GAMBIA — In a span of 15 years, the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (AFPRC-APRC) continues to rule with complete disregard for law and against the peaceful aspirations of the vast majority of Gambians. The rule of force resulting in murder, unrivaled corruption and an escalating uncertainty for a decent life has been the order of the day in Gambia.
Now, Gambia’s president, Yahya Jammeh, is seemingly immune to challenge due to the meaningless efforts of the cowardly “opposition” and his shameless “technocratic parrots” that turned integrity on its head. To these worshipful pseudo-intellectuals, nothing matters but their jobs. They all deserve the treatment Jammeh dishes out to them in his periodic senseless and infantile temper tantrums as he appoints, dismisses and recycles the previously discarded rubbish ministers, permanent secretaries, directors and “Justices of the courts”.
The AFPRC-APRC is a dustbin regime. Even those who profess to be at the service of the Gambian people with all good intentions knowingly perpetuate the regime. As the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
What these “sharers of crumbs” also lack are honest intentions, which would have made them question and protest the numbskull decisions of the “emperor Jammeh.” The lame defense that they can make changes from within this dustbin regime is yet to be seen. Jammeh has been repeatedly chewing them up and spitting their bones out.
The blatant display of intentional ignorance and loyalty to power for the Jammeh regime has a basis, which is deeply rooted in reactionary tradition. But what is bewildering is his routine attempts at diverting mass discontent with blind patriotism. Being the only “Gambian patriot,” Yahya legitimizes all the terror campaigns he has unleashed on Gambians with full cooperation from his den of mercenary judges at the nation’s “house of justice.”
The sticking point question in my view is, why in the hell are we tolerating these insults and humiliation for 15 years? The answer lives within us. It is going to take a brutally honest leadership to overturn this reactionary and backward tradition of tolerating — and worst, accepting — our wretched conditions of existence as god’s will.
A “successful defiance” is possible
For those of you who believe in voting, participants and spectators alike, you must make the governments you vote into power live in fear of you, the voters. This is something different from the traditionally inspired fear these useless governments instill in the populace who become “frighten into obedience” and fatalistically conclude that “there is nothing we can do about it.” I believe in voting, but only if I am present to count the votes.
An important aspect of a “successful defiance” is never to concede anything to the neocolonial states in Africa, from the voting booths to the battlefields. We must not concede an inch of territory to Jammeh, not even the fortified garrison of Kanilia.
We will reclaim the entire Gambian front of the African revolution. We make our presence felt everywhere the AFPRC–APRC and Jammeh goes, always in his face. We must consolidate our strategy of “dual and contending power” against the Jammeh regime.
Jammeh believes he has succeeded in containing the threat the masses pose to his intended 30 years to rule the Gambia by intimidation and violence, all in the absence of a revolutionary political party.
Reactionary violence has always been an instrument of control and containment of mass resistance against exploitation and repression. Mistakenly, Jammeh thinks he is untouchable, so he parades his “armor of invincibility” to strike terror into the hearts of the people through his gang of thugs: the openly known NIA, army, and Para-military. This also includes the covert, yet grossly mystified, all-female personal security detail — a replica of Gadaffi’s all female personal security. In the face of all this “security” and his bullet proof Hummers and his RPG’s (rocket propelled grenades), we believe that the best security comes from the masses. When the people rise up for confrontation, no armor is impenetrable.
One thing quite clear is that with the horrendous decline of trust in leadership, the endangered neocolonial state is fully aware of out living its usefulness to imperialism, which is equally aware of being in its last stage, hence the resurgence of “international adventurism,” the grand agenda to re-colonize the rest of us as the primary source of imperial wealth.
The first act to a successful defiance is organization, a revolutionary organization at best. Once a revolutionary organization is in place, no army can stand in our way. The fear mongering that has paralyzed us into inaction will diminish drastically.
The urgent call for a revolutionary organization will never cease to be our voice of conscience until we gather a formidable force to resist and overthrow the Jammeh regime and the system that sustains the neocolonial state. If Jammeh and his APRC were dissatisfied with the Jawara regime and overthrown it through a coup d’etat, those who are equally disgusted by the Jammeh regime have the right to uproot the entire system through a revolutionary mass struggle.
We make no apologies nor do we flip-flop in our contention to control state power in the Gambia, the only guarantee to reverse the disastrous years of Jammeh’s rule. Some of you may be intimidated by the fact that “political power comes from the barrel of a gun,” but Jammeh is not.
Even if political power is attained through the “ballot box,” the gun is never too far. Right now the guns are in the wrong hands of terror; taking them back is the only solution for a peaceful Gambia.
Regaining the people’s trust
The shameful record of misery and repression of the post “independent states” such as Gambia has cut deep into the moral fortitude of African workers and peasants alike. Painfully demoralized, it is not uncommon to hear the equally painful and demoralizing remark that “things were much better during colonial rule,” a testimony to the horrendous decline of trust in the neocolonial state. Now, how does one rekindle optimism, confidence and courage in a demoralized population?
As the saying goes, “if a hammer is the only tool one has, you will only be looking for nails,” and goodness forbid if “the nail is without a head” as with the AFPRC-APRC regime. Therefore, we need more than just a hammer as tool for the reconstruction of a proud future Gambia.
We must remember that there were many and still are upright sons and daughters of Africa who lived exemplary lives; they “abhorred greed and detest vanity; humility was their strength and integrity their greatness”. It is upon the shoulders of these great sons and daughters of Africa that we stand to build a better Africa. A better world is indeed possible and is within our reach. The Gambian front of the African revolution must be willing to take power into our own hands and choose a leadership that has our interest at heart.
The Jammeh regime must go!
Fifteen years is too damn long to have put up with the dustbin regime of the AFPRC-APRC. Over the years, Jammeh crafted the state machinery that created a lumpen, petty bourgeois class in cohorts with the military uniformed gangster elite who overran and controlled the activities of the traditional petty bourgeois class mostly comprised of technocrats. Under the constant threat of dismissal from their jobs, imprisonment and murder, these worshipful pseudo-intellectual technocrats have been tamed into submissive parrots of the Jammeh regime.
Second in shame is the Gambia Bar Association which comprises of Gambians who are capable of influencing the “law of the land,” but instead suck up to the “law according to Yahya.” Well, so much for the Bar. They’ve served us nothing but injustice. It would be a pleasant surprise if they protest the stupor of the judiciary.
Meeting all the qualifications of an arch-terrorist, Yaya has again unleashed another terror campaign against the judiciary to preempt any challenge to his rule of force. With another kick in the face of the Gambia Bar Association, Jammeh dismissed Abdourahman Savage as Chief Justice and replaced him with his most loyal mercenary judge Emmanuel Agim, upon whom Jammeh bestowed the Order of the Republic of the Gambia (ORG), one of the highest orders the Gambia government bestows on “deserving servants” of the people.
Since the notorious Justice Paul absconded to save his life, Agim reigns supreme. Agim now joins the ranks of O.B.E’S (Obedient Boys of the Emperor) — that is, emperor Jammeh.
Poised to defend his future electoral spoils in 2011, Jammeh expands his den of mercenary judges with the following high court judges to assure this gangster regime another stolen verdict. Here is the list of High Court Mercenary Judges: Emmanuel Agim, Emmanuel Olusegun Fangbele, Esther Ota, Gilbert Abiodu Obayan, James Kaloade and Justice Akomaye.
Moses Richard, the lone Gambian High Court Judge is not included in the list but most likely is an O.B.E. The fact that all but one of the high court judges are “Nigerians” is irrelevant. A principled exchange of African professionals at the service of the people is always welcomed. What is in question is that most of these judges as we know them have no scruples. They serve emperor Jammeh’s personal interest not justice. Because of their unscrupulous relations with “justice,” we consider them as enemies of the Gambian people.
The AFPRC-APRC dossier of criminal activities is well documented. Listing them again will only add insult to injury. In my view, nothing short of confrontation will put an end to Jammeh’s madness.
Hunting the witch hunter
If the recent buffoonery displayed during Jammeh’s dragnet of witch hunting didn’t outrage the accused “witches” and their family members, I don’t know what else will outrage us. This task is not for talking heads and cyber-warriors, for “he who hunts never coughs.”
Jammeh and his henchmen live on earth just as the rest of us do. They don’t live in the skies. If they know where we live we should know where they live. If they pay us early morning “terror visits,” African people should have the ability to pay them a “revolutionary visit” likewise. Jammeh and his gang of thugs cannot have a monopoly on violence as he does on selling bread, cement and meat. We must let the “witch hunter” know that he can also be hunted.
