According to Jammeh, when former Senegalese president Abdoulie Wade heard of Gambia’s oil discovery, “he went crazy.” Wade, albeit jokingly, would tell Jammeh how Senegal would steal Gambia’s oil. Joke or the lack thereof, Senegal went ahead with a massive ad campaign on one of the world’s most powerful business publications called Forbes, telling the world Senegal had oil.

Jammeh continued that when multinational corporations  came for such oil, they realized it was in Gambian territory. Consequently, they tried to talk him into some sort of drilling merger with Senegal. He said he told them how impossible that was when the oil is in The Gambia.

The former president then expressed his disappointment with current Senegalese leaders, especially Ousman Sonko who has now witnessed such wrong act of stealing from another country. He also accused Senegal of stealing Gambia’s military arsenal involving very sophisticated weapons and took them to Senegal.

Jammeh mentioned the Senegalese soldiers, however, could not use the weapons because “they are very sophisticated.” He said the Senegalese soldier are like boy scouts and often want Gambian soldiers to help them fight the decades old Cassamance rebels.

Jammeh also accused Macky Sall of being the biggest thief. He added that Sonko and Diomaye Faye were very lucky since they had incarcerated them and God saved them. As for former British prime minister Tony Blair, he labelled him “that wicked man.” Blair’s wife, he said became the Barrow government’s attorney.

He further stated that even Guinea Bissau had similar oil issues with Senegal and they went to a court presided over by the French. “If Senegal really had oil, why would they fight with Guinea Bissau? I have all the maps [of the Gambian oil blocks including Aldulillaah 1]. That block is what Senegal is drilling. The Australians wanted it and I said no. The Americans came and said they wanted it too because the one in Senegal isn’t much. I sent them away,” Jammeh said.

The former Gambian leader continued that they threatened him for sending soldiers to the place [the mining sites where he had issues with the Canadian company]. The Europeans told him, “That’s another case [law suit]. They don’t know who they were dealing with. Allaah helped we had a lot of evidence. They had one of the best law firms in Europe called Lalif and Lalif. The court was in Geneva and they kept adjourning. I told them we’re an African country and we might not have the luxury to travel all the time. When I produced one of the evidences, they wanted us to adjourn indefinitely.”

The former president wants this audio to go viral. It is an hour long and we transcribed just bits of it. He said they took his government to court many times because of this oil. Even his late finance minister Famara Jatta once told him, “We can’t win this case. World Bank said we have to give it back to these people otherwise we cannot win this case. I told them to go to hell!” I told them it won’t happen. I sent soldiers to take over the place. But Gambains….my brother it’s very sad.”

He stated, “Antouman Gaye, I think it’s Antouman Gaye. That was NAWEC case. Gambians later allowed this man [perhaps the British national Charlie Northfield, from Plymouth, Devon, who was working for Carnegie Minerals when he was arrested and jailed in February 2008 in The Gambia as company CEO. He was later smuggled out of Gambia after some mining confrontation with the Jammeh gov’t to escape].

The BBC would later report on September 2nd 2008 that, “His escape was masterminded by a former army officer and included swimming across a “raging torrent” of a river. Mr Northfield, who was accused of illegally mining titanium, iron ore and uranium, said the charges were “trumped up”.

We can’t independently confirm Jammeh’s allegations. But around 2017, this editor told the late Pa Nderry Mbaye on air that the purported Senegalese oil blocks that were announced were very close to The Gambian oil blocks. “Don’t cry, Pa Nderry would one day tell me,” assuming my high-pitch voice was a a tearful one. Few years later, we reported that Tony Blair’s wife the Barrow administration’s lawyer for some oil deals.

The Barrow administration had also reportedly created a special office at Gambia’s State House for Tony Blair. While on air at Freedom Radio, we received insults from some Senegalese nationals. The main man for such insults was “Grand Choi,” as Pa Nderry fondly called him. The guy insulted this editor’s mother on air and some Gambians were laughing and passively encouraging him.

And what was my crime? I was sharing very sensitive geopolitical information. But alas! Low IQ is just low IQ and very unfortunate is one who tries to sensitize a people who, even after this article, would still throw millions at artists and performers when their roads are super muddy, hospitals without the basics, and their university graduates still can’t write simple correct paragraphs.

We also mentioned on this medium how Senegalese soldiers smuggled Gambia’s heavy weaponry to Dakar. The ones they couldn’t transport, they disabled or removed their firing pins. At this we asked, years ago, if Macky Sall’s Senegal had come to Gambia on a conquest mission or a peace-keeping? We have a very selfish intellectual body in The Gambia.

And we have others calling themselves “Gambia’s pen.” But they can’t write on these seminal issues when poverty and dire needs galore? And if you dare ask intelligent questions, they accuse you of “arrogance” or “nationalism.” Then let’s see who suffers when our hospitals become they are currently and even our farmers and pilgrims face nasty injustice.

For those of you that were avid listeners of the then Freedom Radio, there was a day we had a so-called Engineer called, “Ebrima” who was shoving down our throat the Senegambia bridge while Macky Sall had his claws in our economic epithelium. I tired to warn Gambians and even asked “Ebrima” the terms and conditions regarding the bridge.

This was shortly before work started on it. He negated my concerns that there might be strings attached where Gambia might lose tariff shares or even control over the national asset due to its geo-strategic capabilities, bringing Egypt’s Suez Canal to perspective and how three countries attacked it because of that national treasure.

But the “Engineer” showed only dim-wits. Few months later after its completion, a Senegalese driver hit the bridge with his vehicle, insulting Gambians that it was built by Senegal. Today, we have lost the bridge completely thanks to low IQ decision makers again. Where is the so-called Engineer “Ebrima”? Where are you hiding? Why is common sense so uncommon to folks like you? Why do schools only increase the stupidity of folks like you? Why don’t you do radio interviews about the bridge right now?

WHAT A SAD TIME TO BE GAMBIAN THESE DAYS!