The Real July 22nd Revolution – G Section: NIA
By Baba Galleh Jallow
The real July 22nd revolution submits that of the many instruments of coercion that Yahya Jammeh has unleashed against the Gambian people, the so-called National Intelligence Agency (NIA) – better called National Intimidation Agency – is by far the most damaging to the country’s national interest. Operating directly under the personal supervision of the president, the NIA was designed to guard the security of the state, which, as we have argued, the agency mistakes for the security of the nation. That the security of the head of state is important in any country is beyond question. But that does not mean that an agency created and paid out of public resources should be unleashed to go security threat hunting where there are none and in the process to unjustly arrest, accuse, maltreat, and often torture innocent persons. Indeed, Yahya Jammeh has turned himself and the NIA into one giant Robo Cop on the rampage in Gambian society, a Robo Cop that patrols everywhere, mindlessly and brutally crushing under its iron feet anything that does not smell of Yahya Jammeh, and everything that emits any noises offensive to its mechanical ears by obeying every command punched in from the Kanilai control tower. It is a strange spectacle that Gambians could become so mechanized and robo-like in their blind obedience to orders, whether the orders asked them to punish a totally innocent person or not. Certainly, the NIA places obedience to Yahya Jammeh over obedience to God and their concern for the humanity of their victims.
Over the years, certain phrases have become common at NIA headquarters. One of them is “selling the country to the enemies.” During interrogations that would have been funny had they not been so outrageous, the NIA offhandedly insist that their victims are selling the country to the enemies. Apparently, they have been indoctrinated by Yahya Jammeh to believe that dark and sinister forces lurk in the foreign environment ready to pay handsomely for the president’s head. Perhaps, Yahya Jammeh is so frightened of these dark forces because they actually do exist. They were perhaps the dark and malignant forces that paid for Sir Dawda’s head. And how could Yahya Jammeh know that these malignant forces are not ready to pay again, this time for his own dear head? Only within such a scenario can any sense be made of the absolute conviction and vehemence with which the NIA insists that you are selling the country to the enemies. 
Of course, some NIA detainees accused of selling the country to the enemies always insist that they are not selling the country to any enemies and do not even know what enemies they are talking about. In response to such denials, the NIA will angrily insist that they are selling the country to the enemies. H.E says they are selling the country to the enemies so they must be selling the country to the enemies because it is inconceivable that H.E. could be wrong or telling a lie merely to punish his perceived enemies. For the monstrous crime of suggesting the monstrous idea that H.E. is in fact lying when he claims that they are selling the country to enemies, Gambians are known to have been so badly tortured that they are permanently disfigured. Gambians have been beaten with iron rods and have had electrical devices applied to their genitals because they insist that they are not selling the country to any enemies.
The real July 22nd revolution can site one example of an occasion when Yahya Jammeh had actually told a lie and some journalists were punished for inadvertently exposing the lie. A heavy rainstorm on a Wednesday night had knocked down part of the State House wall facing Independence Drive. On Thursday morning, crowds of curious onlookers had gathered at the scene, feasting their eyes for the first time on the fascinating insides of the castle that had ruled their lives since colonial times. A reporter at the scene had written a short news item captioned “State House Wall Collapses.” In the story, the reporter had written that the crowds of curious onlookers saw, among other things, six armored vehicles packed on the State House grounds. Shortly after that edition of the paper hit the newsstands, the reporter and two of his editors were picked up by the NIA. They were roundly and angrily accused of selling the country to the enemies. How dared they write that among the things people saw at State House were six armored vehicles? In fact, they were trying to embarrass the president and saying that H.E was a liar. 
Needless to say, the journalists were thoroughly baffled. How reporting that among the things seen by the crowds inside State House were six armored vehicles constituted calling the president a liar was a mystery to them. And so they loudly wondered as much to the angry agents. Persistently pressed to please just explain how this constituted calling H.E. a liar, the NIA finally explained the mystery. “How could H.E. say, just last week, that there are no armored vehicles at State House and now you are saying there are armored vehicles at State House? You are selling the country to the enemies.” But of course, THERE WERE armored vehicles at State House, at least six of them. And they were in full public view when the State House wall collapsed. What the journalists didn’t know was that just the previous week, Yahya Jammeh had been asked by a journalist at a press conference in Dakar whether it was true that there were armored vehicles at State House. He had vigorously denied it. And now, the paper had reported that there were in fact armored vehicles at State House. The NIA, of course, had no answer to the question as to why, if there were armored vehicles at State House Yahya Jammeh should tell the Senegalese press that there were no armored vehicles at State House. Apparently, a furious Yahya Jammeh had ordered the NIA to immediately arrest the journalists and have them explain how they dared say there were armored vehicles at State House when he had said there were no armored vehicles at State House. They were obviously calling him a liar and selling the country to the enemies. 
The whole affair was a ridiculous mammoth of colossal proportions found only in a society in which truth is openly, deliberately, and persistently subjected to lies. The NIA knew that it was wrong to arrest and detain the journalists for reporting what hundreds of people saw, and that Yahya Jammeh was wrong to have them do so. Why then did they not politely say so to him? Surely, under the rather troubling circumstances, H.E. might just have been amenable to a reasonable compromise? But no. The NIA is not programmed to think, to ask questions, or to offer any suggestions that run counter to the wishes of their omnipotent and omniscient H.E. Being long reduced to mindless robo cops in human skin, NIA agents are programmed to merely obey orders and do as they are told. No questions asked. And when pressed to please just explain why they habitually arrest and detain people they very well know are innocent, they often fall back on another one of their favorite robo refrains: “Well you know brother, we are just obeying orders from above.”
The real July 22nd revolution also knows of an instant when the NIA had arrested an editor of a daily paper using a fake arrest warrant. Generally, the NIA does not bother with producing arrest warrants for their victims. On that particular occasion, however, they did produce a warrant. Five NIA agents had arrived at the paper’s offices in two vehicles one early Sunday morning. They had all squeezed into the editor’s office and informed him that they had a warrant for his arrest, which they made him read and sign before rummaging through his drawers and papers. The warrant said the editor was “suspected of dealing in arms, ammunitions, and drugs, and being in possession of dangerous documents.” When he was finally hauled off to NIA headquarters, the editor was informed that in fact, his arrest was in connection with a small paint ad that had been appearing in the paper for the past two weeks. When the editor reminded them that his arrest warrant had actually said that he was suspected of dealing in arms, ammunitions and drugs, and being in possession of dangerous documents, the NIA simply retorted, “that was just a warrant.” Apparently, H.E. had been thoroughly baffled and frightened at the strange wording of the paint ad which simply read “The Kids are Coming” (as in new kids on the block), and had given orders that the editor and some of his colleagues should be immediately picked up and asked to explain what they mean the kids are coming. His paranoid Excellency apparently feared that the kids are coming was some sort of a code name for some subversive elements about to invade The Gambia and get him. And so the editor was accused of selling the country to the enemies. When it became clear that the words were indeed for a new paint product a Norwegian businessman was about to introduce to the Gambian market, the NIA resorted to their familiar robo-retort: “You know brother, we are just obeying orders from above.”
The real July 22nd revolution submits that it is their blind obedience to ALL orders from above, however cruel, unjust, and ridiculous, that have turned the NIA into the second most feared entity in Gambian society, the first being Yahya Jammeh himself. And, of course, like the cowardly bully he is, Yahya Jammeh relishes the idea of being the most feared entity in The Gambia. So in order to become even more feared, he has deployed NIA informers in large numbers into every nook and cranny of Gambian society. It is no secret that NIA agents and informers are attached to every Gambian diplomatic mission around the world. They are stationed in every Gambian police, customs, immigration, and military checkpoint and post. They lurk in every post office, every government department, every school staff room, every bank, every hotel, every ferry terminal, and at the airport and seaport. They and are planted on the boards of both public and private corporations, and they sit on many social and religious committees across the country. They belong to vous and clubs, whose members often become unofficial NIA informers. The close friends, spouses, and relatives of each NIA agent become informers who, in their turn, have their own social circles among whom grows yet another ring of NIA informers. And so the circle of informers has widened so much that it literally engulfs the entirety of Gambian society. The overall aspect of this sinister phenomenon in Gambian society is truly hard to behold. In this its informer culture manifestation, the NIA has become sickeningly ubiquitous in Gambian society, so much so that people are afraid to mention Yahya Jammeh’s name unless to loudly praise him and have been reduced to perpetually guessing who is or is not an NIA informer. “Hey, watch out, they say her husband is NIA. Hey, do you know that guy is NIA? They say his wife is also NIA. Have you heard they arrested one NIA – that guy Boto? Yeah, Boto Dengatat, a very wicked NIA. He was the one who arrested and tortured Mbeh. And Mbeh was innocent because they later found the ear rings.” Apparently, the NIA also specializes in handling petty theft cases because they represent a threat to the security of the state and are selling the country to the enemies.
The real July 22nd revolution submits that if they were really out to fight crime, the NIA’s massive ubiquity in Gambian society would have made the country the safest in the world today. It is a cruel paradox that their ubiquity in fact represents one of the greatest sources of insecurity to the Gambian people. Through his vast network of NIA informers, Yahya Jammeh keeps the Gambian people on a tight lease, as if they were some kind of rabid dog that would bite him to death. He does what he likes and says what he likes because he could depend on his thousands of NIA robots to severely punish anyone who as much as dares cast an unkind eye upon his image. And not only must Gambians always praise Yahya Jammeh; they must also give some cola nut price to the NIA lest they are suspected of being anti-Jammeh. And so the nauseating circus of insecurity proceeds with reckless abandon, with extremely harmful consequences for Gambian society. Indeed, one sad consequence of NIA ubiquity in Gambian society has been to turn Gambians against each other. Family members and co-workers with minor differences turn each other over to the NIA on charges of having criticized Yahya Jammeh or of being opposition sympathizers. The NIA is often drawn into domestic family and community conflicts in which they always side with the party that seems to be pro-Yahya Jammeh, regardless of whether that party is the aggressor or not. Gambians have become so used to seeing naked lies imposed on the truth by Yahya Jammeh and NIA fiat that they are in danger of believing that truth no longer matters since it is might that makes right.
The real July 22nd revolution submits that there should be at least someone with some spine among the ranks of the NIA who would dare politely suggest to Yahya Jammeh that some of his orders are not right. But considering the fact that Yahya Jammeh is himself the biggest Robo Cop, self-programmed to input only data favorable to his mechanical senses, we understand that such polite suggestions might just have unpleasant consequences for the agent in question. But then again, that is no excuse to carry out cruel and unjust orders when you very well know they are cruel and unjust orders. There is always the choice to be or not to be. The NIA does not have to be a mindless Robo Cop that does Yahya Jammeh’s bidding, however cruel, however unjust, and however inhuman. The NIA knows that Gambian culture frowns upon the bullying of the weak and that both Christianity and Islam frown upon the naked imposition of lies over truth to please one person. It seems, however, that to the NIA, Yahya Jammeh is now more than a person. And in a sense, they are right. Yahya Jammeh has become thoroughly dehumanized by wanton greed and the wine of power. He is now a giant and mindless Robo Cop in human skin that brutally tramples upon and smashes anything and everything unfavorable to its mechanical senses, especially noises sounding like democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.
                                          

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤