The Warped Opinion of Andrew Rice on the Coup Attempt in the Gambia
By Concerned Citizen
The Guardian just published an article on the Dec 30 coup attempt in The Gambia written by Mr. Andrew Rice. Mr. Rice headlines his article thus: The Reckless Plot To Overthrow Africa’s Most Absurd Dictator. At first, this sensational headline came across as a rather desperate attempt to draw in readers but upon further scrutiny, it becomes evident that this was his way of shepherding his readers to his own warped conclusion. Rice not only tried to inform us about Jagne and Njie and circumstances in The Gambia, he also decided to draw our conclusion for us on the coup plot by screaming “Recklessness”. So much for true journalism where you inform and allow readers to make their own conclusions. If he had provided credible evidence to back up his subjective views, I won’t be complaining. But alas, Mr. Rice provides nothing new but regurgitated information as contained in charge sheets and Google searches. If he had stopped at that, perhaps I still wouldn’t complain but then Rice goes overboard when he tries his dandiest to sully the names of otherwise honorable men who attempted a coup as a last resort, to regain their homeland only to be thwarted by the United States, the champion of “democracy.”
Mr Rice does not have any issues with his country, the USA, being implicated by its own FBI agents, (through the Washington Post) in the killing of Njagga Jagne, in order to save Yaya for so-called national security. Even after Mr Papa Faal made this point to him, he merely quotes him and kept going on citing some Wikileak cables on rendition collusions between Gambia and the USA. He said he can understand why the US will dissuade citizens from trying to change regimes in other countries. Meanwhile they recruit Syrians to fight against Assad and have been known to sponsor coups when it serves their interest. What Rice and his ilk fail to understand is that The Gambian issue is not about a simple regime change. It is about oppressed people fighting back to regain their dignity and freedom from tyranny. If his intent was to render a fair and balanced opinion, instead of passing an uninformed judgment on the attempt, he could have tried to find out what led to the failure of the coup beyond what’s written in charge sheets and the various innuendos on Facebook and investigated the role of the USA. I am pretty certain if the US involvement is true, it would still have been a monumental task to defeat Yaya because the element of surprise was already stolen away. Does that still make the coup attempt “reckless” in Rice’s eyes? Rice conveniently ignored this glaring betrayal because it does not fit his narrative of calling Njagga and company “reckless” Even after he writes of the spurious claim of the FBI being aware of the plot all along, it never occurred to him to ask: If the FBI claims to know of the plot beforehand and knew it was a crime, why did they let the crime take place? Or why did they inform Jammeh of the plot allowing him and his family to go and hide in Dubai until things calmed down? Most importantly, how could Rice gloss over these actions leading to the killing of Njagga and yet catalogue for us the excesses of Yaya. What is his take on the role of his government in the death of a US soldier? What is more reckless than standing aside and watching your own citizen get killed? Or is that the actions of the US are alright by Rice and his ilk as long as they get to collect a paycheck and call such blatant government abuse fighting for their national security?
He tries to Donald Trump Njagga’s military service and deployment by saying that he broke his leg playing basketball and spent his time rehabilitating his injury in Iraq pulling guard duty. That takes ungratefulness to higher heights. When America called, Njagga and his kind answered the call, while they were in a danger zone, Rice was basking in the freedom that Njagga and others were providing. Yet Rice has the nerves and effrontery to belittle his service. What does how he spent his time in Iraq on his first deployment or what prayers his mother may have sent him have to do with this article if not to try and besmirch Njagga? I won’t even go into how he tried to characterize Cherno Njie as some rich guy that felt entitled to leadership of The Gambia. Some of us can see the Rices of this world from a mile away!
Mr. Rice called the coup attempt “foolhardy” and “reckless” even though he is not privy to any of the plans beforehand, or after the fact, and has no experience to draw such conclusions. He has no access to planning documents or to the planners who are not here with us anymore. His warped conclusion is based solely on the outcome of the coup and what he was able to gather from Google searches. That is akin to calling the Vietnam or Iraq invasion foolhardy or reckless only because the desired outcome has not been achieved. He belabored to paint Njagga and company as reckless men who had little to no connections to The Gambia and seems befuddled by their decision to take on a dictator living so far away. Mr. Rice never saw the irony in that uninformed opinion: If they had no connections to their motherland, what makes you think they will lay down their lives for her? Do you think they were some paid mercenaries a la Mark Thatcher? Mr. Rice goes on to say that these men hardly ever visited The Gambia as if he is aware of all the trips these men might have taken to Gambia. Gambians don’t have to be resident in Gambia or visit often to know of the suffering of their brothers and sisters. They live it every day no matter where they might call home.
Mr. Rice sees Gambia and Gambians through some vanilla tinted glasses he bought in America and tried on in Uganda. Despite being limited by his own biases, he thinks that he is entitled to expertise on Africa and Africans because he has written some articles and a book about Uganda and Ugandans and lived in Africa for a brief period. In writing this story, he portrayed himself as a well-meaning individual who was only interested in telling the story of Gambians and specifically the story of Captain Njagga Jagne. But just like he ended up betraying the trusts of Wilson and the Ugandans, he stayed true to his colors. Befriend those you need and stab them with the longest knife you can find once you hoodwink them into trusting you. He confuses this betrayal of trust with a supposed intelligence and guile he has over those who trusted him. Talk about some values.
Rice points out that Njagga married his wife only after a few phone conversations and called her his Facebook paramour. Very irrelevant to the story, but it fits Rice’s narrative of showing how reckless Njagga was and so he felt compelled to pass judgment on what constitutes sufficient time for knowing one another before marriage. In Rice’s world, one has to talk to a prospective partner for a set amount of time before deciding to get married. Because that is his way, he tries to impose this standard on others, oblivious to the fact that what he considers the norm is limited to his backyard.
Mr. Rice’s article is full of irrelevant information that has no bearing on what compelled Njagga and others to lay down their lives for the freedom of their motherland. He forms conclusions without expanding on how he came to those conclusions. We are all entitled to our opinions, regardless of how biased and warped they may be, but Mr. Rice, you are not entitled to facts as you want to claim them. Its lazy journalism that abounds here: dissing out subjective words and phrases without backing them up or engaging in the due diligence required to support one’s opinions is lazy at best and irresponsible at worst.
This article is the classic so-called journalist writing-head that conflates his opinions with facts. This is what happens when outsiders try to write the history or story of others they know little about. Yet the likes of Andrew Rice consider themselves to be experts on African affairs because they took a few trips to Africa or lived in some African country for some time. In their mind, Africa is one homogeneous continent (some of them think country) and by living in one or two countries for any extended time, voila, you can duly add African Expert to your padded resume.
There are various uneducated conclusions in Mr. Rice’s article but pointing them all out will be akin to doing him an unwarranted favor. Any serious journalist would have done their homework beyond finding garbage to malign others and pass judgment on issues they know nothing about. Bravery, undergirded by good conscience is confused with recklessness and a conscientious endeavor for freedom is seen through his vanilla tinted glasses as a foolhardy effort.
The story of Njagga Jagne and others will be told when the time comes and it will not be written from goggled articles or charge sheets or from the warped perspectives of outsiders. When the sun sets and the bright lights of truth are set on the lies, treachery and half-truths being propagated both within The Gambia and without, their story will be illuminated bright and clear for all to see the love and compassion they had for their people from Kartong to Koina. Time, our most implacable foe, will reveal the truth soon enough.
Rest In Peace Njagga, Lamin and Alagie
Many say they are as brave as you
Some say they love their country as much as you
Yet few are willing to give half as you
They malign you
Spread lies about you
Incompetent, amateurish, reckless, they point at you
They judge you,
yet they’ve not walked a day in your shoes
They question your motives
Some said you were broke
Others claim you were hungry for power
Love and compassion for your people
The desire to live free, the quest for freedom
To them, that’s limited to fighting one another at every given moment
Why put all on the line for a distant land they ask
You have the house, the cars and career
Why risk it all
Material amassment confused with inner peace
They know not of the Nelson Mandelas
The Oliver Tambos
The Amilcar Cabrals
They never heard Nkrumah when he lamented
That freedom meant nothing when your brothers are in bondage
But sleep easy my brothers
“All gave some, Some gave all”
Alagie, Lamin and Njagga
You gave all
So Rest In Peace our dear brothers!