Hon. Madi Ceesay’s story on Standard newspaper leaves the reader cringing with pains. Yes, the United Democractic Party Member for Serekunda West, must not forgive the former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh for obvious reasons. Whoever wants Hon. Ceesay to forgive the monster will have a change of mind after reading these few lines of the lawmaker.
“I, for one, will never forgive Jammeh. I have suffered a lot under his cruel system; I have gone to jail, had my newspaper shut down [arbitrarily] for six years and lost my son after he was detained in Mile 2 Central Prisons during the uprising to remove Jammeh. So, there is no way I can forgive Jammeh; not in this world and not in the hereafter. I want to see justice being served.”
Truth be told, there is no single community, family or ethnicity in the Gambia that has not tasted Yahya Jammeh’s wickedness. Even Jammeh’s own Jola ethnicity he pretended to have defended swallowed more of his (Jammeh’s) bitter pills than any other ethnic group in the country. Jammeh has left his bad fingerprint on any strata of Gambian life. Sometimes, it is hard to imagine that a single soul is capable of destroying the society. With the help of his enablers, especially the uniformed men, Yahya Jammeh was able to control everything Gambian to the extent that he claimed to have owned a country whose ansar (indigenous citizens) doubted his citizenship. Yahya was more than a naughty teenager. He had angered even the gods of our land. And like Pharoah of Egypt, he fell quickly when he invited Allah’s anger with his words that “a Mandinka will never rule this country.”
Hon. Ceesay, we deeply feel your pains because some of our Kairo News team members too are in pains resulting from Jammeh’s brutality. Your bravery to fight until the once mighty, proud dictator had fallen and run for his life will not be doubted. Who knows what the future holds for him? Did Jammeh know whether his fate would be left in the hands of the people he had arbitrarily arrested, detained, jailed in kangaroo courts and tortured? The likes of Uncle Ousainaou Darboe, Amadou Sanneh, Madi Ceesay and Fatoumata Jawara are now in charge of Jammeh’s affairs. What a complete turn of events! The hunter is now being hunted.
As we journey the road to justice, Gambians must be prepared to deal with any possible psychological effects of the horrific revelations at the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission. We hope and pray that the chaff will be extracted from the wind. To all the victims of Yahya Jammeh, we say masa.
Ends
I stand firmly with Hon. Mr. Ceesay on this.
Justice must take it’s course before forgiveness. Undeserved FORGIVENESS is no deterrence. We cannot and must not downplay the pain and the lost, victims of Jammeh are undergoing every single day. Some have the absolute right not to forgive jammeh. I won’t and I will never forget even though I didn’t lost an immediate family member like Hon. Madi Ceesay.
LEST WE FORGET!
My uncle Madi Ceesay is a real Jambar. You have had enough of Jammeh’s cruelty. I agree with you that the monster doesn’t deserve any forgiveness. May your son, my cousin Ebrima Janko Ceesay’s soul rest in peace.