My brother president, I wrote to you on the 19th of this month as a brother regarding the untenable situation you find yourself in. In that piece, I encouraged you to take certain steps to get yourself out of the net that you trapped yourself in. Among other steps I advised you to initiate was to call president-elect Barrow and apologize to him and then make a joint appearance on the national media (GRTS) as two decent brothers and not only apologize to Gambians as a people but to put their minds at ease that there will be a smooth transfer of power and not a single drop of blood will spill. I have also indicated to you that Gambians are unlikely to revenge on you for the wrongs you have committed over the past twenty-two years especially if you show remorse and corporate in the smooth and peaceful transfer of power for two main reasons: Firstly, your crimes are too many and too heinous that no amount of punishment will make up for a fraction of pain you inflicted on us and we are better of letting God take care of you. Secondly, we have a lot of work to do in a very short period of time that we do not want to get ourselves stuck in the mud while wasting precious time in improving the livelihood of our battered people. As a matter of fact the best punishment you will have is to let you live, at whatever cost, so that you can witness the kind of Gambia we will have in the next few years. This will be a Gambia that is free of terror, fear, summary execution, disappearance without trace, blatant corruption, nepotism, where members of the armed forces are turned into shepherds tending to the presidents goats, sheep, cows and chicken. When you see a progressive and democratic Gambia that belongs to all Gambians equally and not a personal property of “Babilimansa”, then your own guilty conscience will kill you, period!
Mr. President, you are surely in a state of loss! You have failed to heed my advice which would have given you thirty days to right your wrongs. Remember, the hand that ties the lion should be the same hand that unties it. You put yourself in this predicament and nobody but Yaya Jammeh can get you out of this mess. However, you seem to be too arrogant and lost to help yourself! I hope you are not getting divine justice now and crumbing under your sins. I am saying this because initially I thought you were bluffing and you were trying to extract concession from the incoming government so that they will not prosecute you. However, from the look of things, I honestly believe you have no intention of leaving in one piece, rather you will plunge the country into chaos even if you will be consumed by that chaos eventually. I also suspect you may currently be a hostage of few individual soldiers who you used to commit crime against Gambians. These few soldiers, including your killer Junglers, will be asking you: “If you leave presidency what are you going to do with us”? You surely have no answer for them! As a result, they may be taking you hostage insisting that you will all have to perish together. My brother president, whatever your predicament is, time is running out quickly for you.
My brother president, you are on a suicide mission and you want to take some Gambians with you. I get news for you my brother president. We the Gambians do not want to die and we do not want violence and that is why we removed you through the most peaceful mean: the ballot box! On the other hand you will be a real fool to think that we will accept you like a spoilt child and let you take this victory from us because when you go low, we go high. Hell no! The Gambia National Army that in your illusion believes is behind you is actually with the people. The vast majority of the army, probably 99% of them, are your victims like ordinary Gambians. They have not committed any crime against Gambians but rather are patriotic citizens who have sworn to protect their country and the constitution (not Yaya Jammeh!) and they have done that all their lives. They are as clean as any of your other victims. In fact a far higher percentage of security forces became your victims than ordinary civilians. They therefore cannot wait to see a Gambia without Yaya Jammeh. A Gambia where they will work as professional soldiers in an army institution where they will not be forced to work on the “king’s” farm, tender to his goats, sheep, cows, crocodiles, chicken and work as security guards and sellers in the “King’s” multiple businesses. They want to live in a Gambia where The President will not pretend that he is doing a favor for them whenever they get their paycheck or they get a vehicle to do their national duty. They fully understand that they are employed by the Gambian taxpayers and it is these taxpayers that pay their salaries like all other government employees such as teachers and police! These soldiers (patriotic sons and daughters of The Gambia) want to live like their professional counterparts in other West African countries like Senegal, Ghana etc. where they are free from political interference and constant firing, execution and imprisonment. They are and they want to serve in a professional army institution! My brother president, remember the members of the security forces are Gambians who have their mothers, fathers, children, husbands, wives and other relatives who have nowhere else to call home but The Gambia. My brother president, what I am trying to sink into your head is simply that the majority of the army and police will not be with you beyond January 18th because they hate and despise you more than the general population. By the way you know most of them voted against you in this December 1st “most free and transparent election”! Even some of those who voted for you did it out of fear and uncertainty and must now be beating themselves for doing so.
My brother president, it is clear to us that you are not bluffing anymore. You have climbed to such a high height that you can no longer bring yourself down. Since you do not have any sincere friend or relative left around you, no one is going to give you any sensible advice to help you climb down. You do not realize that you have committed enough sins in killing and maiming Gambians over the past twenty-two years and you do not need to spill any more blood. Be rest assured we will not let you do it freely this time around. You know you are doomed and you want to take enough people with you when you perish. What a fool and evil person you are! These are the reasons that clearly show that you are not leaving voluntarily while knowing fully well that you are not going to survive:
• You are still denying the president-elect the official security he deserves. If you have any real intention of stepping down on January 18th, you would have provided him with official security knowing fully well that he will have to reciprocate the gesture for you on January 19th. Since you know you are doomed and you will be dead or under protective custody after January 18th, you will not bother to offer any goodwill.
• You are still using your old tricks, hiring and firing. We learnt that you have recently fired some Alkalolu (village chiefs) in Kombo who sensibly expressed their support for the president-elect. You are still applying your divide and rule strategy with less than three weeks to go.
• You are yet to start working with the incoming administration to help them have a smooth transition. You have just given your budget which is dead on arrival. I hope you will see how a real progressive budget looks like when president-elect submit his first budget.
• You have refused to negotiate or cooperate with Ecowas mediators so that they can give you a safe landing, you will surely have a rough landing of your life!
For my brothers and sisters in the army my advice to you is simple: stay the course. Yaya Jammeh is currently the Commander-in-Chief until January 18th and any refusal to carry out legitimate orders until then will be illegal. I know most of you cannot wait to see his back soon but we need a unified army just like we need a unified country as a whole. Come January 18th if Yaya Jammeh did not flee by then, refuse to take any order from him and take over your barracks and arrest all elements, including himself, who refuse to pledge their loyalty to the legitimate authority of then president Adama Barrow, if there is any left. This is what it means to swear to protect your country and constitution. Please do not flee your country and do not go into hiding. We need you to show him that he is just a human being made up of flesh blood and bones and the Gambia is what matters. Be rest assured that the people are with you as we are your brothers, sisters etc. We are the ones who voted him out because we have enough of him. If you need any help in neutralizing Yaya Jammeh and his lost souls, gallant Ecowas forces are across the border ready to help you in any way necessary. However, now against January 18th, let no member of the security force make a mistake of committing crime against innocent Gambians. If he asks you to kill, maim or illegally arrest anyone, refuse to carry out the illegal order. Yaya Jammeh is going down since he is on a self-destructive mission and he wants to take with him as many people as he can.
Finally consider this and make your own decision: There is no way we the Gambians and our Ecowas brothers will let Yaya Jammeh subvert our collective will. President-elect Adama will be our president on January 19th. Strategically, if we the Gambians and Ecowas have to enforce the decision we made on December 1st, there will be no escape route for Yaya Jammeh or any of his loyalists, if there is anyone left. The strength of Ecowas and Senegalese forces will be too much for Yaya Jammeh to handle for even one hour. The good news is you may even have other countries providing troops and equipment such as Chad and France. If you die, and you will surely perish, carrying out Yaya Jammeh’s arrogant and suicidal orders, what are you going to tell God? If you are lucky and survive, do you expect to have a future in the Gambia and for that matter anywhere else in the world? Please stand to be counted.
In conclusion, we want a smooth and peaceful transfer of power. We do not want violence. We do not want any foreign intervention. But if Yaya Jammeh challenges our collective will, we will meet him half-way through. We are ready to take whatever measures necessary to take control of our destiny. You the members of the security forces, especially the army can be decisive. This is an opportunity to do good for your country and be counted as your fellow soldiers did in Burkina Faso recently.
Sadibou J
Ends