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By Katim Seringe Touray, PhD The title of this article is inspired by the Bob Marley and the Wailers song, Wake Up and Live! That song, as it happened, was an inspiration Anthony Davis, who co-authored it with Bob Marley, had one morning when they were driving on pothole-filled roads, and amidst road construction signs in Kingston, Jamaica. So, as I ruminated on my phone conversation with a friend of mine a few nights ago about the message from former Gambian president Yahya Jammeh that he was going to return to The Gambia, I thought to myself that I should write an article on the subject to implore Gambians to wake up to the wicked fraud that Jammeh is. Wake Up and Live! popped into my head, and voila, I got the title for my article! Yahya Jammeh, if you need to be reminded, was a brutal dictator who ruled The Gambia for 22 years with an iron fist. He was also corrupt, retributive, and selfish. And as was revealed by the Janneh Commission (which looked into his financial dealings), and the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), he presided over a regime which, in the end, was designed and structured to perpetrate his rule by any means necessary and including: corruption, arbitrary arrests and detentions, abuse of human rights, and killings. But nothing lasts forever, and in the end, Jammeh, who came to power in 1994 following a bloodless military coup, was overthrown through the ballot. Jammeh lost the elections based on rules which he personally approved, and rigged to serve his interests. For example, he amended the Gambian constitution to provide for a first past the post system of elections, thus avoiding a option for a run-off. So confident was he of his popularity that he also approved on-the-spot counting of ballots (marbles, which Gambians use to cast their vote). Little did he know that he, who had people killed for unfounded allegations of plotting against his rule, was actually bringing about his downfall. When the presidential election results were announced that fateful day in December 2016, Jammeh lost to a little-known candidate, Adama Barrow, who was the flag bearer for the coalition of opposition parties that came together to defeat him. In turn, and quite to the surprise of Gambians and the entire world, Jammeh phoned Barrow, and congratulated him on his surprise victory. But the euphoria among Gambians and their well-wishers soon turned into fear and despondency when Jammeh a few days later reneged on his decision to accept the election results. He thus plunged the country in an impasse, and out of genuine fear, many people fled to the rural parts of the country and in Senegal for safety. President-elect Barrow too fled to Senegal, where on 19th January, 2017, he was given an impromptu swearing-in ceremony in Dakar. The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), the regional economic group, then launched high-level negotiations with Jammeh to bring the impasse to a peaceful end. Jammeh proved defiant and in the end, Ecowas gave him an ultimatum of 20th January, 2017 (the day on which he is constitutionally-mandated to vacate office). Still, Jammeh acted tough, and only reluctantly considered leaving office when Ecowas began putting together a military contingent to evict him by force. Jammeh got the message loud and clear when the Nigeria Air Force flew over the State House (his official residence) in Banjul to let him know that Ecowas meant business. After a tenuous negotiations with Presidents Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Alpha Condé of Guinea, Jammeh decided to vacate office. On 20th January, 2017, and under cover of darkness, Jammeh departed The Gambia for Equatorial Guinea, thus ending the darkness The Gambia had been in during 22 years of his rule. Jammeh hasn’t been content living a quiet life in Equatorial Guinea, as guest of President Teodoro Nguema. Instead, he has been spewing venom, spread through social media by his diehard supporters. Once in a while, Jammeh releases voice or video messages to members of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) the party which he founded, and which is still alive. Some of these messages have touched on his return to The Gambia, and all of them are aimed by Jammeh to not only sow discord in The Gambia, but also to instill fear in the minds of many Gambians. These Jammeh messages are also divisive, and have been a major reason why almost ten years after his departure, and after the publication of the TRRC report on the heinous record of Jammeh’s rule, it is still difficult to forge national unity in the country. Jammeh cannot keep quiet also because the devil in him cannot bear to see Gambians live in peace, and as such, he would do whatever he can to sow seeds of discord amongst Gambians. He knows he has failed both The Gambia and himself, but he cannot accept that reality. Unfortunately for Gambians, Jammeh still has a fervent following in the country because of a few reasons. First, the government of President Barrow failed to discredit and weaken the APRC from the very day after Jammeh left The Gambia. Instead, President Barrow in a bid to shore up support from APRC, opted to form an alliance with some elements of the party, and appointed some former senior APRC members into the government. APRC supporters thus feel emboldened — and understandably so. Another factor in the persistence of Jammeh’s relevance to Gambian politics is the ease of communication provided by social media. Any message sent out by Jammeh is guaranteed wide distribution through social media networks such as WhatsApp and Facebook, which have a wide reach at all levels of Gambian society. The government of Equatorial Guinea must also take responsibility for allowing Jammeh to use their country as a platform to sow discord, and destabilise The Gambia. Sadly, the government of The Gambia has not done much (for example, by taking its case to the UN Security Council and the African Union) to force Equatorial Guinea to rein in Jammeh. There is, and will probably for a very long time be a core group of Jammeh supporters who are and will be receptive to his vitriol, and hopeful of his return home. Some of these people are still clinging to the hope that they will return to the debauchery and wastefulness they enjoyed during Jammeh’s rule, while some continue to support him out of sheer ignorance and buffoonery. All this talk about Jammeh returning to power is insulting to Gambians. I mean, how can Yahya Jammeh, one of hundreds of thousands of Gambians from a poor background, who rose to be president for 22 years, during which he misruled the country, swindled our resources, and killed people to stay in power, be given another chance to come rule us again, when there are many other people who can run the country better than him? To wish that to happen would be to admit that there is no other Gambian besides Jammeh who can lead this country. Which is clearly a fallacy. So a few days ago, when Jammeh sent another message in which he said that he will return to The Gambia this November, the whole country went abuzz! I did not listen to Jammeh’s latest message because, as I tell my friends, I have policy for dealing with his messages, and it is: (i) do not read, listen or watch, (ii) do not forward, and (iii) delete. Besides being divisive, Jammeh also craves attention and should be denied the oxygen on which his hatred thrives. Although some say that it is important to hear him out for historic reasons, I argue that there still are many Gambians who are traumatised at the mere thought of Jammeh, talk less of hearing his messages and talk about him returning home. As for his returning home, I am all for it, under the right circumstances. Indeed, I once told a friend of mine that I pray for Jammeh to have good health and a long life we all share. When he looked at me in shock, I explained that as a Muslim it is my duty to wish everyone well, and as a Gambian I wish Jammeh a long life in which we all witness his trial and sentencing to jail at Mile 2 Prison. We will then change the name of the prison to Yahya Jammeh’s Hotel (as he often referred to it when threatening his critics), and provide him the best accommodation and medical care possible. This way, he will hopefully live a long life and, everyday, serve as a lesson to everyone that absolute power destroys you. This, in my opinion, would be a much better way to punish Jammeh than being blindly vindictive toward him. Since Jammeh is talking about returning home, The Gambia government should prepare the legal ground to give him a befitting welcome by passing a law that would lift the presidential immunity provided by Clause 69 of the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia. Jammeh and his rabid supporters would then know that the government is ready to receive him in court, and throw him in jail after according him a due process that he, for 22 years, wrongfully denied many Gambians. In these circumstances, I urge Gambians to wake up! Jammeh doesn’t care and has never cared about anybody but himself and his own personal interests. This is precisely why for 22 years of his rule he used people like napkins, and killed anyone who he had the slightest inkling might be a threat (real or imagined) to him and his rule. The man is evil! Pure and simple. And the sooner people wake up to this, the better for our country and all of us. Katim Seringe Touray, PhD, is a soil scientist and international development consultant, and writes about development issues, science, technology and global affairs. More of his articles can be read at https://kstouray.medium.com
