Courtesy: Maafanta opinions page.

The Civilian Elite are as bad as the Military Elite, Mr. Ayittey!

Re: Aiding and Abetting Tyranny in The Gambia

By George B.N. Ayittey, Ph.D.

A rejoinder by Dida Jallow-Halake, (≠Ph.D)

Mr. Ayittey begins his admirably eloquent piece by stating that:
“In the post-colonial period, the single institution that has been most discredited has been the military”.

One has to say that contrary arguments have also been made. Some have argued that the military in Africa has been 
the only viable institution that has held our fragile nation-states together. Africa’s Super-Power, Nigeria, is the best 
example. Nigeria will almost certainly disintegrate into 3 or 4 smaller states, probably after horrendous civil wars, if it was 
not for a strong centralised military holding the country together. In the East, Ethiopia is in a similarly fragile position. 
When I visited my alma mater in Nairobi after decades in UK, General Yakubu Gowon’s photograph, taken when he 
stopped by my school on his way to the OAU Summit in Kampala in 1972, still had pride of place at the entrance to the 
school library. I have spoken to many Nigerians who still have very warm memories of General Yakubu Gowon, not to 
mention General Murtala Muhammed who is remembered across Africa with the same fondness as Thomas Sankara of 
Burkina Faso. But I admit these are exceptions to generally appalling military rule across Africa – but then again we do 
have equally appalling civilian rule too.

Mr. Ayittey again:

“It (the military) is out of control in Africa and has become the bane of Africa’s development, the plunderer of its wealth 
and the butcher of its people”.

Moi’s banditry in the Kenya in which I grew up was a civilian one. As a boy I was totally mesmerized by the “anti-colonial” 
Kenyatta whose photo hangs at the entrance to my alma mater’s main office (Kenyatta is sitting regally in the middle of 
our group photo while we admiring kneel around the great man). Current president Kibaki was Finance Minister and 
patron of my school – the bandit Kenyatta having assassinated our previous patron Tom Mboya! Moi was the “Cabinet 
tea-boy” Vice-President who would knee-cap all his grandiose opponents such as “Sir” Charles Njonjo once Kenyatta 
dies suddenly and power passes on to Moi (“just for 3 months” said Njonjo!) – Jawara’s deposed cabinet Minister to 
whom I was sending “fish-money” from London said to me “Don’t worry, these boys will be back in the barracks in 3 
months and we will be back in power”! The point I am making about civilian-ruled Kenya is that it is the civilians, the New 
Black Educated Elite, who inherited and robbed the nation-state. Mr. Ayittey’s Ghana is probably the first and most 
glaring of the tragedies of African civilian rule. As someone has pointed out, at independence Ghana had a higher GDP 
than South Korea. 10 years later, the great Nkrumah had bankrupted Ghana. Just wait and see what happens to Ghana’
s new-found oil-wealth: I’ll happily bet an arm that Ghana’s rulers, civilian or military, will rob the nation and send the 
money abroad to UK, USA and Switzerland.
Mr. Ayittey again:

“The military is a colonial institution, introduced to suppress black African aspirations for freedom”.

African societies were enslaved because they had no proper armies. Ghana’s Ashanti, the Zulu and Ethiopia were able 
to hold-up the onset of colonialism because they had proper armies. If these African countries had the weapons too, 
they may have retained their independence. Today the US/NATO is the world’s only military power. So they can do 
whatever they want in any country in the world – except in those countries like Russia, China and … starving North 
Korea. See, no one can touch starving North Korea because they have nuclear weapons. What Africa needs, Mr. 
Ayittey, is to be armed with nuclear weapons so that they can guarantee their independence and freedom! If the US 
really want to promote independence and freedom in Africa, they should give each country a couple of war-heads. To 
manage this, one needs a professional army like that of Pakistan – but I do agree that such a professional army should 
remain out of politics. But again, the entry of the military into politics such as in Ghana when Nkrumah was overthrown 
and when Busia was overthrown followed woeful failures on the part of civilian governments. Some have also argued 
that Jawara’s over-staying in power in The Gambia paved the way for Yahya Jammeh.

Mr. Ayittey:  

“Africa’s military have turned their bazookas on the people”.
This is tragically true, but any nation’s military are made up of the various ethnic groups that make up the country’s 
population. Idi Amin’s tiny Acholi soldiers brutalized the rest of Uganda’s population. Much of the brutality of African 
militaries are based along tribal lines. And once a military officer from one tribe becomes president, he fears the other 
tribes and depends on the loyalty of soldiers from his own tribe to remain in power. As I write, Gadaffy’s tribal battalion in 
his home town Sirte is involved in a brutal and ultimately futile resistance against NATO and the new rulers of Libya. 
Sirte’s fighters are fighting on tribal lines.

Mr. Ayittey again:  

“In the post colonial period, the following African countries have been ruined by military coconut-heads”.

I am not going to reproduce Mr. Ayittey’s list, but I’d just like to point out that these “military coconut-heads” did not 
appear from nowhere. They are part and parcel of the society that nurtured them. There were un-addressed social 
“issues” in all these societies that enabled these “coconut-heads” to come to power: Obote played his political games 
and promoted Idi Amin to General – then he ordered for Idi Amin to be arrested only to be betrayed by the “arrester” 
who warned Amin. Sgt. Doe is a product of the crazy inter-black colonial set-up in US Rubber-Plantation Liberia. Sierra 
Leone had similar problems too between the elite and the indigenous people. Mobutu Sese Seko was a CIA/Belgian 
alternative to Lumumba and is a gift to Africa from the democratic West; and so on and so on.

Mr. Ayittey:  
“All these countries would have been saved had their leaders been willing to

relinquish or share political power and implement real political reform”.  
Indeed, Mr. Ayittey, now you are talking! There will always be opportunities for “military coconut-heads” to seize power 
where the ruling elite monopolise power and monopolise the nation’s meagre resources. And when a “military coconut-
head” first overthrows the corrupt and greedy civilian elite the populations always celebrates – celebrates the fall of the 
greedy, corrupt and self-perpetuating civilian elite.

And at this point, Mr. Ayyitey turns on my friend Mr. Jammeh:

Mr. Ayyitey:  
“There is one eccentric military buffoon who has vowed to rule for 40 years and claims to have discovered the cure for 
HIV/AIDS. He insists on being addressed as His Excellency President Sheikh Professor Dr. Al-Haji Yahya Abdul-Azziz 
Jemus Junkung Jammeh, Nasiru Deen (the Professor).” He claims he has mystic powers and will turn Gambia into an oil-
producing nation; he has not found oil yet.  He has threatened to behead gays. He is terrified of witches and evil 
sorcerers, who, he claims, are harming his country. To root out witches, villagers at Jambur were rounded up and forced 
to drink a foul-smelling potion in 2009. Six people later died”.

Mr. Ayyitey’s is an eloquent prosecutor and it is very difficult to raise a defence. Those of us who have admired 
President Jammeh (and the only titles I gave him when I edited his paper was President Yahya AJJ Jammeh – or even 
“Prezy” and “dude”!) on rational grounds have based our support on things such as: the schools, the hospitals and 
health centres, the trunk roads, the food self-sufficiency campaigns and things like The Gambia being award a Silver 
Medal for Forestry in a competition amongst all the countries of the world. Infact those of us who have admired Jammeh’
s commitment to the development of The Gambia have found everything described by Mr. Ayyitey above very 
disheartening – and distracting. Mr. Ayyitey continues with a devastating list of indictments, but I am not going to put 
myself in the position of a defence lawyer here. Let us look at the rest of Mr. Ayittey’s thesis as regards the rest of Africa.

The opposition came together and unseated Moi (Or more accurately, the US told Moi: the cold-war has ended and we 
have no use for you!). Then Kenyan Police burnt down a newspaper, for the first time since independence, under 
President Kibaki. Then we saw ferocious inter-tribal war and displacement of people never seen before in Kenya. Then 
we saw Kenyan police murder hundreds of citizens through a shoot-to-kill policy. Then Kenya chased its Anti-Corruption 
Boss into exile in London and rampant corruption continued under Moi. Now, Mr. Ayyitey, are Gambians wrong to be 
cynical of the opposition? Might the voters not be asking themselves: Are we jumping out of the frying pan into the fire? 
Look what happened to Iraq. Freedom cost them a million dead and 3 million exiled. What will freedom cost Libya?

What has happened in South Africa? School children died for “freedom”, only for the new African Elite to rob the new 
South Africa. Do you know that if a military coup overthrew the Black Elite in South Africa Soweto would erupt in 
celebration? Even if just for a few days?

Mr. Ayittey again:  

“Dictators have proliferated in the post-colonial period in Africa because the counter-force has been weak and 
disorganized. It is often fragmented, susceptible to bribery or co-optation and prone to squabbling.  The intellectual 
class –  professors, lecturers, lawyers, professionals or the highly educated – form an important part of  the counter-
force. No educated African with an iota of intelligence would serve a barbarous military regime, right?”
Well, I don’t see the difference between serving a “barbarous” and corrupt military regime and a “barbarous” and 
corrupt civilian regime. OK, there is a difference. The “barbarous” civilian regime looks after the intellectuals and the 
elite and keeps the ordinary starving people in there place – whereas the “barbarous” military regime like Jammeh’s 
looks after the ordinary starving people in the villages – and keeps the intellectuals and elite in their place (That is how it 
should be – but infact the business and intellectual elite do quite well under Jammeh: as long as they stay out of 
politics!).

Mr. Ayittey:  
“When Captain Yahya Jammeh overthrew the democratically-elected government of Sir Dawda Jawara on July 24, 1994, 
the only minister from the Jawara administration enticed to serve the military regime was the finance minister, Bakary 
Darbo, a very well respected economist -- even in international circles”.

Actually, Mr. Ayittey, this was only so because the old guard fully expect Jammeh and his colleagues to be back in the 
barracks within six months. Bakary Darbo was simply positioning himself to have a head-start in the race for the 
Presidency when that happened, but, as they say, life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans!

On which note, I’ll end by agreeing with Mr. Ayyitey that the long established African dictators he mentions do know how 
to play the divide-and-rule game beautifully, but life is what happens to them while they are busy making other plans: 
Gaddaffy hated Mubarak and I bet in January he was sitting in his villa celebrating the revolution against Mubarak. Then 
the revolution came to Libya – unexpected and sudden. And both Mubarak and Gaddaffy are history.
Thank you professor Ayittey – I don’t normally respond but when I do I know I have read a good piece! I’d love to 
continue and complete this rejoinder but time does not allow.

Dida Jallow-Halake.


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