By Hassan Gibril
Let us know our own people for who they really are !!!!
If we cannot rewrite our history, let us, mutatis mutandis, at least write our “correct” history by separating the wheat from the chaff.
As such, the list of Jammeh’s enablers and victims is not exhaustive, hence incomplete but perhaps also inaccurate.
Some listed as “hired and fired” are now playing the victim card but were in actual fact “enablers” as well as those who lied against innocent people who were subsequently victimised ie the “silent victims” of whom I am one.
Some also now given impunity and others listed for possible amnesty really deserve no sympathy as they were part of either Jammeh’s cabal or his korkor hekkus.
Others ingratiated themselves, of their own volition, with Jammeh’s group of misfits in “uniform” for their own selfish vainglorious ends ie mostly for “fame and glory (positions, riches, etc).
In their fawning, adulation and adoration, they glorified Jammeh with all kinds of names such as “Father of the Nation”, “Sheikh”, “Professor”, “Nasirudeen”, “Oga, “Babilimansa”. They never ran out of names and tiltles but only fell short of calling or worshiping Jammeh as the “living God”.
Interestingly, others only started to cry foul when the “grapes became sour” ie when they fell out of favour with Jammeh.
Others, such as our local community elders and religious leaders, never wanted to or bothered to know or even denied the “victimisation” of others when and as long as “the going was good for them”.
Others, mainly civilians, joined or supported Jammeh and his “outlaw” military junta (when and while they knew better) simply because they, naively, thought they could “outfox the fox”, so to speak.
They justified their actions by claiming to be God-sent to “save our nation” but indeed failed in the process and faced the concomitant consequences, hence now claiming to be “victims”.
Others not only shamelessly defended, in the international community circles, the illegal military takeover and overthrow of the democratically-elected government (of which they had been part and parcel) with all their intellect but even used physical force by disgracefully and publicly exchanging blows with those who were opposed to the Jammeh “maladministration”.
Sadly, many were our Banjulian so-called “Ndongos” and “educated fools” who, indeed, shamelessly curried favours with the Junta administration, notably by reporting lies to Jammeh and co. against others who were, in the main, innocent and gotten rid of in order to make way for sycophants and praise singers.
This group of liars and sycophants were the evil doers who acted as political operatives creating the political machinery and pathway for Jammeh’s ascendency.
These were the ones who called and termed the illegal overthrow of the constitutionally established order as a “revolution” and were the ones behind the formation of the “July 22 movement” and the doctoring of our constitution to legitimise and indemnify those who had committed treasonous and treasonable acts not only against the state but also against our people.
But they also invariably and in due course fell out of favour with Jammeh who, in turn and at a later stage, had somehow and somewhat ‘apologetically’ revealed to his close confidants the names of these shameless sycophantic traitors, worthless vermins and skunks.
Invariably, many of the lies had now been known to have been concocted and fabricated by those who had lied to Jammeh against those they had lied about.
Their lying, in most cases, was meant to ingratiate with authority, secure their positions and their advancements, notably in the public service and indeed to smoothen their ill-gotten social life and status.
These individuals and unrepentant dregs of our society (“execu-thieves”, “legis-looters” etc) are very well known and will certainly be exposed in due course in an overall bid to bring about the much-needed healing and closure for their victims, the repair of our somewhat decimated social fabric and indeed our much-desired social cohesion.
Of course, there were also the few others who continued to work, notably in the public service, diligently and conscientiously, for our country and for our people.
Those hardworking patriotic Gambians will be singled out and publicly acclaimed.
In the same vein, those evil doers, who now stupidly and obtusely think that they are unknown and their “secrets” are safe, will be eventually named, known by all and publicly shamed in due course.
In our much-shared effort to situate responsibilities, this will also be part of the accountability and healing process.
So, let us therefore be aware and beware of those known “Kakatarr” chameleons who come forward to present themselves or continue to parade themselves as the “Messrs Clean”.
Let us therefore identify and make known to all and sundry those of our people who continue to “beat their own ‘sabarr’ drums and dance at the same time to their own tunes”, just to borrow the expression from local Wollof parlance.
In short and in truth, it is high time and most desirable for all of us to be able to know our own people for who they really are and not for who they portray themselves to be.
Let us all be truthful to ourselves, lest we all become deceitful and hypocrites.
Let the records be set and put straight.
The 22 years of the Jammeh dictatorship or misrule had been our collective failure and ipso facto also our collective responsibility.
The way forward lies in making real and genuine our widely professed “Never Again” slogan.
Just adding a “caveat”!!!
Let the reader also understand !!!
