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| Momodou |
Posted - 29 Jan 2017 : 11:36:10
The Parable of the Flies and the Vultures Part 1
Saul Saidykhan
Flies and vultures are two creatures of nature that most people deem to be irritants that they’d rather do without. The two have several things in common among which is the annoying tendency to self-invite to feasts to reap where they never sowed. However, a very significant difference between the two is: flies tend to be more loyal than vultures because at least they stick with their host until the end when he or she is ready to be taken to the grave. Vultures on the other hand, move on quickly to look for their next victim as soon as their current one can no longer provide them sustenance. Our dear little Gambia never seems to be short of vultures though its flies we need more of. We can learn something from both.
With less than three weeks to go, before Yaya Jammeh is made to leave one way or the other, anyone with any sense can tell that the only people loyal to him- the “flies”, are mostly his kinsmen. And this shouldn’t surprise anyone. He has purchased their loyalty with unearned privilege. I wrote about the popular State Guard Commander Karafa Bojang aka Saul Badjie less than two months ago. Karafa is a poster child of how Yaya Jammeh has reduced our country to a medieval fiefdom. Karafa used to be the adjutant (aide) to Brigadier General Yankuba Drammeh, a fellow Bwiam native of different ethnicity. For those with good memory, this was one of the generals Jammeh had summarily demoted to Private before firing from the Gambia army without any explanation. This was in December 2009. Karafa Bojang aka Saul Badjie was only a corporal on the day Yankuba Drammeh was fired! Yet, without any professional military training, he jumped from corporal to the popular and wealthy General everyone now talks about in less than six years. That’s why one WILL NEVER find any videos of General Karafa Bojang aka Saul Badjie addressing any formal military gathering anywhere. The man CANNOT even put together a couple of coherent sentences in English. Any wonder why he cannot write or give a five or ten minutes speech?
To understand the mystery behind Karafa’s meteoric rise, all one needs to do, is talk to his former school mates. You see, during his school days in Bwiam, Karafa was known to whop many a Jola boy who makes the mistake of speaking to him in another Gambian language. That Jola nationalistic fervor became an instant attraction between him and Yaya Jammeh. “Once he completed his first assignment for Oga satisfactorily, he was set” according to a source.
The one thing almost all the flies latching onto the Jammeh gravy train have in common is they’re not worth what he’s paying them in a fair and open labor market where Last Names and creed don’t mean anything. This explains why some are willing to stick with Yaya Jammeh until the very end. Their behavior is not out of altruism. In a Gambia with Rules and Standards where progress depends on merit, they’d never have amounted to much. The Gambia was on the road to that destination – once. But that trip was aborted by none other than Yaya Jammeh and replaced by one that rewards people not for merit, but for “loyalty” (his specific words!)
The old adage that cautions us all to be “careful of what you wish for” comes to mind. Yaya Jammeh has long been openly playing the tribal card when it comes to the Gambia’s security services thinking that’s the surest way to guarantee his lock on power. He shamelessly chased other Gambians away from the army and other security services through discriminatory practices to make way for his kinsmen. Consequently, the more successful he was, the less professional these Gambian institutions became. But in the current jam he is in, having so many Jolas in senior military and other security positions not only complicates things for him diplomatically or image-wise, but substantively, on practical and existential grounds, the titles he has given his kinsmen do not match the skills, training and knowledge needed to help him sail through the current storm gathering on the horizon. Yaya Jammeh knows this and he is TERRIFIED! These General Badjies and Kujabi we know, read, or hear about are NOT military tacticians or strategists. Almost without exception, the Generals surrounding Yaya Jammeh have attended a reputable military academy anywhere. And in the military, the rank of general is defined not by the title, but by the specialized skills acquired by a professional soldier from both practical experience in wars and experimenting (training) over an extended period. In Yaya Jammeh’s army, he dishes out such titles without any regard for the quality of the institution, or the cost to our country’s economy. Anywhere one turns nowadays, it seems there is a Major, or Colonel or General. They seem to have one thing in common: they’re generally grossly under trained. Without anything of substance to occupy their time, most of them have no other hobby than to put on their uniform and drive around town to prey upon impressionable young women including school girls. It’s an entrenched tradition among them, something they copy from their Oga. Ousman Sonko who has been shooting his mouth off to Europeans in the past two months hoping for a sweet-heart deal I’m told by a confidante has close to thirty out-of-wedlock children with different young women. This doesn’t surprise me one bit because I’ve known the guy since 1978. The only thing he loves more than football is women. I know for a fact he is not an exception. I think the average Gambian will be in for a rude shock by the kind of revelations that would be coming out by June of 2017. Anyhow, Yaya Jammeh’s Generals don’t have the foggiest idea about how to defend him from ECOWAS troops and he knows this. It is even doubtful if some of them can operate the Iranian arms they’re banking on as their main arsenal considering most of their troops are now openly deserting. This is where the near panic Essa Bokar Sey reports on emanates.
The whole supreme court nonsense is typical Yaya Jammeh bull crap. The man is a coward who is terrified of going to jail, so he is doing what he does best: distract Gambians! Notice how no one is any longer even broaching the subject of the man’s countless crimes – assassinations, murder, rape, drug-trafficking, money-laundering, counterfeiting. Even when one excludes the politically-motivated crimes, the sheer number of crimes committed by Yaya Jammeh is jarring.
Also, one very neglected aspect of the current drama is the international angle. However, if one pays close attention to global news, there are clues as to why Jammeh might be more worried about the West going after him than many of us Gambians realize. See shortly after he conceded, western wire reports including those from Reuters specifically noted that with Yaya Jammeh gone, illicit drug flow through our region is expected to drop significantly. This implies a key point: the West knew all along that Yaya Jammeh was the lynch-pin in the illicit drug trade in the West Africa region. It is noteworthy to remember that the US has one of Yaya Jammeh’s main partners Bobo Nacho, the former Guinea-Bissau naval commander in custody to testify against him if needs be. My instinct tells me Yaya Jammeh is really worried about this scenario. In the mind of Yaya Jammeh, the US could just pick him up and whisk him away. Remember, for over twenty years, he never passed an opportunity to lob insults at these people. With him out of office, what is there to stop them from putting him in chains considering they have ALL the evidence they need? It is my belief that Mansa Jakut is looking for some assurance from the West that they won’t go and grab him after he leaves office. The bad news for Yaya Jammeh is Mr. Nice Obama is done. Yaya Jammeh will NOT get what he is looking for from the West. More importantly, he better stop making trouble before Donald Trump focuses on him.
And now the whiff of the vultures circling…
In early 2002, I was working and living in Reston, Virginia when two Gambian brothers called from Atlanta to follow up on a discussion we had had earlier on the situation back home. Unlike most of our countrymen, WE believed back then the nature of the character we’re up against in the person of Yaya Jammeh is such that we’re wasting our collective time following conventional democratic routes knowing we’ll never get anywhere dealing with a pseudo-tyrant that keeps setting a moving target. We agreed to explore alternate means of ridding ourselves of the burden.
On the following Saturday morning, I strapped my months old first daughter in her car seat in the back of our van, and embarked on the four-hours drive to Raleigh, NC where we agreed to meet. When I got to the meeting location, I was in for a surprise. In addition to the two brothers I had previously had discussions with and expected, there was an additional participant that I had no idea was going to be there. He is none other than Omar Fye, Yaya Jammeh’s current ambassador to the US. I looked at my Atlanta folks for an explanation as to what was going on. One of the brothers quickly assured me that “Omar is one of us.” There’s nothing to worry about I was assured several times because I kept pestering those two brothers about what was bugging me about Omar Fye even back then.
it was nothing personal. Anyone who has ever met the man and spent some time with him in close quarters will tell you Omar Fye is a likable fellow, but this is about country, not any single person. See, I remember the stories of two NCO soldiers (one from Basse, the other from Kiang) under the command of Major Omar Fye in Liberia during the crisis there in the early 90s. Both said the exact same thing. Major Omar Fye not only sold their ammunition to Charles Taylor, he literally ran, jumped into his jeep and drove off when Taylor’s men later attacked Gambian soldiers in Liberia. One Lt. Kambi stepped up and saved their lives for which he suffered a bullet in the leg. I told my friends from Atlanta that NO ONE who did that could ever be trusted with serious responsibility! Despite my argument, I was told the man has changed. Besides those stories are exaggerated by disgruntled elements. Several weeks later, we met again in a DC suburb in Maryland. Again, Omar Fye was in attendance. At this point, I deliberately switched to spectator/listener mode because it was clear to me that my Atlanta folks were either blinded by sentiments or something else is wrong. God being who He is, a couple of months later, a friend called to inform me that Omar Fye had gone home to make peace with Yaya Jammeh and has been appointed a diplomat. At the ALD weekend that year, I was with Joe Sambou and James Gomez Jr. when Omar Fye’s name came up. Joe pulled me aside and said “Sulayman- I know you’ve been dealing with him, so listen; whatever you do; don’t go there because only god knows what he told Jammeh for the man to feel comfortable enough with him to make him a diplomat.” I thanked Joseph Sambou because that was EXACTLY what I had been thinking about since I heard of Omar Fye’s rapprochement with and appointment by Yaya Jammeh. That was 2002.
For the past fourteen years, Omar Fye has been quiet about all the horrible things Yaya Jammeh has been doing to Gambians until we finally managed to throw him off our back. Now Omar Fye has intruded our public space to proclaim himself a Change Agent. Oh boy!
My brothers from Atlanta are ALL much older than I and literate, so I’m sure they’ll let Gambians know if I’m making this up.
In the new year- god willing, I shall start a blog that I’ll use to chronicle my experience in the fight against Yaya Jammeh’s tyranny – from encounters with charlatans, fraudsters to the deadly. I will use the opportunity to collect and archive my opinions over the Jammeh years in a single location for eventual publication.
The Parable of the Flies and the Vultures -Part 2
By Saul Sadykan
About three years ago, we were treated to some sensational images from Dakar, Senegal of an adult Gambian male in blue jeans, white shirt, and dark blazer spread-eagled and dangling barely off the marbled floor as he was being carried by several security men protecting young Sedia Bayo, the self- proclaimed head of the National Transitional Government of The Gambia apparently inside the lobby of a swanky hotel. In the pictures, he seems to be crying and screaming in a distressed mode. There were controversial reports at the time about what the man was screaming as he was being carried away. Regardless, one NEED NOT hear what he was saying to read the panic the camera captured on his face. If not for his size and age, one might be forgiven for mistaking the ruckus for the recalcitrance of a petulant teenage brat throwing a fit and disturbing public peace. This Dakar incident is particularly remarkable for two reasons: 1. Such treatments are often meted out to bums and the down-trodden and 2. The rapidity with which the man melt down into panic mode suggests to me someone whose conscience is probably weighed down by what he knows is happening in our country despite his pretense. Which brings us to his identity. When one takes a close look at the face of the figure in the picture, it becomes obvious that the man crying and screaming in panic in the pictures from Dakar is none other than Mr. Amadou Samba, a very wealthy man by any standards who is nearly sixty years old if not already. (He has cleverly blocked search engines including Wikipedia from revealing his personal details. Even his own BlogSpot About ME section provides no useful bio info on him.) Anyhow, despite Amadou’s pretense, or despite it, HE is the one Gambian who knows more about Yaya Jammeh’s business dealings than any other Gambian citizen. Or so we thought.
Dr. Amadou Scattred Janneh who had a front row seat to the Dakar spectacle became Amadou Samba’s scape goat for triggering the scandal that led to his humiliation in Dakar. But Dr. Janneh’s version and common sense tells us something different was probably at play in Mr. Samba’s mind in Dakar. Let’s quickly review the basic facts of the story as we now know them. The location of the incident is a four star hotel with 24-hour human and electronic security. Now, one must ask what could possibly cause a grown man like Amadou Samba – close confidante to a Head-of-State of a neighboring country, to go off the cliff so quickly INSIDE such a hotel where he had stayed at before just because he was approached by some body guards inside an elevator wanting to know why he seems to be shadowing another guest. These men by the way spoke to Amadou Samba in his native Wolof! Regardless, within minutes, Samba was weeping like a terrified little child, and allegedly loudly proclaiming that he has nothing to do with “what’s going on there” (Gambia)or something to that effect. Exactly what was Amadou Samba alluding to when he bleated out in his panic that HE didn’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the Gambia? So Amadou Samba knew even back then that something wrong was going on in The Gambia. But then, like I say, it’s always much easier to fool others.
In the last seven weeks after the Gambian elections, Amadou Samba has been a very busy man. He has publicly called on his erstwhile benefactor Yaya Jammeh to respect the will of the Gambian people, and with the help of some friendly scribes has embarked on an image re-hash. The only problem is, Amadou Samba is going about his new PR campaign the wrong way: 1.) he has been pushing his luck by insulting our collective intelligence by stating things that are clearly untrue. 2. He’s been threatening some Gambian citizens and media for publishing their opinions about his over two-decades old association with Yaya Jammeh.
Since the election, Sidi Sanneh, the former Jammeh-Insider turned-blogger wrote two posts about Amadou Samba. Forgive me for being cynical, but I’d like to point out a truism about the postings: I’ve found the postings to be more revealing of Mr. Sanneh’s own mindset than anything he wrote about Amadou Samba’s murky business dealings or relationship with the brutal autocrat who has made our country unlivable for so many of us. The reason is simple. Mr. Sanneh’s posts are peppered with patronizing platitudes about forging a common front against Jammeh and forgetting the past when we are YET to exit the past! Even as I write this, there are many Gambians that went missing during the height of the Jammeh madness who are still unaccounted for. What is even more perplexing being Mr. Sanneh left unchallenged comments Amadou Samba made to him that are clearly preposterous. Amadou Samba claims he is Yaya Jammeh’s personal Manager – not Business Manager, because Jammeh is “erratic” and Sidi Sanneh believes that bull crap? What is Amadou Samba? A psychologist, psychiatrist, Image- Maker, Lobbyist, PR-Specialist? What qualifies him for that role? Does this man take all Gambians for *****s? Sidi Sanneh did not ask any of these simple questions.
And it gets worse. On the Panama Papers allegations. Amadou Samba said -according to Sidi Sanneh, he is the owner of ALL the three (3) companies listed that own an estimated 900 million US dollars in the tax shelter. Amadou disputes the 900 million dollars figure. Yet Uncle Sidi Sanneh once again failed to ask a basic question: what is the correct amount you saved? Is it 500 million dollars then; how about 600, 700, 800? Whether the man answers truthfully or not is his choice, but it’s useful to have this on record.
Here are some other things on record about Amadou Samba despite his claims that he was a businessman for thirty-five years (35) who had nothing to do with the madness of the Jammeh system. For years, Amadou Samba was the Chairman of the Judicial Services Commission. This is the body that is responsible for hiring ALL these despicable mercenary judges that Yaya Jammeh has been using to “legally” terrorize Gambians for much of his rule. Practicing lawyers will tell you of instances where West African hustlers are hired off the streets in Banjul only to be used by the government to go after its enemies – real or imagined. Many of us in the diaspora have been complaining about these judges for years. Amadou Samba had a DIRECT hand in their recruitment because he signed off on their recommendation! Those busy White-Washing Amadou Samba’s history should think about ALL the innocent Gambians that were sent to jail by these corrupt judges and how they were hired over the past decade plus.
Second, Amadou Samba is also Chairman of the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation SSHFC. The SSHFC is a social Safety Net program. This is a Contributory Benefit Pension Scheme where government/ employer gets to withhold a small portion of employees pay that is matched by the employer and manage it as a fiduciary duty until they retire at which point they start to draw monthly sums till death. Now anyone who has a retired parent or grandparent in the past ten to fifteen years will tell you how utterly broken the system has become- and not just because of the impact of inflation on the Dalasi. Like other revenue sources of government, the SSHFC had become a source for slush funds for Yaya Jammeh. Anyone need an indicator of how misplaced their priorities are? Other than the main arteries in Banjul, the streets are impassable during the rainy season, yet the SSHFC invested millions of Dalasi to build a housing estate in a no-where village called Kaninlai.
These two positions are NOT posts that any ordinary business person will accept. So, who is fooling who?
Notice I haven’t even mentioned a word about the countless Duty Waivers Yaya Jammeh must have granted his erstwhile bosom buddy over the twenty plus years’ period and what the cost of these are to the economy, or the MONOPOLY rights for the import of several commodities. Any good 10th Grade student of Economics can tell one the negative impact these had on the Gambian people and economy in the last two decades.
I get the big picture. I’m all for reconciliation and moving on. But please let’s keep the real victims of Yaya Jammeh’s madness in mind here. It’s the Gambian people. So, let’s stop the nonsense of trying to be smart by half. I’ve heard from none lawyers like myself zinging legalese on the subject. But I recall something my Business Law professor, a former US Federal Prosecutor used to say: lack of evidence isn’t the same thing as evidence of innocence! Poor Gambians may not know how Amadou Samba came up with the hundreds of millions he stashed in Panama, but he does. Karma has caught up with his friend Yaya Jammeh, his turn will come if he refuses to do right. The truth has started to roll out and this will only accelerate.
So Amadou, if you truly love your country, do the honorable thing by returning some of the money you and Yaya Jammeh looted from her. You don’t owe Yaya Jammeh anything but you owe Gambians. He is a degenerate and unrepentant crook. You know how expensive, cumbersome and labyrinthine and time-consuming the legal process could be. Why make your country take legal action against you? Why subject a poor and desperately broke country like ours to such ordeal? You know the amount of money in the accounts and you know the source of the money. More importantly, you know what your tax obligations are. Do the honorable and patriotic thing instead of hiding behind some of these ridiculous charlatans running all over the place lobbying for you. The worst mistake the Barrow administration will make is to assume they have a Blank Check from some of us by cuddling those that were part of either the Jammeh terror or corrupt business network.
Another key point for Amadou and like-minded is: even if you become the richest people on the planet, you’ll NEVER be able to buy some of us simply because we’re NOT for sale! It’s in your best interest to remember this.
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A few corrections on Part 1.
1. Omar Fye was initially appointed to the cabinet before being fired and later appointed to a diplomatic position in Mauritania.
2. The name of the Guinea-Bissau naval Commander is Bubo Na Tchuto not Bobo Nacho. For some reason, the pronunciation and spelling of Portuguese names throw me off.
3. The sentence “Almost without exception, the Generals surrounding Yaya Jammeh have attended a reputable military academy anywhere” should read Almost without exception, NONE OF the Generals surrounding Yaya Jammeh have attended a reputable military academy anywhere.
Sorry for the oversight. |
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