The firing of the Justice Minister and Chief Justice has once again renewed Gambian leader’s unending firing madness. He has left Gambians enough room to speculate on his level of sanity. Mama Singhateh and Mabel Yamao Agyemang were soon replaced by officials whose fate is in suspense. And to add salt to injury, he broke off his promise to expose any disgraced officials by explaining the reasons for the firing. Since making that public statement, I bet he had fired more than 10 officials and kept quiet over it as if nothing had happened. Should that raise eyebrows, after all, our country’s leader has over and over lied to us and go to bed in peace knowing fully that his dogs [security agents] have neutralized everyone capable of challenging him?
Dictators hate democracy simply because this system of governance denies them the power to act freely and get away with it. If the Gambia were a real democracy, the parliament would have instituted impeachment proceedings against President Yahya Jammeh for betraying the trust and confidence that accompanies the Office of the President. If the parliament and all other arms of government have folded their hands and watch Jammeh act at will, who then apportions blame on our disjointed opposition for not taking to the streets.
Whatever the case, Gambians own the blame for creating their own instability. Accepting Jammeh’s job is tantamount to sitting on cracked eggs. Some people argue that Jammeh’s job offer is mostly accompanied with threats. “Accept my offer and leave in peace because I will make sure I control your life, including the air you breathe,” Jammeh is quoted as saying.
Seeing a turn down as a defeat, the President will assign his dogs to put you under their radar at all costs. We have seen how these shameless dogs bullied and tortured Dr. Istaou Touray and Amie Bojang-Sissoho of GAMCOTRAP with marathons of court proceedings. Despite filling the court room with bogus witnesses, the brave activists finally went home clean. We were told the mistreatment was a direct response to Dr. Touray’s refusal to join Jammeh’s classless cabinet.
Losing this particular fight has helped the President to tighten his belts against any adjudicator that might go against his vested interest. Jammeh is convinced that Dr. Touray has had enough for telling him on the face “I don’t want your job.”
The situation will change only if we stand our grounds and stay away from Jammeh and his personalized jobs. But who wants to follow the route of Dr. Touray? Let’s raise our hands and do the counting.
Ends