*From Prezidom to Family Nation*

By Baba Galleh Jallow

Unlike Africa’s current nation-state system, the chiefdoms, kingdoms and
empires that existed in precolonial Africa had fluid boundaries that
expanded or contracted depending on the power or weakness of their central
governments. Some of them had wise rulers who treated their subjects in a
kind and caring manner.  Some had cruel and unwise rulers who terrorized
their subjects, at their own peril of course. European imperialism
disrupted these traditional African political formations, redrew the map of
Africa, and invented a coterie of colonies that morphed into Africa’s
current nation-state system at independence. Ironically, in some parts of
Africa today, the nation-state is ruled as if it were a precolonial African
kingdom and its citizens treated like the subjects of an unwise and cruel
ruler of the precolonial sort.

It is a sad truth that in certain African countries, the president’s name
evokes images of brutality and instills fear in the hearts of citizens.
Some African heads of state have in effect molded themselves into what we
might call “a prezidom” – part constitutional president of a nation-state,
part absolutist ruler of a precolonial kingdom. The prezidom is always
confused because it finds that it cannot be a constitutional president and
an absolute monarch at the same time. The dilemma is often expressed in
random pseudo-constitutional and neo-absolutist utterances that bear little
resemblance to reality. It is as if the prezidom is perpetually trying and
failing to turn into an unreal political creature in the nation-state.
Nevertheless, it forcefully assumes the “right” to own the country and
everybody’s lives with it. Under the prezidom the sovereign citizens of a
nation-state are subjectified, their voices are stifled, their choices
proscribed, and ultimately, their human dignity nullified.

But while the majority of Africans are chillingly compliant in the face of
the strange prezidom, a significant minority recognizes and detests its
outrageous injustices and is determined to fight it, if necessary through
the use of force. The ubiquity of the prezidom in Africa explains why the
continent has had such a large number of military coups, attempted coups
and putsches since independence. Yet, the African prezidom habitually fails
to admit or address the causes of these violent outbursts. A string of
vitriolic rhetoric always follows these abortive coups, spiced with hostile
threats of hell and damnation for anyone who dares to challenge the
prezidom or question its claim to personal ownership of the country, and
its “right” to do as it pleases with the lives of the people. In The
Gambia, the citizens are frequently reminded that the prezidom will be
prezidom for as long as it likes, and if they don’t like it they can go to
hell. One man assumes the “right” to own a country shared by millions and
to do with the lives of everybody else as he pleases, and damn the
consequences. Injustice assumes the “right” to be justice, and damn the
consequences. No wonder some Gambians are so angry that they are advocating
the right to own guns in a post-Jammeh Gambia.

Commenting on one of my recent pieces published on Kairo News, “Maxs” a
Gambian justifiably angry at the Jammeh prezidom’s unjust treatment of Imam
Cherno Gassama wrote: “I wish Gambians are armed like Americans so that
citizens will be able to defend themselves against the tyrant and its
oppressive forces. The next government must ensure that there is
legislation which gives the right to every citizen to bear arms as USA’s
second amendment right does. This will ensure that never in the history of
our country will we have a tyrant as a leader who will oppress citizens.”
He wrote that the best way to “empower defenceless and oppressed people is
to empower them to bear arms to protect themselves from excessive abuse of
tyrannical government. I believe if Mr. Gassama was armed, he will not be
kidnapped without fighting back. . . . Until then we are a nation of
cowards . . . .” Of course, no one can blame “Maxs” for being angry. Why
should Imam Gassama be arbitrarily arrested and locked up for eight months
without charges, without trial, without any public explanation, and without
access to his family? It seems as if in its interactions with Imam Gassama,
the Jammeh prezidom treated him as if he were a lifeless object to be
simply picked up and dumped in jail, without any regard to his humanity or
his status as the respected Imam of a whole community. Political activities
of this nature naturally make some people feel that an eye for an eye is a
fair policy, even though it makes everybody blind.

While I fully respected his right to his opinion on gun ownership in
post-Jammeh Gambia, I could not help responding in a short thank you note
to “Maxs” that in my opinion, the Jammeh era should not be followed by a
gun culture of the American kind, but by a culture of enlightened and
empowered citizenship in which the government knows itself to be and
operates as a diligent and respectful child of the nation, beholden to the
wishes of its parents, the people; all of the people. What Gambians should
aspire to is not the American gun culture, but a culture of peace,
political civility, and unity in diversity whose defining characteristic
will be respect for the human person, the inviolable sanctity of human
dignity and the rule of law, and in which no tyranny is possible because
the people are politically enlightened and empowered, and will remove their
government through popular power if it fails. Yes, many Gambians are afraid
of the Jammeh presidom; but that is not because they are a nation of
cowards, but because they have not recognized and assumed their real status
as the supreme power in the land. A politically enlightened and empowered
people will not allow themselves to be oppressed. Dictatorship, especially
of the famous “developmental” kind cannot persist in a politically
enlightened and empowered society. The people will make you jippo, and if
you don’t like it you can try going to heaven.

We recall that as part of its report to the AFPRC, the National
Consultative Committee had recommended the establishment of a civic
education council to help raise the political awareness of the Gambian
people. Since he had “accepted” the NCC’s recommendations, Jammeh duly
appointed a civic education council without any serious thought or
planning. No wonder within a very short period, the so-called civic
education council died an unnatural death: it simply stopped talking and
disappeared. The planning and implementation of a serious civic education
institution cannot be left in the hands of any single person; it has to be
a collective, well thought-out and ongoing process of experimentation and
exploration.  It will require serious reflection and brainstorming by a
panel of social scientists, humanists, economists, and other experts.
Happily, there exists a wealth of Gambianist expertise that could be tapped
to do the job.

We have argued before that Gambians can attain the political enlightenment
and empowerment they need through the agency of the nation as school, the
Nation School, whose primary goal will be to transform small Gambia into
one big family, a Family Nation. The Nation School project will facilitate
the honest political education of all Gambians, young and old, enhance a
healthy culture of civility on all matters of general public interest, and
promote the idea and enhance the transformation of our small country into
one big traditional Gambian family, a Family Nation, in which the people
are the parents, the government the children. Inevitably, transforming
Gambia into a Nation School and Family Nation requires an enlightened
leadership, a state that will serve not only as a government, but also as a
professional, dedicated and well organized educational institution whose
primary role is to facilitate and enhance the rigorous political education
of the people. Through a sustained process of proper political
enlightenment and empowerment, Gambians will learn to assume their rightful
status as the ultimate custodians of political power and authority in the
land, and the government will learn to assume its proper status as a loyal
servant, not an all-powerful master of the people.

The fact that most Gambians have not attained any level of formal western
education is not an obstacle to their proper political education. Because
some Gambians cannot read the constitution in English does not mean that
they cannot understand its provisions if these are carefully explained to
them in their own languages. They will fully understand every section,
every subsection, every clause, and every nuance of their country’s
constitution if these are carefully explained to them in their own
languages. They will understand the doctrines of popular sovereignty,
parliamentary democracy, the separation of powers, the independence of the
judiciary, the writ of habeas corpus and any other jurisprudential concept
or legal instrument affecting their lives, if these are carefully explained
to them in their own languages by well qualified professionals.

Gambians need no foreign language to understand that President and Mansa
(king) are similar concepts but totally incompatible institutions. They can
be easily made to understand that Mansa – whether of the babili sort or the
njatigi sort – is as extinct as the Ninki Nanka, even though there are
frequent reported sightings of a similar creature bellowing fire from its
mouth and nostrils across the country. Gambians need no foreign language to
understand that long ago, independence ended the colonial Mansa Kunda and
replaced it with a Nation State in which the people are more powerful than
their government. Their compliant Mansa mentality and all its damaging
baggage can be rectified by exposing and explaining the chronic anomaly
between current political realities and outdated political practices and
perceptions that the prezidom willfully perpetuates in order to hang on to
power.

Gambians need no foreign language to understand that the police man 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. Gambians
need to understand that all monies spent by their government come from
their own pockets, not the government’s; from taxes they pay, loans
contracted in their names, which they and their progeny have to repay,
gifts given to them through their government, or contracts signed and deals
made in their name.  The nation school project can effectively educate our
people 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, and lead to the transformation of our small
Gambia into one big Gambian family, a Family Nation in which the people are
the parents, the government the children.

One has a sense that the nation school project can be implemented through
an Institute for Gambian Studies. Staffed by suitably qualified
professionals and faculty, this Institute will design and offer courses on
Gambian Studies to both university students in a classroom setting and to
the entire nation via regular live programs on national radio and
television. Through the Institute for Gambian Studies, the entire country
can be transformed into an open university in which Gambians are
continuously educated on both domestic and international issues according
to a well-designed curriculum, well-structured syllabi and a sustained
process of lectures and discussions on national radio and television, and
at community forums. Gambians will be given lessons on their national
constitution, on the concepts of citizenship and the rule of law, on the
nature of the nation-state – its historical roots, its philosophical
foundations, the limits of state power and authority - and on many other
issues. Through the agency of the nation school, Gambian society will be
transformed into one big family of relatives who may disagree or even
quarrel and fight over politics, but who will always observe the highest
standards of fair play and civility on all matters of general public
concern.

All Gambian children should also be effectively socialized in the political
culture of empowered citizenship in the nation-state from as early an age
as may be considered suitable. In addition to being taught at the college
and adult national levels, Gambian Studies should be made compulsory at all
elementary and secondary schools, public and private. Gambian children
should graduate from high school with a reasonable knowledge of their
national constitution and the basic laws governing their lives, their
rights and responsibilities as citizens. They should graduate with a
reasonable knowledge of the concepts of parliamentary democracy, the
separation of powers, independence of the judiciary, term limits for the
presidency, and respect for human rights and the rule of law. Of course,
for all Gambian children to be politically educated there will need to be a
system of free and compulsory education in The Gambia. And there can be
that, at least through high school, if the country’s resources, however
limited, are channeled in the proper direction.

We are confident that well-meaning international organizations and various
centers and institutes for constitutional studies and peace and democracy
studies around the world will be only too happy and willing to assist in
building the kind of new society we envisage. If Gambia declares itself a
Nation School and is seen to be genuinely aspiring towards becoming a
Family Nation, we will have a rich fund of international goodwill and
support to draw upon. Organizations like the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the
Open Society Institute, and the National Democratic Institute are just a
few among many whose resources may be tapped to fund the Nation School and
Family Nation projects. Of course, we recognize the very important need to
preserve our cherished cultural norms, values and identities from undue
erosion by the influx of “foreign cultural influences”. But we also know
that what we aspire to is the enhancement of human dignity, which is as
native to Gambians as it is to every human community.


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