An Open Letter: Seeking A Truce

Attention Pa Nderry, Yanks, Suntou & All: Let go on the Sensitive Part!

Folks, I take the opportunity to wish you all a holiday full of love and blessings. To our Christian brothers, we wish you a merry celebration in the spirit of what we share – family, mutual respect, co-existence and religious tolerance.

I think we will all agree that the struggle have odd and long hours. As we keep moving, others on our side are bound to fall; some fall because they are tired, others fall because it is exhaustive, and to others the shiny and tempting promises on the enemy’s side is just too tempting. Oh well, how we at least pick and dust that belong to us and refine them for the better? The great Madiba who we all recently mourned left us with a legacy. It wasn’t only enough to mourn such a world icon but we must seek virtue from his applications to solve some of the problems threatening our unity and existence. That was the main reason that I took offense personally from some of our African leaders in the persons of Jammeh, Mugabe and the rest of the criminal leadership gang in mourning Mandela while hell-bent on oppressing their own people. We know they have done this arrogantly without remorse and reflection on what true leadership should be about.

Who am I and who appointed me? I am no one other than one among those of you fighting. I am not a politician and I have no plans of being one now or later in my life. I don’t belong to any individual party in the Gambia.

This is just a reminder again that we are losing focus on our battle against Jammeh. The question to Pa Nderry, Yanks, Suntou and all those participating in WWIII: Is this what we need right now? The answer is certainly an emphatic no.

As Gambians, we should be able to resolve things ourselves. I see the next Gambian leaders in all of you. Let us find the common areas that unite us and utilize that opportunity to get rid of the dictator. Jammeh is going to sit down there and cajole us, especially as activists critical of his bad governance. Like can be quoted from Professor Saine and I hope he forgives me for putting him in the limelight in a debate as critical as tribal, thus, “We should agree to disagree without having to be disagreeable.” I want you all to know that we should all agree to be redirected. The last time I stopped by a Burger King, my 7-year old daughter corrected me on how to pronounce b-u-r-g-e-r. I had to breathe in for a minute and swallow my pride. She was right that my thick ascent won’t pronounce the burger as others would.

The tribal debate is too sensitive and it has every tendency to bring more division and affect some of the unity projects that people are working on. In my view, it is a way of freeing Jammeh once again from the corner he has been comfortably chained to his knees all these months.

I know people would want specific points and names mentioned. While it is a route to take to resolve a problem, I am avoiding pointing any finger on the specifics to Pa Nderry, Yanks, Suntou and all those responding to his sensitive editorial. I want everyone to reflect on the sensitive part to the problem at hand. Is there a better way that Pa Nderry could have structured his editorial? Is there a better way that those that responded to his editorial could have handled the situation? The opportunity is certainly there and we have to utilize it. I know almost all intellectuals or others participating in Gambia’s sphere politics would like not to get dirtied in such exchanges, but the questions are: Don’t we need to solve our own problems? Can’t a brother look at a brother and say, please let us change the tone? Can we agree to forgive, come to understanding and forge ahead?

So in the spirit of unity and a Gambia we all believe in, I ask all of you to forgive and forge ahead in progression. We cannot victimize ourselves more than we suffered in the hands of the oppressing ruler. That in my view is the main reason why a truce is necessary. We are not only resolving it now, we are also resolving it for good and ever. The ugly debate of tribalism surfacing within midst hasn’t helped the Diaspora. There is some learning opportunity. For now, let us all take the truce of letting the debate die in open space. This is to be followed by those debating reaching out to one another to settle scores internally and shaking hands.

Once again, I am calling on all of you to redirect the sharp daggers to the man who is our main problem and that is none but Yaya AJJ Jammeh, the head of the criminal administration in our dear mother land.

“Darkness cannot drive out Darkness; only light can do that” –Dr. King, Jnr.

Sincerely Yours,

Yero.

Note: You are all welcome to rejoin to the debate in a healthy way.