By Ousainou Mbenga
I hope this message finds you in the highest spirit of readiness to be on the side of the Gambian masses as the tyrannical Jammeh regime is on the brink about to sink to the bottom of his filth and waste. Furthermore, I hope the message also finds you in the highest spirit of readiness to resist Jammeh’s intentions to run for his fifth term as president. Hell no! No 5th term of tyranny!
Who and what is a soldier? The late Pa Dacosta’s definition of a soldier in Wollof says it best: “sollu darr”, dressed in uniform of dignity and pride. In other words, the uniform should be worn with dignity, integrity and pride at the service and protection of the nation and its people but not to be a sign of terror and brutality.
The Jammeh regime undressed the entire army out of their uniforms of integrity, dignity and pride and dressed them into “uniforms of brutality”. This action didn’t go unchallenged. Many of you resisted his barbaric behavior resulting to death, disappearance without a trace, imprisonment, forced exile and illegal dismissal ending in unemployment. In fact, you the soldiers, “secret service” and police caught the brunt of Jammeh’s monstrous behavior. You make up the highest number of victims in Jammeh’s dragnet of terror.
Twenty one years is too damn long to have put up with the barbaric AFPRC-APRC regime and I am confident that you of all victims have learned valuable lessons from this nightmare. Both of us; civilians, soldiers, “secret service” and police should have any more excuses to let the rotten Jammeh regime and his henchmen survive this catastrophe.
This message is a continuation of the cultivation of the proud –future Gambia in which you will have an important role to play. But this new Gambia requires a revolutionary leadership with foresight, insight and hindsight. Never again will a monster the like of Yaya Jammeh raise its ugly head in our midst.
There is no such thing as, “I have no choice(s)”, we all have choices, some of us make the wrong choices but one must be courageous enough to admit to making a wrong choice and take a new direction towards the right choice (s), notwithstanding the consequences.
A new period is dawning on our beloved Gambia in particular and Africa in general; a period that will require politically conscious soldiers, police and other supportive forces at the service of our nation. Therefore, you must discard the dross (waste and filth) Jammeh heaped on your heads then turned your hearts into concrete. You must redeem yourselves to the Gambian people with utmost sincerity. All our forces in defense of our national security will be elevated to a respectable level, unprecedented in the history of our new nation.
We need a revolutionary leadership, not a leadership of “head hunters”. In the proud – future Gambia, all our armed forces must be exposed to political education to assure the defense of our national interest and the people as oppose to ethnic loyalties.
We must unmask the “secrecy in service” as practiced by the notorious gangs of thugs such as the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the despicable “junglers”. No amount of guns, tanks and missiles can stop our march to freedom and liberation. The power of the people is unstoppable.
TURN THE GUNS AROUND! IT’S ALL OF US AGAINST JAMMEH! JAMMEH MUST GO!
Ends