the empowerment of Gambian
women as he seems to manifest in all his speeches, then it is hard to
understand why throughout his ten years of "development" he has never seen
it fit to appoint one woman ambassador, divisional commissioner, Seyfo or
even an alkalo, when we know that he retains the exclusive power to appoint
all those positions and he changes them like he changes his dresses. If
indeed he had that much regard for their empowerment, by now we would have
had many of them occupying such positions in all parts of the country and
abroad. For instance, just a day before the July 22 "Revolution", he
received the credentials of at least two women ambassadors accredited to
this country by their countries. Does he still feel that Gambian women do
not have the competence to serve as ambassadors, divisional commissioners,
seyfos or even alkalos like their counterparts in other parts of the world?

Apart from the Vice President and the few other women who occupy certain
symbolic positions in the public services, there are hardly any women in
decision-making positions. Therefore, his failure to appoint a woman to any
of those positions shows how low he rates their ability. As far as he is
concerned, he seems to be satisfied with them remaining as 'yai compins'
and other insignificant positions in the party as well as occupy symbolic
positions in the public services, while continuing to clap and dance for
him. This is no doubt why there is a growing cadre of sycophants amongst
the women, who in turn are giving him the false impression that a majority
of their colleagues are grateful to him for doing quite a lot for them.
These are the same sycophants who go about giving everyone the false
impression that the money used to finance the President's Empowerment for
Girls Education Project (PEGEP) is from President Jammeh's own pocket, when
that is not the case. As far as we are aware, the funding for the project
has been provided by such donors like UNICEF and the government of Taiwan.

Another false impression being peddled about had been the one that was
created by the organizers of the women's solidarity march as part of the
July 22 "Revolution" when they presented a pieces of paper to President
Jammeh containing signatures of those in attendance, giving him the
impression that it was a declaration of support for him. Indeed some of
those who attended the march expressed disappointment with that because
they said they were asked to sign those papers just to indicate their
presence but they were never told that it was a declaration of support.

"That was certainly not only dishonest on the part of the organizers, but
it was unethical as well to use such tactics in order to impress President
Jammeh that we were all in support of him when it is not the case,"
remarked one of them.

Indeed, many of those who took part alleged that they were compelled to do
so against their will. According to them, a circular was sent to their
places of work asking every one of them to take part in the procession,
providing them with 'ashobi'. They said they were neither consulted nor
given any choice, and knowing the type of regime we have in this country,
they knew that failure to attend could mean summary dismissal without any
justification. "It is quite obvious that most of us went there only to
maintain our jobs but not because we were in solidarity with President
Jammeh or his regime," said another of the marchers.


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Copyright © 2004 The Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by
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