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Momodou
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 Posted - 05 Aug 2007 : 18:00:36
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FOCUS ON POLITICS
THE 1981 POLITICAL CRISIS
TRIALS RELATING TO 1981 ABORTIVE COUP ENDED;
AS STATE OF EMERGENCY CONTINUED
With Suwaibou Touray
We have been focusing on politics in this column and because of the fact that politics and history are intertwined; we are making a narrative of the historical events from pre-colonial to post-independence era. We have reported the happenings of the mid 1984 and the economic crises that ensued. We have stopped where we quoted Joseph E. Stiglitz where he asserted that the consequences of debt are dramatic, as with debt crises, but most commonly the debt burden shows its face as countries struggle to avoid default.
Let us continue from where we stopped.
From mid 1984, the issue of drought dominated the official media. Even though the major cause of the Austerity measures was the external debt, Government used the drought as the scape goat for the crises. A drought relief fund was eventually established and the Vice President, Mr. Bakary B. Dabo was to manage it. All sectors were urged to contribute including individuals.
People contributed as low as D15 and others contributed in thousands. For example, Mrs. Alice Carr contributed D500, badge messengers in almost all the districts contributed, ie, Kiang Central district- D35.55 butus, Kiang West D100, Sandu D55.00 and so on. Tobacco road mosque contributed D176.20 bututs; Gambia Dockworkers D2000.
Most of the schools such as staff of Passamas Primary School in Wuli put in D87.00 companies such as African Enterprises Ltd put in D500, staff of Gambia College also put in D720.50. According to records, religious bodies such as the Baptist Fellowship also chipped in D1000.
It appeared that the crises made the Gambia government to look eastwards to untapped sources such as South Korea to see if such emerging economies could bail The Gambia out of the debacle. Sir Dawda visited Seoul, South Korea for the first time on Wednesday 12 September 1984. Korea was said to have provided The Gambia with the services of three Medical doctors before the president’s visit
and that excludes a radiologist. According to reports, Sir Dawda was to seek for increase of the number of doctors from Korea. Korea and South Korea contributed $10,000 dollars and so on.
The country continued to grapple with the crises. After the July 20th 1984 Budget Session, many commodity prices had registered dramatic increases, forcing the Minister of Finance and Trade, Mr. Sheriff Sisay, to intervene in a form of a release warning that the said increases were not justifiable and that importers and retailers were asked to revert to the prices that were in force before the budget, and that failure of which the appropriate action would be
taken by the price control unit.
Mr. Sisay also referred to his revenue proposals in his budget, amounting to D23, 073, 758 and said it is the highest that has been ever been raised in a single fiscal year in this country.
The estimated revenue for 1984/85 was at D149, 565, 700 registering a total revenue of D172, 642, 458 for 1984/85.
He expressed that government intends to collect every butut of the budget. This was why observers said it was a tough and hard hearted budget.
The people were also informed that a central revenue department would be established to strengthen the revenue collection system; that arrears and current taxes due to government would also be vigorously collected.
The treason trials which the regime used as the reason for maintaining the state of Emergency had now come to an end. According to Mr. Baboucarr Gaye of the Sun, the treason trial came to an end at about Friday 28 April 1984.
The treason trial that was said to be the longest trial since the July 1981 incident commenced on November 24 1982. In this trial, five people have been acquitted and discharged. A sub-inspector, one Ansu Sawo, died in hospital during the course of the trial. He was said to have been seriously wounded at the time of the rebellion but was among the five acquitted. Field force officers and one civilian, James Ogoo, a teacher, were also among those acquitted and discharged. Reports also mentioned one man discharged on all counts but his name could not be captured by reporters, he was said to be suffering from hearing defect and was declared deaf by a medical officer.
This judgment by Justice Macos Cole was said to be the end of the treason trials resulting from 30th July 1981 rebellion, almost three years after the event.
According to the Sun, 1091 people were officially detained for alleged complicity in the abortive coup or rebellion; that 188 persons were charged and taken to court; and out of that number, 137 persons were convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment for offences such as treason , treasonable felony, murder and kidnapping .The Sun in its assessment of the court cases, ascertained that out of the 188 taken to court, 50 persons were acquitted and discharged by the courts while three died naturally during the course of their trials.
According to reports, of the people charged with treason, 63 persons were subsequently sentenced to death whose sentences have been confirmed by the court of Appeal but were later commuted by the president to either life or twenty (20) years imprisonment, as an act of mercy by the president of the Republic.
The reports went on to sum up the cost of the trials which the state footed; that from may 1982 to the end of February 1984, the state has spent over D3½ million dalasis on the remuneration of judges, prosecutors and defence counsels.
Two main opposition leaders were implicated and charged with treason and many other counts, ie, Mr. Sheriff Mustapha Dibba and Mr. Pap Cheyassin Secka. Mr. Dibba was eventually acquitted and discharged whilst Mr. Pap Cheyassin Secka was sentenced to death but was among those whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. At about April 1984, Mr. Secka had a successful operation carried out by Dr. Soranki, an Indian doctor working at the Royal Victoria Hospital. He
was later put on a special diet.
The 1981 crisis has now been over as far as the trials emanating from it were concerned. It was now left with the state of Emergency laws to effectively and finally put the country behind the crisis. The state of Emergency had curtailed the freedom of the ordinary Gambian as well as the parties in the opposition.
According to Mr. Dibba in an interview with the Sun, the state of Emergency should be lifted as the state was no longer in his opinion threatened at the time. He also indicated that his party could not express itself as it would have loved to do because of the state of emergency.
By October 11 1984, something happened which indicated that all is not well with the confederation. The Vice President of the confederation, the Gambian president was said to have agreed with the president of the confederation, Abdou Joof to remove Mr. Mustapha Niasse, formerly, confederal minister of external
relations from office. It was not clear whether because of the fall out between the Senegalese president and Mr. Niasse was the cause but earlier reports show that in a one day session in Dakar May 3rd 1984. to discuss movement towards economic and monetary union, president Abdou Joof called for the institutions of the confederation to operate normally and in line with the austerity measures adopted by the confederation.
It was also revealed by Mr. Kah that a pool of accounting officers had been created to be headed by a Senegalese Financial comptroller but assisted by a Senegalese and a Gambian.
The confederation got a surprise boost at the end of the year 1984, when Sheriff M. Dibba, the NCP leader made an open support for it after keeping mute on the issue since its declaration in 1982. According to the Sun, Sheriff had always refrained from making any public declaration on the confederation.
The Sun also said even though Mr. Dibba, the NCP leader broke the silence, the position of the NCP still remained unclear; that what was known was that the NCP criticized the Government in power for not having involved it in the process of establishing the confederation, to the extent that the NCP refused to participate in the deliberations of The Gambian house of parliament, on the
ratification of the main confederal agreement.
According to the Sun, in spite of the hostility shown, the NCP had two members in the confederal parliament, which the NCP leader said was an indication of his party’s support for the confederation.
The year 1984 witnessed two important developments, ie, a contract for the construction of the Banjul/ Serrekunda Highway at an initial cost of D24 million dalasis, was contracted to one Louis Diaz De Losada, whose director was one Mr. Horst Sommer of Afro Atlantic Fame. It is a 4 lane each 7.5 metres wide, two going in either direction. It is eleven (11) kilometers long, costing D2 million
dalasis per kilometre.
The project was jointly financed through the Sandi Fund and ADB sources. The second thing was the introduction of an identification system of ID cards for Gambian nationals in 1984 for the first time in Gambian history. I t was initially meant to boost up security for the state.
See next issue as we move into the events of 1985.
source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 90/2007, 3-5 August, 2007
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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