God save our Gambia

by PK Jarju

Last evening, I got the opportunity to again watch Sorious Samura's internationally acclaimed documentary on the dirty Sierra Leonean war, Cry Freetown .

Disturbing images of mutilated dead bodies, missing hands and feet, burnt down buildings and vechiles, cries of rape victims, torture victims, tears of orphaned children, parents without children among others hunted me all night and after putting my children to bed, I tip-toed quietly down stairs and performed a silent prayer for the Gambia.



I prayed not for Almighty Allah to bless our little country with mountains of gold and silver, but to save it from sliding into a violent conflict situation like Sierra Leone .



I prayed for the Gambia because I am deeply worried about what the future holds for our dear motherland.



The country under Yahya Jammeh is following the footpath of countries like Sierra Leone , Guinea and Liberia . Despotism, irresponsible governance, violations of people’s rights and freedoms, lack of respect for the rule of law among others were some of the key reasons for the outbreak of the brutal civil wars we all witnessed in these countries and elsewhere in Africa and our country's leadership is doing exactly the same things.



For over a decade now, the Gambian people are being held hostage by a brutal dictator who is governing the country like his personal estate to deal with as he pleases. In his desire to remain president for life, Jammeh have given himself unlimited powers, which he don't know how to use and is pushing the Gambian people to the wall.



Blinded and absolutely corrupted by his powers, Jammeh thinks he as president, has the right without any basis in Gambian law to label anyone a criminal, saboteur or detractor and then lock him up in Mile Two Prisons and throw the keys into the River Gambia.



Like many African dictators, Jammeh is using his security officers to do his dirty work. He believes so much in the might of his officers and is giving them the blessing to commit serious human rights abuses against the citizenry to ensure his continuous stay in power.



Believing in the military strength of his armed forces, Jammeh thinks that he can do anything under the sun to the Gambian people and gets away with it.



Like Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, Jammeh thinks anything he does is in the best interest of the country and whoever stands on his way must be sacrifice for the greater good. He does not care whose feet he steps on.



Jammeh himself once admitted this on television when he said: "I will not hesitate to kill 99.9 per cent Gambians and go to sleep if it is in the interest of the country."



Almost every Gambian now have a close or distant relative who is either killed, exiled, arrested, tortured or sacked from his job for one unexplained reason or the other. Our name as the Smiling Coast of Africa has disappeared. We are no longer a beacon of hope. We are not being governed according to the motto - peace, progress and prosperity that are on our national coat of arms.



Jammeh does not have any sense of reasoning. He thinks the best way to respond to anyone who opposes his brutalities is to kill, arrest and torture or exiled if they are lucky.



As a former soldier who was thought to obey every order, Jammeh often forgets that he is president of a 'democratic' country, where people have a right to say no. And as a result he has transformed our country to a sorry state.



The situation in our country is getting worst by the day and the Gambian people are getting fed up. They complain every day in their homes, bantabas, street corners and market stalls about the evil deeds of the Jammeh regime.



It our responsibility as Gambians to do anything we can in order to save our country from becoming another Sierra Leone . We have to remind Jammeh of his responsibilities as president of 21st century Gambia and the need to govern the people according to the dictates of the 1997 constitution, which he swore in the name of Almighty Allah to respect.



The Gambia is our only home and we should not let Jammeh to continue destroying the future of our young generation.