CRYING FOR HELP: IN A STATE OF FEAR AND CONFUSION (PART ONE)

 By: Jadama Sadibu   (Stockholm Sweden)

Any casual observer of the past  and present political scene in  the Gambia who happens to be a patriot ought to be worried about what is going on amongst the Gambian leadership today. By leadership I am not talking only about political leaders, I have in mind the generality of leadership in the Gambia encompassing all adults, technocrats, heads of institutions and agencies, civil servants and religious groups including chiefs and the Alkalos. Well If I may ask, what is going on within those we call the leaders of our dear Republic?

Speaking from  my mind ,I am seeing a death of true, selfless and bold leadership in our country or perhaps I may be wrong, but evidently I am not inspired by what I saw during my last trip in August 2006 ,  I’m sure I am not alone. Are we reaping the fallout of failing or is the Gambia refusing to utilise the talents and gifts that the Good Lord has endowed us with as a nation? Or are we refusing to recognise and appreciate as a nation the enormous contributions of our post independence nation builders? I have seen individuals acquiring power before thinking about what to do with the power. There is a vast difference between power and authority and only conscious and a humble few could recognise this differences, unfortunately for our dear homeland, we are been kept at arms length from understanding either by people who are abusing both. It is to every believer that power belongs to one and only one God but it seems in our country some people are assuming this divine power status by being insincere and inconsiderate of their own fellow brothers and sisters. One wonders whether we as a nation can afford to have half baked intellectuals who in their positions would abuse the little they know and make claims of issues they have no knowledge of. These people occupy positions beyond their intellect and would do anything to keep themselves at the top of the masses. In a nut shell, they are misguided by their little know-how and to their ignorance they are doomed to stay on that course for the rest of their lives. Authority is derived from the people whilst power is derived from God. We need a Gambia with people who understand these differences and embark on the good work for the services of the people. Getting worried for our country is as natural as getting worried about ones own personal disease. We must admit the ills in our country in order to correct them. Here we are talking about responsibility and national unity, where all the pillars that constitute in re-enforcing our cultural, traditional political and religious ways could converge at this focal point of respect for all Gambians.

 When one listens to most of the Gambian leaders particularly the National Assembly members you only begin to wonder what motivates them to become holders of such important functions. You follow their deeds, and often wonder if their true aim is to build the Gambia as a nation, or rather to satisfy their own, vengeful and egoistic agenda. They continuously spit venom and seeds of division, yet in the same breadth preach unity and strive for development! They appear so obsessed with being great in the eyes of men that they fail to realise they are losing it. Greatness is not forced, nor can development be forced on a people. To my mind nation building is done and can only be done around unity of purpose, a common sense of direction and around ideals shared by a vast majority of citizens. How then do our present-day leaders aspire to build this small nation by alienating nearly half of the population? How can we make so much noise about democracy when we cannot tolerate dissenting views? It’s like loving God and hating your brother!

To be sincere, there is very little disagreement amongst the various political factions regarding the final destination they want to take this nation to. Take the genuine manifestos of the political parties, am sure it’s all about the good of the Gambia.

The divisions and hatred in the Gambia have baffled me for some time; and as a result I have taken the trouble to do my own research about the history of this nation. I was old enough when X- President Jawara was overthrown and so have tried to find information by research, only to be confronted with what I term the “Superior Vs Inferior” versions of endless stories.  I now realised how polarised our society has become, to such an extent that during anniversary celebration we sent confusing signals to our children about who our heroes are. This is not good for our national health. The question then is, for how long are we going to continue like this? Who is gaining from this “Tom and Jerry” politics going on in the Gambia? Certainly not the masses! And guess what, in all this the religious leaders sit silent, the chiefs keep mute, our “intelligentsia” has become impotent, the council of state provide comic relief and  some of the media professionals fans the flames of division. The founders of our nation must be crying in their graves! Was it part of their dream, to see leadership groping in the dark, where democracy is for sale, justice to the highest bidder and the poor is crowded out of education?

I am no historian, neither am a PhD holder in law or Micro economics. I am only a village boy from the Lower River Division of the Gambia, but I will tell you what any Patriot would find about our past and about our transition from the first Republic to the Second. Whenever I found a Gambian society trying to turned into a white man society, with the people split into groups both at home and abroad, the masses and the elites, it always became unbearable for me to digest .From among both the masses and the elite stood out individuals who yearned and agitated for freedom, and for decades they kept the torch burning under the leadership of the self imposed kings.

My dear readers I would like to believe that President Yaya Jammeh did not mean evil; he just had a bigger vision, which the Gambian tradition could not appreciate. Sure the President did not mean evil, it just hurt his pride to have the grand price taken away from him, especially since he was the young one and was in the race earlier than expected. You see, success is recognising opportunity and seizing it! The APRC is becoming successful with several project proposals, the PPP was almost. Then normal human nature crept in plain envy and jealousy, what else can  it explain when Sir Dawda Jawara, of blessed memory, recommending the APRC  as a  party with hopes and visions but his old PPP  party comrades opposing the same APRC when they took power in 19994. The truths, they say, sometimes hurts, but let us embrace it and move forward.

What followed thereafter is what I call the Tom & Jerry politics of the Gambia “you do me I do you”! All said and done I believe the Gambian tradition need to accept blames for most of the wrongs done by the people themselves. So believe me Gambians, this is all about personal interests from both sides of the ruling party and the oppositions, but especially from the people responsible of the key government institutions. This has been the source and genesis of the ‘Politics of Hatred” in our country, which is manifesting itself again, this time between the Oppositions on the ground and the Jammeh Administration. There is got to be an end put to this trend for us all to forge ahead in unity to build our nation. Every single Gambian is needed in this endeavour, yes we can agree or disagree on some issues, but for the sake of posterity and the pride of the Gambian let’s agree to agree on a national development plan! As a first and critical step towards this, let’s have a true National Reconciliation.

In this 13th year into the second Republic, let President, Jammeh openly and humbly accept all Gambians on behalf of the tradition of truth and national reconciliation for:

1: Not seeing the light early enough •2: The damage done to Jawara’s image as an elderly Statesman and to his family and refusing him the opportunity to returned quickly in the nation he helped to build, at home for his people. • 3:The harm done to our national development by playing the kind of opposition  some  of  your party comrades might played during the transition period into the second republic, also for the complicity in the overthrow of the first republic.

At the same forum let the government of Sir Dawda Jawara apologise to all Gambians for all the excesses during the first republic that led to the suffering of many citizens, especially those who died in prison after the 1981 uprising.

I also expect an apology from you Mr President to all Gambians for all the excesses that took place during the revolutionary AFPRC era, to accept responsibility for such acts of commission and omission that led to the suffering of innocent citizens.

Finally, Mr .President, you should again apologise to Sir Dawda Jawara and   the previous government for the current government’s failure and refusal to acknowledge the good works of his regime, and for again allowing personal hatreds and experiences to cloud the bigger national picture. Every regime, including the current, has its own downside and the majority of Gambians do appreciate, even more so now than before, that ruling a nation as ours is no simple task.

Following this, let all bygones be bygones and you as our President can light the torch of Gambia’s renaissance to set the tone for a new era of leadership. I humbly beseech you, my dear President, do not pass this cup to someone else, take this historic step of this great year and add to our history a new pacesetter. Believe me, it will be a bigger longer lasting legacy than the Presidential palace. The nation is bigger than the pride of any political tradition, let all swallow their personal/s pride for the sake of our kids.

                             Stay tuned!

The writers e-mail: sjadama@hotmail.com