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‘Gambians must stop obsessing over Jammeh and move on’

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By Alagie Manneh

A former army general and leader of the Alliance for National Reorientation and Development, Lamin Bojang has said that Gambia “cannot be glued to the past” and called on those wronged by the former government of Yahya Jammeh “to move on”.

He was speaking in an expansive Standard interview Tuesday from his base in Brufut. 

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The former general, accused by many political observers of exhibiting pro-Jammeh and pro-APRC sympathy, stated: “I have never spoken with Jammeh since he left the shores of The Gambia but if I am a sympathiser of Jammeh and APRC, that is based on unity and the ANRD is a unifying party.”

He continued: “Let us look at this issue critically. When Yahya left, this country was polarised and divided on ethnic or political lines, so we needed a unifier and we thought that was Barrow. Also, when they commissioned the TRRC, some of us said it was the best arrangement to bring all of us together, but to our dismay, the TRRC has been used to witch-hunt certain people”.

Bojang said he is very careful regarding his position on Jammeh and the APRC. “What I said was that if we can establish that Yahya has done this or that, the laws are there to judge him,” he said.

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He said people often ask and wonder why he is not critical of Jammeh. “But that is because I have worked with him, and he used to give me instructions directly but not once did he ever instruct me to go and beat anyone. Also, we cannot be glued to the past all the time in our lives saying APRC did this, Yayha Jammeh did that. At one point, an arrangement will be made for Jammeh to answer to all these things, but there is also an opportunity that we can all pardon him,” he said.

“Political party leaders are using the errors that happened in the Jammeh administration to continue their castigation of the APRC and Yahya Jammeh. APRC members are Gambians. If you are talking about unifying The Gambia, regardless of who has done what, we should pardon all and move forward. And this is what is going to bring all the Gambians together,” he said.

Read his interview in full on page 4.

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