Don’t Go to War in Gambia
This week is a tense and anxious one in Gambia as well as in West Africa generally as the clock ticks away towards January 19. President-elect Adama Barrow, who was elected last month, is expected to be inaugurated on that day but Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled Gambia for 22 years, has so far given […]
This week is a tense and anxious one in Gambia as well as in West Africa generally as the clock ticks away towards January 19. President-elect Adama Barrow, who was elected last month, is expected to be inaugurated on that day but Yahya Jammeh, who has ruled Gambia for 22 years, has so far given every indication that he intends to hang on to power, with the apparent support of the Chief of the Gambian Army.
The tragedy of this situation is that what began on a promising note degenerated in short order to old style sit-tightism and promise of violent upheaval. Jammeh received praise all over Africa and the world when he initially conceded defeat. He posted a video of himself phoning President-elect Barrow and pledging to cooperate with him in the transition. Only a week later, Jammeh completely reversed himself, said there were irregularities in the election and he called for a fresh one under a reconstituted electoral commission.
Earlier this month Yahya Jammeh upped the ante when he took his case to the Gambian Supreme Court. The case could not be heard however because the court did not have enough judges, many of whom come from neighbouring West African countries to sit on cases. The Chief Justice said the earliest the case could be dealt with is in May, when many judges will be available. Undaunted, Jammeh’s lawyer then asked the court to grant an injunction restraining the Chief Justice from swearing in Barrow as president. He also sought for another injunction restraining Adama Barrow from presenting himself for inauguration. The Gambian Bar Association responded to these pleas by saying any attempt to stop the new president’s inauguration would be treasonable.
Matters got to this level despite very strident efforts by West African leaders led by President Muhammadu Buhari to persuade Yahya Jammeh to stand by his initial concession and stand down when his term of office expires on January 19. On December 13 last year, Buhari and several other West African leaders including President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and the then Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahma visited Banjul, the Gambian capital and held talks with both Jammeh and Barrow. Even though they said they were well received, Jammeh refused to give a clear commitment to step down. The leaders met again two weeks ago on the sidelines of the inauguration of new Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo in Accra.
On Monday last week Buhari, who is the chief mediator with Mahma as co-mediator, hosted another meeting in Abuja at which the leaders decided to visit Gambia again. The visit was earlier slated for last Wednesday but it was moved to Friday at Jammeh’s request. In the end Buhari, Mahma, Johnson-Sirleaf as well as ECOWAS and African Union [AU] officials visited Banjul last Friday and had meetings with Jammeh. From all indications the mission did not succeed. There was no announcement that Yahya Jammeh will hand over this Friday and his government is clearly digging in as D-Day approaches.
When the West African leaders met in Accra, they ominously said “all options remain on the table” to deal with the growing problem. That was a thinly veiled threat to use military force to remove Jammeh. Not too surprisingly, an online medium later published a story claiming that President Buhari has ordered the army to put together a battalion of 800 troops to be deployed to Gambia to remove Jammeh. The report even said the battalion is based in Ondo State and that it will be complemented by airforce and naval forces and will be led by experienced Army Generals. However, Army Headquarters heatedly denied this story. Its spokesman said it is a figment of the medium’s imagination and he warned reporters to always crosscheck with it before publishing stories that could impact on national security.
We believe the Army’s assurance that no military force is being assembled for action in Gambia. We however wish to go further and advise Buhari and his colleagues not to resort to the use of military force to solve this problem, a big blot though Jammeh’s action is on African honour and dignity. Instead, others have proposed alternative lines of action short of military force. The House of Representatives for example has urged Buhari to offer asylum to Jammeh if he agrees to step down. Since 1978 Nigeria has offered asylum to many African leaders such as Felix Malloum of Chad, Siad Barre of Somalia, Yormie Johnson of Liberia, Foday Sankoh of Sierra Leone and Charles Taylor of Liberia in order to promote peace in their countries. So far Jammeh has shown no desire to go into exile. Nor would he be encouraged by the fact that when Nigeria granted asylum to Charles Taylor in 2003, it later handed him over to the International Criminal Court to stand trial for war crimes.
On its part, AU has promised to withdraw recognition to Jammeh from January 19 if he fails to step down. This is a good line of action. ECOWAS, AU and the UN should all ostracise Jammeh’s regime and exert every possible political and diplomatic pressure on him. Near-completely surrounded as Gambia is by Senegal, Jammeh cannot hold on for long. That is much better than resorting to military action, which has a way of spinning out of control. In any case, we should not set a dangerous precedent because if this episode were to happen in a bigger West African country, the leaders will not be able to resort to force.