Dear editor,
After the APRC ‘Jammeh come back’ bubble was burst by Justice Minister Tambadou reassuring Gambians that Jammeh will be arrested as soon as he sets foot in The Gambia, APRC leader Jatta responded by warning that Jammeh’s arrest will lead to bloodshed. Before that, APRC insults and threats to TRRC witnesses led the EU delegation to warn the APRC of the consequences. After Mr Jatta ignored the EU’s concerns he then demanded their help to allow Jammeh to return. Amazing.
Menacing statements and his habit of denying facts and distorting the truth makes him the principal culprit responsible for hindering reconciliation. The sober among the APRC should wonder just where Jammeh, via his mouthpiece Mr Jatta, is leading them. He brings to mind the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who led the city’s plague of rats to their destruction.
Some of the achievements the APRC regime scored but never mention include Jammeh exiting with The Gambia stuck near the bottom of UN Human Development scale, a declining Dalasi value, foreign exchange reserves approaching zero, increased hunger and malnutrition, vanishing foreign aid, diplomatic isolation and Jammeh directed theft, torture and murder. And the APRC wants Jammeh to come back and lead The Gambia to more of the same? They either enjoy pain, are victims of Jammeh’s witchcraft or they are orbiting on another world.
Among Mr Jatta’s list of propaganda themes, just behind his denial of reality, is that Jammeh has been treated unfairly, most notably by the Janneh Commission. He cries to fellow Jammehites about the ‘unlawful’ sale of Jammeh’s 281 properties. Expecting that his followers don’t read newspapers or think for themselves, he is confident they are not aware Jammeh was summoned to explain himself at the Janneh Commission. He was a no-show. Nor will they have noticed Jammeh’s properties listed for sale in local newspapers. He is reduced to ‘preaching to the converted’, meaning the APRC offers nothing to attract supporters. Except Jammeh.
Mr Jatta goes on to complain that Jammeh’s ‘expensive’ cars were sold at ‘cheap prices’. Reflect on this for a moment – the voice of the APRC crying that motors Jammeh bought with funds stolen from the APRC-led government during his watch as leader of the APRC-ruled National Assembly were sold at bargain prices. In his zeal to criticise the Justice Minister and President Barrow, he unwittingly suggests the Jammeh victim reparation fund has been short changed.
This is one of Mr Jatta’s recent gems destined for the history books … “I want all of you to understand that it is your right to love whatever or whosoever you want to love without fear”. Has he forgotten that his homophobic leader told the world at the UN that LBGT stands for Leopracy, Bacteria, Tuberculosis and Gonorrhea, and allowing LBGT relationships will lead to the end of human civilisation? Is Jammeh ‘throwing a bone’ to the UN and EU to encourage them to grease the way for his return?
Mr Jatta boasts “No one can stop Jammeh from returning to the country”. To that one should ask what has stopped him? As far as we know he has not been charged with any crime yet. Ghana President Akufo-Addo recently said that The Gambia should prosecute Jammeh for the 2005 murder of migrants because he has no power to do it himself. The Janneh Commission advised the National Assembly to conduct a vote promptly to legitimise charging Jammeh for the financial crimes they uncovered. That hasn’t happened yet. And it will be a while before the TRRC submits their recommendations. So the Barrow regime needs to quit its foot-dragging and get on with it. Doing so just might encourage the APRC to be humble, admit reality and express remorse before the TRRC.
How to deal with these troglodytes? The devout might pray for them. The Barrow regime would rather not do an unconstitutional Jammeh-style decree and ban the APRC. But The Gambia’s independent media faces no such constraints.
Has the GPU forgotten how GRTS systematically ignored Jammeh’s political opposition and avoided any news critical of the APRC regime? Or the punishment the APRC regime inflicted on Gambian journalists? In the spirit of the BDS movement against Israel and the boycott of the South African apartheid regime, Gambian media, in all its forms – TV, radio, newspapers and on the WWW – should collectively shun the APRC. That means accept no ads, ignore press releases, do no interviews and do no reporting on anything having to do with the APRC. Exile them to Facebook Hell.
Over and out.
Amet Ngallan
Fajara
