The Big Interview:  The Watchman Talk Tough Against Bullies!!!!

“ My Lawyer Will Be In Court To Represent Me on Any Case Filed Against The Freedom Newspaper,” Watchman Posited

Ever since his emergence into Gambia’s online community, the self-styled Gambian watchman has been making headline news. The watchman is not stranger to controversies, as he engaged members of the media into a  constructive debate. While his real identity continues to attract more attention among The Gambian Community, the watchman remarked “It’s more about a tactical choice than fear. Anonymity allows me to focus on the goal of objective assertion and that alone. As evidenced by some past episodes, anytime a sensitive writer or journalist pens an article or other work using their real identities, they succumb to the emotional pitfall of deeming any critique of their work an assault on their person. There is no professional decoupling. Anonymity detaches me from these foibles. It also helps in misleading anyone intent on locating my person. I cherish privacy immensely.” In an exclusive interview with the US based Freedom Newspaper, the Watchman said the Freedom Editors should not waste their precious time worrying themselves about legal actions coming from any quarters. “That won’t happen and you need not lose sleep over it. If any thin-skinned individual shoots from the hip and decides to take legal action, they are among the many that have bought into the permanent American fallacy that litigation solves everything, including petty and unfounded grudges. Your medium is protected by numerous laws and measures that I’d rather no go into at the moment. The colic babies crying wolf and making threats about taking you to court are public figures in a domain where sedition, defamation and blackmail have strict statutes that prevent any Tom, Dick and Harry from abusing them just because their “family” has been put under the microscope. If that were the case Pa, Jay Leno would have been tossed in jail. If that were the case Pa, the creators of Mad Comics would been bankrupted by legal fees. See where I’m going with this?,” he said.  While he watchman might not show up in court physically, he said his attorney will represent him in absentia.  “My lawyer will. He will do two things: He will protect my right to anonymity and your right to exclusion from any liability. And next, he will make complete clowns of some of the media fraternity over here that always gloat and pompously denounce Yahya Jammeh while refusing to be put under same scrutiny,” Watchman said. Below is the full text of the interview. Please read on………

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Freedom  Newspaper:  Good day Watchman. Can you introduce yourself to our esteemed readership?

Watchman: Greetings, Pa. I am just an ordinary Gambian aghast at the current fate of our beloved nation who happened to stumble upon a very good medium, Freedom Newspaper, as a means of expression.

Freedom Newspaper:  Why do you self-styled yourself as Gambia’s Watchman?

Watchman: Watchmen guard places of high value. I consider myself a humble Gambian Watchman raising the alarm every time the Jammeh cabal and others embark on destructive behavior that threatens the already fragile welfare of our country. In sum, I act as a deterrent to the best of my ability, against thieves and murderers.

Freedom Newspaper:  What’s your real name? 

Watchman: I’d rather not say.

Freedom Newspaper:  Why are you afraid to  come out in the open?

Watchman: It’s more about a tactical choice than fear. Anonymity allows me to focus on the goal of objective assertion and that alone. As evidenced by some past episodes, anytime a sensitive writer or journalist pens an article or other work using their real identities, they succumb to the emotional pitfall of deeming any critique of their work an assault on their person. There is no professional decoupling. Anonymity detaches me from these foibles. It also helps in misleading anyone intent on locating my person. I cherish privacy immensely.

Freedom Newspaper:  Are you afraid of Jammeh or what?

Watchman: Everybody in their right mindset should fear Yahya Jammeh’s intentions and delusions not the ego or id that makes up his persona which, upon cold analysis, is akin to that of an effeminate and inarticulate schoolyard bully. I have watched countless tapes of the guy and Pa, the only emotion I come off with is shame. Shame that he is our “president”; fear, never.

Freedom Newspaper:  It is undisputable that you are a seasoned writer. But how can your writings be taken seriously, when you are hiding under the banner of penname?   

Watchman: Have you read the Federalist Papers? These were a series of 7 essays written by some of America’s greatest statesmen and founding fathers, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. At the time, 1787-88 to be exact, their aim was to influence ratification of the Constitution of the United States. They did not use personal names. They opted for Publius instead. This was due to inspiration; Publius was one of the founding fathers of the Roman Republic, a cut above Julius Caesar. Self-preservation, a primal human instinct was another of their motives: at the time, the foundations of the young republic were very shaky and treachery abounded. Ultimately, they ditched their nom de plumes, when it became clear their cause would triumph. Their writings, of course, are now a staple of constitutional law so the question of a writer using a pen name being taken seriously is a fair one and the answer lies in the intention, seriousness and subject matter the author has taken to task.

Freedom Newspaper: I am sure you attended University education here in the US.  What are the rules for academic honesty?  Can any researcher source your internet postings since there is no name (yours) associated with it?  I am just curious watchman. 

Watchman: There are no rules of academic integrity in political discourse. Let me give you an example: if my aim was to expand my academic and personal resume by executing a column for your vibrant paper, I would’ve done so and submitted my name, affiliation and contact. Once the column is published, it is immediately recognized as an academic, albeit less rigorous, achievement and added to my resume per my choice. If your medium was a journal in say, Gambian politics, I’d have to submit a researched and peer reviewed essay that encodes academic originality before it gets published and recognized as a professional achievement. With my writings, I employ a Socratic method that aggressively challenges preconceived notions and prejudices. I am of the view that ideas and mores are successfully nurtured not pummeled into readers or an audience as some are wont to.

Freedom Newspaper:  Will your writings pass credibility test since your are not brave enough to account for it?

Watchman: My work passes credibility tests effortlessly and always because it is juxtaposed, most of the time, with inane and shoddy work by other so-called journalists and commentators in the Gambian blogosphere.  I see bravery as speaking up for one’s fellow country men at the risk of being scorned whether I do it out in the open or under an alias. I know countless Gambians who would rather brag about their palatial American homes and possessions then visit The Gambia and add nothing to the civic agenda or prosperity of the country they claim to love. They are living out in the open. The 7 billion Dollar query is: are they brave enough by your definition of the term?

Freedom Newspaper:  Are you willing to join the Freedom Newspaper in court,  if sued by  aggrieved (parties) regarding your writings?

Watchman: That won’t happen and you need not lose sleep over it. If any thin-skinned individual shoots from the hip and decides to take legal action, they are among the many that have bought into the permanent American fallacy that litigation solves everything, including petty and unfounded grudges. Your medium is protected by numerous laws and measures that I’d rather no go into at the moment. The colic babies crying wolf and making threats about taking you to court are public figures in a domain where sedition, defamation and blackmail have strict statutes that prevent any Tom, Dick and Harry from abusing them just because their “family” has been put under the microscope. If that were the case Pa, Jay Leno would have been tossed in jail. If that were the case Pa, the creators of Mad Comics would been bankrupted by legal fees. See where I’m going with this?

Freedom Newspaper:  Will you show up in court? 

Watchman: My lawyer will. He will do two things: He will protect my right to anonymity and your right to exclusion from any liability. And next, he will make complete clowns of some of the media fraternity over here that always gloat and pompously denounce Yahya Jammeh while refusing to be put under same scrutiny.

Freedom Newspaper:  When will watchman come out public about his real identity? 

Watchman: Perhaps never. I don’t have the narcissistic urge. Not a single person knows who I really am and I prefer to keep it that way. It is the only secret I have employed rigid discipline in keeping. Incidentally, I get funny emails from amateurs giving me incentives to contact them at some place at a given time. I have spent hundreds of Dollars to mislead snooping parties and protect my cyber persona.

Freedom Newspaper:  Do you remember the deep throat story?  Are you following the footsteps of the deep throat?

Watchman: Not really. I just happened to be employing the same methods. Lest we forget, Deep Throat’s aspiration was to bring down an utterly venal and despicable Nixon administration for the public good.  As I continue on as Watchman, I find myself in the same vein as William Mark Felt Sr., Deep Throat’s real name. We both are in positions of power, we share a passion for justice and truth, and we defy authority at the risk of losing a lot. In a nutshell, I did not seek out to actively ape him in my opposition to the Jammeh junta and their numerous, spineless, parasitic and alien apologists like Dida Halake (yes, I’m calling Dida out!) but he has turned out to be an accidental muse.

Freedom Newspaper:  Why are your writings distasteful to others?  What is the beef here?

Watchman: A cultural trait that most African and Asian people possess is the ideal and practice of saving face. Even amongst family members, seniority and hereditary rules take precedent over the absolute and logical truth. Instead of explicitly pointing out the malevolent intentions and fatal errors of others, we finesse the situation so that everyone can come out as “winners”. That’s why there is a visceral recoiling at my take no prisoners approach to debating and rightfully castigating opponents during political confrontations. You have that trait too and that’s why your detractors malign you in public but secretly consume the contents of your dynamic paper in private. My gut tells me that those who find my writings “distasteful” are the minority in the grand scheme of things. There are elements of envy and hate at play here because they (my castigators) feel usurped. My aim is not to take the place of your sensitive rivals, Pa. It’s more like to put them in their place when duty calls. A silent majority is cognizant of the need for men of my ilk. I will continue to serve them until justice and freedom prevails for all Gambians.

Freedom Newspaper:  Is Watchman a gangster?   You must be very brave to fire shots at Mathew Jallow?

Watchman: I am not a gangster but if I were to use another occupational metaphor in this instance, I’d say I’m a butcher. I take the glib, grandstanding and vacuous comments of hype prone “authors”, then discredit and butcher them into shreds, limb by limb. I had been lying in wait for Matthew Jallow for quite a while in fact. Here’s the deal about Matthew Jallow and it’s not personal: He had appointed himself Lord Protector of all things anti-Yahya Jammeh (just like Oliver Cromwell against the Royalists in 16th century Britain) and allowed himself to be seduced into believing the validity of this false choice because there was no one with the testicular fortitude to check his unbridled power grab and match him word for word, fire with fire. His development as a journalist was stunted because his personal moral conviction as opposed to his impersonal objective imperative took over his journalistic perspective. I put him and his co-conspirators on notice that if necessary any excesses will be checkmated. He is old but it’s not too late for him to either re-examine the real rules of journalism or ,as we have seen in the past, he can fall prey to his rage and engage me again in another battle royal with the help of his little kid brothers.

Freedom Newspaper:  Excuse me for using the word gangster, but in your view, what have you learned from the online debate?

Watchman: Gambian journalists live vicariously through their work and not the other way round. Criticism is a hard and bitter pill for them to swallow and they waste useful fumes on protecting perceived assaults on their dignity, family and work ethic. They should be receptive to any criticism be it constructive or otherwise. It doesn’t diminish their value to our freedom loving society. They should also be aware that the likes of me will never back down. They should offer more in the area of solutions to the Gambian impasse as opposed to initiating countless petitions and Cassandra like declarations of impending doom for all Gambians if Yahya Jammeh and his goons are not run of office.

Freedom Newspaper:  We spoke on numerous times on telephone. You sounded like a young man, with an American accent.  How old are you?

Watchman: Younger than my detractors, critics and assailants in the present Gambian media which means I get to not only attack and strip the validity of their claims if necessary but outlive them as well.

Freedom Newspaper:  How long have you been living in the United States? 

Watchman: Let’s leave that to the critics to answer since they have embarked on making guesses as to who I am and where I live.

Freedom Newspaper:  When do you last visit The Gambia?

Watchman: I was there this Christmas and New Year and visited a Secretary of State who I knew way before he became part of the Jammeh clique. I expressed my disappointment in private when he accepted a position in the ship of fools that is our government but he honestly told me economic factors were at play. Besides, he was part of the civil service during the Jawara regime and toiled for many years as a low key technocrat. This is no excuse but as you can see I am clearly torn. I kept a very low profile back home because I didn’t trust anyone. Now you realize why my anonymity serves an enormously useful purpose.

Freedom Newspaper:  Why are you so in love with Fatou Jaw Manneh?  Are you Fatou’s Public Relations officer?

Watchman: I am in love with the beautiful principles, standards, and values Fatou Jaw Manneh stands for. I am not her spokesperson but I don’t see why any decent human being cannot help but be impressed by her bravery and dignity as a woman and journalist grappling with sinister and insidious forces in the form of the Jammeh regime. She galvanized a whole nation to be aware of the wretched justice that is normally meted to journalists and citizens of lesser means and in so doing captured the imagination of many. She deserves to be respected and accepted as a major player within professional organizations tilted towards Gambian media personnel.

Freedom Newspaper:  Fine, there is nothing wrong to defend your countrymen and women, but why can’t Fatou speak for herself?

Watchman: She defends herself always with her grace and intense inner sense of direction and will. There are two ways one can defend one’s self. Show class through silence and Sutura as we Gambians call it or get down to the same level as your silly enemies and bray like donkeys in distress. Ms. Fatou Jaw Manneh has chosen the former. Also Pa, who says chivalry, has died? There is nothing more gentlemanly than deflecting the puerile taunts and verbal bashing that have been hurled at an individual one admires, and a lady at that. I was raised by strong women and my tendency to side with Ms. Manneh comes from the lessons gained from their tutelage.

Freedom Newspaper:  Do you know Fatou Jaw Manneh at a personal level?

Watchman: The question has nothing to do with why I defend Ms. Fatou Jaw Manneh just like I would support any Gambian in the same predicament.

Freedom Newspaper:   Fatou is single as we speak.  Are you interested in marrying her? 

Watchman: I am happily married.

Freedom Newspaper:  I am sure you  and Fatou are talking. Has she made any relationship advances?  Tell me the truth Watchman?

Watchman: Your sources are misleading you as far as the context of “talking” is concerned. The “question” verges on unfair speculation about Ms. Fatou Jaw Manneh’s virtue which by the way is impeccable. I respect her privacy so I’d rather we please change the subject.

Freedom Newspaper:  You are widely feared.  Many say you tamed Baboucarr Sankanu. How did you manage to silence Sankanu?

Watchman: Machiavelli opined once that a prince should rather be feared than loved. In my case, I’d rather have a healthy dose of both to maintain an unpredictable equilibrium. The “knife fight” with Sankanu occurred because there was no online presence to act as a checkmate, a case similar to Matthew Jallow before I joined the fray. He had interesting takes on Gambian politics but I and many others felt that his assertions were marred by obtuse chest thumping and bravado. Our engagement was not personal and I let him know this. His silence came out of a realization that he was at odds with a formidable and resourceful foe that came at him from satirical, metaphorical, well-researched and matter-of -fact angles. He was overwhelmed by my arsenal and chose to engage on other matters. What infuriated me the most was his stance of moral relativity vis-à-vis the extra-judicial and sordid deeds of the APRC outfit. He opted to play it safe when most were appalled at the carnage. What also impelled me to fire salvos at him at the time was my perception that he had abdicated his journalistic responsibility for the costume of agnostic cheerleader for a dastardly head of state. For all I know, he is a Gambian with an equal right to espouse his views on matters of national import without my forceful interference or obstruction. But I reserved and utilized the right to democratically lock horns with him spiritedly and we are both the better off for it.

Freedom Newspaper:  But on the other hand, Sankano said he does not want to waste his time engaging you into an unnecessary debate.

Watchman: That’s what all my opponents say when they tire of being bested during the public conversation of Gambian politics. It was the great Mohandas Ghandi that said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” I do not claim to be as great as this epochal figure of Indian politics but I am sure my critics have experienced what he was descrbing.

Freedom Newspaper:  Do you live in the UK as claimed by your critics?

Watchman: They can make as many guesses as they want.

Freedom Newspaper:  What is your country of residence?

Watchman: Let’s leave that to the critics to guess again.

Freedom Newspaper:  I met a fellow who told me that you come from Latrikunda German.  Are you from Latrikunda?

Watchman: Let him and the critics take a wild guess.

Freedom Newspaper:   Do you support President Jammeh and his Government? Why not?

Watchman: After the decadence of the Jawara era, I was cautiously optimistic when the AFPRC upended the old timers and hoped Jammeh’s rhetoric would be matched by his works. I would go to nightclubs intent on having a jolly time only to find myself heatedly defending the new sheriffs in town against my very close friends who had maintained loyalty to the deposed administration. They accused me of conveniently switching allegiances and swore I would come to regret my decision. Down the road, a lot of my pals in the army were brutally slaughtered, accused of treason and other high crimes. This led me into a deep depression but I still made amends and excuses for Yahya Jammeh because his promises, as empty as they were, were more in tune with revolutionaries I admire, than that of Gambian leaders past. As time went on, the nefarious killing of a minister, the villainous impulses of Edward Singateh, whose wife I know personally, the blatant corruption which I witnessed but did not partake of, and the systematic hounding of journalists culminated in my renouncing of all things Jammeh and AFPRC. To be more personal, what devastated me the most and sowed the seeds of doubt was the murder of Sadibou Hydara, a first class soldier and human being I absolutely admired and looked up to. I wept for days after his death. My rejection of the APRC program is intensely personal and first hand and not based on some “journalistic” desire to blab about what Yahya Jammeh has done wrong without providing substantial panaceas like a lot of your peers do.

Freedom Newspaper:  Why can’t you go home and contribute to national development?  Do you want to spend all your life working in the West?

Watchman: There are individuals who can compartmentalize between their business/welfare and make it distinct from the nearby world of those who suffer and don’t have much. I could’ve easily established a commercial entity in The Gambia but my tenure would have been short lived and unsuccessful not due to my ineptitude as an entrepreneur but more because of an inability to ignore injustice even as I do well. I have colleagues who are decently well off and established wheelers and dealers back home but they choose to turn a blind eye to APRC malfeasances. Jammeh’s handlers would personally imprison or throw me out of the country because my loud mouthed protestations of his heavy-handed ways would have been a constant thorn on his fat side whether I functioned as a professor, a secretary of state, an army general, a civil service lifer, or plain “green boy”.  When Yahya Jammeh’s own demise is brought about either by mental incapacitation or murder most foul and there is a less bloody transition to power, then maybe I will reconsider my options. I do my best by sending remittances to an extensive array of family members and making regular contributions to my former pals in the army who shall remain unnamed.

Freedom Newspaper:  What can you tell us about brain drain in Africa?

Watchman: During the 60s and 70s, African brain drain was the result of colonial administrators and highly educated natives evacuating to the state of original colonial power. Anglophone Africa suffered most because with the exception of Nigeria and Ghana which are endowed with oil and gold respectively, infrastructural and administrative investments were few and far between. The rest not only faced intellectual hemorrhaging but loss of manufacturing manpower as well. The 80s saw a period of bloodletting between warring elites left behind in African countries as they struggled to contain the instability stimulated by a lack of resources and ethnic tensions. This resulted in another mass exodus to the West and for those with lesser means to more stable states within the continent, a sub-phenomenon known as intra-migration. The 90s were a more promising time in terms of a shift of many states toward democracy which Foreign Affairs termed “Africa’s New Bloc” in 1998. Brain drain occurred during this period as an outcome of globalization brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the end of the Cold War. The tragedy of Africa’s brain drain cycle is that it engenders a generational deprivation of talent for the much needy continent. An illustration: A well off family immigrates to the UK due to political persecution at home. They take with them medical skills that could have been useful in combating polio and malaria. Their offspring are born or bred in their newly adopted country and become attached to their new home. The kids grow up to emulate their parents in the Hippocratic tradition but decline to go back to the land of their fathers due to unsavory conditions that are still prevalent. The first generation of medically needy parents who suffered when the family of doctors immigrated now have kids who could have been treated by the younger breed of medical professionals but suffer just like their parents due to the brain drain phenomena. Unless the cycle of corrosive and repressive governments decline in greater numbers all over Africa, our sons and daughters would take their brains there only for vacations and nothing more.

Freedom Newspaper:  Are you not doing disservice to The Gambia and her people by failing to make your services available to them?

Watchman: Gambians are doing a lot more disservice to themselves by “voting” for Yahya Jammeh and turning off any incentive for individuals of my ilk to serve them freely and with abandon.

Freedom Newspaper:  Will you respond to Jammeh’s invitation to serve his Government? Why not?

Watchman: He is not that dumb to believe I’d accept that insincere “invitation” is he?

Freedom Newspaper:  Comparing the PPP and the APRC, which is better in terms of governance and democratic credentials?

Watchman:  The PPP were a bunch of aging, corrupt but non-lethal holders of power in The Gambia. The APRC are a group of young, corrupt and very lethal administrators of power in The Gambia. The group that has homicidal tendencies loses in this comparison so one would have to conclude that the PPP is more “democratic” in the very low African standard/sense of the term.

  Freedom Newspaper:  Why do you like the Freedom Newspaper?

Watchman: Of all the online Gambian media that I examined prior to contributing my thoughts on the chances of Gambian democracy under Yahya Jammeh, Freedom Newspaper was the most dynamic and true to the ideal form of progressive journalism. Unlike other websites with stuff pertaining to our beloved country, Freedom Newspaper harbors and encourages a wide array of dissenting views. Unlike other online media houses, Freedom Newspaper is non-discriminatory and avoids intellectual snobbery when it comes to the submission of content. You don’t personally use your online perch as a vehicle to impose verbose, deviating and passé editorials almost daily. You fill the pages with the eager voices of engaged Gambians and do so at the risk of annoying some and elating others. You plough straight ahead with the task at hand: delivery of the news come what may. Your competitors sneer at you and scoff at your use of anonymous sources because they envy your immense resourcefulness then they turn around and shamelessly employ the same tactics. I respect your thick-skinned approach to criticism; you win some, lose at times, and pick up where you left from. You don’t wallow in bitterness for days because a private citizen had the gall to criticize you. In short, you act like a man in a man’s world and don’t whine and snivel like a recalcitrant brat when things don’t go your way. I can deal with you on a set of mutual values such as respect for each others views because I don’t have to worry about whether you have an insecure self-esteem. To sum it up, it’s easier working with adults on adult issues; little kids in the form of other journalists should either be spanked or left to play with their toys until they chose to mature into the role that you so expertly and excellently handle.

Freedom Newspaper:  What do you do for a living?

Watchman: Why don’t we leave it to my knowledgeable critics to figure out?

Freedom Newspaper:  Are you a club guy? 

Watchman: Was. My wife objects. I have to help with the kids at home.

Freedom Newspaper:  Who is your favorite American rapper?  Well my star is Lil Wayne. That is my home boy.  Who is your star?

Watchman:  I’m old school. I enjoy Youssou Ndour, Ifang Bondi, Thione Seck, and Kumba Gawlo Seck to name a few. Miles Davis and John Coltrane are some of the Western musicians I thrive on but since you like Lil Wayne I’ll look into it. I trust your taste on this so please don’t disappoint me Pa.

Freedom Newspaper:  You have many fans here.  Many call you “the online Sheriff”.  That you always speak up when things get tougher.  Do you like the new title given to you “THE SHERIFF IN TOWN.”?

Watchman: Fans, like any earthly credential or position are fleeting and ephemeral but I understand and respect their appreciation for my humble input on Gambian matters. Sheriff is a pretty imperial title. I’d prefer Fairness Advocate. If one were to follow my trends, one would see that I intervene only on matters of fairness and ethics. I detest bullying be it physical, verbal and otherwise and any respectable member of the Gambian media should be held accountable for such mishaps or missteps in their work or against other persons. I abhor journalists who use the bully pulpit of their pen to aggrandize themselves and pursue personal agendas to the detriment of the real work at hand and the audiences they claim to serve. Most of all, I absolutely have no respect for a “journalist” that resists criticism. It is a repugnant trait to have and those who retain it should find another line of work. I have my pen cocked and ready to shoot again if need be.

Freedom Newspaper:  Any last words:

Watchman: I love The Gambia.

Freedom Newspaper:  Thanks Watchman for taking your time to grant us this interview.

Watchman: Thank you Pa Nderry Mbai for your indefatigable dedication to Gambian journalism.