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Momodou
Denmark
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 Posted - 02 Nov 2007 : 17:17:02
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FOCUS ON POLITICS
1988; THE YEAR WHEN THE SENEGAMBIA CONFEDERATION SHOWED SIGNS OF CRACKS
With Suwaibou Touray
We have been focusing on politics in general and Gambian politics in particular in this column. This is what motivates us to follow the narration of political events from the pre- colonial to post –independence era.
In the last issue we have started to reproduce Foroyaa’s interview with president Jawara during a Press Conference where his position on democracy in relation to the Local Government and chieftaincy elections was challenged.
Let us continue from where we stopped.
Whilst Foroyaa was questioning president Jawara on chieftaincy elections, three districts were brazing themselves for an election; i.e. Niamina East, Jarra East and Kombo East. The fourth district, Wuli East was also due for election at the time but it was not included for undisclosed reasons according to the Nation.
The Nation also questioned how democratic was the institution of chieftaincy and why was it that only yard owners were entitled to nominate and vote for a chief?
The Nation recalled FOROYAA’ interview with president Jawara and expressed wonder as to what kind of democracy that was when people could propose and an individual disposes. The Nation asserted that this type of democracy could not be the so-called Westminster style of democracy, which the PPP claimed to have inherited from Britain. The Nation opined that it is quite absurd that whilst chiefs rule over everyone in their districts, the yard owners only elect them.
Yard owners in the provinces, the nation wrote, are usually old men and that means that the women and the rest of the citizens are effectively disenfranchised during chieftaincy elections. The Nation opined jokingly and said it could fittingly be called one of two things, i.e. Sembocracy or Gentocracy but certainly not Democracy.
The Nation argued that the president removes chiefs only when they fall foul with the state but certainly not for anything else such as the national interest as claimed by the president. The Nation cited a chief who was infirmed for more than two years who would not neither be removed by the people nor the regime as long as he was not doing anything that offended the regime. The Nation challenged the PPP regime to stipulate the criteria or qualification to be a chief. They argued that there was none; that the only and the most important qualification for one to be a chief and remain so was the unquestionable loyalty to the PPP. Full stop. This is why the Nation posited that there was not a single chief in the whole Gambia who was allied to the opposition. It remarked that the absurdity of the selection criteria for chiefs is, no doubt, one of the reasons why chiefs were being screened and short-listed as candidates for elections, a power which did not rest with the people but with the minister of Local Government whose prerogative it was to choose who should or should not be given a ballot box. The other verbal criteria laid down during nomination do not guarantee anyone the right to get a ballot box for the elections.
In view of the partisan nature of the chieftaincy and the fact that most of them are illiterates who have no idea as to what the law is, it is quite ironical that the chiefs would sit as magistrates in their districts, the Nation argued.
By 31st January 1988, The Gambia and Senegal celebrated the Senegambia confederation in both Dakar and Banjul and which was graced by both presidents. Observers of the period expressed that the two leaders were not actually speaking the same language. They observed that whilst president Abdou Diouf was stressing on the oneness of the peoples of the confederation, Sir Dawda appeared to be at pains to stress on the independence and sovereignty of the two political entities.
According to the Nation, instead of referring to the confederation like a single political entity as Diouf did, the Gambian president kept on referring to it as the “Confederated states”.
According to the Nation, whilst president Diouf saw the confederation as a first step towards the eventual union of the two countries, Jawara saw it purely as a marriage of convenience.
Sir Dawda in his address at the celebration mentioned, among other things, that the institutions of the confederation, which were created in cognisance with the national sovereignty and the democratic principles of our two countries continue to mature and function satisfactorily. He cited the confederal parliament and the council of ministers that continue to meet to discuss matters of significance. He also cited the General Secretariat and the presidency, which he said was the principal operating organ of the confederation as well as the various confederal ministries that were also performing their functions satisfactorily, despite some manpower and financial resource constraints.
President Jawara opined that these developments would not have been possible without dedication and devotion to duty of the officials of the confederated states at various levels of their confederal institutions.
After the celebrations, many Gambians expressed opinions in Newspapers. One student commented that what has been proven by history was that unity is not and cannot be expressed so easily on paper; that it has to be an expressed will of the people concerned; that any forced, unequal accord, whether on confederal or federal terms, cannot exist without using violence to maintain the force that gave birth to it.
There were others who accused Senegal of being a neo-colonialist state and cited French military bases there as an example. Others in fact went to the extent of saying that even the word Senegambia was synonymous with a Gambian subject to Senegal; that we are no longer given due regard and respect as a people pertaining to a certain nation but we lived in a world of mockery and scorn.
The opposition to the Senegambia confederation continued to build up, pioneered by the PDOIS party. One commentator blamed both Senegal and Gambian authorities and accused them of perpetrating an act, which according to him if unchecked could lead to an incident in which brother would kill brother, which he opined, was already enough. Narrow nationalist feelings such as the above were also developing mainly among the youth.
See next issue as we delve into issues of mid 1988.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issues
Issue No. 129/2007, 2 – 4 November 2007
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