Gambian military nixes BYM
Dear editor,
Yesterday, I heard of a leader in the Barrow Youth Movement, (BYM) provided their movement T-shirts to the Gambian military. Needless to say that Gambians around the world are insanely maddened by the implication of this outrageous act, by a leader in the BYM. But, this morning, I again read that the Gambian military has rejected the political t-shirts, suspecting, of course, severe backlash from angry Gambians everywhere. As a result of the military leadership actions, they have blunted the likelihood of a more severe condemnation from the Gambian public, but it is not lost on some of us to take the opportunity to use this episode as a teaching and learning moment, which is exactly what we’ll do. The idea is to warn the Gambia military to never fall into this political trap, again. The military must strictly remain apolitical and beholden to no political party. The neutrality of the Gambian military must be sacrosanct, as this is what Gambians across the political spectrum expect from them.
Mathew Jallow,
USA
