Sheriff Bojang Is Unethical, Irresponsible

Please allow me space in your paper to respond to the Information Minister Sheriff Bojang’s unethical and irresponsible response to the revelations by Hon Dembo Bojang, UDP [United Democratic Party] National President that President Yahya Jammeh’s Information Minister was a onetime member of the UDP and that he even used to attend the party’s in-house meetings. Hon Dembo Bojang said this at a UDP rally in Bakau.

The panicky Information Minister fearing for the wrath of his boss, the President Yahya Jammeh, started running from one media house to the other like a headless chicken to ensure that his response is published as a form of damage limitation exercise. But as it is, we already know that the so-called minister was defending himself to save his position. But this tactic was something that had gone bad. The so-called minister of information thought that by rudely ridiculing and disparaging the good name of Hon Dembo By-Force Bojang, he would have earned his already battered credibility in the eyes of President Jammeh.

But hey! Let us inform this little messy and misinformed Minister of Information that President Jammeh is now fully graduated from that diehard school of pretense where people in borrowed robes come to him telling him lies just because they want to maintain their positions in his government when they are not genuinely supporting him. The little messy and misinformed Minister of Information, Sheriff Bojang overtly belong to that group of people even though his is a tall-order with a burden only him could free himself from.

The way minister Bojang responded to Dembo By-Force is so unprofessional and so unethical that he is showing the level of home training he has. As if he needs any reminder that Hon Dembo Bojang is his blood uncle, the response of the little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information to the remarks by Hon Dembo Bojang showed a clear manifestation of his lack of proper home training who needs to be retrained on how to talk to elders.

If not for democracy and rule of law which the government of our little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information never respect anyway, the Bojang clan would have taken Sheriff Bojang back to the forest for re-education through a series of initiations too long to list in this write-up.

That notwithstanding, we want to remind that little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information that his desire to line his pocket with The Gambia’s loot should not push him to the point of irreparable self-destruction to the point that he could publicly insult those of his clan elders who surely would be the ones to stand by and for him when he is disowned by those using and misusing him today.

If minister Bojang wants people to believe that he has never supported the UDP then how comes when the UDP boycotted the last parliamentary election he and other people sponsored the independent candidate that contested against the APRC candidate in Bakau. If minister Bojang is asking for proofs of evidence for Dembo to show he should first cast his mind back to his own journalistic ethics of protecting their source of information and that is exactly why Dembo will not disclose his dealings with him.

Although I don’t personally know of Minister Bojang’s links with the UDP Bakau committee, I however know that all over Africa, people supporting opposition parties are always more than anything else doing so anonymously. But I will not be surprise of his previous support to the UDP since The Gambia is on the top list of countries whose governments are not tolerant to people supporting or financing the opposition parties.

Dembo By-Force is an honourable man who has been contesting elections in Bakau for 26 years…..five times under the deposed PPP regime and once under this disastrous APRC regime without defeat, therefore he will not stand in a political platform to say anything he has no knowledge of. It is the little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information Sheriff Bojang’s right to defend himself and protect his ministerial post under Jammeh, but I expect him to do that with maturity rather than uttering sulky words.

What has the little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information Sheriff Bojang stand to gain by going rude and dirty on Hon Demob By-Force Bojang…..someone who is old enough to be his dad? Furthermore if the little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information Sheriff Bojang was that renowned APRC supporter as he wants Jammeh to believe him, how come his standard newspaper was unceremoniously closed.

If the little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information Sheriff Bojang is not an opportunist who is only interested in greasing his pocket, when he was appointed Minister of Information, he would have put up a case for the government to open the Daily News Newspaper which was also unjustly closed alongside his Standard Newspaper. But now the little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information is only busy protecting his job as demonstrated by his silence and indifference in that matter is clear manifestation of his self-centeredness.

The likes of this self-centred minister Bojang are the type of people who will stand against President Jammeh when we defeat his infamous regime come 2016 presidential election, which Gambians are ready to do because of the deteriorating economic conditions his regime brought on Gambians.

On the question of what Dembo Bojang did for Bakau during his tenure as a member of parliament, this so-called minister Bojang should go back to the history of Bakau before going into empty criticism because in doing that he is forcing us to go back to history showing the undemocratic nature of the APRC regime. I want this little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information minister to know that it was during Dembo’s tenure in office as MP of Bakau that the artisanal fisheries development project was brought in Bakau, the drainage system in streets of Bakau, the street lights, five major roads were built by Kerr Development Project, the Bakau women garden was established, the independent stadium was also built in Bakau. Tourism was also developed in Bakau during By-Force’s time. All these projects were debated in parliament. I want him to tell me which constituency is more developed than Bakau in this country, (even his home town of Brikama)?

On Sheriff Bojang’s assertion that Dembo is suffering from intellectual rigor mortis again shows his misplaced and myopic fantasies of his self-importance. But alas, this little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information should not be blamed….in fact we pity him. Every word coming from him shows is edgy and uncomfortable self to the point that he is hitting himself on the wall of unredeemed destruction. We can only continue to wish him well in his ill-fated ministerial position. But one advise though to the little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information: when you crack your skull on your journey of self-destruction, please know that we are still around and we will be ready to rescue you and bring you back once again under our fold. But don’t tell me that you’re not warned.

Before I go, I want to remind the little, messy and misinformed Minister of Information Sheriff Bojang to tell me what has changed in March 2005 when he wrote the following poem and now:

“the poem;

canny lie it was all peace in our little pride until the day that strange cub came

where we were silver plain

he was dotted and where our name flow,

he was bald even when we gave him a tiara of dried leaves

His strangeness shone with more egrigity

But we accepted him for his verve although we do not know the strange cub he was a rococo vassal.

When the king growls he tumbles.

He delights in relishing the king’s mane.

If this means anything to him.”

Written by

Ebrima Sandeng

Secretary General

Youth Wing of the United Democratic Party

Ends