President Adama Barrow is not only right to reverse any controversial or selfish decisions of his predecessor but he has also succeeded in shaming Yahya Jammeh, the man who unilaterally withdrew the Gambia from the Commonwealth of Nations. The admission of the Gambia into the Commonwealth, an organisation of mostly former British colonies, is meant to rehabilitate the country’s image abroad. As a smaller member of the Commonwealth, the Gambia had benefitted a lot from the organisation. Without going through Parliament, former President Yahya Jammeh who is allergic to criticisms of his government’s rotten human rights credentials, in October 2013 withdrew the Gambia from the Commonwealth without going through the Parliament.
In a statement, the Jammeh regime explained: “the government has withdrawn its membership of the British Commonwealth and decided that the Gambia will never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism.”
British Foreign Office joined majority of Gambians in regretting Jammeh’s unilateral decision, which followed barrage of condemnations of the illegal execution of nine death row inmates in September 2012. United Kingdom too condemned the executions.
Elections everywhere have consequences, the Gambia’s December 2016 being no exception. The election of President Adama Barrow had put back smiles on the streets, restored dignity and ended Yahya Jammeh’s artificial international isolation. Everyone certainly knew the Gambia would break its International isolation, re-admit into the Commonwealth and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. These dreams have been realised.
After fiver years of absence, the Gambia’s flag is once again hoisting at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. The Gambia, the fourth country to rejoin the 53 member organisation, had its re-admit ancestors application unanimously accepted. In a statement, British Foreign Ministry acknowledged the West African nation’s re-admittance. “The Gambia is ready to regain its former glory on the international stage and reiterates its commitment to the fundamental values of the Commonwealth Charter. It is the fervent desire of this government that our membership to the Commonwealth will usher in an era of socio-economic development,” the Foreign Ministry statement added.
Gambian diplomats in London, including it’s representative Francis Blain, witnessed setting the seal on the Gambia’s return in Marlborough House. “The government and people of Gambia are ecstatic and overjoyed,” High Commissioner Blain said as he hoisted the Gambia flag.
He said the Barrow government has fully restored “democracy, good governance, rule of law, respect for human rights and the independence of the judiciary. Every effort will be made by the government to ensure that functioning of democratic processes in Gambia are scrupulously maintained.”
Ends
Can you please give us details of the benefits we accrued from the Comonwealth since we became members after independence in 1965? Don’t drag us into anything without facts and figures.
Hey Babu Soli, I will provide you with one example which I think will satisfy your denial about Commonwealth benefits. The Gambia has benefited from Commonwealth in the form of sponsorship to educate Gambians in the field of law or judiciary. There are others benefits which I am not going into details because everyone including the expelled or stateless leader of APRC is aware of them. By the way, how is your murderous leader who is running out fund? For your information, we will capture him soon so that he faces justice. His days in Equatorial Guinea are numbered.
Mr idiot Soli, do you know how many people got papers because of Commonwealth in U.K..
Babou: The Gambia as a Commonwealth member has got the following privileges:
1. Gambians were able to join the British Army and later become British Citizens
2. Gambians could travel to many if not all of the Commonwealth countries without paying for visas upon entry
3. Gambia benefitted from the services of Judges under the CFTC program
4. Gambians benefitted from scholarships to study abroad.
These the ones I can provide without hesitation. I would appreciate if you can tell me the negative side Gambians suffered by joining the Commonwealth and please prove your points with facts. Thanks
Yusupha,
I’m busy at work. I’ll respond to Max but not to you. Those who insult other people’s parents are equally insulting their own parents. There you are!
Are you still busy at work?Empty barrel babu soli.
Max,
I quickly shrugged off at your lopsided information as thus:” there are other benefits which I am not going into details because everyone including the expelled or stateless leader of APRC is aware of them”. Who are you fooling with such unfounded, haphazard and lopsided information?
You clearly know that you have no information on Commonwealth benefits to its members much more the Gambia and you’re just trying to cook up unfounded stories.
This is what the imperialist power has lobbied for. To get some of our neo-colonialist conformists like you, Max, to condone their heinous past. The Commonwealth is the offshoot of the British Empire. After years of very bad colonial rule and subjugation, the British didn’t leave the most minute benefit for their colonized territories when they were flushed out at the advent of political independence. To show off their horrendous performance in those countries, they forged an alliance of nations (The British Commonwealth, later re-birthed The Commonwealth) with our puppet independence leaders.
Our leaders were made to believe that the emergence of that union would ameliorate their decadent social and economic situations left behind by the imperialists only to be fooled into paying heavy country financial quotas into an “association” they christened, the Commonwealth. A better part of that money is well depleted into maintaining the high costs of bureaucracy and white-paper jobs within the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Gambia is losing here.
Securing British papers, enlisting into their military force are rudimentary, individualistic, simplistic and devoid of any collective national interest. Have those rudimentary individual benefits been maintained without strict British control for their national interest? NEVER. From all indications, the British NEVER give in to outside interests that do not tally with their national interest. In spite of coming from a Commonwealth member state!
I thought you would have mentioned that Commonwealth funding hauled and built our trunk roads, brought in rural electrification and water sanitation, hospitals, schools and universities…….. But the mentioning of scholarships, enlisting in the British army, reading law, is ludicrous and shameful.
What is a stateless person? Can you redefine it? President Jammeh, our hero will live his life under the will of Allah. Not as Max, wishfully thinks. How many days are left for President Jammeh, Max, the demi-god?