For 20 years he has played the dirty card on Gambian citizens. From the day he smelled power he knew he doesn’t have the brain; the background, support cast and the human soul to succeed on his own…. He managed to survive secondary school in Bwiam, then high school and went straight to an institution that accepts bright citizens but also accommodates those who don’t have the brain but the physical ability to get through some tough exercises… So while other brilliant and skillful citizens excelled through the ranks based on performance merit, he was pushed through and carried by his physical fitness. Some generous commanders who early on recognized his lack of talent sympathized with him and gave him a chance and an opportunity to proof himself every step of the way.
His longevity in the Gambian Gendarmerie and later the military police can purely be attributed to Gambia’s long cultural values and norms of given fellow citizens the chance no matter their background… Even his commanders who had reservations about his mental sophistication and IQ had to suppress their professional judgment and gave a poor boy from a hopeless background a chance for a decent life. This is how Gambian President Yahya Jammeh survived in the security force until he accidentally rose to power purely by coincidence of being the most senior among a group of disgruntled soldiers who surprisingly found themselves deciding the fate of a nation.
After his rise to power in 1994, Yahya Jammeh unimaginably found himself in a position he never dreamt of in his life. He was now given command of a small nation whose people are so closely interrelated that they never witnessed major crisis in the country. The culture in this small West African nation was so laid back that they believe whatever they are told from powers of authority… Yahya Jammeh took advantage of this cultural timidity to launch his ungodly personal ambition to amass power.
As he seeks to solidify his grip on to power, Yahya Jammeh turned to decent citizens and started using them one after another. Once he recognizes talent and influence in citizens he pulls them close; personalize the relationship and make them feel invincible by creating a wedge between them and other citizens to get his way. He then turns around and fire, arrest and blackmail those people and act as if he never knew them and their families. He has a deadly plot that sacrifices citizens who provide him with the most loyal service he ever experienced. But Yahya Jammeh does not know loyalty; he has no sense of love or compassion or the decency to forgive. He is purely an evil and heartless soul walking around without an iota of empathy! He has thrown his own blood under the bus allegedly orchestrated the killings of some of the most loyal people he has ever had in his life. Countless number of Gambians have stood up and gave him everything a human being can give to a leader, but he consistently betrays them one after another.
The million dollar question is why Gambians continue to accept Jammeh’s positions in disguise of “working for their country”? By now every Gambian particularly those who not only defend Yahya Jammeh but become his face and voice must take heed that Jammeh cannot be trusted and does not have the human soul to protect or preserve the liberty of people who sacrifice so much for him. It is one thing to fall apart with a few people, but completely another to demand and ensure that everybody who have served you become history in the most humiliating manner. How long would Gambians allow one man to use them so much, destroy their lives without remorse or consequences?
Although little sympathy needs to be accorded to the likes of Njogu Bah, Momodou Sabally and LangTombong Tamba, but let’s face it, these people are human beings who have parents, spouses and children? What in the world is worth more than the responsibility of being there for your wife and your children who you brought into this world? What about your own parents who have done so much to love you and pray for you? Do you have any responsibility to your love ones in making decisions on taking positions that have become so toxic? What does Jammeh deserve and want that the rest of the Gambian people don’t deserve or wish for themselves? Does anybody working for Jammeh realize how much humiliation and suffering these people have gone and are going through? Is Jammeh worth sacrificing and fighting for? Who gave him the mandate to decide the fate of so many citizens? What prayers have his parents given him that other parents have not offered their children? How many people are going to fall victim to Yahya Jammeh before Gambians stand up and say enough? Worst, Jammeh’s greatest casualties are not the opposition but his own APRC, security and government officials. What do they see in Jammeh that warrants supporting him unconditionally only for you to become the next victims? Common sense and personal well-being dictates that you start to distance yourselves from the evil that seeks to destroy you within a blink of an eye… Yahya Jammeh does not deserve any support and those who insist in parading his propaganda will live to regret why they were born…Nothing will satisfy Yahya Jammeh even if you give him all the golds and diamonds in the world. He is empty inside out with inflated ego – thus the hunger for attention and titles!! Wake up Gambia, you are all human beings who deserve nothing less than Jammeh. You owe it to yourself, your love ones and to God and country! It is never too late to do the right thing.
By Demba Baldeh Commentary