The verdict delivered by the Gambian people in this 2016 December elections in the Gambia is loud and clear. The people have reclaimed their power and sovereignty which was taken away from them by their government without their mandate or permission whatsoever. For 22 years this tiny West African Nation of little over 1.8 Million people have been taken for a ride by a government which imposed itself on the people. The Gambian people gave it every benefit of the doubt and opportunity to correct course but to no avail. The President at the helm appeared to have no sense of right and wrong and no boundary on how far he should push the Gambian people.
Despite ample evidence of witnessing one carnage after another since 1994, the Gambian people were still in denial or reluctant to admit something culturally strange has hit their country. The peaceful but poor life and security that has been taken for granted was no longer there. Someone supposedly a son of the nation has forcefully seized power and vow to make everything in the country his own including the lives and personal liberties of citizens. He started by setting ablaze a government minister alive in his official vehicle for no explained reason. He executed several soldiers in cold blood for alleged attempt to remove the new military government. This led to the massacre of 14 students in April 2000 in broad day light for simply exercising their grievances against their government. This opened a new can of worms and emboldened the leader who was supposed to rescue the nation from decades of economic standstill. Soon the President turned autocrat took full control of everything in the country.
The Gambian people watched with amusement but still insisted there was something not real and were indifferent in the magnitude of pain and suffering this young leader was willing to bore on the Gambian people. Waves of arrest; illegal detention without trail, assassinations, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and seizure of personal properties and businesses became the order of the day. Nothing could deter the aspiring absolute ruler from achieving whatever he wanted no matter how obvious it was wrong. He crackdown on the media, religious and political opponents without a limit. He pulled the nation from international obligations and became the isolationist he wanted to do whatever he wanted to his people without a finger lifting. Election after election, the same story of dominance and vengeance became the stories of the day. There was no end in sight how far Yahya Jammeh will not go to erase the history of the Gambian people and make his story the only relevant story ever to exist in the Gambia.
The year 2016, 22 years after he took over power forcefully, Yahya Jammeh successfully alienated every sector of Gambian society. He was not to stop there but was now willing to eliminate religious secularism in the Gambia and unilaterally declare Gambia an Islamic State – a clear violation of the nation’s constitution. He threatened to eliminate the largest ethic group in the Gambia and to make Gambia ” a living hell” for any citizen willing to oppose his quest to stay in power. He cracked down on political opponents by arresting, torturing and killing some peaceful protesters. He jailed the nation’s most accomplished citizen along with his political party executives. Nothing appears to be able to stop Yahya Jammeh from destroying a nation’s foundation and its people.
As the saying goes, everything that has a beginning must have an ending. History has taught us that true power belongs to the people and only if they are willing to relinquish such power that the state or a leader can take that away from them. When the people are pushed far to the edge and their backs against the cement wall with no hope in sight, they will have only one choice to resist and fight for their survival. Yahya Jammeh had pushed the Gambian people to the brink of breaking everything they have ever known. This is the beginning of the people reclaiming their sovereignty and natural rights to live with liberty and dignity. The people invoke their political rights and persuaded their political leaders to rally around the people and face a government that is bend on wiping them out. This is what led to the birth of Gambian opposition coalition and the selection of Adama Barrow as the de facto leader of the third Republic. Hundreds of thousands of Gambians have been seen taking to the streets welcoming the Gambian opposition coalition to take back their country in the December 1st polls. Gambians in the Diaspora too realized a niche to rally with the opposition coalition to take back their country. The most difficult scenario of uniting the opposition and the Gambian Diaspora something that seems almost impossible few years ago started falling in place in such unprecedented way no one can explain. Unity both on the ground and the Diaspora appears to be the recipe for salvaging Gambia from sliding into permanent political ruins. This is the wind of change that has been blowing in the Gambian and from all four corners of the world. The urgency of salvaging a nation become a national duty that every genuine Gambian saw as a duty for them to do their little to make this happen.
As Gambians go to the polls on Thursday December 1st, all is certain that the people are poised to overwhelmingly vote Yahya Jammeh and his government out and vote in a new government to usher in a new day in the smile coast of Africa. Readers may recalled that history repeats itself, in that when the wind of change blows nothing can stop it. Yahya Jammeh emerged from nowhere to become the leader of the second republic. He had a golden opportunity to turn the country in a political and economic heaven, he chooses self enrichment over national endeavor. No one heard about Adama Barrow’s name six months ago. He has now emerged to be the leader chosen by the people to lead the pack and Gambians appears to have embraced him and the opposition coalition to restore Democratic governance in the country and usher in a more level playing field. The Gambian Diaspora have accepted their responsibility and have stepped up to shoulder the burden of helping the opposition regain power in the country.
No matter what happened on December 1st it is crystal clear that the Gambian people have had enough of Yahya Jammeh and are reclaiming their country. Yahya Jammeh has only one choice, relinquish power peacefully to a government of national unity and you will have another golden opportunity to make history. Any attempt to stifle the voice of the people and their quest to take back their country will be met with unprecedented power of the people. The massive numbers in the street from every corner in the Gambian is enough message to tell any leader that power belongs to the people and in their hands shall power be returned peacefully. A new day is dawn in Gambia and a new chapter must be opened to move the country forward. The world is watching and history has already been made by the massive numbers. For the Gambia our homeland, let peace and justice prevail!!!!!