Bourama Jammeh

I have problem both with the nomenclature and classification Diaspora Gambians. This word seems to be particularly referring to Jews outside Palestine after the fall of Babylon. It also may simply mean people outside of their homes but connotes some flight and/or running away from harms way. Although commonly used I’m not sure if we qualified either definition. Equally Gambians living outside do not seem to represent any special interest of national bearing especially politics. Maybe we are all pastoralists looking for greener pasture for the herds. Better put it we are looking for what life worth with the intention of an eventual return. Gambians living outside are politically divided as those staying home. Therefore judging, accusing and/or assuming that we are anti- AFPRC/APRC and/or pro any other group will be wrong in many senses. It is true that one like me and of course many others have frown our faces on AFPRC/APRC illegal take over and mismanagement of the resources of our nation. It’s my believed that this is the least I can do for my nation in this circumstance. I may appear negative especially to pro-APRC but based on law, morals, ethics and principles without an iota of hate, negativity and/or settling a personal score. Hence I do not have any view political or otherwise just because of living outside The Gambia. I was more involved and engaged in trying to create awareness on issues at stake in order to influence a change when I was home than today. This is what am trying to do today based on my believes and I can only assume other has similar reasons. Anyways we remained Gambians and reserved the exclusive rights to participate in every public matter of The Gambia regardless to location. In fact it appears our effort started bearing fruits in that opposing views started to image and reinforcements are very comforting. This is what the world of Yahya does not recognize and it is only through this civil engagement we can together find best answers for our problems.  

Back home my brother-in-law kept confronting me with the question why do I hate Yahya. My answers were I do not hate, I only stand to be different. Others threw similar questions at me and my answer is the same. Recently I came across many of similar opinions at different online news/information outlets saying Diaspora people only focuses on the negative stuff and leave out the positive developments of Yahya. Others told me that we are being too negative. What I came to realize as a fundamental difference between these two positions are what I called generation gap, balance/shift of power, pay-back time, size myopia, differential-in-governance and Gambia for Gambia.   

Generation gap explained that there are people who know and are involved in politics only in the last decade. Due to age and/or lack of written history/literature, video, etc. there exist nothing to show the different stages of our development milestones. What you see and know is what you believe. Therefore it is easy for such a person to conclude Yahya era is heaven on earth. In fact it is one of the deliberate strategies employed to divide political inclination based on age classes.  

Balance/shift of power explained that a new group of people are placed in positions of power and influence that they probably would not have in the previous establishment and are not sure they could in the event of a change. This group will definitely argue for the retention of the status quo.  

Pay-back time group are usually those who want to settle old scores with foes at PPP. Remember Jawara/PPP illegally and unnecessarily lock-up ordinary Gambians at Bakau School and other places for over 12 months for reasons best known to him at the aftermath of the failed coup attempt of Kukoi Samba Sanyang in 1981. This included Sheriff M. Dibba. Not everyone is like Nelson Mandela who can forgive even his killers.  

Size-myopia group are those who see/know Gambia to be from Banjul to Brikama. Everything they talk about is in these areas forgetting that there are tax payers from Brikama to Fatoto on both banks of the river. Basically they get nothing and I mean absolutely nothing in return for their taxes. Those people told me the road from Barra – Kerewan – Farrafenni – Lamin-Koto. It is too little for 40 years of tax paying 

Differential-in-governance is the group that sees government as the provider and not just a manager of entrusted resources and/or forcefully in-charge. Both governments in their dealings with our people present themselves as providers and none ever mentioned how they planned manage our taxes. Yahya will go all the way - no vote no development for your area. I wish you are all like me – no taxes, period.

Gambia for Gambia is the no waste/maximum return theorists. We recognized that taxes are paid to serve our collective interest. There is no justification to use it for anything else other than that interest. This is an absolute fact. We argued every investment has to yield the maximum return or else it is a lost to the people and should not be undertaken. We know this is possible through industry practices such as six-sigma defect control measures, parts per million (PPM) defect standards, just-in-time inventory control (do not tie resource to anything that is not is not needed today), financial practices such as time value of money,  liquidity theories, portfolio diversification/immunization to limit the negatives effects of unavoidable risk and changing interest rates, agriculturists/foresters increased yield per unit area versus increase area techniques, medicines desires to keep healthy population for happiness and maximum productivity, educationists efforts to enhance the quality of the people, etc. 

Clearly, except the later none of the above served a complete collective effort to the realization of pledges and promises made in the national anthem. It is those pledges and promises we stand to rekindle. This is why we always sound negative without hate but resolute to change the direction of the state of affairs of our nation.  It is the same reason I maintained that Yahya is the number criminal at large in our country and it is a matter of time to bring him to justice. This may sound ridicules’ to a lot of people but both Saddam and Milosevic are more powerful and resourceful than Yahya and they ended up in jail for crimes against humanity. Sani Abacha was not brought to book but his demise and burial was fasting than my father’s funeral, who is only a compound head (Jammeh Kunda). Until that day we will be around to shade light on every public matter. 

My/Our negativity over the two administrations do not mean they have not done anything good for the country. We are less satisfied because the outputs do not equal the inputs. The claimed outputs did not result to equal amount of positive impact (inputs ≠ outputs ≠ outcomes ≠ impacts or inputs ˃ outputs ˃ outcomes ˃ impacts). There are waste and inefficiency which are completely avoidable. Those who saw pre-independence Gambia usually do appreciate Jawara’s effort but our argument is he has more inputs and time to do more than he did. Equally we argue that Yahya’s so-called development investments could have been better spent to earn us more than what we are currently getting. This evaluative assessment of public affairs is our legitimate civil right to prevent lost to our people without someone’s permission or employment. Some see this as being negative and I see it as civil and patriotic. Remember this is my tax money so get off the big misconception that Jawara or Yahya is providing me with their generosity instead they are/were our paid servant(s). Jawara was entrusted with the responsibility and Yahya forcefully took it. This represents a big legal, moral and ethical challenge we have to solve.  Criminal cannot continue to earn royal treatments while the poor and weak suffer. If I can be allowed to rob the Central Bank, be assured that I will put up a lot of generous services to people around me but is that a justifying reason to rob the bank. Your take! Surprisingly this is becoming a culture in Gambia, a mainly Muslim and Christian people; public officials will loot the state and turn around dishing out to those they loot. Some built mosque for villages/towns and others built one in their backyard. Name withheld, this guy(s) fed every worshipper who blessed his mosque in the month of Ramadan. Ask yourself if they don’t need it for their own living why taking it from the rightful own. If I would steel I will only take what I need. You have to know The Gambian society to analyze this and it has a lot to do with Jawara legacy. 

AFPRC/APRC has undertaken a number of infrastructural development projects. They remodeled the airport terminal building, implemented the establishment of the Television Station, constructed part of the Kombo Ring-Road Project, construct numerous building called schools and hospitals, build a tall building at the entrance of Banjul, construct the Barra/Kerewan road, bridge the Kerewan Bolong and also I heard Farafenni/Lamin Koto road. Please note the language of the sentences/phrases above (connote meanings). These are an impressive list in absolute terms for period as short as a decade. However we are relative. We measure those outputs against the investment to determine worth. We also look at it relative to other areas of need (prioritization). Yahya took charge of about D100 million/year in tax funds plus he contracted over D350 million in loans on our name in the same period.  Ebou Jallow alone is allegedly sitting in US with over US $3 million of our money.  

Remodeling and/or constructing the airport terminal building do not change the basic function of an airport. The runway and tarmac is the same. Certainly a nice port of entry is an image booster but we do not need to fake it. The justification of airport investment should come from traffic increase and/or public safety concern and not one looking like JFK and/or other airports in the world’s big cities.  Less than 5% of our population used the airport every year and tourism going down but the entire Gambia is a commuting population that was heavily relying dysfunction GPTC. With good planning it would have been judicious to invest in GPTC both upgrading and expanding the service area and intensity than trying to impress with wrong image. This is why Gambia for Gambia group think that investment cost us for lesser value, hence a waste.  

We needed TV and it was a good undertaking of AFPRC/APRC. It is an already planned project of the previous government . The problem that arises against the need for a TV is how it ended up being used. For Gambian tax payer the TV is to bridge the information deficit that existed for over 30 years. It turns out AFPRC/APRC has a different agenda. Instead of its useful purposes, the millions of public resources is assembled just to show each an every aircraft Yahya boarded, what food he is eating, what hotels he lodged, what streets his motorcade past through, etc. Instead of covering important national and international news scenes, teaching culture and history, educating civility, creating awareness on constitutionality, etc. the cameras are zoomed on Yahya’s money dishing table at Kanilai or State House. The group of Gambia for Gambia is again negative because millions of tax payer money is spent on a needed service but utilization is worthless, what’s it besides waste.  

The Gambia still need more roads. Therefore whatever is done either by President Jawara or Yahya is not enough. By all means that trend should continue. An advice is that government has limited resources therefore spending should be planned in accordance with the priority needs of the people. Also Gambia extends beyond Brikama therefore project allocation should take that into account for fair distribution of national resources. Do not spend our money for creating your image and/or improving political agenda. 

The monumental buildings at Bwiam and Farafenni called hospitals are ill conceived and Bwiam one wrongly located. The Gambia needs improved health care service delivery and the accomplishment of this goal has little to do with spending on cement. We would achieve a better value of those funds if we improve the existing facilities such as one in Sibanor, train personnel, acquire equipment/drugs and improve sanitation. Those two giant buildings are pretty much lying fallow and up to date I have not heard of any deliberate Gambian effort to dispatch people to study medicine for the eventual and sustainable take over of our health delivery. Why is the president, his advisors and their relatives seek health service outside and the tax payer is ask to wait for the Cuban guy.  Cement blocks by themselves are no solution to health service dispensation, hence a waste. Visual observation of the prevalence of preventable communicable diseases/vectors that are eradicated elsewhere is telling that our approach is not helpful. 

Education is one thing we need for every development purpose. It is about the improvement of the human resource base which is arguably our most important precious resource. Can we educate everybody at once and everywhere? No. Is that what we want? No. Creating awareness should probably target the whole population of matters of national interest and do not require everyone go through school system. The radio, TV and other mediums could have been effectively used to achieve these goals. Formal schooling needs planning based on established national goals. It doesn’t make any sense crying universal education meaning graduating kids at grade six. What value is in that for us? Maybe encouraging confusion and mediocrity from what some called the half-baked, maybe those are one/eight-baked. Out of poor planning and image building for the anticipated transformation into a politician structure are erected across the country called schools. School is more than a nice building. Certainly it creates a conducive learning environment but not sufficient on its own.  India arguably has better quality education, at least better than US and UK and yet still Indians are schooling under big trees. This is maximizing resource utilization to create value. Simple looking around will show how many of those structures are now empty, how many are without teachers, how many have no learning/teaching aids, how many teachers are without pay, appropriate teaching techniques training, etc. No wonder too many chaffs around town. Therefore we say, a good appraisal to blend all these other ingredients would have been a better use of Gambia’s meager resources. Seemingly there is an agreement that we needed a university but we had 100s/1000s of university graduates before and after U of G. Jawara must have been doing something although not cements blocks. That figure is a significant improvement over what we had in 1965 but relative to our taxes we say is a lesser output. Therefore U of G is to increase the numbers of what we already have and not a complete start. The irony is the graduates from U of G are not hired by the architect. I wonder if he has a clue what the purposes of educating people are. The Kaniali kids whose schooling cannot be verified by even Bwiam School they claimed to attend are in-charge of our nation. This is no progress and we fear the increasing number of graduates plying the streets without jobs will in the long run breed crime. Either way they must survive and the search of that is one cause of stain on our image at foreign embassies in The Gambia and ports of entry all over the world. This is just the tip of the iceberg.   

The Banjul Arch/Arch 22 – the resource of Gambia should not be used for the beautification of Banjul, period. By laws that is one of the responsibilities of Banjul City Council. Besides of the waste of over D10 million at the time when our relations with donors and borrowers was soured that structure is a public safety risk to all coming in and out of Banjul. It has created limited accessibility into the city already under threat to submerge. In such eventualities and the only main exit except the Bund Road our people will be trap and may god forbid once it’s down the rest behind are death. Banjul is no longer an attractive tourist place and local population is moving out to the Kombos thus the restaurant up in the sky will take a million years to pay off that investment. The Gambia for Gambia group does not like this one either.    I think I have already made a case why we stand different and not hate or negative as we maybe accused. However I will add one/two more to the list. 

Foreign relation – usually and in most countries foreign relations is the prerogative of the president/prime minister and of course within the limits of the law. I don’t think both Jawara and Yahya broke any law(s) in this area but we argue some relations do not serve our interest. The relationship with Senegal is the most important one for every Gambian leader. The first foreign trip of every elected Gambian leader should be Senegal to reaffirm commitment to existing protocols and pledge improvement on that path. Jawara mess-up just a little at the 1981 coup attempt by agreeing on things he really don’t want in return for his restoration by the Senegalese army. I think Abdou Joof is also too unrealistic to assume that our nationhood can be promised even upon Jawara’s promise. The cost is the Gambia National Army. By extension this is what brought Yahya in the equation. Of course Yahya is a mess in this area. However sincere he may want to be his closeness and tribal ties to Jolas across the border made him no good mediator.  This is very obvious for reasonable people a group Yahya does not belong. He muddies the situation by hosting rebel leaders at Atlantic Hotel for periods over a year. How can Senegal be comfortable with that relation? Equally Gambia is not comfortable with those so-called dissidents residing in Dakar.  A Taiwan/Gambia relation is a game of two fools. Taiwan is looking for nations that will stand to claim her rights to self determination/independence from China among the community of nations and in return they dish out money to such leaders. Except for making a political point I cannot see how Gambia’s stand can influence China’s position when US or UK failed. The Taiwanese leadership must be fooling themselves and squandering the resources of their people. Yahya is a fool to think that he can make a difference but more importantly antagonizing others in the process. The disheartens part though is that how can Taiwan leaders want independence for their people through financing despotic dictators suppressing their people. I can promise Taiwan that at the dawn of a New Nation – Gambia 2020 we will declare all loans improperly contracted void. Our relations with other countries whether they are friends or otherwise to US/UK is okay as long as it is kept to bilateral mutual interest. We should not take up Iran’s fight with other nations. It is not our problem, period.    

Human Rights, security and protection of life and property – The State House and Security budgets are more than Agriculture, Health and Education combined. How can that be? State House sponsors parties for APRC militants along the beach/McCarthy Square, charter flights for Yahya’s foreign trips, pay for dancing at Kanilai and provide /maintain flashy fleet of vehicles. Whatever the security budget is spent on Gambians are not secure and their rights and properties are not protected. Gambians have been harassed by thugs organized by Yahya, arrested, and detained at secret locations. The court system is overwhelmed with more political than criminal and civil matters combined. In fact they claim not in holding people like Rambo and Kanyi-Ba Kanyi even after a court order to produce such persons at court. Besides the contempt of court, if they are not hiding such people a responsible government will be on search to ensure their safe return home. Can’t you see your own government is now the number criminal of the state? Furthermore our sisters and mothers have been arrested, tortured, raped and detained. The late Sarjo Kujang of Brikama died with such agony. Mariam Denton, Duta Kamaso and recently Fatou Jaw Manneh suffered similar illegal treatments from those supposed to protect them. What is their crime that deserves such a punishment? I’m on tears and if this is not enough for you to condemn APRC I don’t know what will. I can truly imagine the agony of any woman put through such circumstances to live with that pain for the rest of her life. We truly share this agony and promise that they will be brought to book. Yet with the increased security spending Gambians were killed and/or disappeared under mysterious circumstances and Yahya mute. In addition to those mentioned above we have a host of unsolved cases:

Sedia Sanyang beaten to dead at Denton Bridge for his support of UDP

Koro Ousuman Ceesay killed for unknown reasons

Deyda Hydara killed for unknown reasons

14 demonstrating students including one I know (Lamin Abdoulie Kaddy Bojang)

Barrow (journalist/Red Cross Worker) helping out the wounded

Ousuman Sillah, an attempt on his live resulting to disability

Foday Makalo, whereabout not known

Daba Marenah and co-prisoners disappeared under mysterious circumstance

November 11 killing of Ganbians over an alleged coup

Sadibou Hydara’s untimely death in a prison cell

55 ECOWAS citizens killed on Gambian soil

Ebrima Barry beating to his death by Brikama Fire Officials 

This is against Yahya’s bragging of readiness to protect one million Gambians if necessary by killing twenty thousand other he called undesirable ones. Over 10 years Yahya could not protect those mentioned above nor could he tell us what happened. My guess he is either an accomplish and/or he does not have the capabilities he claimed to have at a Lamin meeting. This should suffice an answer that Yahya deserved condemnation. Life does not really need all the claimed structures/development for survival but the structures/developments are for the living. Once again life is a natural right. I hope nobody is subject to such treatment anymore but it did not spare Daba Marenah and Baba Jobe who are at one time full time operatives of the oppressive tactics of Yahya.  

Contrary to AFPRC/APRC claims that there was nothing before 1994 is wrong. The least to say is that they where all schooled and employed during this period. This fact is more appreciated by those that saw Gambia before and after independence.  By 1994 there was a GIA with few aircrafts to our name, there was a GPTC with buses, there was a Gamtel with better service, there was an acceptable local transportation service between the urban and rural areas, groundnut and other produce has market, more democratic atmosphere, better rule of law, the government was not filled-up the “Jahanka marabouts” of Barajally-Suba or the cobblers of Barajally-Tenda as today with kanilai kids, Jawara did not build ECOWAS village when he host that meeting at Palm Grove (can’t remember well but one of the two Mile II hotels) and the following year or two sit at somewhere attending dances and festivities while his colleagues talking about our sub region as Yahya did with his AU investment, etc. Why would one put up over D100 million investments in cement blocks for a two days guest with all the hotels in and around KMC?  Coupled with poor regulatory business environment, you denied those investors of what they could earn to pay taxes and more importantly you plunge our meager resources into cement and sand. This year he at Kanilai while that meeting is being held at Ghana. The festivities have no bearing on our culture or on our economy and not even close to whatever is true Jola culture. Let me stamp on this once and for all, Kanilai except it is a village and people of The Gambia has no economic or cultural importance of national significant that should stop Yahya from attending AU Summit. 

Wrap-up: Your honor, the defense rest its case and we reaffirm our (Gambia-for-Gambia) fate in the justice system, hence await your ruling. We are totally dedicated to this selfless service for the course of humanity, we promised and solemnly promised that someday from now against 2020 through civility we will reclaim our freedom and declare/reaffirm our commitment to stay united, work and pray for prosperity, peace and justice for the common good of our diverse people. This declaration will replace every portrait/pictures of present/pass president in every public building in that country.   In this undertaken we will bear full responsibilities of our judgments (good/bad) and in humility we shall hand over the awards of success for you are the providers for what you rightfully own. For The Gambia, Ever True. 

Editors note:The views of the author does not represent the position of the Freedom Newspaper. This paper cannot be held liable for the author's views. His views are his views. Period. Thanks for your attention.