RESPONSE TO SAM SARR'S DIRECT RE-ENGAGEMENT FOR A CIVIL .jpg)
DIALOGUE
As Sonko Questions Sam Sarr’s Agricultural Degree!
By Momodou K. Sonko, PhD Candidate in Information Technology(IT). Masters in Business Administration (MBA).Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BIT)..
I definitely do not know where to start for you have been all over the globe trying very hard to show what a fine officer you were to the extent of paralleling yourself with a fine officer you and I both know as Lt. Momodou Camara. You also went to the extent of explaining how President Jammeh called you in his office and asked you to lead a group to go exhume our late soldiers in Liberia and you paralleled that as a deployment to Liberia. You also went on to say that you went to Guinea Bissau for peace keeping while at the same time refused to go to Liberia on the pretext of being disabled. I wonder what changed under the circumstances. Did Baboucarr Jatta, the then Chief Of Staff gave you an ultimatum to either go for the deployment or face the consequences? You do not have to answer that because I very well know the answer. Being deployed to Guinea Bissau then I can confidently say to the world that I was right to attest that you were not disabled as I kept saying. Let say just hypothetically that you had other reasons for not wanting to deploy to Liberia, which were small pay scale and the ill-preparedness of GNA soldiers. If that is your stand now, then Sarr you are guilty of lying to the Gambia people that you were disabled when actually you were not. In that case lying is a habit of yours and does not care of any future consequences.
I will try and address all the areas you touched truthfully and honestly as I always do unlike your versions which are always misrepresented. That was why you were charged by my humble self and referred for trial by court-martial by the commanding officer. The offense charged was willful failure to obey a lawful order. If convicted by a Special Court-Martial you could have received a Bad Conduct Discharge, reduction in rank, forfeiture of pays and allowance and confinement in a military barrack. The rights and wrongs of the argument over the mission are one thing, the other is whether you Sam Sarr is right to let personal feelings and opinions get in the way of your role in the military. If you were allowed to get away with it, where does it end? Every member of the military could come up with one reason or another for avoiding combat. The reality is you sign up to do your duty, not question it. That can clearly tell the world what type of an officer you were, a coward. Once court marshaled for insubordination and also once charged and dismissed from the army for the same offense. Are you the right person to question which soldier is disciplined or not? I will not blame any soldier for acting any other way since officers like your self are being charged and dismissed from the army for serious offenses like insubordination to a superior officer. No army will take that offense in the world including the US army. It is very clear that you joined the army for monetary reasons and after seeing that you can't be rich in the army you are like what in the world have I put myself in....Too late and too bad for you bro.
Sam Sarr are you implying that you did not joined the coup that overthrow the PPP government? Your question why I was the only senior officer that joined the coup is again another way of you trying to mislead the people as if you and others were against the coup. Yes I took part in the coup when confronted by President Jammeh and the rest of the officers who organized the coup that day just like you and the rest of the officers joined us at the state house upon taking over the whole country. As a matter of fact, you were made a minister before you were arrested and jailed in mile two Prisons for several months subsequently. Remember that was when you fainted and we had to literally force feed you for several weeks. Upon your release from the prisons, you were again reinstated in the army after many appeals from your end. You only left the army after being charged by the then Chief of Staff Baboucarr Jatta for insubordination which lead to your dismissal from the army. If you do not support the coup then, why did you accept the ministerial position or better still why did you accept to be reinstated in to the army? Stop giving the impression that I was the only senior officer who took park in the planning and execution of the coup. Are you forgetting so soon when you were very instrumental in promoting President Jammeh over the radio stations and Television Stations in the country only to start criticizing him when you left the country. Sarr, your actions are not only opportunistic but selfish in all sense of the word, that is why you rushed to the conclusion that I am looking for recognition from President Jammeh when I started revealing your true nature to the world, the world your are trying to impress so hard. Not all peace loving Gambians are selfish and opportunistic like you are. You will do whatever it takes to make a penny unlike the rest of us. Unlike me Sarr, I am happy when I set a record straight just like I did in your case. I do not expect to gain any penny for revealing your true colors to the world. I will be more than glad to correct any one I know that he or she is fabricating or misrepresenting a material fact. That is the way I was brought up and still have it strongly embedded in me and I can definitely assure you that I will be visiting my grave with it without fear of losing any favor or help from any one including yourself in question here.
Sarr, coming to the paragraph where you stated that I said that you faked an injury that never happened, merely because you were afraid of the battlefield is again another total misrepresentation of facts, in pursuit of misleading the people to think differently of you. I did not say that for all I said was that you were scared to death to be deployed which is a documented fact and I still now stand by that assertion. Do not forget that I was the adjutant then who picked you to be deployed and consequently prepared a charge sheet against you for failing to go. Yes it is true that everyone in the GNA then knew that you shot yourself on the foot by carelessly handling a weapon. Tell the whole story for I personally did not see that as an accident. That kind of accident should never happen to anyone who calls himself or herself a soldier for the first thing you do when handling a weapon is to check to see if the safety catch is on the lock position. That is the first lesson any soldier learns at basic training. Failing to do that is nothing but carelessness for lack of a better word. You should have even been charged for that for inflicting a self injury. You should consider yourself very lucky for not being charged for a crime of "negligent discharge", a charge that could earn you a prison term or dishonorable discharge from the army altogether. This is a documented fact, and I refer you to the Gambia Arm Forces Act (GAFA). Please do not use that as an excuse for not going to Liberia for you had fully recovered from the self inflicted gunshot long time ago. Correct me if I am wrong, were you not sent to the USA to do the Infantry Officer Basic Course (IOBC), a course which is very challenging to say the least. The exercises in that course are as realistic as a real combat situation which the course is meant to prepare you for. I have equally done this training I am talking about. One is trained in all phases of combat and I must confess that it is a very challenging one. How come you were able to do IOBC and could not go to Liberia? Like I told you before, please do not take Gambians as stupid for we are not. We can equally read, write and understand.
You cannot tell me now that you reasons for not deploying to Liberia was as a result of the pay scale of GNA soldiers? If I can recollect, you were told what your pay scale was going to be, grade 11 as a cadet officer and it goes up upon every promotion to a higher rank. You accepted it then, and gladly came to USA to be trained as an infantry officer to eventually lead soldiers in combat. That was a duty you failed to do not because of what the pay scale was as you are tirelessly trying to let us believe but because you were one coward officer known to all in GNA then. Nobody joins the army anywhere in the world and say because I am not being paid enough so I am not going to be deployed. Why don't you use that as your excuse then for not being deployed to Liberia but rather used the self inflicted gunshot as the excuse which no body bought as credible then including myself. You see Sarr, you cannot play with our intelligence, your refusal to go to Liberia was as a result of cowdice but not because of pay scale, or the soldiers are ill prepared or because you are disabled or yet still it was an illegal order. I will go further with this to say that if any soldier is ill- trained or ill- prepared that soldier is yourself for you have not only shown the world that fact by shooting yourself with your own personal weapon but also scared to death to be deployed. Now I know from what you are saying is that you refusal for deployment as nothing to do with yourself inflicted gun shot.
Your assessment of Fort Benning is wrong and also you are again trying to misinform the people about Fort Benning a place you and I both were trained. Yes, Fort Benning will teach you to obey only Legal Orders and nothing else. Fort Benning will also train you to obey the orders of the commander in chief of the armed forces who happens to be the president of any country. You tell me what is wrong and illegal about Sir Dawda, the former president's orders to deploy GNA soldiers to Liberia. Do you really know what you are talking about? Do you really know with all honesty what constitute a legal and illegal order? You tell me, what is illegal about the sub region of West Africa coming together to give peace a chance in one of the sister countries so to speak Liberia? The president then in his capacity as the commander in chief of the arm forces and the commander of the GNA both gave their blessings for the deployment along with other ECOWAS Countries? Please help me to understand how that is an illegal order. May be you need to understand what an illegal order is all about. No wonder you became a victim of insubordination in the army by disobeying a lawful command from the then Chief of Staff, a charge that led to your dismissal from the army. You are the only one claiming that going to Liberia was an unlawful command. All reasonable and peace loving Africans as well as citizens of the free world commended ECOWAS countries for coming together and prevail in Liberia. That shows and tells a lot about West Africa in promoting peace. I wonder what kind of reasoning you have in your head.
You also went on to say that I made mention of President Jammeh may be I am up to something. Sarr I can see where you are trying to go with this, but I can assure you that you will not only fail as you did with all your unsuccessful undertakings regarding tribalism, false assertions about some Mandigo personalities claiming to have degrees they do not have and not to forget your constant attack on some good Gambians. Sarr if you must know, I am doing very well in the USA and I thank God for providing me with all I have available to me. I am not trying to get anything from President Jammeh but only trying to set the records straight for all to know by pointing out all the misrepresentations and fabrications your have been doing for a while just to make a penny. Sarr like I said before, you are the problem and the course of your own disgrace for you must be out of your mind to think that you can get away with whatever you want to write without any substance. I am sorry that your misrepresentations and fabrications are catching up with you now. People will aways ask you to back your claims and assertions with facts which you are not doing but rather visiting the Senegambia issue which is not the topic of discussion as well as giving a different versions why you did not deploy to Liberia. Initially your reason was as a result of disability due to yourself inflicted gunshot wound and now it is because you felt that the pay scale of soldiers is not good and also soldiers are ill prepared and ill trained and not forgetting that the order was an illegal one too. There you go again trying very hard to play with our intelligence. Like I said before, I will not sit by and do nothing knowing that most of what you are writing on cyber space are not only false and fabrications, but has the danger of inciting tribal sentiments in the Gambia, a country I love very much. The Gambia as a country will always welcome you but it goes without saying that we will not miss you much in the Gambia especially after you personally stated that you have no desire of ever returning to the Gambia. No wonder you were very busy trying to use all forms of negativity and cares less upon the spread of tribalism in the country. Is it because you have decided long time ago that you never wish to go back to the Gambia so to hell with the country for you will be protected in the USA when what you had been propagating materialized, a situation where a lot of lives would be lost. Sarr why are you so selfish to the Gambia so much? You can't blame the country for your failures but rather you should be blaming yourself.
I must also comment on your notion that the Gambia Government made a hasty decision to deploy the soldiers to Liberia. That is inaccurate again for the ECOWAS heads of state met in Banjul to discuss the situation in Liberia and Bravo company which I was then commanding had the honor to do the perimeter security of the hotel area the meeting was taking place. That was a decision reached by all the attending Heads of State. The decision of sending GNA soldiers to Liberia was a very noble one and I do not care a bit what you think about that for Liberian people need that kind of support from the region. It could have been the Gambia and we will need the support from the region as well especially when people like you are going around misinforming the public, instigating tribalism, name calling and many more just to make a penny. All Gambians I am sure are proud to be a part of the peace process in Liberia. Thank God things are getting better there now even though there is still more to be done without any contribution from your end. You are entitled to your own opinion about the preparedness of GNA then, but I can assure that the soldiers went to Liberia and performed well beyond all expectations for I was there myself as one of the commanders. I have seen soldiers crying when told that they cannot go to Liberia unlike you who rather be charged for cowdice than go to Liberia under the pretext of being disabled from a gunshot wound which was self inflicted, and If I must add, a wound which you recovered from. Your excuse to the people is that you are disabled. Sarr you very well know that you are fine as an ox but still want us to take your word that you are disable. I have had this discussion with you long time ago in the army and I was and still not convinced that you are disabled and that was the position of the army then as well. Let us be realistic to our selves, why do I have to charge you if you are disabled? Did I have anything against you? Did the whole command structure had anything against you that you are not telling the people? Sarr all cannot be wrong and you are the only one right. It is about time for you to understand that people want to know facts that can be substantiated. Those days are gone for you when you can write whatever comes to your mind thinking that people are going to take it whole heartedly. You want to make sure you have facts to back your claims from now on that way people may slowly, and I mean slowly take a rational look at what you are saying.
Too bad you joined the army primarily to get a good job that pays well and of course pretty secured. What were you thinking joining the army then? You very well know that you cannot get rich by joining the army and the establishment comes with the possibility of being deployed to combat. You could have looked for employment from other sectors of the government other than the army where you will not be exposed to the possibility of having to kill or be killed. Too bad for that is what the military is all about anywhere you go in this world including the USA which you claimed to be home for you from now on. I am sure all Gambians will miss you very much. (smiling). I agree with you that I equally do not agree with cold blooded killings but that is not what we are discussing here Sarr. I will be more than glad to discuss that with you on a different platform. We are talking about why you joined the army and what your expectations were. Nobody is accusing you of being a cold blooded killer nor wants you to be one, what I am saying is putting it to you that you are not only scared to be deployed but a real opportunist as you rightly stated in your last so called piece you wrote on Freedom Newspaper. You were looking for a well paying job with security.
Yes I was aware that you led a delegation to exhume the bodies of our late soldiers in Liberia. May their souls rest in perfect peace...(Amen). I commend you for that for the first time for I strongly believe in giving credit where it is due. I commend the President for giving them the proper burial and going further by compensating the families with a lot of money. Those are noble actions and I would love my family to be treated the same way if it were me dead. Sarr, do not confuse going to escort the corpse form Liberia as going to Liberia for action. Correct me If I am wrong, you must have been in the officers uniform or ceremonial uniform with your cane stick (officer's stick) when you went to Liberia. Like I said before, that is my interpretation of a ceremonial soldier. I am sure you did not spend more than one week there if that long. Thanks due to Pa Sanneh who along with his men in Liberia made sure that you were safe during you few days stay there.
I am surprised to hear you say that you were not impressed with what you saw in Liberia making me to wonder what in the world were you expecting. In case you forgot, Liberia was a war zone where there was no law and order. Was that not why ECOMOG was sent there to bring about peace and stop the senseless killings of innocent civilians? A mission you had the opportunity to go and be a part of but refused flatly out of cowdice. You are free to write whatever you want in your publication but I am not ready to go into areas not pertaining to what we are talking about. If you want a general discussion about events in the Gambia, Liberia , Senegambia Confederation and many others, I am ready for such discussion but for now I want to make it abundantly clear that you failed to go to Liberia as a result of cowdice as opposed to what you are trying to let me or other people to believe. Initially it was the self inflicted gunshot now it is the pay scale and the ill preparedness of the troops as well as being an illegal order. Which one of the three should one believe in. Sarr you are going out of explanations. It is very evident that your action was nothing but cowdice and deserves to be charged which I personally did. At least I have done my part in trying to bring you to account. Before I forget, did the Liberian government took your so called recommendations?
I am not sure again what you are trying to achieve by stating wrong numbers regarding how much you were paid in the GNA. That again is another misrepresentation of facts. You monthly salary was not D750. We were enlisted into the army at a pay scale of Grade 11 as cadet officers and not what you said. Grade 11 those days pays more than D750. You do the math for yourself in case you have forgotten so soon about how much your own pay was. I still have the offer letter signed by K. Wright in front of me while writing this for the benefit of all. I will not go with you on the area of how much the pay scale of the soldiers were but I can assure you that the GNA soldiers are not the best paid then and now but are also not the worst paid then and now. It is just unfortunate on your side and I feel very sorry for you for choosing a wrong establishment looking to be stable, secure and at the same time make a lot of money. The army is a wrong place for you to look for riches but rather a place you can meet the possibilities of being deployed to combat, a situation you are scared to death about.
You also made mention of a fine officer Lt. Momodou Camara and you paralleled your court marshal with his resignation from the army. Are you kidding me Sarr? I agree with you on the notion that he was a very fine officer who left the army on his own accord. He was and still an individual I have a great respect for. He is a real gentleman beyond any explanation. He left the army because he wanted to pursue other areas in life unlike you who was going through the court Marshall as a result of insubordination and not because you wanted to resign from the army as you are trying to lead people to believe. Do not forget that I personally was your defense lawyer in that court marshall. Going further with that, Maj. Ebrima Chongan was your prosecuting officer and Maj. Chris Davis was the president of the court. When and how were you charged for trying to leave the army? That never happened for you were court marshaled for insubordination which I will dwell on further in a future publication. During the time I was adjutant, you were on several occasions given the option of retiring from the army or get ready for deployment or face a court Marshall. You choose to stay in the army by lobbying on the pretext that you are disabled and unfit to go on a combat mission. Do not tell me that you were court marshaled because you wanted to leave the army and the army won't let you. How do you come up with such fabrications?
I know that it can be devastating to find out that a friend or love one has been lying like the world knows in your case. People with family members who engage in compulsive lying sometimes say it is annoying more than anything else. You just never know when you can rely on a person like that as in the case with you Sam Sarr. All Gambians are getting to know how you can fabricate events. You should consider changing the title of your book to show that it is fiction and not true accounts, because if what I am reading from you are the same type of issues you writing, I do not even have to read your collection. If I may add to that by telling you to consider writing fictions or better still go into movies since those are areas one can make up his or her own stories and still becomes interesting. In addition to that you do not even have to worry of being sued for character assassination.
It is not clear whether pathological liars can be helped but some people believe that counseling may help the person develop better self-esteem and help to cure compulsive lying. It is likely that there are many different causes for compulsive lying but one reason I know for sure in your case Sarr is nothing but to make a penny by any means necessary. Being friends with a liar, or being in a relationship with one, is difficult as we are all seeing now. Some people confront compulsive liars like yourself gently by pointing out the lies, saying things like "That doesn't sound like it could be true", or "Are you sure that really happened?" Others have chosen to end the relationship rather than put up with the lies. Others will confront the liar head on and let him know that he cannot take people for granted like I tried to do only to be accused of trying to gain recognition from President Jammeh. Sarr you are a joke for even harboring that kind of a thought in that head of yours. All I am trying to do and will not stop until you stop misrepresenting and fabricating facts as if nobody is around to correct you. Enough is enough and it is time for you to sit down and take a deep breath and realize that you are doing more harm than good to yourself by resorting to lying for lack of a better word. Sometimes it's obvious right away that a person is lying. The stories don't make sense. Details of one story contradict another. Unfortunately, some compulsive liars are very good at it. It can be years before a smooth liar gets caught. There might be a moment when a lie becomes apparent. Maybe you gave one reason as the reason why you refuse to be deployed as in your case disability and later stating a different reason as the real reason for not deploying as in the case now being the low pay scale and the ill preparedness and ill training of the GNA soldiers. Or, it might just be a slowly accumulating number of things that seem not quite right. Sorry bro, if I may throw that word right back at you, things are catching up with you.
One more thing, are you not the same Sam Sarr who claims to have a degree from one of the Universities in America, specifically in Atlanta? You and I both know that the requirement for becoming a cadet officer then was that one has to have an Advance Level Education (A Level) or higher to be considered. Knowing fully well that the whole Gambia knew that you never went to the sixth form nor obtained an A Level, you alleged that you have a degree in Agriculture from one of the Universities in America. I have personally tried on many occasions for you to bring the degree to be placed in your file to no avail. You kept telling me that you have requested it from the University and that you will bring it when you receive it. I am sure that you can still remember that never happened. Sarr, that brings me to bluntly ask you if indeed you did have a degree in Agriculture as you alleged to the Gambia National Army and Gambia people as a whole. I would like to know the name of the University you obtained the degree in Agriculture from and I will do the rest of the fact finding on my own since that is public information. I am sure many Gambians would like you to respond to that. Sarr it is easy to point a finger to someone, but always remember that while you are pointing the finger you are at the same time pointing more fingers to yourself. Yes, according to your testimony some Mandingo personalities claims to posses degrees they do not have, it looks to me that is the case with you also. Please do not tell me that you started at one college but could not finish because you had to leave America for Gambia and eventually joined the army. That will not only constitute a lie to the army but to the Gambia as a nation so to speak. I will be more than grateful if you use your good offices and clarify this issue for me. Again I am asking you, Sam Sarr do have a degree in Agriculture or not? I want to thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.
In conclusion, I was disappointed after reading your piece for it does not reflect what your heading says. All I can see is you trying very hard doing what I will call damage control. I will be more than glad to have a meaningful, rational, educative as well as relevant discussion with you on any topic. You pick the topic and let me know and we can go from there. Please do not forget to help me with the name of the University.
Momodou K. Sonko
PhD Candidate in Information Technology(IT).
Masters in Business Administration (MBA).
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BIT)..