WHEN YOU HAVE LIVED in a bubble for so long as Yahya Jammeh has, anything becomes possible, including the belief that one has a cure for HIV AIDS while embarking on a killing spree against journalists and opposing voices against the order of the day.
AHEAD OF THURSDAY’S inauguration of the winner of recent Gambian elections, Mr. Jammeh, who came to power in a bloodless coup on July 22, 1994, remains defiant about his plans to remain in power, clinging on to his outrageous claims that the elections were rigged – even after he himself embraced the results and placed a phone call to Mr. Adama Barrow acknowledging defeat.
BARROW WHO is currently in next door Senegal is due to return for his inauguration Thursday amid reports that a West African force is standing by to boot him from power by force as many Gambians flee to be out of the way of an impending showdown.
AHEAD OF THURSDAY’S inauguration, Jammeh has seen his stocks fall like flies; with several of his senior ministers abandoning their posts and leaving him on an island on his own.
THE MINISTERS FOR FINANCE, foreign affairs, trade, the environment have resigned, following earlier resignation of Information Minister Sheriff Bojang.
THIS FOLLOWS Monday’s pronouncement by Chief Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle that he is pulling out of a case filed by Jammeh seeking to stop the inauguration of President-elect Adama Barrow. Fagbenle said late on Monday that he could not hear the new case, dealing a blow to Jammeh’s efforts to halt the inauguration of Barrow.
THIS IS WHY WE support a decision by regional leaders who have signalled their determination to mount a rare African defence of democratic principle by using force to ensure that Mr. Jammeh, who has ruled The Gambia for the past 22 years, gives up power following his defeat in an election last month.
THE REPORTED PLAN led by Nigeria who have asked British military advisers to assist in planning a “rapid reaction” military incursion into Gambia in order to install Mr. Barrow, we believe is the only remedy to end the ongoing impasse.
JAMMEH’S STUBBORNESS clearly illustrate why dictators hanging on to power for so many years have this belief that they are so well loved by the people over whom they have inflict so much hardship.
THEY FAIL THE REALIZE that the people living in fear and oppression simply have no choice so the play along to the songs and dance to the tunes, no matter how painful their struggles.
IN MR. JAMMEH’S CASE he was so full of himself into believing that he could win a free and fair elections because he was loved by his people and left his faith to the ballot box.
GAMBIANS ROSE UP to the challenge and called him a bluff, defeating his cause and ruining his plans to hang on to power for perhaps another 22 years.
IN RECENT DAYS, some have suggested a possible asylum or exile for Mr. Jammeh, to an African country, in exchange for him stepping down. But this is not very wise.
WE HAVE SEEN the likes of former Liberian President Charles Taylor who left his fate to Nigeria and is today languishing in jail, unlikely to see daylight for the rest of his life.
JAMMEH’S PLOT to usurp democracy should not be rewarded with exile or the fate that followed the likes of former Ugandan President Idi Amin.
SADLY, MR. JAMMEH must be killed and his body thrown to the wolves as a strong reminder to other dictators that it is not their right to hang on to what is not theirs to keep.
PERHAPS MR. JAMMEH has given up on hope and on life. His bubbled-filled life and fears of losing the luxury of power he has enjoyed over the past 22 years appears to be getting the best of him.
HIS TROUBLED, WORRIED and now infamous prank phone call to Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf may be the last sign of a desperate man clinging on to power that is rapidly slipping from his grasp.
MR. JAMMEH TOLD Sirleaf, who is leading efforts to ensure respect for the outcome of last December’s election, that the “status quo” had to remain until his country’s Supreme Court decides on an application by his party.
MR. JAMMEH’S application is aiming for the court “to restrain Barrow from being sworn-in as well as restraining the Chief Justice or any other person from swearing Barrow, into office.”
BECAUSE THE GAMBIA does not have qualified judges, judges from Nigeria and Sierra Leone traditionally preside at the Supreme Court in special sessions between May and November.
MR. JAMMEH’S APPEAL to Sirleaf to help facilitate the availability of the judges, although the Nigerian and Sierra Leonean judiciary had already said they could not do so until May, is a last-ditch effort to prolong his hold on power and delay Mr. Barrow’s inauguration.
THIS IS WHY it is important for the world to realize that rulers like Jammeh do not comprehend the logic of democracy. The only language they understand is force and
dictatorship. This is why his stance and stubbornness must be dealt the same recipe that he has inflicted on his people for nearly two decades.
MR. JAMMEH does not deserve a dignified exit from power. He deserves to be disgraced for disregarding the vote of his people and failing to step aside when the world around him is rapidly already fallen apart.