Dear Editor,
Mbemba Drammeh, what can we say? Stupid people talking about stupid things are the bread and butter raison d’etre of Gambian politics. Ignorance coupled with more ignorance is the mainstay of Gambian politics. Stupid people always talk themselves into trouble like Mbemba Drammeh. The other day, it was four “prominent” Gambian political enthusiasts who took parliament to court. Now, another lunatic by the name Mbemba Drammeh went on a public broadcast platform and made arrestable outrageous remarks about election rigging. There’s no informed politics in The Gambia. One can’t tell the difference between those said to be “educated and competent” from the likes of Mbemba Drammeh, a disappointed and disgruntled NPP lunatic. How long will the madness called politics go on for in The Gambia? We’ve told Gambians that if they keep listening to the likes of Madi Jobarteh and the “lawyers from Sierra Leone intellectuals”, this country will slide deeper into the abyss.
How could anyone who understands anything about democracy, its processes and procedures file a lawsuit against parliament? Can you imagine such an outrageous and dumbfounded thing in a democracy? And certainly, Madi and his co-crazy people are represented by a lawyer/s. Which kind of lawyer/s represent such outrageous lawsuits in a rule of law democracy? And which court of law entertains such baseless and knucklehead lawsuits? But that’s the standard of politics in The Gambia- every day, one crazy person/s saying and or doing what crazy people do, the ensuing hoopla and the talking heads ranting and raving. When will politics in The Gambia ever get sanitised and standardised?
Is Gambian politics going to continue to be marked by lunatics and imbeciles posing as intellectuals hijacking our national political and legal conversations? Gambian politics hardly talks about economics let alone sustainable national development. All that Gambian politics talks about is the constitution, the constitution and the constitution. Everyone is a lawyer and a constitutional expert. Those said to be educated and competent are the most stupid.
Add in the likes of Mbemba Drammeh and Madi Jobarteh and you have the sad nation called The Gambia under President Barrow – a democracy in which one can’t tell the difference between animals and humans. The opposition leader who’s supposed to be the saviour and the political alternative for change is more deracinated and overwhelmed by the enormous challenges facing The Change Agenda in The Gambia.
Anyone who thinks that the kind of politics that the likes of Mbemba Drammeh, Madi Jobarteh and co represent will lead to change and national development in The Gambia, you’re uninformed. Politics is not about stupid people saying stupid things. Politics is a serious business run by serious and informed minds. The Gambia will only become a functioning rule of law democracy and a sustainable developed economy through politics. But not the kind of nonsense that we called politics in the sad nation called The Gambia that the likes of Mbemba Drammeh, Madi Jobarteh and co represent. Heaven help us.
Yusupha ‘Major’ Bojang
Brikama
Commemorating December 30. A day against tyranny!
Dear Editor,
This year marks ten years when a group of Gambians made the ultimate sacrifice to end the brutal misrule of tin pot dictator Yahya Jammeh in 2014. Colonel Lamin Sanneh, Captain Njaga Jagne, and Private Alagie Jaja Nyass unfortunately became fallen heroes. As a show of gratitude, I pay homage to them and their colleagues. December 30 was one of the many efforts employed by various Gambian citizens and groups to end the 22-year brutal dictatorship of the AFPRC/APRC regime. The regime had been notorious for gross human rights violations and plunder of public wealth among other indignities against Gambians in total contravention of the Constitution and an affront against the sovereignty of our citizens and democratic norms.
From December 27th to the 30th, we will commemorate these fallen heroes and remind ourselves of our history and experience as a nation in order to build a better republic we deserve.
Dictatorship, especially a brutal one like that inflicted on the Gambia by Yahya Jammeh is a social, cultural and political aberration. It is a violent, unethical, and criminal enterprise that destroys the life, culture, and future of a people. Dictatorship is an affront to citizen sovereignty and republicanism as it seeks to subvert and personalise the power and will of the people for the benefit of the dictator. It is for this reason that anywhere there is dictatorship, there is also resistance by the people. Indeed, Gambians did resist the Yahya Jammeh tyranny, through both peaceful and violent means. From politicians to journalists, to activists as well as businesspeople, farmers, teachers, doctors and indeed among soldiers and students, there were all kinds of Gambians resisting in their own ways according to their ability and circumstances.
Not only did Yahya Jammeh make peaceful and democratic change impossible, he also made the exercise of basic human rights totally risky for everyone. With his control of the legislature and the judiciary, he flouted the separation of powers principle thereby creating and changing laws as he wished, while jailing innocent Gambians as he likes. Through the weaponisation of laws, institutions, and officials, he subjected all kinds of Gambians to arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, enforced disappearance and executions, constantly and consistently.
In the final analysis, one is either forced to flee your homeland or succumb to Yahya Jammeh’s whims and caprices or stay silent and inactive in your own country. Lest we forget! Even when Gambians voted him out in the December 2016 presidential elections, Yahya Jammeh rejected the verdict of the people forgetting that the authority and power of the president and the government are derived from the people. It had to take the entire world to stand against him with the threat of a military intervention to force him to step down for the people’s will to prevail. Let me say that The Gambia we have is The Gambia we create. The lesson to learn from our experiences not only during the Jammeh misrule but also since Independence to today is that citizens must not be lethargic, indifferent, or take things for granted. Rather, citizens must actively participate in the governance of the country and in holding leaders and institutions accountable to ensure that they always uphold and abide by the rule of law. This is how we prevent dictatorship and build an enduring democracy and a republic we deserve.
Madi Jobarteh
Edward Francis Small Centre
