Re: Senate to investigate ‘xenophobic
attacks’ on Nigerian lawyers in Gambia
Dear editor,
Nigerian Judges being so maligned served with fellow Gambian Judges, under the same Jammeh administration. The Gambian Judges were ‘good’ simply because they were Gambians? How many of the indigenous Gambian Judges who served under the same Jammeh administration have been maligned or maltreated like the Nigerians? Gambians should handle their internal political issues without using Nigerians to settle their ‘internal scores’.
Did Jammeh not jail these same Nigerian Judges by reasons of giving Judgment based on the Law and their consciences? Was Jammeh not after the life of a former female Ghanaian Chief Justice too? How about the former Pakistani Chief Justice of The Gambia asked to leave the country within 72 hrs?
Most of the so-called ‘incompetent’ Nigerian Judges graduated from the distinguished Nigerian Law School (That trained over 75% of Gambian Lawyers) before some of their fellow Gambian Judges were born or began primary School and still humbly worked hard to clear the backlog of work previous Gambian Judges left undone.
The facilities provided for a Nigerian Judge in Gambia do not even match what a junior magistrate in Nigeria works with, yet the Nigerian Judges bore it all.
The truth is: Gambians did not want to admit the experiences and competences of foreigners, especially Nigerians. Sierra Leonean teachers suffered same fate in Gambia some years ago. The Nigerian Judges were not told the true conditions of facilities in The Gambia Judiciary before leaving Nigeria. How do you hire Judges from their country, asking them to pay their way to Gambia, and worse still never refunding them? Anyone seeking to take up Judicial appointment in Gambia should better speak with those who have been there before, so that they do not suffer same maltreatment.
If the Gambia Judiciary has really ‘Come of Age’ as they now claim (With a Lawyer of 5-years post-call experience being sworn in as Judges because he is a Gambian and maligning a foreigner of 20-30 years experience) there should be no issues with that. It is their country, only they should respectfully say so, while acknowledging the labours of those who built their Judiciary for them since their independence at the expense of their comfort and ill-treatment. Let the Nigerian and other West African countries abstain from sending technical aid to Gambia for 10 years and let us watch what becomes of their educational, judicial and medical institutions!
It is time our Gambian brothers are told the truth.
Ola Isreal
Re: Senate to investigate ‘xenophobic
attacks’ on Nigerian lawyers in Gambia
Dear editor,
I am at all not surprise for Nigerian legal practitioners to receive ill treatment from the Gambian population and I believe every right minded Gambian will object to any Technical Assistance of any sort from Nigeria. We all know the atrocities and blatant corruption committed by former president Yahya Jammeh for 22 consecutive years. The Gambia will live with these sad memories for years to come and the economic consequences of Jammeh’s mismanagement of our meagre resources will be felt for generations to come. Yahya Jammeh committed all these economic crimes and human rights violations with the help of corrupt and incompetent Nigerian Judges, who deliberated aided him in pursuing his dirty campaign of killing 100s of Gambians, sending thousands to his notorious Mile 2 Prison and forcing so many bright minds into exile.
The current government should send all Nigerian expatriates packing and leaving our beloved and frangible country if any of our institutions is to operate efficiently. I am not trying to be subjective but it is a well known fact that Nigerians are one of the most corrupt people in the world. Having them operating in our legal service is detrimental to achieving an efficient judiciary.
Lamin Jammeh
