The refrain is familiar. It is a cry for sympathy. And, frankly, it is downright nonsensical. We heard it again this week. It seems Nana Grey-Johnson may have suddenly found religion. After nearly two decades, this accomplished writer and journalist, who has never written anything about Gambia under Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh, suddenly and conveniently wants the embattled Gambian media to report on Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s regime’s “stellar achievements.” The new protagonist in this epic battle between the opposing forces of realism and fantasy, drunken with the novelty of his new found power, is, by dint of his enthusiasm, exhibiting extraordinary shortsightedness. Nana Grey- Johnson’s galling behavior towards journalists on World Press Freedom Day, if true, was not so particularly unexpected from an Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh minion, but his brazenness was a true mark of how little he learnt from the lesson of history. Gambia’s political graveyard is today filled with the voices of passionate defiance of those having been surprised with new political power and economic status, are today forever silenced by death, exiled to near and distant lands, sitting unemployed at home, or paying dearly within the constricting confines of deadly life behind the forbidden walls of notorious Mile 2 Prison; Lang Tombong-Tamba Yankuba Touray, Waa Juwara, Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay, Sheriff M. Dibba and more. Their surprising descent into the realm of obscurity, at first raised many eye-brows, until the practice became a necessary routine.
But, whether Nana Grey-Johnson is compelled by fear or driven by the enthusiasm of his new found power and authority, his willingness to abdicate journalism’s bed-rock doctrine of truth and fairness, will create an oppressive counter-productive environment likely to paint him as one of Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s little, barking lapdogs. In the eyes of the media, it is no longer if Nana Grey-Johnson will succumb to the rigorous demands of filial subjugation to completely morph into Imperial king, Yahya Jammeh’s puppet, but when he will walk across that wilderness of frightening choice between allegiance to Yahya Jammeh and being true toThe Gambia. Nana Grey-Johnson is not walking on egg-shells, rather, he has already decided, on the basis of his self-interest, to submit to Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s propaganda, lies and untruths, and in so doing, he has blatantly discounted the sad deaths of two fellow media fraternities; Deida Hydara and Chief Ebrima Manneh. Nana Grey-Johnson is not unaware of the history of Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s atrocities, is not unknowledgeable about the injustices of this regime and is not unaware of the cruel, festering tribalism, the apparent center-piece of Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s governance. To wake-up my friend Nana Grey-Johnson from slumber and bring back to his senses, late last year, Waa Juwara and Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay were on record defending Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s execution of nine innocent Mile 2 prisoners, a move that qualifies as criminally insensitive and conspiratorial, in particular, since every Gambian knows that the executions, like the hundreds of executions and murders before and since, were victims of Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’sdangerous human sacrifice practice.
For that act alone, both have possibly subjected themselves to arrest, trial and jailing in a post Yahya Jammeh era. Crossing the blurred threshold between working with Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh and participating and conspiring in his killing spree is a choice every Gambian has to make for themselves, consequently, Nana’s conversion to Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s side of lies and brutal underhandedness, has made him a neon in the cross-hairs of a defiant and unstoppable media. So close to his appointment, Nana Grey-Johnson appears to be singing a different tune that is diametrically opposite his last week’s much sober reassurance and calmer demeanor. But, Gambia’s World Press Freedom Day, designed for reflection and stock-taking, missed the heart of the problem by failing to focus on the vexing issues of press freedom and closure of a significant number of Gambia’s media houses. And Nana’s action on World Press Freedom Day, if true, only reinforces the bitterness and often deadly relations between an insubordinate media and the murderous Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh. Today, the Gambian regime’s relations or lack thereof with the media has been sullied and forever tainted by the assassination of Deida Hydara, the gunning down of Omar Barrow, the forced disappearance of Chief Ebrima Manneh, the closure of media houses and radios, the frequent arrests and jailing of journalists, and the exiling to distant lands of a significant number of Gambia’s media alumni.
But, the toxic relationshipbetween the regime and the media is not helped by Nana Grey Johnson’s belligerence or insensitivity to the plight of the media in the only country on the African continent controlled through unconstitutional political overreach, state-sanctioned assassinations, forced disappearances, mass executions, routine incarcerations and forced exile. And the more such extraordinary misogyny has become common-place in Gambia, the more the mortifying practice defies logic and common-sense. But, by now, Nana Grey-Johnson must be aware of the pointlessness of his combativeness, in part, because he must be cognizant of the smoldering bitterness that still lingers in the hearts of the media fraternity, a decade after Deida Hydara was assassinated, Omar Barrow was gunned down, and Chief Ebrima Manneh abducted by agents of Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s, National Intelligence Agency (NIA). Nana Grey Johnson’s less than flattering, if not craven behavior, may put him in favor of Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh, but what seems likely is, he may soon find himself disturbing the media’s hornets’ nest and putting himself in Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s unforgiving bulls-eye. Because the media will not play dead as the country literally burns, my friend Nana Grey-Johnson must learn to play nice until Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh shows him the exit to political oblivion. If Nana Grey-Johnson wants a long uneventful ride latching onto Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh unemotional benevolence, he must learn to beteetered to Imperial King, Yahya Jammeh’s painfully obnoxious doctrine of, “take this job and shut the fuck up.”