The Real July 22nd Revolution – I Section: Nation School
By Baba Galleh Jallow
The real July 22nd revolution firmly believes that the idea of the Family Nation can be actualized through the agency of the nation as a school, the Nation School. This means, of course, that the state must act not only as an institution of governance but also as a conscious politico-educational institution whose primary role is to facilitate and enhance the rigorous political education of the people. We refer not to the kind of political education that merely tells the people what good the government is doing, but the kind that will empower them to assume their rightful status and play their roles as the ultimate custodians of political power and authority. Through a sustained process of the proper kind of civic education, the people will learn to respect political authority and political authority will learn to recognize and assume its proper status as the loyal servant of the nation. Within the framework of the nation as one big school, the political leadership will recognize itself and be seen to behave as at once the head teacher and head pupil of the country. Needless to say, Yahya Jammeh is utterly incapable of even contemplating such a scenario; which is why he represents a crippling obstacle to Gambian advancement and needs to disappear from the country’s political landscape.
The real July 22nd revolution recalls that as part of its overall recommendations to the AFPRC junta, the NCC had suggested the establishment of a civic education council to help raise the political awareness of the Gambian people. Yahya Jammeh did indeed appoint a civic education council, but one whose members were known sycophants of the Jammeh regime woefully unequal to the task. No wonder within a very short period, and after a few bungling broadcasts, the praise-singing caricature of a civic education council died a natural death. In his limited capacity for serious reflection, Yahya Jammeh saw the NCC’s recommendation to set up a civic education council as just that, a recommendation which he dutifully implemented since such a council could be depended upon to praise the lofty ideals of his so-called Vision 2020. So to demonstrate his legendary truthfulness, he proceeded to appoint such a council, complete with chairman and honorable members. In his parochial conception of national political life, he had to be the one to name the members of the council. And he had to make sure that he had just the right people for the job and that if the need ever arose, he could easily will it out of existence. Happily for him, his civic education council simply went dead in the brain and quietly melted into oblivion.
The civic education council we envisage for The Gambia is one whose actualization would involve some serious brainstorming by qualified professionals. Its primary role will be to facilitate and promote the idea of The Gambia as one big family and one big school, to participate in the honest political education of the Gambian people, and to facilitate healthy public discourse on all matters of interest to the Gambian public. The creation of such an institution can certainly not be left to the whimsical hands of one person, especially not a person of such limited mental endowments as Mr. Jammeh who may choose to appoint one of his chief sycophants as chairman and several lesser sycophants as members. The constitution of a serious civic education council of the kind we envisage will require serious reflection and brainstorming by a distinguished panel of social scientists, humanists, and other experts. We rejoice in the fact that The Gambia can boast several such experts and a wealth of academic expertise that could be tapped to help set up such a civic education institution. We are confident that many well qualified Gambian and foreign academics and institutions will be happy to volunteer their time and energy to assist in the actualization of such a body.
It is a well known fact that Yahya Jammeh hates the very idea of political enlightenment and empowerment for the Gambian people. This is most clearly demonstrated in his bitter hatred of the private media and especially in his shameful appropriation of a draconian colonial law to silence Citizen FM. In Mr. Jammeh’s severely parochial understanding, Gambian society is divided into two distinct groups: patriotic and unpatriotic citizens, the patriotic citizens being those who support him and the unpatriotic citizens being everyone else. This unhealthy dichotomization of Gambian society can effectively be neutralized through the promotion of a healthy political awareness that will transform The Gambia into a family nation.
The fact that most Africans have not attained any level of formal western education is often cited as an insurmountable obstacle to their proper political education. The real July 22nd revolution rejects this defeatist notion. We firmly believe that because people cannot read the constitution does not mean that they cannot understand its provisions if these are carefully explained in their own languages. Gambians can be made to fully understand every section, every subsection, every clause, and every nuance of the Gambian constitution if these are carefully explained in their own languages. They can understand the doctrines of parliamentary democracy and the separation of powers upon which the Gambian political system is modeled if these are carefully explained in their own languages. They can understand the ideas of the independence of the judiciary, of habeas corpus and any other jurisprudential concept or legal instrument affecting their lives if these are carefully explained in their own languages. In short, they can understand anything written in English and every aspect of the Gambian political machinery and establishment if these are carefully explained in their own languages by well qualified professionals. We believe that a truly serious civic education institution can effectively educate Gambians on these and all other matters political they need to know in their own languages and in a manner that would enhance their political enlightenment and empowerment.
The real July 22nd revolution submits that Gambians don’t need to know English to understand that President and Mansa are two totally different concepts and institutions and that the latter – Mansa – has long been extinct from their political landscape. Through a proper and well designed course in elementary African history from the pre-colonial to the postcolonial eras, Gambians could be taught – in their own languages – how their societies have evolved from the Mansa era to the era of President; how colonial rule dismantled the Mansa paradigm and replaced it with the paradigm of the Nation State in which the state is subject to the nation. Of course, we recognize that an overhaul of any aspect of traditional African culture – political or otherwise – has certain potential dangers; but we are confident that such dangers could be significantly minimized if not totally neutralized. The really important objective is to transform the pre-colonial Mansa mentality into a postcolonial political mentality that will remove the chronic anomaly between political fact and political fiction, between political institutions and political habits of mind that selfish African despots like Yahya Jammeh wish to perpetuate in order to keep Africans in political slavery. Gambians do not need to know English to understand that the police man at the check point has no right to slap them, or to stop their car, seize their driver’s license, and go sit angrily somewhere waiting for some begging and a bribe. They do not need to know English to know that they are actually more powerful than even the president of the republic and that they have a right to proper legal redress in a properly functional legal system, not one infested with crowds of mercenary judges, magistrates, and prosecutors whose loyalty is entirely to a corrupt president and his coterie of corrupt sycophants. Everything they need to understand all these things exists in documentary form and may properly be explained in their own languages in a manner they will easily understand. There is simply no justification for the continued political ignorance of any African people on the excuse that they do not know European languages.
Certainly, the people of Njaba Kunda, Salinkenye and the Niumis do not need to know English to know that if Yahya Jammeh denies them “development” projects, he is denying them their rightful property. They do not need to know English to know that all monies spent by Yahya Jammeh and the Gambia government do not come from the pockets of the president, but from their own pockets, or from loans contracted in their names, which they and their progeny have to repay, or from gifts given to them through their government representatives. They do not need to know English to know that the state is inconceivable without the people because this fact can be clearly explained to them in their own languages. But of course, the Jammeh state is utterly incapable of such potentially self-subverting honesty. Yahya Jammeh would rather feed the lie that he actually owns both the government and the country and that he owns his money and can spend it how and where he wants. And so he goes about donating money and vehicles and naming bridges and hospitals after his own father, expecting the people to show their eternal gratitude by heaping lavish praises on him and begging him for more money and more development projects. This unhealthy misconception of state by society needs to be eradicated from the Gambian mentality and can be so eradicated with the right kind of leadership capable of actualizing the idea of the nation family through the nation school.
The nation school envisaged by the real July 22nd revolution is one in which the people will be continuously enlightened on both domestic and international political issues through a well thought-out and sustained process of education and dialogue on the concepts of national and global citizenship. It will be one in which the state will facilitate, as a matter of urgent national priority, the effective and widespread dissemination of information about itself – its historical roots, its philosophical foundations, its status in the family nation, the limits of its power and authority, and many other issues that will help Gambian society evolve into one big community of well informed political relatives who may disagree and even quarrel, but who will always observe the highest standards of fair play and civility on all sides. We believe that Gambians do not need to know English to understand the composition and workings of the international socio-cultural, economic, and political system within which they are inextricably embedded. Everything they need to know can be carefully and satisfactorily explained through their own languages by well qualified persons within the framework of the nation school.
The real July 22nd revolution submits that all adult Gambians and their children should be effectively socialized in the culture of citizenship from as early an age as may be considered suitable. Simplified versions of the Gambian constitution and history should be taught to Gambian school children by well qualified teachers. We believe that a Citizenship Studies curriculum should be devised and introduced into all Gambian institutions of secondary education and higher education as well as disseminated through national radio and television. Gambian secondary and high school students should graduate with a reasonable knowledge of the Gambian constitution and the basic laws governing the rights and responsibilities of the citizen. They should graduate with a reasonable understanding of the concepts of parliamentary democracy, the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary, term limits for the presidency, and at least some basic tenets of respect for human rights and the rule of law. Monies currently being wasted on bogus prestige projects, the purchase of luxury cars, armored vehicles, and guns, and the hiring of mercenary judges, magistrates, and prosecutors from foreign countries need to be invested in the training of Gambian experts in the required subjects and disciplines. We, of course, do not rule out the possibility of inviting expatriate teachers and other professionals to assist in the realization of this crucial objective. And we are confident that a wealth of resources of the right kind reside in the global environment and could be tapped through appropriate actions and channels. We are confident that well-meaning international organizations such as the National Democratic Institute, the Open Society Institute, Human Rights Watch, UNESCO, UNICEF, the Commonwealth, Freedom House, and various centers for constitutional studies and peace and democratic studies around the world will be only too happy and willing to assist in building the kind of new Gambian society we envisage – one that promotes a socio-political culture that privileges purely humane values, the kind of cultural superpower we discussed in a previous section.
We believe that a Gambia that declares itself a Family Nation and a Nation School and is seen to be genuinely aspiring toward the actualization of these novel socio-cultural concepts will have a vast fund of international institutional resources to draw upon. Organizations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the National Democratic Institute among many others will be only too happy to assist in building a culture of democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and individual freedoms in The Gambia. We are confident that an organization like the Open Society Institute, for instance, with all the huge financial resources at its disposal, may actually be persuaded into adopting The Gambia as a model open society. Of course, we are fully aware of the potential dangers associated with a massive infusion of foreign cultures into Gambian society. But we are convinced that acceptable ground rules and standards may always be suggested in a manner that will prevent many such dangers. The real July 22nd revolution stands ready to assist in the actualization of the ideology of the Family Nation through the agency of the Nation School under the right political conditions. We submit that for this process of transformation to begin, the kind of ignorant and selfish political leadership that is Yahya Jammeh needs to be erased from the Gambian political landscape.
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