Baba Galleh Jallow

By Baba Galleh Jallow

One of the key aims of the national spirit that expresses itself as the real July 22^nd revolution is to prove the hypothesis that constructive ideas are the real engine of development. It further seeks to prove a second hypothesis that derives from the first: that countries that have failed to record remarkable advancement have, without exception, failed to recognize the primacy of constructive ideas in their societies. We seek to assist in the positive, orderly, and ongoing transformation of Gambian society into one that appreciates and proactively encourages the widespread expression of constructive ideas. Sadly, in Jammeh’s Gambia, constructive ideas are often contrary to the avowed interests of the Jammeh state, which, even more sadly, are often at irreconcilable odds with the interests of the Gambian nation. We propose to return to this critical issue of state versus national interests at some later point.

Surely, not even Yahya Jammeh can deny that there is always room for improvement and development. Not the development of the donated vehicle or the development of the president’s farming prowess. Certainly not the development demonstrated by a long list of titles haphazardly appended to the president’s name for only God knows what purpose. The real July 22^nd revolution is particularly critical of Yahya Jammeh’s many titles not only because they sound oddly embarrassing, which they are. But especially because they feel strangely out of place upon the person they allegedly honor, and because the purpose they serve is not at all in the interests of the Gambian nation. In fact, the purpose they serve is inimical to the Gambian nation because it perpetrates the myth that Yahya Jammeh is a pious man of God as well as one of the world’s greatest leaders. Why else should the Supreme Islamic Council confer the holy title of Sheikh upon him? Why else should universities as far away as Russia and the Caribbean come all the way to The Gambia to confer upon him the great titles of Doctor and Professor? In the minds of the ordinary, politically unsophisticated Gambians who make up over 90% of the nation’s resident population, the fact that Yahya Jammeh is called all these things can only mean that he is all these things. Happily, many Gambians also know otherwise, have been saying so from the get go, and will continue saying so to the very end.

The real July 22^nd revolution submits that with the exception of His Excellency the President, the titles conventionally associated with the office of President, Yahya Jammeh may legitimately lay claim to only one of his numerous titles – that of Alhaji. Alhaji, a local variant of the Arab Al Hajj, meaning one who has gone on the pilgrimage to Mecca and thus satisfied one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is common enough. Of course, one who benefits from the spiritual fruits of visiting Islam’s most holy places and saying the requisite prayers and supplications is supposed to exhibit certain some fine moral qualities after the holy experience. Unfortunately, this is more often not the case. It is common knowledge that some of the worst criminals and social miscreants in this world are Alhajis. And because there are so many such Alhajis of dubious Muslim credentials, and almost all of them laying claim to these high moral qualities, the latter have fallen into very short supply. Nowadays, even Bubu Golo could become an Alhaji if he could become a person, profess Islam, and go on the pilgrimage to Mecca. But of course poor Bubu Golo can never become a person and so he is permanentlydenied the rewarding social privileges that often come with the hallowed title of Alhaji. In short, yes, Yahya Jammeh may legitimately be called Alhaji because there are many Alhajis like himself.

Not so the holy title of Sheikh. A Sheikh is a saintly person hardly if ever given to loud and harsh public condemnations of his own people. A Sheikh does not habitually boast of his personal powers, especially the spiritual and mystical ones. A Sheikh does not engage in the loud chest-thumping and fierce growling that are key characteristics of the Jammeh personality. A Sheikh does not publicly and loudly claim to know exactly what will happen to him in the future, how he will live his life and how he will end it. A Sheikh does not rudely declare to his people that whether they like it or not, he is their leader and he will be their leader for as long as he likes (No opposition will rule this country. No coup can remove me. I will rule for as long as I like). A Sheikh is not given to frequent and loud public swearing and fierce threatening of his own people. And  a Sheikh does not claim to have found the cure for as deadly a disease as AIDs, then refuse to share his alleged finding with the rest of suffering humanity. Yahya Jammeh bears the dubious distinction of being the only Sheikh in the whole world who has ever claimed to have found a cure for AIDS. And he’s keeping it secret.

The real July 22^nd revolution thus submits that Yahya Jammeh is unqualified for the title of Sheikh and must discard it immediately. The further fact that he presides over a state in which laws of dubious legality are deployed to elevate political authority from legitimate public critique and accountability suggests the extent of his removal from the just and saintly spirit of a Sheikh. The Jammeh state routinely ignores all constitutional provisions protecting the rights and privileges of the Gambian citizen whenever they clash with the president’s desire to enforce his will. It routinely invokes the bogey of national security to bypass legal procedure and engage in illegal and unjust conduct that manifestly fosters national insecurity. In Yahya Jammeh’s characteristically faulty logic, national security simply means state security, the security of the head of state. We shall have cause to return to these two domains of security which, in a healthy political environment, often overlap in many if not all ways.

The real July 22^nd revolution submits that it is cruel paradox that in a state boasting the primacy of national security, so many big and blatant criminal cases against Gambian citizens and institutions, including key public institutions like the Ministry of Finance and the Gambia National Army, remain unsolved. Of course, we all know that alleged criminal cases against the Jammeh state are always prosecuted with mechanical precision. We also know that in all such cases, a guilty verdict is assumed even before the start of formal judicial proceedings.  One could almost see the hand of the president literally pulling the strings in the judge’s mouth. The judge’s vocal cords could almost be seen dancing mechanically to the tugs of power, proclaiming the virtues of legality while totally subject to the wishes of the Big Oga. In cases where the judge’s do not get the message, expressed or not, their decisions are promptly revoked by presidential fiat. The court’s verdict is unrecognized, and the acquitted or bailed persons are promptly re-arrested as soon as they step out of the court room. The president says these persons are enemies of the state who do not deserve any legal privileges of citizenship. How dare these judges defy his words? These miscreants have deliberately offended the head of state. The head of state will show them that he cares nothing about the courts and could override their decisions at will and nothing will come out of it.

But nothing always comes out of it, a big and persistent nothing that refuses to evaporate into the nothingness and that continues to make Big Funny Faces at Yahya Jammeh. By defying the spirit of the law he is sworn and expected to uphold, the president hauls a sharp insult at the Gambian public’s sense of self worth. The judges and magistrates of the land – those true to their elevated profession – feel sharply belittled. All genuine members of the legal profession, in and outside of The Gambia, feel deeply insulted when they learn of the blatant legal travesty Yahya Jammeh has committed. All right thinking members of the Gambia public, including some foreign diplomats and expatriates feel the sharp bite of the president’s universal insult. The pain is palpable, yet mostly invisible because the president forbids its legitimate expression. Oh, but they rearrested them immediately, becomes a sharp public refrain that also engenders a refrain from saying that they did not like it; that it was manifestly wrong and unjust. Refrain from offending the curiously offensible sensibilities of Yahya Jammeh. Refrain from expressing legitimate public outrage at what was manifestly outrageous even by the very high faulty standards of its unrepentant perpetrator. That such a travesty of the law and of justice represents a heavy blow to national wellbeing is incontestable. But no one suggests a remedy because the Jammeh state has become an eater of people who dare suggest remedies for grave social ills.

Unfortunately, Yahya Jammeh fails to realize that by suppressing the just and acceptable resolution and removal of grave social ills, he assumes the status of the biggest social ill that most urgently needs to be removed. Society is by nature an expressive organism. It evolves by Expression itself. Trying to deny the expression of public opinion is like trying to run away from tomorrow. Any such effort fails by wide default because public opinion WILL be expressed anyway, either in a healthy manner conducive to social wellbeing, or in an unhealthy manner inimical to social wellbeing. Denied the right to express their legitimate opinions freely, openly, and politely, people will angrily huff and grunt and bitterly complain that this is not right; they will engage in speculations and wild rumors about the state, mostly unfavorable. Where they do it and who hears them is beside the point. The point is that the significant elements and segments of Gambian society who so feel insulted will protest the fact. If Yahya Jammeh thinks that Gambians do not violently criticize his outrageous misdeeds, he should think again. Anytime a bailed or acquitted person is re-arrested at the court room door, anytime a media house is closed without explanation or proper judicial procedure, and anytime someone is arbitrarily arrested and detained without charge beyond the constitutionally acceptable limit, Yahya Jammeh is subjected to a massive barrage of extremely severe criticism, including the very serious allegation that Dafa buga def bopam Yallah! Alafitaa fang kela Allah leti! Oyid wad hooreh moom Allah! He wants to make himself a god! The evidence lends some degree of credence to some such serious allegations.

Under normal circumstances, the public’s outrage over Yahya Jammeh’s insults is expressed through the private media, which editorializes it in measured tones and politely but firmly suggests a cure to the source of the outrage. Unfortunately for Yahya Jammeh, he habitually reads this note of firmness coming from the private media as an affront to his rule. For Yahya Jammeh, everything and everyone must become claylike at the point of contact with his power. Who are these journalists to question his powers or tell him how to run his government? If he says that these persons are guilty and must be punished, they are guilty and must be punished. That’s all there is to it. A Sheikh does not think and behave in such a manner. A Sheikh’s decisions may indeed be questioned by his people. His actions may be subjected to scrutiny and critique. And he may politely be urged to reconsider his decisions. He has the choice to refuse or to accept wise counsel; but he may not, may never forbid his people from giving him wise counsel. Again, unassailable proof that Yahya Jammeh does not deserve to be called Sheikh.

The real July 22^nd revolution submits that Yahya Jammeh’s best political option is to conduct an open and honest resolution of some, if not all those burning, unresolved issues littered across the landscape of recent Gambian history. Such as, for instance, the bloody events of November 11^th, 1994. On the night of that fateful day, an unknown number of soldiers of the Gambia National Army were killed in a gun fight at Yundum barracks. The Jammeh state’s only explanation was that a group of unpatriotic soldiers had attempted a coup, but that the situation had been brought under control. The civilian population was asked to go about its normal business. Investigations, of course, were being conducted into the affair. The results of those alleged investigations have never been made public, and the public is left with no choice but to engage in unhealthy speculation and rumor as means of knowing what actually happened at Yundum barracks. Rumor radio (Radio Kangkang) still broadcasts comments like “Hey, they say it was not a coup attempt. They say the government just wanted to eliminate people like Lt. Basirou Barrow because they saw him as a threat. Did you hear that some of them had to be buried alive because bullets could not enter them? Yes, like Dot Faal. They shot at him several times and had to grab him and bury him alive. They say Nyancho was also buried alive. Do you know that all of the soldiers who were killed did not die in the gun fight? They say they were actually arrested, made top kneel down in a row, and executed. Do you know that their bullet-ridden bodies were dumped and buried in a mass grave behind the toilets at Yundum barracks? None of their families will ever know what happened to them. No, this is unacceptable!” And so on and so forth . . .  

If Yahya Jammeh thinks that questions over the events of November 11^th are no longer asked, or if he doesn’t care whether they are asked or not, or whether  rumors such as the above are not circulating in Gambian society, then he should think again. We recommend that the Jammeh State comes out with a full, honest disclosure of issues surrounding the events of November 11^th, 1994. As a national institution of prime significance, the Gambia National Army deserves the honor to be told what exactly happened to its members. The GNA deserves that much respect from the state they protect. It would be an insult to their professional spirit to be denied such an honor.