Et tu, Jammeh?
He, certainly, has the longest name among African leaders bar the late Mobutu: Yahaya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkun Jammeh. He refuses to wear the crown of ex-president of The Gambia bestowed on him by his people. The man is sitting on a three-legged stool, contesting his right not to be voted out of office as president […]
He, certainly, has the longest name among African leaders bar the late Mobutu: Yahaya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkun Jammeh.
He refuses to wear the crown of ex-president of The Gambia bestowed on him by his people. The man is sitting on a three-legged stool, contesting his right not to be voted out of office as president of The Gambia. God almighty, after 22 years as absolute ruler, Jammeh is putting his tiny country, all 4,361 square miles of it with its 1.8 million people on the world map for the wrong reasons. He wants to defy the wish of the people and sit tight as a member of the African big men’s club. It is a cruel reminder that this dreadful affliction that has ruined many an African leader, has not quite been cured by the democratic prescription of recognising that the people are the custodians of power.
I am happy that Jammeh’s fellow ECOWAS leaders saw the danger if he is allowed to take his country down that leper’s isolated residence. Four of them, including Muhammadu Buhari, rushed to him on Tuesday last week to try and persuade the man not to disgrace himself and put the future of democracy in Africa under a huge question mark. It is a cause for cheer that African leaders are increasingly prepared to rise in defence of the sanctity of the ballot box.
But the four presidents, Buhari of Nigeria, Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson of Liberia, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone and John Mahama of Ghana, left the meeting with Jammeh with sealed lips. Mum so far as of this writing, has been the word. An indication Jammeh will ignore them, stick to his gun and take his country down the path of ruin.
It seems to me that barring any political miracles, Jammeh will shatter the stability in this relatively peaceful African country. He is about to write his name in the black book of African politicians hoisted, dead or alive, on the petard of their own infamy. The man refuses to go quietly. It is a death wish. Not my wish; his wish.
Jammeh was a lowly ranking captain in his country’s army in 1994 when he edged his way into power in a bloodless coup against President Dauda Jawara. He made his distinguished entrance on the world political stage wearing some funny clothes. For 22 years, no one has been able to quite place him. He has made no impression on the continental or the world stage. I am not too sure that until now, many people remembered him as one of African leaders. I am also willing to bet that he has so far left his country more or less as he found it – poor, wretched and struggling for the basic things that people elsewhere take for granted.
He has ruled this tiny West African country with an iron fist. He prospered, as all most African leaders do, while the grass gets browner around their people. I understand the bushes in The Gambia teem with bush meat. A potential foreign exchange earner had the president had business sense to export them to our country.
Jammeh was smart enough to see that military rule in Africa had lost its mystique and romance. He wisely transformed himself into a civilian president. He received his needed legitimacy in a 1996 election. He contested and won the election on the platform of his new political party. Its curious but still unique name is Alliance for Patriotism for Re-orientation and Construction. He won subsequent elections in 2001 and 2006.
This time, his people decided they had had enough of him for 22 years. They wanted a new man with a new thinking and a new sense of direction. Their new preferred man is Adama Barrow, the president-elect. I hope the country would avoid the anomaly of a sitting ex-president with all the powers and a sitting new president sans power.
Jammeh initially accepted the people’s verdict. Three days later, he suddenly began the process that would take him down the road to infamy. He rejected the result. He now wants to contest it in the Supreme Court. In this he runs the ring around himself. The Supreme Court has not been empanelled since 2014, according to The Gambian Bar Association. A minor irritation for the absolute ruler, I think. He cannot be short of pliant justices willing to do his bidding by bending the law to his wish. Dangerous antics by a man who suddenly found that the longer he stays in power the sweeter the power gets.
After 22 years, what else does Jammeh has to offer his people? New economic and development paradigms? A new sense of national direction? Nothing. At 51 with 22 years on the throne, he is an empty man being pushed by blind of ambition to cling to power. The man does not even have a sense of gratitude.
Ghana gives us hope that Africa would not retrogress in the quiet but firm institutionalisation of constitutional government. Perhaps Jammeh has not even heard of Ghana and why it is the pride of Africa because of what it has made of the tenets of democracy. Perhaps, he believes that nothing has changed on the continent and that the subversion of the people’s will by their leaders is still the creed Africa and the Africans live by. Perhaps, his real ambition is to remain in power for the sake of power.
The Gambia confronts African leaders with a lingering continental challenge: the consolidation of democracy with a simple respect for the will of the people expressed through the ballot box. We are a long way from the shore in these choppy waters of instability. We need not weep. We have come a long way from when African countries were barred by the OAU from interfering in the internal affairs of other African countries. Under that old rule, Buhari and the other ECOWAS leader would have just shrugged, kept their mouths shut and left Jammeh to his devises in The Gambia.
Now, African leaders happily recognise that no country on the continent is an isolated island unto itself. What happens in one country has implications and ramifications for the other countries. My prescription? The AU needs a military muscle to help protect the sanctity of the ballot box and force scoundrels to respect the will and the wish of the people.