Questions to Gambians: Election for what and for whom?

We have just concluded a futile exercise conducted by the IEC in the name of
an election for local government. I call it "Yahy'election" (Yahya's
election). Not only was the turn out been low but the exercise in itself was
a time waster in the sense that it has no meaning when people can elect
officials today and they are can be fired by one man the next day. There is
no point going to the polls at all, if one person can undo what the majority
has done? Is this the type of democracy that Yahya wants to bring to
Gambians where the electorates are disempowered? "Cheem Y Oga".  Yahya the
meaning of democracy is "a government of the people by the people for the
people" and not "a government by the people for Yahya". This is utter
nonsense and a waste of national resources. What seems to make sense is for
Yahya to choose those he wants to serve as his councilors and avoid all this
wastage. For those of you standing as independent candidates, have you lost
your minds? Those that have withdrawn their candidacy from the election be
it APRC or opposition have earned my respect. The reasoning here is that if
you win the election as an independent, you won't last long in your seat
even though you are the choice of the people. If you are not the choice of
Yahya then you are as good as dead. Why don't you save yourself and your
family the pain? Remember Oga will sack you, take you to court and
eventually jail you if he so choose. If your are among the lucky ones, your
court case could drag on for a year or years reducing you to a street
beggar. Psychiatric patient Yahya has categorically warned all Gambians And
less your forget this man has the tendencies of a beast in all forms. He has
no human feeling in him. My plea to all Independent candidates or the
opposition is simple, resign your seats and let Yahya do what he wants.
There are procedures in the local government Act that deals with
disciplining faulty councilors and so why should one man be given the law as
if he is the only one with brains in Gambia when he seems to have none.

This sometimes makes me wonder who the real culprit or tyrant is. Let me
quote a little history here before coming to our own case. Apartheid existed
in South Africa through the help of the security forces majority of whom
where blacks. So it was a situation of the senior male cat killing all the
junior male cats. We were then blaming the white rulers in S. Africa but
then it was the blacks who helped them maintain their rule of segregation.

In every scenario in Gambia we also tend to blame Oga/Yahya. Yahya by
himself cannot be brutal as we know Yahya during his army days with us.He is
not brave person as he portrays himself nowadays. The guy is not that
intelligent as he appears except that he has been learning quickly the dirty
tricks of African politics. It is those of us who serve under Yahya who are
the real brutes. We leap high to execute his commands and he being the head
will be held responsible. But in reality you and I are. Check yourself. How
comes within a short period all military personnel have all of a sudden
become warriors. Is this your making or Yahya's?

Not until we realize that we are harming ourselves, Yahya will continue to
use us like knuckleheads. I want all Gambians to restrain their
sons/daughters from enlisting in the military or any of the security
apparatus in The Gambia. In as much as we want to earn a living, it is
better to earn a clean living than a dirty one.  Dirty things don't last and
we have seen some examples. Those of us who have been in this security
business longer than Yahya himself are caught up. We can't give up but all
we can do is to discourage our relatives not to join our ranks. None of mine
will ever join any of the security branches under Yahya's regime.

Yahya can recruit the whole of Kanilai village to the security forces. This
will then be Gambia against Kanilai and we can finish them under 30 minutes
if the situation warrants it. How many youths come from Kanilai anyway? He
might resort to recruiting the whole of foni.  The questions each and every
one of us needs to ask himself or herself is this: am I not part of Yahya's
wickedness if I help him carry out his brutal games? Are my hands clean? Why
kill, threaten, go after your own brothers and sisters for the sake of one
man who doesn't even care about you? How many funerals of our comrades did
Oga attend? This shows that you only matter to him when you are doing his
job but so long as you are sick or dead, the man doesn't care. Why care for
him? Wasalam.