You Are A Spin Doctor!

By Ebou Gaye

You are a spin doctor!
You have rubbished the recent HRW (Human Rights Watch) report on our beloved country,
In your attempt to defend your master,
Exposing your mercilessness, pitilessness and insensitivity to the ordeals and sufferings of your compatriots in the process
You have judged the report incredible and unfair,
Based on its summary,
Accusing HRW of over-generalization,
Arguing that they have failed to cite the names of the torture victims who the report says had been forced to drink hot oil and burnt with hot plastic liquid
Even though the report has not made mention of names in this regard, that is not enough reason to rubbish it in its entirety,
Or deny the prevalence of human rights violations in our country
The report is accompanied by a video,
Featuring torture victims narrating their pitiful, pathetic ordeals
Are you telling us that those people are narrating cock and bull stories?
Isn’t it mockery to suggest that the victims are telling fairy-tales?
Can you deny that some of them had been detained incommunicado for too long without trial, which constitutes human rights violation?
Does it make sense to deny that they had been tortured, despite the fact that some of them have signs of torture on their bodies?

You are a spin doctor!
It is an irrefutable fact that many people have been killed mysteriously during your master’s reign,
And many have disappeared without trace as indicated in the report,
With the cases remaining unresolved,
Despite the fact that he is good at uncovering coup plots and punishing the culprits
He always flies into a rage when crimes against his compatriots are mentioned by human rights defenders,
As evident in the case of the murdered journalist,
In which he has told those who want to know the killers to go to his grave and ask him who killed him,
Provoking his colleagues who reacted befittingly,
By telling him that they expected him to mounting a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of the matter,
In order to shed light on it and punish the perpetrators accordingly,
Rather than treating the deceased with disrespect and increasing the agony of his family members and loved ones
That reaction infuriated your master,
And prompted him to send the journalists to jail
This lends credence to the allegation that your master has something to hide in the case,
And hence unwilling to track down and punish the perpetrators of that heinous crime
Your master’s reluctance to take necessary action in the crimes mentioned in the HRW report clearly demonstrates that he lacks interest in protecting his compatriots as he has sworn,
And strongly suggests that he is complicit in all the crimes
Can you exculpate or exonerate him with this behaviour?

You are a spin doctor!
You have tried to defame and discredit your master’s predecessor,
Portraying him as man of inconsistencies,
Accusing him of playing double standards,
Trivializing and downgrading his achievements in terms of development,
Highlighting and over-exaggerating those of your master,
Ignoring the innumerable shortcomings of your master
This has jogged my memory to the numerous inconsistencies of your master and your own inconsistencies
Your mater advanced the argument that his predecessor overstayed in power and presided over a government whose members were only interested in enriching themselves and leading a flamboyant lifestyle,
As a way of justifying his coup,
Saying that even ten years in power is too long a time,
Promising that no one would be allowed to overstay in power again,
Claiming that he and his comrades didn’t seize power to enrich themselves,
But to bring sanity by righting wrongs
However, you master has now manifested dogged-determination to cling onto power at all cost
He has openly vowed to overstay his welcome,
Saying that neither election nor coup d’état can remove him from power,
Cracking down on the opposition,
Changing the electoral laws to disadvantage them and facilitate victory for himself,
Modifying the constitution to equip himself with sweeping powers,
Which he uses as a weapon of suppression and repression,
Flatly rejecting the idea of presidential term limit
To add insult to injury, your master amassed wealth in the twinkle of an eye,
And started living an ostentatious lifestyle,
Spending lavishly,
Leading people to believe that he is richer than the state,
And unscrupulously declared that he is so rich that his great grandchildren will never experience poverty
You wrote a book and a number of articles critical of your master after he gave you the sack and jailed you,
Lambasting, lampooning, caricaturing and ridiculing him,
Projecting him as a half-baked person who is under the influence of inferiority complex,
Trying to mystify, glorify and aggrandize himself by portraying himself as man with supernatural powers and vast knowledge in everything
But you later turned around and told the whole world that you have regretted what you had written against your master,
Saying that you were driven by emotions and anger,
Implying that your writings are full of canards and false allegations,
And started heaping praises on him,
With the aim of reconciling with him
You now serve as his spin doctor, propagandist and image-maker,
Criticizing his opponents day in day out,
Labelling them as unpatriotic citizens who do not wish their country well
In spite of your fervent, over-zealous support for your master, he has denounced and shamed you on national TV,
By qualifying your book as a pack of lies,
Aptly describing you as a compulsive continental liar,
Deriding and scorning you,
Branding you an ungrateful person,
Claiming that he is the one who made you by elevating you to a very high position in your army,
Asserting that you were not qualified enough to head even a small unit of the army
Hence, you and your master are not morally justified in accusing people of playing double standards
You are a clone of your master- a carbon copy of him
You play quadruple standards in your acts and utterance as your master does,
And never practise the good things you preach
You try to fool us into believing that your master is indispensable and should thus be allowed to stay on as a life president,
Using his development projects to back your arguments,
Claiming that his predecessor failed to bring development for his compatriots,
I would like to remind you that your master does not use his own money to bring us development
His projects are financed by taxpayers and donors,
And that development is meaningless where people’s rights are blatantly and grossly violated,
As human resources are more important than material resources,
In fact human beings make materials, and not the other way round
Therefore, a leader who respects people’s rights and brings limited development is better than one who uses people’s own financial resources to bring them development and violates their rights by brutalizing them
Does development mean anything to an agonized, enslaved or dead person?

You are a spin doctor!
I understand that you are trying to use a tribal card to please your master,
And denigrate his opponents, rivals and perceived enemies,
For the purpose of dividing them,
With the ultimate goal of helping him to consolidate power and perpetuate himself in power,
And ingratiating yourself with him or gaining his favours
You have highlighted and extolled the virtues of the tribe of your master which I would not dispute,
Claiming that they were regarded with contempt during the reign of his predecessor,
Contending that people find it difficult to accept your master as a leader due to this contempt towards his tribe,
And pinpointed the vices of other tribes but failed to say anything positive about them,
As though they don’t have anything good
My response is that all our tribes exhibit virtues and vices,
And that not all those criticizing your master or vying to replace him as a leader are contemptuous of him by virtue of his tribe as you claim
You have denounced members of the previous regime,
Accusing them of tribalism and nepotism,
But have fallen short of condemning the tribal remarks made customarily by your master,
And his conspicuous nepotistic tendencies
You are neither fair nor sincere in your analysis
You are swimming in dangerous waters
Do you think you can convince sensible people with your preposterous, lame arguments?

You are a spin doctor!
You have lamented that the HRW and your master’s opponents criticize your master based on his stance regarding homosexuality while sparing the Senegalese president,
Despite the fact that gays have been prosecuted and handed heavy sentences in Senegal
I would say in response that your master is the victim of his own utterances and rash acts,
He makes too much noise on the issue,
As if homosexuality has the potential to fell the sky on us,
And publicly threatens to behead gays and lesbians,
Besides persecuting and prosecuting them,
Whereas the Senegalese president never issues death threats against them,
In spite of the fact that he doesn’t subscript to homosexuality,
But allows the law to take its course on the issue
This is substantiated by the fact that he diplomatically turned down the plea made by the US president for him to legalize homosexuality,
During his visit to Senegal
He conveyed his message eloquently without hurting the feelings of his guest and LGBT right activists,
Telling him politely that homosexuality is against Senegalese religion and culture
This is what is expected of a charismatic leader,
Not tirades that antagonize and alienate allies,
Used to impress listeners or portray oneself as a brave or courageous leader
Who is to blame, your master of HRW?

You are a spin doctor!
You usually compare the US with your country of origin in terms of human rights violation,
Trying to give the impression that the latter is better than the former,
Despite the fact that you fled and sought asylum in the US with your family,
After you were released from prison in your country of origin,
Where you were incarcerated by your master,
And later naturalized as US citizens
What an irony!
Why did you flee to the US if their human rights record is worse than that of your country of origin?
Why didn’t you stay in your county or choose another destination after your release from Mile II Prison which your master mockingly calls his Five Star hotel?
Were you oblivious to the “poor” human rights record of the US at the time?
Now that you have realized that the US doesn’t respect human rights, would you renounce your US citizenship and that of your family members and send them back home to enjoy their rights better?
Can you ask your master the rationale or logic behind purchasing an expensive mansion and sending his daughter to study in a country where human rights violation is the order of the day as you imply in your writings?
Will you advise your master to sell his multimillion dollar house in the US and withdraw his daughter from the expensive US boarding school she is attending and enrol her at a Gambian school to ensure that her rights are not violated?

You are a spin doctor!
Your reconciliation with your master can be described as a marriage of convenience,
Because he needs you as a spin doctor and you need him as an employer
But I bet your task as a spin doctor for him is the most daunting, arduous and laborious one,
And that you shouldn’t feel secure in your job as a diplomat,
Given the erratic, mercurial behaviour of your master
You cannot polish the battered image of your master,
As the damage is irreparable,
And he continuously aggravates the irremediable situation
Your task can be likened to trying to keep clean somebody who habitually wallows in mud,
And your job an iron ball resting on a spider’s web
You must be living in a fool’s paradise if you think otherwise!
You do really believe that you will live up to expectations in your role as a spin doctor and remain in the good books of your master to be able to maintain your job as a diplomat?
Time will tell!

Ends