It is three days to curtains call for Yahya Jammeh’s tenure as president of The Gambia, but he just doesn’t get the message his time is up. Seven weeks after he was defeated at the poll by opposition challenger, Adama Barrow, this title-tripping ruler insists on tossing off the electoral verdict, thumbs his nose at international opinion and digs his heels deeper into power. But his legitimacy is invariably terminating. By this week-out, he would have fully mitosised from the chief law-keeper of The Gambia to the chief outlaw. Unfortunately, his illicit and desperate hold on the levers of power would continue to stash up casualties.
For the length of time that Jammeh manages to hold out in his political brigandage beyond the January 19 expiration of his tenure, The Gambia would inevitably be on the boil. Besides, his example is bad news for the culture of democracy – particularly in the West African sub-region, but also in all of Africa. He has to be kicked out soonest.
It is a shame that Mr. Jammeh can’t muster sufficient literacy of mind to read the writing on the wall. Every straw he is clutching unto to justify his coup against electoral democracy isn’t serving his purpose. For instance, Jammeh said his country’s constitutional order is that only the Supreme Court could validly pronounce on who should be president, and he would thus not let go on power until such a pronouncement is made. Fact-check his assertion and you would find there is neither a constituted Supreme Court presently in The Gambia to render the important service Mr. Jammeh craves, nor is there any particular provision in the country’s Constitution to sustain his thesis.
The Gambia’s Supreme Court that was billed to hear the petition brought by the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) against the outcome of the December 1 election, in which Barrow triumphed, could not sit as scheduled on January 10 because there were no justices. The country relies on foreign judges to staff its Supreme Court owing to lack of local skill, and Jammeh’s election challenge was slated to be heard by five judges, among them Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle who is a Nigerian. But the judges drawn from Nigeria and Sierra Leone were absent last Tuesday. Fagbenle told Jammeh’s lawyers who were in court that he needed a full panel to hear the petition, and that the outsourced judges were unlikely to be available until either May or November. Put in other words, the awaited decision on the election challenge is effectively down in the long grass.
Following that judicial false start, Jammeh returned to his country’s airwaves, requesting Gambians to await the Supreme Court verdict pending which he would not step down. Even though the Chief Justice had openly advised that mediation is the best way forward, he said his cabinet and the National Assembly would remain in place until the court decides on his petition so to ensure that the rule of law is upheld. “(Under the Constitution), only the Supreme Court can review our challenge, and only the Supreme Court can declare anyone president,” he added.
I bothered to check The Gambia’s 1997 Constitution, and it is unclear with what specific provision Mr. Jammeh was making his case. Section 63 of that law stipulates the terms for an elected president’s tenure, including that the electee must assume office for five years after taking prescribed oaths. Sub-section 2 of the section states inter alia: “The person elected President shall assume office sixty days following the day of his or her election.” This, obviously, is the clause that confers Barrow with legitimacy as president from January 19.
The constitutional provision for possible extension of a president’s tenure (in the present case, that of Jammeh) is in sub-section 6, which states: “Where the life of the National Assembly is extended for any period in accordance with section 99 (2), the term of office of the President shall be extended for the same period.” The referenced section 99 (2) stipulates: “At any time when The Gambia is at war or a state of emergency is declared, the National Assembly may, by resolution supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members, extend the life of the National Assembly for not more than three months at a time, but the life of the National Assembly shall not be extended under this subsection for more than a total period of one year.”
But The Gambia could not be said to be at war or in emergency in the present case. In any event, the country’s National Assembly has made no resolution to such effect. And so, Jammeh’s appropriation of the National Assembly’s tenure along with his own in awaiting the Supreme Court verdict seems an untidy bid to invoke the stated clause. However, election petitions are private processes on which the country’s Constitution has not made presidential tenure contingent.
Added to his judicial adventure, Mr. Jammeh has been railing at the international community for what he considered foreign interference in his country’s domestic affairs. Against the backdrop of a threat by sub-regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to deploy troops for his ouster that has been endorsed by the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU), the embattled ruler last week pilloried the world bodies for their “hasty resolutions,” which he said were at variance with the “peaceful nature” of the election dispute so far. “Our review and investigation have revealed an unprecedented level of foreign interference in our elections and internal affairs. And also, a sustained smear campaign, propaganda and misinformation,” he said, vowing The Gambia would not allow any organisation, treaty or law to supersede its Constitution.
It is uncertain though how much longer Jammeh’s illusion of “peaceful nature” of The Gambia’s election crisis would be sustained. Adama Barrow has vowed to take oath as president come Thursday, and indications are the new president would brave the odds to assume legitimacy on January 19, while Jammeh would go all out to stop him. That isn’t a scenario that portends much peace for the country, or indeed for the entire sub-region. More important, someone needs to tell Jammeh that elections have gone from being private affairs of individual countries to an internationally benchmarked universal project. That is why foreign observers are always on hand in all countries where elections hold, added to domestic ones. Otherwise, despots would freely deploy the charade of elections to legitimize their perpetuity in office before the world.
It is time for Jammeh to go. President Muhammadu Buhari led ECOWAS mediators on another mission to Banjul at the weekend, but it seems not much headway was made with negotiating the man out of power. Meanwhile, The Gambia has been on steady descent into chaos. Since Jammeh’s volte-face on the December 1 poll, Gambians have mounted civil actions to force his exit. A string of high profile defections from the tiny country hallmarks a bourgeoning refugee crisis. Envoys of The Gambia have spoken up from their duty stations and were summarily fired, and by implication exiled, by Jammeh. On Monday, last week, Jammeh’s Communication Minister Sheriff Bojang stepped down and fled the country; so also has Alieu Momarr Njai, chairman of the country’s Independent Electoral Commission, who has fled to Senegal. Private radio stations sympathetic to Barrow’s narrative have been shut down, while local new sites said agents of government have arrested people wearing t-shirts bearing the inscription ‘Gambia Has Decided,’ which is a known slogan of Barrow supporters.
ECOWAS has signified it would deploy multinational forces against Jammeh if he can’t be persuaded to honour electoral verdict within his country’s constitutional framework. Now is the time to act, as further delay portends bigger crises. Kick Jammeh out now!
Tag: Jammeh
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Jammeh’s mitosis
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Confusion in The Gambia as Jammeh appoints mediator
There is confusion in The Gambia following Tuesday night’s broadcast by outgoing President Yahya Jammeh.
He announced the appointment of a mediator – Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle – between himself and President-elect Adama Barrow but still rejected the election outcome, saying the people should wait for the Supreme Court verdict before which he is challenging the outcome.
Already the Court declared on Monday that it could not sit because of a lack of quorum. The sitting, it said won’t take place till May.
The president-elect is due to be inaugurated on January 19.
Jammeh also criticised international pressure for him to step down. President Muhammadu Buhari will on Friday lead an ECOWAS delegation to Banjul for another round of meetings with Jammeh and Barrow on a peaceful transfer of power on January 19.
Gambia has been thrust into a crisis following a December 1 presidential vote, which saw Jammeh losing to Barrow.
Jammeh initially conceded defeat but later reversed his position, lodging a legal case aimed at annulling the result and triggering new elections.
In the Tuesday night surprise address on national television, Jammeh lashed out at “an unprecedented level of foreign interference in our elections and internal affairs and also a sustained smear campaign, propaganda and misinformation”
He attacked ECOWAS, the UN Security Council and the African Union – all bodies that have urged him to respect the election result – for taking “unprecedented and hasty resolutions against our republic and constitution”.
He also appealed for patience, asking Gambians to “await the Supreme Court review and ruling on the election results”.
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Jammeh: Buhari to host West African leaders
President Muhammadu Buhari will today host four West African leaders to a meeting aimed at avoiding violence and preserving democracy in The Gambia.
The meeting is in line with his mandate as the mediator picked by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
According to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari, those to attend are the immediate past President of Ghana, John Mahama as, who is co-mediator, Liberian President Ellen Jphnson-Sirleaf, Senagalese President Macky Sall and the Sierra Leone vice president.
The team is expected to ensure the safety of President-elect Adama Barrow and ensure a peaceful handover of power on January 19.
The statement added: “The meeting in Abuja is following the one in Accra on the sidelines of the inauguration of that country’s President which expressed the readiness of the leaders of the sub-region to continue the pursuit of dialogue with the leaders of The Gambia.”
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Jammeh: Butterfly that calls itself a bird!
SIR: His Excellency, Sheikh Prof. Alhaji Dr. Yahya Jammeh has called the bluff of the rest of the world. Jammeh is talking tough and has literally told the world to go to hell. Jammeh has not only rebuffed all pleas to respect the wishes of the Gambian People and concede power to the opposition which won the presidential election late last year but has vowed to resist or even crush any foreign invasion of the Gambia to remove him from power.
Jammeh while slamming the decision of the UN Security Council, African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) asking him to respect the wishes of the Gambia people and the constitution, had declared that only God can remove him from power even if he chooses to rule for one billion years.
Jammeh has handpicked justices of the Gambian Supreme Court to hear his legal challenge to the election which he disputes while also vowing not to concede power under any arrangements whatsoever.
His confidence seems to have been bolstered by the pledge of allegiance made by the country’s military chief but then hearing Jammeh’s rhetoric, one would mistake the Gambia for the African version of North Korea in military might.
So what big meal has Jammeh eaten like the proverbial nwa nza that has pushed him to challenge his Chi to a wrestling contest? The nwa nza is the tiny weaver bird in Igbo folklore which Chinua Achebe made allusions to in his evergreen classic Things Fall Apart. The nwa nza after a heavy meal challenged its Chi (god) to a wrestling contest.
Jammeh presides over a tiny country of less than two million people and the Gambia has less than 1,000 men under arms to defend the country from external aggression. The Gambian Military depends on military assistance from Turkey, Pakistan and Muammar Ghadaffi before his fall from power.
According to the CIA Factbook 2016, the Gambian Airforce has less than 5 aircrafts in its fleet and the Navy has nothing other than glorified patrol boats in its arsenal. The Gambia military has not been associated with any battle feat in recent times, save for its participation in ECOMOG interventions in the Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s.
In fact, the Gambia’s closest neighbour Senegal had in the past successfully intervened militarily in the Gambia to stop an attempted coup and reacting to the present situation, Senegal has indicated its willingness to enforce the UN, AU and ECOWAS resolution asking Jammeh to cede power to Adama Barrow.
Jammeh is not only weak in military strength but even more vulnerable financially. According to the World Bank, the Gambia is one of the poorest countries in the world without any significant natural resources. The country’s budget is funded through bilateral and multilateral aid while government institutions are managed through technical assistance from multilateral and bilateral donors.
Tourism is the country’s main source of foreign exchange besides foreign aid. With Jammeh’s belligerence and war like posture, he risks losing aid and tourists if he comes under the Security Council sanctions (if no military action is taken against him). So head or tail, Jammeh loses as the noose on his neck tightens.
One then wonders who or what is beating the drums for Jammeh as it is clear only him can hear the music he is dancing to.
ECOWAS and the AU must be commended for standing by the Gambian electorates and insisting on Jammeh’s exit from power, unlike in the past where the African leaders who are mostly sit-tight dictators will rally round one of their own. However, whether Jammeh will come to his senses and quit or get the Laurent Gbagbo type of humiliating treatment will be known in the coming weeks.
- Maduka Onwukeme,
Lagos
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Jammeh begins crackdown on media
•Two private radio stations shut
Security forces in The Gambia have shut down two private radio stations, the main press union has said, amid a crisis over President Yahya Jammeh’s refusal to step down.
Head of The Gambia Press Union Emil Touray yesterday described the closure of Teranga FM and Hilltop Radio as a “slap in the face” for democracy.
This is the first sign of a crackdown on the media since Mr Jammeh refused to accept defeat in the December 1 poll.
He first took power in a coup in 1994.
The Gambian strongman initially conceded to property developer Adama Barrow, but then launched court action to annul the result, saying the poll was marred by irregularities.
The electoral commission said the poll was free and fair.
Both radio stations were closed on Sunday.
“People will not have access to information in this critical period of our history,” Mr Touray is quoted by Reuters as saying.
Four National Intelligence Agency operatives and a police officer visited the offices of Teranga FM to demand its closure, a staff member told AFP on condition of anonymity.
There has been no official comment from the government.
Teranga FM manager Alagie Ceesay was arrested in July 2015 on charges of sedition and “publication of false news” – allegations he denied.
The Gambia ranked 145 out of 180 countries in media campaign group Reporters Without Borders’ 2016 World Press Freedom Index.
It said there was “a climate of terror around anything remotely to do with journalism”.
The UN and West African regional body Ecowas have urged Mr Jammeh to respect the will of the people and step down when his term ends on 19 January.
Ecowas officials say that neighbouring Senegal’s troops are ready to intervene if Mr Jammeh refuses to hand power to Mr Barrow.
Mr Jammeh said that any deployment would be an “act of war”.
Mr Barrow caused a major upset by defeating Mr Jammeh by 43.3% to 39.6%.
The Gambia has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.
It is a popular tourist destination because of its beaches. -
Gambia: ECOWAS intervention declaration of war, insult – Jammeh
Gambian leader, Yahya Jammeh, has accused West African regional body, ECOWAS, of declaring war against his country for refusal to step down at the end of his mandate this month.
Jammeh, who accused ECOWAS of putting forces on alert in case he refused to step down, has vowed to stay in power despite losing a Dec. 1 election to rival Adama Barrow.
He also promised to defend Gambia against any outside aggression, in a New Year speech broadcast on state TV.
The veteran leader initially conceded defeat in the vote, then changed his mind days later – raising fears that regional powers might have to intervene to oust him. His mandate runs out on Jan. 19.
Marcel de Souza, commission president for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said last week that the body had put standby forces on alert.
In his speech, Jammeh decried “the resolution of ECOWAS on the current situation to implement the results of Dec 1, 2016 presidential election by whatever means possible”.
He apparently acknowledged again that the poll did not go in his favour.
“It is in effect a declaration of war and an insult to our constitution.
“Let me make it very clear that we are ready to defend this country against any aggression.
“My government will never opt for such confrontation but defending our sovereignty is a sacred duty for all patriotic Gambians,” he said.
Barrow’s surprise victory and Jammeh’s initial decision to concede after 22 years in power was initially seen as a moment of hope on a continent where autocratic leaders are becoming more entrenched.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has stepped in as an ECOWAS mediator to offer Jammeh an “honorable exit”, but Jammeh said the bloc could no longer fulfill that role.
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Gambia: The people vs. Jammeh
SIR: Anxiety prevails in the Gambia as the people await what becomes of their country come January 19, 2017. Will this country tow the path of peace or anarchy? Will Gambians have a new president? Will the incumbent remain in power? On this day of destiny, current president, Yahya Jammeh is expected to relinquish power and the President-elect, Adama Barrow resume as the country’s president. This day is expected to be special because it will be the first time that this West Africa nation is peacefully transferring power since Independence.
For now, it is uncertain if this historic occasion will come to pass as expected because the incumbent president had backtracked after conceding defeat in a recent presidential election. Calls and appeals from ECOWAS, the AU, the UN and other local and international bodies to Jammeh to respect the outcome of December 1 presidential contest had fallen on deaf ears. In fact there are reports that troops from the sub-region are on a standby to intervene and use military force to oust Jammeh if he refused to relinquish power.
Interestingly, Jammeh once told journalists that he would rule Gambia for a billion years if Allah so willed. Apparently, he was determined to cling to power as long as he would. However with the outcome of the presidential election and with what appears to be a political impasse in the country, Jammeh’s will seems to be on a collision course with that of Allah.
But think about it, Allah has really been so magnanimous to Jammeh by allowing him to rule the country for 22 years despite his dismal human rights records and bad governance. During this period, this erratic leader acquired numerous titles that made his official introduction, ‘His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya AJJ Jammeh Babili Mansa’ a laborious exercise. He claimed to have the cure for HIV/AIDS. Jammeh withdrew Gambia from the Commonwealth, which he described as a neo-colonial institution. He stated that Gambia would never be a party to any institution that represented an extension of colonialism. Jammeh declared the country an Islamic republic in an attempt to distance Gambia from its colonial past. In addition he threatened to kill anyone who indulged in homosexual act.
He ruled with iron fists, conducted sham elections and clamped down on the opposition and freedom of expression in the country. It seemed that at the presidential election in December, this bond was broken.
So as the world counts down to January 19, 2017, Gambia finds itself in a political deadlock with two opposing wills – the will of President Jammeh and the will of the Gambian people as invested in the president elect, Adama Barrow. Which will triumphs at the end of the day?
- Leo Igwe,
nskepticleo@yahoo.com
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ECOWAS threatens Gambian President Jammeh with military action if he fails to quit
President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia stands the risk of being forcefully removed from power should he carry out his threat to sit tight after losing the December 1election.
ECOWAS leaders warned yesterday that they would not hesitate to send troops to Banjul, if Jammeh, who lost the election to opposition candidate, Adama Barrow, fails to step down next month.
Senegal,which surrounds much of The Gambia, has been designated to lead the proposed military intervention, president of the Economic Community of West African States, Marcel de Souza, told reporters in Bamako,Mali.
“The deadline is January 19 when the mandate of Jammeh ends,” de Souza said.
“If he doesn’t go, we have a force that is already on alert, and this force will intervene to restore the will of the people.
“No one has the right to oppose the will of the people.”
Jammeh initially accepted defeat only to make a U-turn a week later that the election was marred by irregularities.
That was after Gambia’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) claimed that it had erred during vote counting, and Barrow’s margin of victory had narrowed from 9% to 4%.
Despite the changes, the commission said that the new tally leaves the outcome of the election unchanged with Barrow receiving 43.3% of the vote and Jammeh 39.6%.
Jammeh is contesting the vote at the Supreme Court due to what he says are “unacceptable abnormalities”.
The country’s apex court adjourned the case to 10 January.
Barrow is due to be sworn in on 19 January.
President Muhammed Buhari leading his counterparts from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana had met Jammeh and urged him to accept defeat.
The leaders left without managing to secure a deal.
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A power tout called Jammeh
Their celebrations were notoriously short-lived. The streets of Banjul have gone quiet now and citizens of The Gambia, who had erupted in spontaneous jubilation three weeks ago when their despotic ruler was overrun in an election, have retreated into their shells in mournful silence. With Yahya Jammeh’s recant of his concession of defeat to real estate developer, Adama Barrow, the West African country is effectively staring into the abyss.
Barrow is the Gambian president-in-waiting, while the global community prospects for ways to egg Jammeh out of power. The opposition candidate’s victory in the recent poll in that country makes his ultimate coronation assured, and has invariably drawn the terminal line on Jammeh’s 22-year authoritarian run in power. But Jammeh has lately doubled down on clinging to the reins and won’t let go easily.
Indications at the weekend were that the Gambian crisis was approaching a head. Barrow was reported revving up to enact the country’s version of ‘Epetedo declaration,’ whereby he would unilaterally pronounce himself substantive president. Nigeria once travelled that troubled road with democracy hero and uninstalled winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief Moshood Abiola; and it was a five-year odyssey punctuated with the martyrdom of Abiola and some others, plus the exile and imprisonment of many more through diktats by hardened military strongman, Gen. Sani Abacha. You could say the portents in The Gambia are indeed more dire, because Jammeh is notoriously loathsome of political challenge, disdainful of human rights and free expression, and hot fingered on gun triggers.
It has been one long journey down democracy road for The Gambia, making the citizens exultant with the promise of a new dawn when Jammeh was handed a shock defeat in the country’s December 1 presidential election. By official scoreline, Barrow won with 263,515 votes to Jammeh’s 212,099 votes. “Having received 263,515 votes of the total votes cast in the election, I hereby declare Adama Barrow duly elected to serve as president of the Republic of Gambia,” Alieu Momarr Njie, chairman of the country’s Independent Electoral Commission had pronounced in Banjul, the capital, penultimate Friday.
For a country where the recent election offered opportunity for the first change of leadership since a military coup led by Jammeh ousted pioneer president Dawda Jawara in 1994, and the first time that power would change hands by popular election since Independence from Britain in 1965, the news of Barrow’s victory had prompted thousands of Gambians to take to the streets of Banjul in celebration – some on foot and others riding in cars, trucks and on motorbikes – leaving soldiers cultured in Jammeh’s repressive ways palpably confused as they stood by. Many Gambians were reported to have stayed up all night, listening to radio and tallying the vote count by themselves as the figures were being announced at constituency levels. That way, they had a headstart on the likely outcome even before the electoral commission made its call.
The outcome eventually disproved Jammeh who had exuded confidence, saying his victory was all but assured by God and predicting “the biggest landslide in the history of the country” after he voted on Election Day. But the Gambian ruler had nonetheless aided the public’s euphoria on the heels of the ballot count with his early concession of defeat. Speaking on state television before the electoral commission called the final tally, he acknowledged that the people “have decided that I should take the back seat,” and congratulated Barrow for his “clear victory,” adding: “I wish him all the best and I wish all Gambians the best.”
Affirming that he would not contest the result because “as a true Muslim who believes in the almighty Allah, I will never question Allah’s decision,” Jammeh had said: “If he (Barrow) wants to work with us, I have no problem with that. I will help him work towards the transition.” Following his pronouncements, the Gambian military leadership congratulated Barrow and pledged the institution’s allegiance to him.
But the Gambian ruler, only a few days later, lived up to his mercuric reputation by rejecting the same poll results he had unreservedly endorsed. “After a thorough investigation, I have decided to reject the outcome of the recent election. I lament serious and unacceptable abnormalities which reportedly transpired during the electoral process,” he returned to say on state television. Suggesting that the present electoral commission was beholden to the influence of unnamed foreign powers, he added: “I recommend fresh and transparent elections which will be officiated by a God-fearing and independent electoral commission.”
Meanwhile the military appear to have withdrawn their pledge of allegiance to a Barrow government and have reverted to being tools of repression in Jammeh’s hands. The electoral commission rooted for the scoreline it had declared in Barrow’s favour and soon came under Jammeh’s sleigh of hand – with soldiers taking over its offices last Tuesday. “The military came to my office and said I am not to touch anything and told me to leave,” the electoral commission’s chair, Njie, told reporters, adding: “I am worried for my safety.” Among others, outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the occupation of the commission’s offices as an “outrageous act of disrespect of the will of the Gambian people and defiance towards the international community.”
Either by design or by coincidence, the soldiers’ raid on the electoral commission took place as some Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) leaders were arriving in Banjul to press Jammeh on relinquishing power. The delegation, headed by chairperson of the Authority of Heads of State of ECOWAS and Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, also included Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, his Sierra Leone counterpart, Ernest Bai Koroma, and outgoing Ghanaian President John Mahama. But it seemed like they made little headway with their mission: “We come to help Gambians find their way through a transition. That’s not something that can happen in one day,” Johnson-Sirleaf was reported telling journalists.
Under The Gambia’s laws, Jammeh has until January 18 to conclude the transition processes and hand over power to the winner of the December 1 election. But Jammeh’s party, the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reconciliation and Construction (APRC), has lodged a challenge against Barrow’s victory at the country’s Supreme Court; only that the legal challenge is unworkable as things are, because that court has been dormant since May 2015 when Jammeh sacked its justices.
Opposition politicians voiced a concern that Jammeh could insist on clinging to power while the legal challenge pends before the Supreme Court. To meet the January 18 deadline, he would need to appoint as many as six judges to the court; but the Bar Association has warned that any appointment of judges by Jammeh to adjudicate a case involving him would be fundamentally unjust.
Without the judiciary’s intervention, the electoral commission has the last word in Barrow’s favour on the presidential poll. The chairman, Njie, underscored this last week by saying: “The only way they can pursue the commission is through the court, and there is no court.”
By all accounts, the time is effectively up for Jammeh in the Gambian presidency and he must leave power at once. Even before the latest poll, his claim on the presidency from four previous elections he purportedly won had been dubious, and he had only steered his country and himself deeper into international isolation. But Barrow’s victory in the recent election puts a final nail on all that.
There have been suggestions that Jammeh might have backtracked on his concession of defeat out of a dread of what awaits him at the hands of the opposition government when it takes power. If that were so, the Charles Taylor abdication model could be helpful in easing him out of Banjul.
Barrow (is) revving up to enact the country’s version of ‘Epetedo declaration,’ whereby he would unilaterally pronounce himself substantive president
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Jammeh: Fall of an African strongman
SIR: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
—George Santayana
If Yayah Jammeh’s concession speech after his defeat in the Gambian presidential poll of December 1 surprised many, his dramatic about-face made a travesty of that feat. It was like re-swallowing a spewed spit.
Jammeh’s rejection of the vox populi is a relapse to African strongmanism— a spirit that deserted him the day he conceded defeat. African strongmanism is a cancer that has eaten deep the political fabrics of the African states. Who is an African strongman? He is no respecter of law or convention. He is law himself and dictates who gets what, when and how. From Niger to Chad through Cameroon, Sudan, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe and Eritrea, the cancer called African strongmanism has metastasized the continent’s body politic. Didn’t Obama educate us on the need of having strong institutions rather than strong men in the African politics?
Yayah Jammeh is still hanging on because he is Gambia and Gambia is his. His 22 years strides in the country’s political landscape were mostly used to build a cult of personality around himself and tie many institutions to the apron’s strings of the presidency.
This is unprecedented in one case and ordinary in another. No leader has ever conceded defeat and turn about to contest it. In the second sense, it’s been a culture in Africa for incumbents to reject defeat. But since the post Arab spring era, the system changed —it is either you concede defeat or you will be forced to do so.
Jammeh being a typical African strongman has turned down many efforts toward mediating the crisis. The West African leaders led by the President Muhammadu Buhari left the country unhappy at the futile exercise they’ve embarked on. And this made one to wonder: Will Yayah Jammeh toe the path of Ghadafi or Gbagbo?
History, Will and Ariel Durants wrote in their masterpiece “The Lessons of History,” smile at all attempts to force it flow in theoretical patterns or grooves. With what is happening in Gambia today, history is about to repeat itself.
As I write, Jammeh still insist on contesting the results of the election in the country’s highest court which many believe to be an appendage of his government.
What this means is that Jammeh will stay in power beyond January 18, the date in which his 22 years grip on power is supposed to come to a halt and Barrow sworn in as the new president of Gambia.
With Barrow’s announcement that he will declare himself President on that date, one possible outcome will be a crisis of two presidents in one state.
These events remind me of the 1993 presidential election in Nigeria. The election, just like this one, was till date praised as the most free, fair and credible election ever conducted in Nigeria. But it was annulled by the Ibrahim Badamasi Babanginda-led military junta just as Jammeh has rejected the results of the election that made mincemeat of him.
While Babaginda was successful those days when International community still believe in the non-intervention principle of the international system, Yayah Jammeh might not be. The stories of Laurent Gbagbo and Abdoulaye Wade should be lessons to him. With this dramatic upping of the ante, Jammeh should be informed that Karl Marx once wrote: History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce.
- Asikason Jonathan,
Enugwu-Ukwu, Anambra State.