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Momodou
Denmark
11641 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Aug 2016 : 12:47:11
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Gambia. Why do we repeat the errors of others?
By Madi Jobarteh
Once again another harmless, peaceful and law abiding Gambian Solo Koroma has died in prison as a political prisoner for merely expressing his constitutional right to demonstrate. After being subjected to a brutal crackdown and torture like tens of his compatriots, this old man has been forced into jail only to lose his life because the Government of the Gambia has decided to disregard the rule of law and protect the rights of citizens as enjoin on it by Section 17 of our constitution.
For most of the time in the past 22 years, Gambia has received more statements of concern and rebuke than any non-conflict country in Africa. Yet the Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa with a very homogenous population and a previously uninterrupted 30-year history of the best democratic dispensation inside Africa. Today the Gambia has registered itself as a pariah nation by the uncountable number of wrongs perpetuated by Pres. Yaya Jammeh and Gambians against each other.
And this pains me so much because every wrong thing we are doing are the very wrong things that Idi Amin and Ugandans did 40 years ago. It is the same wrong things Samuel Doe and Liberians did 40 years ago. It is the same wrong things Mobutu and the Zairois did 50 years ago. They are the same wrong things Momoh and Strasser and Sierra Leoneans did 25 years ago. It is the same wrong things Ghadaffi and Libyans did 45 years ago. It is the same wrong things Bokassa and Central Africans did 40 years ago. The same wrong things Siad Barre and Somalians did 40 years ago. The same wrong things Habyarimana and Rwandans did 25 years ago. The same wrongs done by Egyptians and Mubarak 30 years ago. The list goes on…
So how on earth can Gambians and Yaya Jammeh think that they can do the same wrong things today and expect to fly. To add salt to injury, the very officials and intellectuals in the government, who know better about these wrongs in other parts of the world want to tell us that after all Gambia is on the right track. Some of our people are so ridiculous that they claim that the Gambia has Allah's blessings. As if Iraq did not have the same Allah's blessings even as Saddam Hussain and Iraqis perpetuated these same wrongs and killing the soul of the nation. If these nations did not survive these wrong things, how on earth could we think that the Gambia will succeed in following and doing these same wrong things?
What position, what wealth and what prestige would you be so keen to protect with pride while you are so plunged neck-deep in wrongdoings? Why are we not helping ourselves and our future by insisting that our leaders and people do the right thing in public and in private? What is wrong with us? Really? Should any Gambian or any particular interest or any position warrant us to disregard our very individual and collective rights, risk our lives and endanger our very future? For what end?
I am utterly saddened and angry that once again another set of Africans in 2016 have decided to repeat in broad daylight the very same wrongs committed by their fellow Africans decades ago that led to civil wars and senseless killings of each other in those countries. Those of our intellectuals ad public officials and indeed ordinary people who are aiding and abetting this national catastrophe must bear in mind that there will be a day of reckoning.
Forward to The Gambia
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Gambia. Why do we repeat the errors of others?
