In 2014, we wrote a similar piece about the end times of Jammeh and the rise of his possible successor. His future was getting much murkier for a success legacy. Earlier, we kept admonishing him in our JAMMEH SOOTHSAYER series on all Gambian online media before the birth of forGambia News.
A real leader sketches out a goal map for his people. Such map’s frontiers are solidified in a nationalistic vision that is fair. This is why countries have national flags and anthems. They also erect standing armies, secure borders, and commit patriotic lines of defense to protect such gem as national interest.
While the above are given due care, a leader concomitantly caters to his people’s other needs such as lifting the abjectly poor out of poverty, catering to the working class while helping the rich equitably grow and safeguard a just wealth.
Let’s see the difference between Barrow and his predecessors on account of the above.
SIR DAWDA JAWARA (1965 – 1994):
The biggest achievement of Jawara wasn’t big structures that later punctuate Gambia’s landscape post 1994. Jawara’s achievement lies in his maintenance of peace and stability albeit the 1981 coup and the killings therein marred the transcript. Mass incarcerations and violations of civil liberty immediately after the coup also soiled the peace.
But Jawara did not handover our national interest to Senegal. In fact, that’s the reason the Senegambia Confederation failed when Senegal wanted Gambia to be a vassal and our Sir Dawda a client king. Thus, Jawara saw the need to carve Gambia National Army (GNA).
It was unfortunate Jawara had to part ways with SM Dibba–a man whose antithetical stance to a bridge over Yelli-Tenda/Bamba Tenda could be his nationalistic hallmark to posterity. Both Jawara and Sheriff knew this bridge and its strategic space was Gambia’s Suez.
But why did Jawara fall out with our Senegalese bullies? He knew he too had a people to serve. A people to cater to and protect! A people whose fish, land, timber, etc should not be stolen by a long-term longer hand.
YAHYA JAMMEH (1994 – 2016):
Yes, he was ultra-heavy-handed, especially if challenged. He hated dissent or the other vista. Under his tuition, many Gambians disappeared, lost their lives, or had free speech muzzled. With these, Jammeh’s legacy was heavily stained.
If not for that which besmirched such an ambitious look at nationalism, patriotism, and modernization, this young man coming to power at twenty-nine would have been Africa’s other Thomas Sankara. When he came to power, Gambia had no single university or even a high school built by the previous government.
Our airport before 1997 was poorer than many houses our ‘Semesters’ are building today. There were no home-trained doctors. Gambians under Jammeh became doctors and lawyers free of charge. That doesn’t easily happen in the U.K , U.S, or Canada, if it happens at all. We could go on about Jammeh’s development schemes. But you can’t build such legacy only to intersperse it with loses in lives or civil liberty. He was a thorn across Senegal’s mercantile throat, let alone its bullying.
ADAMA BARROW (2016 – PRESENT):
In just a span of three years, corruption and nepotism galore! Does Barrow think of the needs of Gambians or our national interest? Barrow has transformed our government into a business cartel, receiving orders from Senegalese special interests.
The cost of living is unbearable. Barrow chooses to look the other way. And as if handing over our national treasures to Macky Sall isn’t enough, Barrow would fly to Dakar for a conference not even Macky Sall attended.
We told Gambians how our country under Barrow was being sold to Senegalese interest when no one else was talking about it. For the first time in our history, Gambians encounter fish shortage because Barrow has handed over our maritime resources to Senegal and other vested foreign interests. For the first time in our history, Gambians are being chased by Senegalese forces and shot inside Gambian territory.
They are later kidnapped and taken to Senegal, not by bandits, but by sanctioned Senegalese government forces. For the first time in our history, our State House is occupied by Senegalese forces. For the first time in our history, our so-called President is guarded by Senegalese forces while guided in policy by a Senegalese president! So, is there any policy such a president would institute purely for Gambia and her poor people’s best interest?
Like Jammeh, Barrow will fall, God-willing. But his fall would be greater. He’s making our people cry in hunger while his belly bloats with all kinds of food. Like Jammeh, he’s shedding our blood from Faraba, Kanilai, to Gunjur while occupying Senegalese forces are committing atrocities on our home soil. We are not interested in when that fall shall be. We are interested in his successor! Why? Because Gambia should never again let just anybody become a presidential nominee!
