West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS must ensure Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh steps down when his mandate ends in January because he lost an election, the bloc’s chairwoman, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, said on Saturday.
Her comments came at the start of an ECOWAS summit in the Nigerian capital aimed at deciding on action against Jammeh in the face of what regional leaders say is a challenge to its principles of democratic accountability.
Johnson Sirleaf did not spell out what measures the bloc would take but they could include sanctions, which could hurt Gambia because ECOWAS member Senegal is the country’s only neighbor.
“It’s now important that the authority at this summit considers measures to bring the matter to a successful conclusion before January 19 … when the mandate of the current President expires,” Johnson Sirleaf told the summit.
Jammeh’s 22 years in power have been marked by allegations of human rights abuses and repression against perceived political opponents. He lost a Dec. 1 election to little-known challenger Adama Barrow and is due to step down on Jan. 18.
Initially, he conceded defeat but a week ago he rejected the results and called for a fresh vote in a move that was widely condemned. His party is now challenging the result in Gambia’s Supreme Court.
Johnson Sirleaf’s remarks follow a mission to Gambia this week accompanied by the leaders of several West African countries including Nigeria and Ghana, whose President John Mahama lost a Dec. 7 election and said he would step down.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing and Paul Carsten; writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; editing by Jason Neely)
Culled from Reuters
Ends
Dictator Jammeh is one man against the world. An evil human being is always isolated and ostracized by decent people. This is number one rule that helps to make the human society free from catastrophic crimes . Thank God the whole world knows he is an evil soul who did not deserve to be a head of a household much more of a country but unfortunately our country has to go through historic tragedies before we arrived at current conclusion. God is always fair and just creator. He knows why we went through such horrific experiences as a country. Today the world is getting smaller for the Dictator who once claimed to own our country . I want to quote president jammeh’s famous quotation for his political opponents real or imaginary , that ” He wish he is not on the face of the earth ” as he always taunted. Even his gold digger wife abandoned him thanks to the prayers of good people and efforts of patriotic citizens across the world. Yaya jammeh is public enemy number one in Africa . As he feels his isolation and dismay at civilized world for abandoning his idiosyncratic belief, he failed to take personal evaluation of his 22 years of military dictatorship characterized by gross human rights violations and economic corruption against poor citizens of The Gambia. The questions Dictator jammeh should have asked himself since the beginning of his regime are three fundamental questions which every decent human being who cares about personal and professional growth in life should ask :
1. What should I keep doing to make positive difference in my own life and in the lives of other citizens.
2. What should I stop doing to prevent gross human rights violations , corruption and actions which are detrimental to myself and other citizens.
3. What should I start doing to help make genuine and positive differences in my own life and the lives of the citizenry.
These three basic questions were never asked and answered by Dictator Yaya jammeh because he failed to take personal responsibility for his actions and deeds in the past 22 years . Almost every one in his administration has faced some form of accountability from him through firing from employment or illegal incarceration except himself and his evil Vice President. As a commanding dictatorial leader who lack basic human instincts of empathy , humility , vision , integrity , foresight and whose characters also include self righteousness, arrogance, deception, hypocrisy and outright dishonesty, Jammeh became his own enemy as he felt the power of presidency during the course of 22 years of terror . As a leader who is not accountable to anyone in The Gambia, Yaya jammeh became the face of injustice, corruption, economic mismanagement and lawlessness. He has no regard to our constitution, rule of law and international norms and standard of protocols. Jammeh defied every single rule which preach about basic human decency and dignity.
As far as self entitlement is concerned, Yaya felt that he is entitled to rule the Gambia at all cost even when the vast majority of citizenry have repudiated and denounced his autocratic rule in recent concluded election. He continue to deny that the power belongs to the people. Jammeh’s hypocrisy was further exposed when annulled the election results he had previously indicated that ” it was the voice of the people and the will of God”. His false congratulatory phone call to president-elect Adama Barrow is an example of his deceptive character which he has used in 1994 to deceive unsuspecting population to believe that he genuinely came for institutional reforms and improving our democracy at the time. Yaya jammeh continue to display his usual trademark of arrogance and lack of respect for Gambian people even when four respected head of states from ECOWAS countries visited him officially to convince him to peacefully hand over power to people’s choice , President-elect Adama Barrow . Jammeh once again failed to remind himself about what he should stop doing and start doing to help Gambian people have peace and security in our motherland. I would like to remind Dictator Jammeh that for the supreme interest of our collective peace and security, he must stop disrespecting the will of Gambian people and start doing what the civilized world want to him to do , that is peaceful transition of power to president-elect Adama Barrow. Dictator Jammeh, being a leader is a privilege which comes with an exceptional responsibility to improve the lives of citizenry. Gambian people have determined that they do not want your leadership and it is time for you to unconditionally leave before a catastrophic event befall on you .