Dear editor,
I join the chorus of fellow Gambians in expressing my profound disappointment and bewilderment over the appointment of Mr Abdoulie Bojang, former Speaker of the National Assembly, as our country’s representative in South Africa.
I understand that in the spirit of national unity and all-inclusiveness especially during this transition period, Gambians of all walks of life, irrespective of gender, religious and political affiliations should be given equal opportunity to serve their country, but the appointment of Mr Bojang disturbingly runs counter to the ideals of this unity program given his influence, position and roles in the former APRC government.
In his capacity as the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Abdoulie Bojang presided over a blatant constitutional assault on Gambia’s democracy through the treasonable declaration of the State of Emergency in January of this year. This was done, with malice aforethought, to subvert the collective will of Gambians, to provoke an already agitated citizenry and to push us off the cliff into the unimaginable consequences of civil war.
Speaker Bojang had had the opportunity to do the most honorable thing as his final act in the crumbling regime by defying the treason conspiracy scheme but he chose power and loyalty to the tyrant over national security, sovereignty and democracy. His remorseless crime is still fresh in the minds of Gambians and this appointment is a demonstrable affront to our collective conscience.
With many qualified Gambians at your disposal with experience and unassailable reputation, I call on you to kindly invoke the Presidential prerogative and rescind this appointment with immediate effect.
Our country needs to heal and move on from the trauma of 22 years of terror but we cannot achieve this with the recycling of unrepentant faces and enablers of the terror regime.
Zakaria Kemo Konteh
Queens, USA
