By Aisha Tamba
Veteran lawyer and former Attorney General Fafa Edrissa M’bai yesterday continued his testimony at the TRRC with sarcastic description of military governments, saying even the worst civilian government is better than a military one.
M’bai, who served as Minster of Justice in the early days of the AFPRC Junta when it ruled by decrees, said the Jawara government or any another civilian government anywhere in the world is better than the best of any military regime.
He however admitted that some positive things happened under the Jammeh dictatorship.
“Objectively, we must accept that certain development for the country has been achieved especially in health, communication, agriculture and education. Example the UTG, the new airport terminal, GRTS and the GRA. But Yahya Jammeh like pharaoh, became enormously greedy and wicked. He was brutal and a true definition of the adage absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is why we became totally and increasingly intolerable to each other and had to part so early with all the advance publicity against me.”
Mr M’bai said he is not proud of the decrees established by the junta and judging his record of service for this country, it would be impossible for him to defend these decrees.
He said the purpose of the decrees was to address the serious and systematic abuse of human rights through corrupt practices that have held the nation at ransom and denied the citizens a decent standard of living. “When I first accepted the position as an attorney general, my intention was to serve this country in its best interest because I had also believed to an extent that the initial intention of AFPRC was well meaning for the country. It was never my intention to enable a dictatorship either wittingly or unwittingly; far from it. I was not the architect of the decrees and I did not enact them but I accept some responsibilities for those which were introduced during my tenure as attorney general and for that, I take full responsibility with clear conscience that I have strongly advised against any law that I am aware of or coincident would violate fundamental human rights,” he said.
