For the past seven months or so, Dida Halake have used his position as managing director of the Daily Observer to lambaste opponents and critics of the brutal Jammeh regime, whom he described as enemies of progressive Gambia.
For Mr. Halake, there is nothing like dictatorship in the Gambia. He wanted everyone who reads the Daily Observer to believe that the Jammeh regime is respecting all democratic principles and the rule of law. He wanted everyone to believe that the Jammeh regime have the interest of Gambians at heart. He wanted everyone to bend their knees for Jammeh and that all the hundreds if not thousands of Gambians and non-Gambians being arbitrarily arrested, tortured and detained for weeks, months and years or even killed by security officers acting under the direct command of Jammeh are only trying to tarnish the name of peaceful Gambia.
For him, the torrid tales of torture, harassment, and murder being published in the private media are nothing but mere fabrications and lies.
But on June 13, he woke up in a filthy police cell, denied access to a lawyer and held for a week. He was treated like a common criminal and presumed guilty until he proves himself innocent of a crime. He was regarded as a criminal by the very people he spent many sleepless nights fighting for. The very people who made him abandon his high pay job and comfortable life in Leeds, UK to run a failed newspaper business; a newspaper that serves as a voice for only the oppressor instead of the oppressed.
Now that he have provided decent meals for the mosquitoes at Kotu Police Station, Dida must be wondering where the hell thing have gone wrong with his master. Yes, his master at State House, whom he has over the past few months done everything to please.
As a well-read friend of mine, who often reads to me quotes from Machiavelli, Dida Halake must be really disappointed with himself. He allowed himself to be used and dumped in a very childish manner. He was used to rebuild the image of a confused and blood thirsty dictator in the person of Yahya Jammeh, who thinks power is everything. A dictator who thinks he owns the country. And now that he is dumped in a disgraceful manner, even the usual sympathetic Gambian public seems to rejoicing.
The way Dida Halake behaved and his removal from the Observer will be forgotten by most of us not before too long, but it will have an enormous impact on his life and his future. But if anything positive can be said of his short stint as managing director and he being turned into some sort of national hate figure, maybe it will be that he takes a long, hard look at himself. Then he thinks seriously about the type of kiss-arse journalism he was practicing.
Over the past months, I have tried telling Dida that brutal dictators like Jammeh are not worthy being served but he wouldn't listen. His ego got the better of him and he thought being appointed managing director of the Observer was the best thing that ever happened to him. He though it would get him closer to the most powerful man in the Gambia, and perhaps land him some favours. Taking advantage of the fact that Jammeh is not the most intelligent president, who only wants to hear ear-pleasing things, he quickly transformed himself into a griot and used the Observer as his instrument to wax lyrics of praises to the blood thirsty dictator. But as typical of Jammeh, he easily get bore of people who compromise their principles to work for him. He is what the Wollofs say Bur du nboka.
I feel sorry for Dida, even though I know he doesn’t need me to sympathise with him. All the sacrifices he made were not appreciated. It was thrown at his face. Oh! How can I forget? That is typical of the Observer management. It never appreciates all the sacrifices its employers make in their day-to-day job. That's what they did to Sheriff Bojang snr. When he took over as MD, the Observer had hit the bottom rungs; no good machines, one broken down vehicle, millions of Dalasis in debts, incredibly low sales, very low morale, the production department was hijacked by a bunch of Senegalese printers and lithographers. Within a period of two years, he was able to rebuild a dynamic team and turned around the company. He acquired new machines, replaced the Senegalese with young Gambians in their twenties, launched a new website, bought vehicles for management and staff, paid some debts, restructured the rest and started investing in treasury bills. Under his leadership, the Observer beat the competition hands down and doubled the circulation as opposed to before when even with their low numbers they have hundreds of unsold returns each day. And significantly also, gave everyone a voice.
But all these were not appreciated by Neneh MacDoul, current managing director, who was then the chairperson of the company. He was sacked without even being told the reason why.
And ever since, the Observer is yet to recover from the Sheriff Bojang curse. In the spate of four years, the management of the Observer have hired and fired three managing directors. Momodou Sanyang, Saja Taal and Dida Halake were all removed without being told the reason why.
What happened to these men should be lesson to anyone who is lobbying to be the next Observer managing director. The post is political and insecure. You can be hired today and be fired tomorrow. So the choice is yours.
