Friday, July 22nd 1994 began as just another ordinary day in Banjul. On the eve of what should have been a mock exercise with the Gambian army by a visiting US Tank landing ship, La Moure County, off the shores of the Gambian capital.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
So, when shots began ringing in the air and many began running for shelter, it became clear to many that this was more than just a mock exercise taking place.
In only a matter of moments, it was clear that the reign of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, the country’s first leader, serving first as Prime Minister from 1962 to 1970 and then as President from 1970 to 1994, had come to an end.
Sir Dawda and some family members and government officials fled the country to next door Senegal, aided by the US vessel from where he made an unsuccessful plea to the men who had ousted him from power, not to destroy the country’s democracy.
I was the BBC correspondent at the time in a nation that had become renowned for its tourism, its sunset beaches, Tubabs and love affair with Scottish author Rosemary Long.
Her novel, “Under the Boaboa Tree” expressed a love affair with this peaceful West African nation and a book that to this day remains a page-turner for Gambians, young and old.
An Interview of Lies
Realizing that there was more beyond the surface of a mock exercise, the late Momodu Secka and I on the instruction of my boss Mr. Kenneth Best, who had started the country’s first daily newspaper, The Daily Observer, only a couple of years earlier, braved the ricochet of gunfire in The Gambian Capital to score the first interview with the new coup leaders led by Jammeh, then a skinny 20-something at the State House in Banjul.
Prior to the coup, I was a regular at State House, covering Sir Dawda’s press conferences and picking up scoops from guards for my regular reports to the BBC popular Focus on Africa and Network Africa programs.
It came in handy that some of the guards recognized me and ushered me upstairs to what used to be Sir Dawda’s waiting room.
There I recall seeing the young Jammeh and his band of brothers: Lt. S.B. Sabally, Lt. Sadibou Hydara; and Lt. Edward Singateh. All appeared to still be in their 20s.
It was just hours after Jammeh had announced a takeover of the government and declared that the Armed Forces Provisional Army Council (AFPRC) had seized power.
Coming as a refugee from Liberia, which was engulfed in its own turmoil, one of the first questions I remember asking Mr. Jammeh was whether he had any intentions of following the footsteps of Samuel Doe, who like Jammeh had seized power in similar fashion at a young age and promising to rid Liberia of greed, nepotism and rampant corruption.
It was the norm for the West African sub-region those days.
In next door Sierra Leone, Valentine Strasser had only a couple of years earlier, in 1992 became the world’s youngest Head of State when he seized power three days after his 25th birthday.
He was the leading member in a group of six young Sierra Leonean soldiers who overthrew president Joseph Saidu Momoh in a military coup and established a junta called the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).
Mirroring Images in Fragile Region
Unlike Jammeh, Strasser’s reign was short-lived.
On January 1996, after nearly four years in power, Strasser was ousted in a second military coup by his own NPRC soldiers who were not satisfied with his handling of the peace process.
Today, he lives in obscurity and in poverty perhaps lamenting in a sea of what-ifs?
This is why I was curious to know what was Mr. Jammeh’s agenda.
How different would he be from Doe! I had seen first-hand as a newspaper boy parading the Monrovia streets and reading headlines to passersby, how easily the trappings of power can easily engulf a young band of leaders and corrupt them after the taste of power, which seemingly knows no boundaries, set in.
Jammeh and his peers suspended the constitution, sealed the borders, and implemented a curfew as he went on to justify the coup by decrying corruption and lack of democracy under the Jawara regime, army personnel had also been dissatisfied with their salaries, living conditions, and prospects for promotion, he would say in his first public broadcast.
But when Secka and I ventured out to statehouse, Jammeh appeared calm, collected and mature for his age as he rejected any resemblance to Doe while pledging to encourage multiparty democracy, the rule of law and rid the country of corruption.
He said that he and his group had no intention of introducing a dictatorship because Gambians were nurtured with democracy.
The mantra was necessary to appeal to the international community which were somewhat content with Sir Dawda.
Mr. Jammeh spoke eloquently about his desire to improve conditions for soldiers.
Prior to the coup, it was not uncommon to hear soldiers complaining about late payments and poor living conditions and the quality of food. Soldiers were also unhappy and quietly resented the better lifestyle of their trainers from powerhouse Nigeria.
Sir Dawda had kept local soldiers at bay while the Nigerian troops enjoyed more benefits and high ranks to the detriment of the local soldiers.
Jammeh went on to declare in the interview that it was necessary for the army to intervene because economic and political problems were taking a toll and when pressed about how soon he hoped to return the country to democratic rule, he declared: “As soon as a new government is instituted, which is composed of mostly civilians, democracy would be in place.”
Paranoia, Murder and Mayhem
True to his word, Jammeh incorporated his government with a lot of civilians but like Doe, the trappings of power began to set in and similarities to Doe began to emerge.
Like Doe who had many of his fellow coup leaders executed, exiled or booted from his circle, so did Jammeh.
Today, Sanna Sabally lives exile in Germany. Both he and Sadibu Hydara, regarded as the most educated of the bunch, were accused of trying to overthrow Jammeh some 20 years ago.
He reportedly died in jail. Edward Singhateh is the current Vice President of the Ecowas commission.
Hydara was the Minister of Interior and the spokesman of the AFPRC. But only months after the coup, Jammeh accused him and Sabally, deputy leader of AFPRC, of an alleged coup plot on the same day that the AFPRC junta was to announce a four-year transitional government to be headed by Jammeh.
Sabally were arrested and detained at the maximum prison while Hydara was reportedly tortured and killed in prison on the order of Jammeh in June 1995.
It was widely believed that Hydara was in favour of returning the country to democratic civilian rule, and was strongly opposed to Jammeh’s candidacy.
But Jammeh had other ideas and pushed to stay in power longer and saw Capt. Hydara as a threat to his ambitions.
Like Doe, Jammeh would go on to transition from a life in the military to a civilian head of state.
In September 1996, he was elected president in an election deemed free and fair by observers but not so fair by Gambians.
In October 2001, Jammeh won 53% of the vote for a second term in elections also deemed free and fair by observers (despite some very serious shortcomings ranging from overt government intimidation of voters to technical innovations, such as raising the required deposit to stand for election by a factor of 25) to distort the process in favour of the incumbent regime.
Jammeh went on to survive several alleged coup attempts while trampling on the rights of his detractors, critics and journalists.
On March 21, 2006, Jammeh, was visiting Mauritania when he was forced to rush home after news of a coup attempt surfaced.
Army chief of staff Col. Ndure Cham, the alleged leader of the plot, reportedly fled to neighbouring Senegal, while other alleged conspirators were arrested and were put on trial for treason.
In April 2007, ten former officers accused of involvement were convicted and given prison sentences; four of them were sentenced to life in prison.
On September 22, 2006, Jammeh ran for a third term and won. The election was initially planned for October but was moved forward because of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
He was re-elected with 67.3% of the vote and was declared the winner of the election; the opposition candidate Ousainou Darboe finished second, as in 2001.
In November 2011, Jammeh was again re-elected as president for a fourth term in office, reportedly having received 72% of the popular vote.
As New Day Dawns, Many Eye Return Home
On Friday, December 2, 2016, after 22 years in power, Mr. Jammeh, the soldier turned civilian head of state, who once claimed a “billion-year” mandate to rule, conceded defeat after a shock election loss to a real-estate developer who once worked as a security guard in London.
Electoral commission chief Alieu Momar Njie said Mr Jammeh received just 36.7 percent of the vote compared to Adama Barrow’s 45.5 percent.
Barrow, 51, a former Argos security guard in London, was able to secure the backing of eight different opposition parties behind his candidacy.
Barrow who worked as a guard while studying, returned home in 2000 to set up his own estate agency.
Jammeh in a pre-recorded statement acknowledged that the vote had been “the most transparent election in the whole world,” adding that he would not contest the result.
“I take this opportunity to congratulate Mr Adama for his victory. It’s a clear victory.”
“I wish him all the best and I wish all Gambians the best. As a true Muslim who believes in the almighty Allah I will never question Allah’s decision.”
“You Gambians have decided,” he said.
In a rare sign for an African dictator departing the stage, Mr. Jammeh told the victor: “I wish you all the best. The country will be in your hands in January”.
“You are assured of my guidance. You have to work with me. You are the elected president of The Gambia. I have no ill will and I wish you all the best.”
For the second time in as many decades, The Gambia is changing leaders without bloodshed. Jammeh’s ouster of Sir Dawda was bloodless and now the ballot box is deciding the next chapter in the country’s political sojourn.
The election result and Jammeh’s demise are without a doubt, a sign of relief for many who managed to escape his wrath. Sheriff Junior, an exile Gambian journalist, now head of the English Service of the West African Democracy Radio and writes frequently for The Guardian, reports for Radio France International, Radio Netherlands and The Chinese News Agency, told FrontPageAfrica Friday that he is looking forward to returning home before the inauguration.
As reports of internet blackouts surfaced on election day, Junior , who fled Jammeh’s wrath some 15 years ago, had been offering updates on WADR and his Facebook page:
“We just spoke to an insider (via a special line – identity concealed for security reasons), and this is the summary of what has been happening on the ground today”.
“Many people are upset and angry about the internet blackout and they have been openly criticizing the decision. Foreign journalists who travelled to the country have been crossing over to Senegal to file their reports.”
Dictator Fell of Cliff of Failed Promises
So, what went wrong with Jammeh, what happened to the promises, the expectations? More importantly how in the world did he surpass the Doe comparison to emerge as one of Africa’s most brutal and feared dictators?
The answer some say point to his distrust of his peers which forced Jammeh into a state of paranoia and heaping more suffering on his people.
For example in 2013 when Jammeh withdrew the Gambia from the Commonwealth, describing it as a neo-colonial institution, the EU responded by slashing aid over concerns for human rights.
A key trade agreement with the US was also abrogated and he unilaterally declared The Gambia as an Islamic republic.
But his most drastic action to date was his decision to withdraw The Gambia from the International Criminal Court, arguing that the institution is biased against Africans.
Some 90% of Gambian residents are Muslim and many say the dictator’s decision was aimed at attracting new backers among wealthy states in the Middle East.
Mr. Jammeh’s use of brutal security agencies to stifle growing dissent led to the deaths of critics and journalists.
One of those was Mr. Deyda Hydra, publisher of the by-weekly The Point newspaper while chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter for the Daily Observer newspaper who disappeared in 2006.
International watchdog groups believed Manneh was arrested in July 2006 and secretly held in custody. He was arrested by state security after attempting to republish a BBC report criticizing Jammeh shortly before an African Union meeting in Banjul.
Despite an order from the ECOWAS Court that he should be released, Manneh who was arrested in front of his co-workers, has not been found. Agence France Press reported in April 2009 that an unnamed police source confirmed Manneh’s arrest but added he believed Manneh “is no longer alive”.
In June 2009, Manneh received the Special Award for journalism under threat from Amnesty International and considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, naming him a “priority case” in 2011.
The Committee to Protect Journalists once described Manneh’s arrest as part of “a climate of fear created by the unsolved murder of Hydara amid a series of unsolved arsons of media houses, and a pattern of government intimidation and prosecution of journalists.”
For many journalists including me, who survived and fled Mr. Jammeh’s dictatorial reign, Barrow’s election marks the end of a long journey against oppression, human rights, abuse, murder and mayhem; the latest in a long line of African dictators wielding iron fists in hopes of solidifying their grips on power to the painful detriment of their own people.