By Siray Touray
Since the failed 30 December coup attempt, the Gambian dictator has been pretending to be under siege from his imaginary enemies. He concocted and cooked up a grand plan to deceive the diplomatic community into believing that some western powers have their hands in the foiled coup.
President Yahya Jammeh’s sinister plans will be unravelled pretty soon, for he cannot change direction and style. We have seen the African Union sending him a message of support and that the Chairman of the regional economic bloc Ghanaian President wheeling in and out of Banjul reassuring Jammeh of ECOWAS’ support and solidarity. Mr. Jammeh thinks his never-ending act of shedding crocodile tears is working well for him.
But I want the diplomatic community to pause for a moment and analyse the Jammeh administration’s 20 years of unacceptable human rights record. During the period, Gambians have been and continue to be strangled. These depressed and oppressed Gambians are of the view that their brutal dictator does not deserve the slightest of public sympathy or expression of support. A maniac never changes and the Gambian leader will never change. His Idol [the late Col. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya] never changed until death struck him.
The false narrative that the Gambian government is putting out to deceive the home opinion is a dangerous game the diplomats should not subject Gambians to. After all, the foiled 30 December coup directly contributed to the arrest and detention of over 27 people, among them minors.
Equally disturbing is a publication of a secret court martialing of 7 coup suspects by Kairo News. The evidences gathered from soldiers and civilians arrested for links to the coup will be obtained through force and probable torture. Such acts are forbidden under the United Nations conventions and democratic norms.
The secrecy that clouded the arrest of innocent Gambians and the trauma people are going through is enough evidence for the world to diplomatically abandon the Gambian regime.
As Gambians, we call on the UN Commission on Human Rights, the EU, the AU, and Ecowas to stop massaging the brutal ego of President Yahya Jammeh. He is a dictator and tyrant, period. Any diplomatic overtures will be twisted to deceive Gambians. No more crocodile tears for a worst African leader.
Ends
Brilliant piece . It is heartwarming to see such an intelligent young woman to showcase our dire problem , that is Jammeh’s brutality and dictatorship.
The false narratives you highlighted has been going on since day one when jammeh took power . These includes the lies he promised us such as transparency, accountability, presidential terms limits , equal opportunity for all and free and independent media , many other countless lies and unfulfilled promises in the past 20 years .
Great stuff from a young a skull. I a m certain of a brighter future for our country. If we can’t pull our country from the rocks, the likes of Siray can put smile on our face.
May you live longer. We are proud of you.
This young lady’s pronouncements here & those of others’ amongst the collective efforts of genuine Gambians globally, & on the ground back home is the beacon of hope that Gambians are determined to reclaim our suffering motherland from the poison & disease infested jaws of the murderous kanilai devil worshipping bandit, until successful…. With the current tempo of our collective efforts, there’s only one direction & destination down to the bitter end… It’s a fight of GOOD against EVIL…. As always as in the dictates of life, the genuine masses WILL end up emerging victorious… God help Gambia & bless our noble struggle to reclaim our motherland from the disease infested jaws of murderous kanilai Satan Tony DAAKUN FATABA; Ameen.
Good piece…President Mahama is already in trouble with Ghanain opposition in parliament, for not pursuing the case of their murdered nationals with dictator Jammeh…They are not happy with his speech in Banjul and want an explanation about his position on their butchered countrymen…His visit to Banjul.might come back to.haunt him.
I would echo loudly the sentiments expressed.
Here is the new face of Gambia’s future, complete with a name to remember…and a note of optimism with pride for the her fresh and effervesent approach.
Bravo young lady….. Bravo indeed !!!
Hope springs eternal this St Valantines day. She has tipped the “scales” to brighten our day !
This is an awesome piece of work madam Siray.You definitely hit the nail on the head.Jammeh’s hand is dirty with the blood of the innocents yet he smartly plays the victim, and it is working because of the few reasons like what she pointed out. I said the innocence, because it is not only the Gambian peoples that this prattler killed, but also west Africans most notably the 44 Ghanians.To my good friend Max, this to me is where we apply political dynamism. In order for the Ghanian authorities not to take him action, jammeh rushed to marry a Ghanaian.This is based on pure politics. The Ghanian authorities still pretending that nothing has happened to their citizens.This is political hypocrisy at its best.Both parties are protecting their own interest. The current sitting ECOWAS president who is also the president of Ghana has a conflict of interest in the ,44, Ghanaians killed by Jammeh, so therefore he will not do anything about his fellow country men whose only crime was to go fishing beyond their boundaries. WHO EVEN SAID AFRICA IS DIVIDED?We know of no boundaries before a group of few whitemen converged in Berlin in the early nineteen centuries to decide the fate of Africa, and what hurts most is that they did this without the knowledge of our forefathers.They never consult the peoples like what jammeh did.They divided and conquered Africa us with guns, they ruled brutally and they stole all our resources, should I also mention them taking the best and the strongest to work in the Americas as slaves. Africa has seen the use of the barrel of the gun from the on set..Jammeh too is a by-product of this.When you look at all what Jammeh is doing currently is just an exact replica of the colonial era.( 1).Make a decisions without consulting the people, (2)Divide and rule, (3) steal from the masses, (4) kidnap men and women to work on his farm as slaves,, (5) kills men and women. let both the animals of the sea and the land feed on their bodies., finally they will play the victim as Madam Siray said earlier.This is a déjà vu for the white man so they will do nothing about it at least for now.The AU has no vision for Africa because the leaders are the presidents and these are the very peoples we are trying to uproot like they did to the whitemen .They will therefore take sides with jammeh like ECOWAS.Now the EU, the EU too is playing a double standard like the Senegalese authorities, because they feared that when war breaks out in the Gambia, they are the ones who will deal with the influx of refugees.We all know what that means financially, socially, culturally and morally for them.What both the EU and the Senegalese authorities failed to understand is that MORE Gambians enters into their teritorries as refugees everyday.Whether they will consider their plights and grant them the status is anybody’s guess.Jammeh MUST go in order to stop this refugee movements otherwise we will keep coming.The Gambia is very delicate when it comes to her territories, the UN, the EU, the AU and ECOWAS all knew this, and both Jammeh and the Senegalese authorities knew this as well as the cassamance rebels.They will keep massaging his egoes because they created him together with some elements in the Gambian community.I got news for all of them..The Gambian peoples are bigger than one person. WE WANT OUR FREEDOM BACK..
Kemo , it is quite interesting to see you blaming colonialism , slavery , AU And EU for our current predicament . This problem is squarely Gambians made and its our national duty to solve it without depending entirely on others . I want to remind you that , let’s us stop blaming the past for current problem . This is because most countries had similar colonial experience but today they are developed countries . Every Gambian should take personal responsibility to ensure that this madness is eradicated and completely stop.
Let me also remind you that slavery started in Africa before transatlantic Slave trade and even currently there is some form of slavery and discrimination against each other in many parts of Africa. If you go to some villages in the gambia and you want to marry their daughter , you will hear and see their discriminatory statement about either you or the girl family being from slave background . So the blaming our past won’t solve the present problem. We need to learn from the past and come up with strategies to prevent and solve our problem .
AU is a worthless organization which play no significant role in advancement of Africa . Look at the current chair , Bob Mugabe who has no new ideas but he is despotic and brutal dictator like Jammeh . Their main concern is about protecting their so called job by all means . So again , forget about them and let’s us focus on our problem. I believe gambians are the only one who should solve this problem. It is our made and we have to undo it .
@,Max Point taken.I have nothing to add.We must move on and focus on the problem.
Exactly kemo . In fact if we take right steps jammeh will be out . Jammeh is near complete isolation, diplomatic community will continue to speak their language no matter what happen in the gambia .
I always believe that opportunity presented itself in 2011 when ECOWAS declared that the election was not going to be free and fair , therefore they refused to send election observers. Due to weak leadership of opposition parties , and their lack of clear understanding of international politics ,Jammeh came out with huge victory .
They should have all mobilize their supporters and call for massive demonstration to express their outrage on the conduct of the election . During demonstration ,the idiotic leader will call his security forces who will unleash their terror on civilians in worst case scenario , then international community including big brother Nigeria , Britain and USA will call for Jammeh to step down or call for government of national unity . This is the best strategy to end his rule. Yes few people will die as a result but Jammeh will be out at the end of day . This was scenario when wade wanted to extend his welcome in senegal . There was huge demonstration and few people died . Jammeh is just a bully , he is like a big boy in the village who when you get to know him and test him , you will find out he is the biggest coward . Jammeh has never been tested until recently . Our opposition parties never test Jammeh because they are too legal-minded and too weak to even speak bad about him .