Dear editor,
Sheikh Omar Faye had the audacity to face Gambians and insult them only to rush to his Ministry to issue an equally insulting press statement as a cover up! Shame.
This is a very nonsensical statement that is unbecoming of a Minister of Defense! Let the ministry name those ‘unscrupulous persons’ to lend credence to this shameful press statement.
The Minister used the words ‘suck it up…crying over spilt milk… move on’. Can the Minister clarify what he meant by these words which were spoken in relation to gross human rights violations and victims?
It is cheap to pontificate about God and country. Any bloke can do that. But the facts are clear that the so-called philosophy expressed by the Minister himself does not manifest patriotism, godliness, honesty, and justice. He spoke with the intention to bury, deny and distort our history and experience! He spoke with the intention to subvert and cleanse his own shameful role in upholding tyranny in The Gambia.
As we speak today, the Ambassador of Myanmar at the UN has rejected the military junta in his country and continues to speak against them at the UN just because they overthrew a democratically-elected government and unleashed violence on citizens. Did Sheikh Omar Faye ever do that?
Did Sheikh Omar ever denounce and reject the AFPRC regime when the junta massacred fellow soldiers in November 1994?
Did Sheikh Omar Faye denounce the APRC regime when it massacred Gambian schoolchildren in April 2000?
Did Sheikh Omar Faye denounce the APRC regime and Yahya Jammeh when they tortured and killed Solo Sandeng and compatriots in April 2016?
He never did any such thing to denounce the human rights violations of that regime. Rather Sheikh Omar Faye maintained his despicable association with Yahya Jammeh inside The Gambia and abroad! He proudly represented Yahya Jammeh with utmost loyalty and dedication even when he knew that this man was an evil tinpot dictator! Sheikh Omar abandoned The Gambia to stay with a murderous tyrant until the end of the road!
Therefore what commiseration is he talking about? What closure can you have for victims when you slap them with such insolence as suck it, stop crying over spilt milk and move on?
Surely if Sheikh Omar’s children were among those massacred schoolchildren, he would not have asked victims to suck it up. If Deyda Hydara was his father, Sheikh Omar would not ask Gambians to stop crying over spit milk! We know that Solo Sandeng’s children will not ask for us to just move on! Koro Ceesay’s sisters will not ask Gambians to suck it up! How dare Sheikh Omar Faye tell anyone to suck it.
Sheikh Omar Faye is the typical parasite who has only benefitted from the misery and blood of Gambians! All throughout the time, as Gambians cried and bled and thrown out of their country, Sheikh Omar was only enjoying the high offices of the people at home and abroad.
He was enjoying the sweat and blood of our people who were paying him the fat salaries and the outlandish incentives with which he enjoyed life to the fullest!
It is therefore an insult and a gross disrespect for that Sheikh Omar Faye to face Gambians to ask them to suck it up. It is a shame that the Ministry of Defense would allow its platform to be used to insult Gambians. Rather than ask your minister to withdraw his despicable comments and apologize, you have the temerity to spread such rude statement!
I hereby call on Sheikh Omar Faye to resign in shame!
Madi Jobarteh
Kembujeh
